Russia’s Perspective: Selling the War to Its People

Vladimir Putin has consistently shaped narratives to justify Russia’s actions in Ukraine. For any agreement to resonate domestically, Putin must present it as a win for Russia. This could involve highlighting two key points:

1. Crimea’s Permanent Status
   Putin might argue that his decision to go to war ensured Russia’s hold over Crimea “forever.” He could reference Crimea’s historical ties to Russia dating back to 1787, emphasizing that it was only detached due to what he might call “a mistake” by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. The rhetoric would likely frame Crimea’s status as a restoration of Russia’s rightful territory.
2. Blocking Ukraine’s NATO Membership
   Another point of emphasis for Putin could be preventing Ukraine’s integration into NATO. The Kremlin has long viewed NATO expansion as a security threat. For Russian audiences, this could be framed as a major geopolitical victory, ensuring Ukraine remains outside the military alliance.

Ukraine’s Position: Seeking Security and Sovereignty

For Ukraine, any deal must yield tangible benefits, especially after enduring months of destruction and warfare. A possible agreement might involve a few key promises to the Ukrainian government and people:

• Access to the European Union
  While NATO membership could remain off the table, Ukraine might be offered a path to join the European Union. This integration into Europe could provide economic and political support, helping Ukraine rebuild and align closer with the West.
• Demilitarized Zones
  To limit future conflicts, the deal could include the establishment of demilitarized zones along certain contested areas. This might help reduce tensions and create a buffer between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
• Enhanced Military Support
  As part of the agreement, Western allies, including the United States, might commit to arming Ukraine significantly. This would enable the country to protect its sovereignty more effectively in the future.

What Might the Agreement Look Like in Practice?

The contours of such a deal may result in a mix of concessions and guarantees. Some potential outcomes include:

• Russia’s Withdrawal to Pre-2022 Positions
  Part of the agreement could require Russian forces to retreat to the positions they held before February 24, 2022, the day the war escalated. However, this would leave contested areas like Crimea firmly under Russian control.
• Commitments to Peace
  Both sides might agree on a long-term peace framework to avoid future conflicts. This could involve international monitoring and guarantees from powerful nations to uphold the deal.
• Adjusting Alliances
  Ukraine’s path to NATO could remain blocked, but its integration with the European Union might accelerate. This would allow Ukraine to gain economic benefits while potentially scaling back military ambitions.

The Role of the United States

A U.S.-brokered deal, especially under Donald Trump, could come with unique dynamics. Trump has previously emphasized reducing America’s involvement in foreign wars while negotiating deals he views as beneficial to all sides. His approach might focus on finding practical compromises while minimizing new military commitments for the U.S.

Trump is also likely to position himself as a peacemaker. Preventing further NATO expansion and balancing relations with Russia would likely be part of his strategy. If he’s involved in brokering a deal, it could reflect his broader foreign policy stance of prioritizing negotiation over confrontation.

Challenges in Reaching a Resolution

While such a deal might appear feasible on paper, implementing it in reality remains complex. Both sides have deeply entrenched interests, and public opinion in Ukraine, Russia, and the West will heavily influence the outcome. Additionally, reconciling the desires of multiple stakeholders—some seeking justice and others stability—adds to the difficulties.

Final Thoughts

The potential for a negotiated resolution to the Russia-Ukraine war remains a subject of intense speculation. A deal involving Crimea, NATO membership, and enhanced support for Ukraine seems possible, but nothing is guaranteed. Leaders on all sides would need to navigate political, military, and public pressure to make such an agreement work.

As the global community watches closely, one thing is clear: any resolution will have lasting consequences on the regional and global order. Whether Trump plays a role in brokering this peace is yet to be seen, but the idea of a deal shaped by his unique approach to diplomacy is undoubtedly intriguing.

Video Summary generated with assistance from AI.

(Natural News)—In recent years, the once-peaceful realm of space has become a new battleground for global superpowers, with the United States facing increasing threats from adversaries like China and Russia. The Pentagon’s recent acknowledgment of the need for “integrated space fires” – a term that signals a shift toward offensive capabilities in space – underscores the urgency of defending America’s critical assets in orbit. As the military becomes increasingly reliant on satellites for intelligence, communication and missile defense, the vulnerability of these systems has become a matter of national security.

For decades, the United States maintained a cautious stance on space warfare, wary of sparking a cosmic arms race. However, as China and Russia develop advanced anti-satellite weapons and demonstrate their willingness to use them, the Pentagon has recognized that the era of avoiding offensive space capabilities is over. General Chance Saltzman, the top general in the Space Force, recently declared that “space is a war-fighting domain,” a stark departure from the reticence of previous military leaders.

America is at risk

The threat is not hypothetical. China, in particular, has made no secret of its ambitions to dominate space and use it as a strategic advantage in conflicts on Earth. Its anti-access/area denial (A2AD) strategy, which seeks to prevent U.S. forces from operating in key regions like the South China Sea and the Indo-Pacific, relies heavily on satellite-enabled tracking and targeting. Brig. Gen. Anthony Mastalir, who leads U.S. Space Forces in the Indo-Pacific, warns that China’s space capabilities are “sufficient” to target high-value U.S. assets, including aircraft carriers and military tankers. This poses a direct challenge to America’s ability to project power and defend its allies.

Russia, too, has been actively developing anti-satellite weapons, including a ground-based direct-ascent ASAT missile that it tested in 2021. More alarming is the recent intelligence suggesting that Russia is exploring the use of nuclear-powered spacecraft for electronic warfare, potentially targeting U.S. satellites critical to military operations and civilian infrastructure. Such a capability would not only disrupt U.S. communications and intelligence gathering but also create a dangerous precedent for nuclear weapons in space, a violation of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.

The Pentagon’s response has been twofold: first, to build resilience in its space architecture, and second, to develop offensive capabilities to counter adversary threats. Resilience involves deploying large constellations of smaller, less expensive satellites that can absorb attacks and continue functioning. However, as General Saltzman has noted, resilience alone is not enough. “We have to build capabilities that provide our leadership offensive and defensive options,” he said, emphasizing the need for a credible deterrent.

The concept of “integrated space fires” encompasses a range of offensive capabilities, from cyberattacks on enemy satellites to directed-energy weapons that can blind or disable them. One particularly innovative idea is the deployment of “defender” satellites, which could intercept and neutralize hostile spacecraft before they can attack U.S. assets. These “Greyhounds of Space,” as they have been described, would provide a rapid and lethal response to any threat, ensuring that adversaries cannot disable critical satellites without consequence.

Leaders must proceed cautiously

The development of these capabilities is not without controversy. Critics argue that the U.S. risks escalating tensions by pursuing offensive space weapons, potentially leading to a new arms race. However, as General Saltzman pointed out, “Weapons systems aren’t inherently offensive or defensive. Is an aircraft carrier offensive or defense? Yes. Is an F-35 offensive or defense? Yes.” The nature of their use, he explained, depends on the operational decisions of military leaders.

The reality is that the United States can no longer afford to remain passive in the face of growing threats. China’s aggressive pursuit of space dominance and Russia’s development of nuclear-powered anti-satellite systems have rendered the old policy of restraint obsolete. To maintain peace and protect its interests, the U.S. must be prepared to defend itself in space.

The Space Force’s efforts to develop offensive capabilities are a necessary step in this direction. By building a robust space architecture that combines resilience with the ability to strike back, the U.S. can deter adversaries from launching attacks and ensure that space remains a domain of freedom rather than conflict. As General Saltzman concluded, “We’re still going to protect some of those [details], but broadly, from an operational concept, we are going to be ready to contest space.”

The stakes could not be higher. The future of U.S. military dominance, and indeed the security of the entire free world, depends on America’s ability to defend its assets in space. The time to act is now.

Sources include:

• FreeWestMedia.com
• ArsTechnica.com
• Medium.com

Since the beginning of the war the area has been the primary staging ground for resupply of Ukrainian troops across the east. After Pokrovsk is cut off or taken, it is expected that Russia will then be able to gain significant ground across the entire front and move closer to controlling all of Donetsk.

Losses for Ukraine have been stacking up in 2024 and lack of manpower has been the overarching theme. Though numerous western officials and think-tanks (including The Institute For The Study of War) claim that Russian gains have been paid for with “massive casualties”, they’ve provided no concrete proof so far to support their stats. The “Russian meat grinder” narrative is beginning to sound like a coping mechanism or propaganda as it becomes clear that Russia is gaining troop strength instead of losing momentum.

(There has been similar propaganda surrounding mass casualties of North Korean troops in Kursk – There are still no verified reports or video footage of actual DPRK troops in combat against Ukraine. Rumors abound, like the “Ghost of Kyiv”)

What we do know is that Ukraine is desperate for new soldiers to refresh their defensive lines. NATO leaders and the Biden White House have been putting pressure on Vladimir Zelensky to draft men from the 18-25 age bracket; a move Zelensky has avoided to prevent the complete loss of a generation. The average age of conscripts is now well over 40 years old.

This may be why Joe Biden recently gave the green light for Ukraine to use long range missiles (ATACMs and Storm Shadows) within Russian territory. Every time Ukraine faces a strategic failure, NATO offers up new weaponry as a public distraction. They said Abrams tanks would be a game changer for Ukraine, then they said the F-16s would be a game changer. Now they claim the long range strikes using smart weapons will be a game changer.

Most military analysts agree that these weapons have had little effect on the course of the war.

Russia’s typical methodology for dealing with urban centers has been to surround and then bombard with artillery and FABs until the majority of buildings and defenses are rubble. A renowned Ukrainian military officer, Serhii Filimonov, commander of the Da Vinci Wolves battalion of the 59th Motorised Brigade, described Pokrovsk’s defense as a “disaster”. Senior officers are placing “unrealistic” demands on units and are unfamiliar with circumstances on the front line, Filimonov wrote on his Telegram channel this week.

(Natural News)—In a move that could reshape the global financial landscape, Russia is considering creating a strategic Bitcoin reserve.

The proposal was put forward by State Duma Deputy Anton Tkachev of the opposition New People party. This initiative aims to bolster Russia’s financial stability in the face of an increasingly hostile economic environment, particularly in light of international sanctions.

Tkachev has submitted a proposal to Russian Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov proposing the creation of a national Bitcoin reserve that acts similarly to other traditional currency reserves. Tkachev argues that traditional reserves, such as the dollar, euro and yuan, are subject to inflation and the whims of international sanctions.

Bitcoin, on the other hand, is a decentralized, digital currency that operates outside the control of any single nation, offering a new and independent alternative. (Related: Plunder capitalism: Is the Bitcoin strategic reserve trial balloon the next step in the great American land grab?)

Kremlin’s interest in Bitcoin has been growing amid sanctions

The Russian government’s interest in Bitcoin is not new. In recent years, Russia has shown increasing openness toward cryptocurrencies.

President Vladimir Putin, who once expressed skepticism about Bitcoin, now views it as an “unstoppable technology” with significant potential. Last year, Putin even signed a law that legalizes Bitcoin mining and the use of cryptocurrencies within the country.

The Central Bank of Russia is already experimenting with cross-border payments in cryptocurrencies, reflecting a growing interest in blockchain-based financial systems. A strategic Bitcoin reserve would build on this trend, allowing Russia to participate more fully in the global cryptocurrency economy.

By including Bitcoin in its reserves, Russia can diversify its economic portfolio and reduce its dependence on traditional financial systems. This move could position Russia as a leader in the emerging blockchain economy.

However, the proposal also comes with risks. Bitcoin’s price can be highly volatile, and its decentralized nature means that no government or central bank can control its value. For a country like Russia, which has a history of financial instability, the idea of relying on a cryptocurrency known for its volatility might seem counterintuitive.

If Russia proceeds with its plan to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve, the implications could be far-reaching. For Russia, it could be a bold step towards financial independence and stability. For the global economy, it could signal a shift away from traditional financial systems and towards a more decentralized, blockchain-based future.

However, this move also risks drawing attention from international bodies like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which may view it as a challenge to the existing global financial order. Russia’s experiment with Bitcoin reserves could set a precedent that others may follow, potentially reshaping the way countries manage their finances.

Watch this report discussing how the price of one bitcoin reached the all-time high of $100,000.

This video is from the Trending News channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

• Russia rolling out blockchain payments in BRICS to move away from the dollar.
• Trump says no CBDCs for America, but YES to turning U.S.A. into “Bitcoin superpower of the world.”
• Russia legalizes Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies for international transactions to skirt Western sanctions.
• NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden warns that Bitcoin transactions aren’t as anonymous as people think.
• Vladimir Putin praises digital ruble, calls for CBDC’s widespread use in Russia.

Sources include:

• BitcoinMagazine.com
• The-Blockchain.com
• Brighteon.com

The Russians are counting down the days to the inauguration of Donald Trump, because they see him as the last best hope for peace.  The Russians would very much prefer to avoid a nuclear confrontation, and they have been greatly encouraged by what Trump has been saying about the war in Ukraine.  But if the Russians ultimately conclude that there is no way to avoid an all-out war between our two nations after negotiating with Trump, all bets are off.

While most Americans are focused on holiday festivities, events on the other side of the globe threaten to spiral out of control.

The Russians are telling us that they will “definitely” respond to the long-range missile attack on the city of Taganrog…

The Kremlin said Thursday it would “definitely” respond to a Ukrainian attack on a military airfield in its south that used U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia would respond to the ATACMS strike on a military airfield in the southern city of Taganrog, in the Rostov region.

President Vladimir Putin has previously threatened to launch Russia’s new hypersonic ballistic missile, named Oreshnik, at the center of Kyiv if Ukraine does not halt its attacks on Russian territory with U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles.

I don’t even want to think about what an Oreshnik missile could do to the center of the city of Kiev.

That would be a major escalation, and so let us hope that it does not happen.

But the Biden administration is warning that the Russians appear to be gearing up to launch another Oreshnik soon…

A U.S. official said on Wednesday that Russia could launch another hypersonic ballistic missile in Ukraine in the coming days, but Washington does not consider the Oreshnik weapon a game-changer in the war.

The good news is that the Russians are not going to use nuclear weapons at this stage. Before they cross that threshold, they want to talk with Trump first to see if something can be worked out.

On Thursday, Trump was named Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year”…

Donald Trump once publicly speculated that Time would never name him the news magazine’s “Person of the Year.”

Now, the honor has been bestowed on him twice.

Time on Thursday named Trump as this year’s choice, recognizing the president-elect as the individual or group deemed to have wielded the greatest influence on global affairs “for good or for ill.” To celebrate the unveiling of the magazine cover, Trump will ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. Trump sat for a wide-ranging interview with the magazine last month.

During his interview with Time Magazine, Trump had quite a bit to say about the war in Ukraine.

In fact, he specifically stated that it was a “foolish decision” for Joe Biden to authorize long-range missile strikes deep into Russia…

Joe Biden’s decision to permit Ukraine to use American-supplied long-range missiles on targets inside Russia was “foolish” and a “major escalation” in the conflict, according to President-elect Donald Trump.

“Anything can happen. Anything can happen. It’s a very volatile situation,” President-elect Trump said of the Ukraine conflict in an interview with Time on November 25, published on Thursday. “I think the most dangerous thing right now is what’s happening, where [Volodymyr] Zelensky has decided, with the approval of, I assume, the president, to start shooting missiles into Russia. I think that’s a major escalation. I think it’s a foolish decision.”

For those of us that are hopeful that a nuclear war can be avoided, those are really good words to hear.

In addition, Trump also told Time Magazine that he personally disagrees “very vehemently” with what Biden has decided to do…

“I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia,” Trump said in his interview with Time. “Why are we doing that? We’re just escalating this war and making it worse. That should not have been allowed to be done.”

I think that it is clear that Trump wants to work out something with the Russians. But will that be possible?

Our European allies definitely do not want this war to end.  In fact, the secretary general of NATO just warned that “we are not ready for what is coming”, and he is urging western countries to prepare for war with Russia.

In Washington D.C., most members of Congress on both sides of the aisle do not want this war to end either.  They want to keep fighting until Ukraine has won, but that simply is not going to happen.

Right now the Russians are gobbling up territory faster than they have since the early days of the conflict, and as long as they hold the “strategic initiative” they will not have an incentive to end the war until all of their goals have been achieved…

It’s a feature of our days that the Intelligence heads of the great powers have been acting in a quasi-diplomatic function, stepping out of the shadows of the world of espionage to engage in open discussion of the issues.

That applies to CIA’s director Burns, the Ukrainian Budanov, and also to Russia’s spy chief, Sergei Naryshkin.

Heading Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SRV), the current incarnation of the famous (and infamous) KBG, Naryshkin has said that Russia is ‘close to achieving all its war goals and holds the strategic initiative in all areas of the war.’

The Russians have been publicly telling us that in order for the war to end Ukraine must forget about joining NATO and there cannot be any NATO forces on Ukrainian soil when the conflict is over.

On the other side, the Ukrainians are insisting on being allowed to join NATO when the war has concluded, and they want a very large contingent of western troops on Ukrainian soil in order to prevent the Russians from invading again.

I don’t see how that gap can be bridged any time soon.

In addition, the Russians say that they want to keep all of the territory that they have captured, and that is a non-starter for the Ukrainians.

The Ukrainians are acting as if they still have a chance to win this war, but that doesn’t make sense.  According to ABC News, about a million Ukrainian soldiers have died since the war began.  It is also being reported that “hundreds of thousands” of soldiers have lost limbs.  Ukrainian forces are completely worn out, and they are losing more ground with each passing day.

The only way that the Ukrainians could win this war would be for NATO to get directly involved in fighting Russia. As I have repeatedly warned, once we are in a direct war with Russia it is just a matter of time before it goes nuclear. For now, Donald Trump is the only thing standing between us and nuclear war.

Will he be able to successfully negotiate with the Russians and bring this horrible ordeal to an end? We better hope so, because at this moment we are closer to nuclear war than we have ever been before.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Most of the tit-for-tat actions over the past couple years have focused on mutual accusations of spying. Currently, Poland is threatening to shutter all Russian consulates on Polish soil over espionage and ‘terrorism’.

On Thursday Russia ordered the closure if the Polish consulate in St. Petersburg and told its diplomats to immediately leave the country, in the latest escalation.

“Three diplomatic staff members of the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in St. Petersburg have been declared persona non grata,” the Russian Foreign Ministry announced.

This move is being described as in retaliation for the prior closure of a Russian consulate in the Polish city of Poznan in the western part of the NATO country. The Kremlin has further cited Poland’s “openly hostile policy” toward Moscow as a reason behind the move.

Poland and EU states have accused Moscow of “intimidation, the instrumentalization of migrants, sabotage, disinformation, foreign information manipulation and interference.”

As for a potential new response from the Polish government, a statement has warned:

“If acts of diversion and terrorism continue, I will close down the rest of the Russian consulate presence in Poland,” Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters after Moscow announced the closure of its St. Petersburg consulate.

On the military front, some Polish top officials have recently argued that the country’s military should be actively intercepting Russian missiles threatening Ukrainian territory, especially ones that fly close to Poland’s border in the region of Western Ukraine.

Poland has generally been among the most hawkish Western allies when it comes to escalating support to Kiev forces in Ukraine.

Poland’s ambassador to the UN Krzysztof Szczerski has compared Russia’s abductions of Ukrainian children to the “worst crimes” of WWII https://t.co/DCAGlDB1Wr

— Radio Poland (@thenews_PL) December 5, 2024

Warsaw has throughout the conflict played host to a build-up of Western weapons along NATO’s ‘eastern flank’ – and Moscow has especially been alarmed that US missiles have been placed in northern Poland in the Baltic Sea region.

According to the Missouri Republican, such a move would risk a “from now until forever” conflict with Russia.

Partial transcript as follows:

INGRAHAM: Well, the deal that Biden and company scotched at the beginning of this war, before the war started. That would have avoided the war. It looks like what they’re going to end up with is worse than they would have gotten had they not done this at all. That’s what it looks like at least. It could change. But now, Senator, Zelenskyy has a magic solution to end the war. Watch.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT, UKRAINE (VIA TRANSLATOR): If we want to stop the hot stage of the war, we should take on the NATO umbrella, the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control.

INGRAHAM: Your reaction, Senator.

HAWLEY: No, absolutely not. They should not put any part of Ukraine in NATO. And listen, this administration is already risking World War III by greenlighting the use of American weapons into Russian territory. What will happen if Moscow responds by sending a weapon, a missile, you name it, into the territory of a NATO country, we’ll all be at war. The idea that now we would expand NATO to include Ukraine is extremely dangerous. It is a recipe for constant conflict, including American soldiers boots on the ground in Europe from now until forever. It is a disastrous idea. It’s exactly the wrong thing to do.

And listen, here’s another point about the need to settle this conflict. What the Biden administration has been telling senators behind closed doors for literally two years now, Laura, is that there will have to be a negotiated peace. The Secretary of State was saying that two years ago. So out in public, they’re saying, war forever. Behind closed doors, they’re saying, well, we’re going to have to negotiate.

INGRAHAM: Yes.

HAWLEY: They just don’t want to make the hard choices to do it. And here we are. […]

— Read More: www.breitbart.com

(End of the American Dream)—In recent months, quite a few pundits have been openly warning us that World War III has begun.  Sadly, those pundits are quite correct.  Right now, a historic global struggle is being waged by two very powerful alliances.  The “western alliance” made up of the United States, Europe, Israel and their allies is engaged in a battle for supremacy with the “eastern alliance” made up of Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Syria and their allies.

Over the past week, this battle for supremacy has erupted on a couple of new fronts, but most Americans have no idea what is really going on.

Just look at what is happening in Syria.  Most Americans have no idea that radical Sunni Muslims backed by the western alliance just conducted a highly successful offensive on Syria’s second largest city and are threatening to overthrow the Assad regime once and for all…

The Syrian military and its ally Russia conducted deadly joint air raids Monday on areas that Islamist-led rebels seized control of over the weekend. The strikes were a response to a lightning offensive by the rebels that saw them wrest control of swathes of northwest Syria from government forces.

The conflict that started more than a decade ago took a significant turn several days ago, catching many — including, it seems, Syrian dictator Bashar Assad and his Russian backers — by surprise. On Saturday, rebels, including many with the U.S.-designated Islamic terrorist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), took control of the major city of Aleppo in northern Syria.

The rebels seized Aleppo’s airport and started pushing into towns and villages in the countryside around the city on Sunday after leaving piles of dead government soldiers in the streets. Observers said the rebel forces were often met with little to no resistance by regime forces, but by Monday the pace of the surprise offensive appeared to have slowed, with Assad and his Russian backers ramping-up their response.

While she served as Secretary of State during the Obama administration, Hillary Clinton was instrumental in starting the civil war in Syria.  That civil war caused a massive refugee crisis that western Europe is still wrestling with to this day.

Now the civil war in Syria has freshly erupted, and if Assad gets toppled that will be a major victory for the western alliance.

Of course the eastern alliance does not plan to go down without a fight.  Over the weekend, Iraqi militia groups that are backed by Iran “have been pouring across the border into eastern Syria”…

Widespread reports, including observers on the ground, have indicated that Iran-backed Iraqi militias have been pouring across the border into eastern Syria to assist Damascus in repelling the Islamist militant advance after Al Qaeda splinter group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham took over Aleppo this weekend.

A Syrian army officer has told Reuters that Iraqi militia forces crossing the border are “fresh reinforcements being sent to aid our comrades on the frontlines in the north.”

Many of the fighters have been identified as belonging to the Kataib Hezbollah and Fatemiyoun groups. The US has long been in an internecine conflict with Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq, with over the years periodic rocket fire even targeting the US Embassy in Baghdad, as well as various bases which host remaining American troops.

And it appears that Iranian military forces could be on the verge of intervening directly in the conflict…

Boroujerdi told a news conference in Damascus that Iran was ready to render military assistance to Syria. “Iran’s military aid will be provided as soon as Tehran receives a request from the Syrian government. We are going to announce it immediately,” the Iranian deputy said.

Boroujerdi, who is heading an Iranian delegation, arrived in Damascus on Wednesday for talks with Syrian Vice-Premier and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is expected to meet Boroujerdi on Thursday.

The Iranian deputy stressed the importance of the four-sided coordination of efforts by Russia, Iran, Iraq and Syria in fighting terrorism.

Iran normally prefers to fight their wars using proxy forces.

But desperate times call for desperate measures.

Meanwhile, Israel’s ceasefire with Hezbollah seems to be breaking down already…

The ceasefire in Lebanon, barely five days old, is near collapse as of Monday after Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel, following the Biden-Harris administration’s erroneous claim that Israeli surveillance drones violated the agreement.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported Monday that two Hezbollah rockets had been fired at Har (Mount) Dov, a strategic mountain that Breitbart News visited last Thursday and which Hezbollah claims, wrongly, is Lebanese.

If Hezbollah is forced to keep their forces in Lebanon in order to contend with the IDF, they won’t be able to intervene in the conflict in Syria. Ultimately, so many of these conflicts are interrelated.

Ukraine is hoping that at least some Russian forces get diverted to Syria to help the Assad regime, because last month the Ukrainians lost a great deal of territory…

Ukraine has endured a tough three months in which Russian forces made gains across the front, which are likely continue over winter, a military analyst has said.

“The trend is very worrying, and there’s no reason to expect the situation to calm down in December either,” Emil Kastehelmi, from the Finnish-based Black Bird Group, told Newsweek.

In an X, formerly Twitter, thread, the OSINT analyst said that, in the three months to December, Moscow’s troops had captured around 617 square miles in Ukraine and 190 in Russia’s Kursk oblast, where Ukrainian forces had staged an incursion but where they have lost the western flank, as well as positions in the Donbas region.

Ukraine is the one place where the western alliance is losing badly, and western politicians are extremely determined to turn things around.

But the truth is that unless NATO gets directly involved, Ukraine will definitely lose.

As the war drags on, Ukrainian soldiers are deserting from their posts in staggering numbers…

More than twice as many Ukrainian soldiers have been charged with desertion this year than in 2022 and 2023 combined, the Financial Times has reported. The spike in desertions has hampered Kiev’s ability to replenish its thinned-out ranks.

Ukrainian prosecutors opened 60,000 cases against deserters between January and October of this year, the British newspaper reported on Saturday, noting that those convicted face prison terms of up to 12 years.

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have already died on the killing fields of eastern Ukraine.

Let us hope for an agreement that will bring the endless slaughter to an end.

Before I conclude this article, I want to mention one more nation where the great battle between east and west has suddenly erupted.

In Georgia, angry protesters that are being backed by the western alliance have been clashing violently with the police for days.  Just like we witnessed in Ukraine in 2014, it appears that this could be an attempt to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Georgia…

Days of protests have rocked Georgia following the government’s controversial decision to delay the former Soviet country’s bid to join the European Union.

Tensions have been brewing for months in the South Caucasus nation of 3.7 million people, where critics accuse the ruling Georgian Dream party of following increasingly authoritarian, pro-Russia policies in a turn away from the West that has tempered hopes for Georgia’s long-promised path to EU membership.

The protests have been met with a violent police crackdown as the ruling party and thousands of protesters become locked in a deepening battle over the country’s future and whether Georgia should forge closer ties with Russia or Europe.

The U.S. and Europe would love to see a “color revolution” that removes the Georgian Dream party from power.

Of course the Russians and other eastern alliance nations would very much like to avert such an outcome.

I just wish that every country would be allowed to do what they want without outside interference.

But that isn’t going to happen, is it?

Sadly, the great struggle between east and west that we are witnessing is just going to continue to intensify, and at this stage it should be obvious to everyone that it is not going to have a happy ending.

We live in such perilous times, and if you have not been paying much attention to what is going on around the world now would be a great time to start.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Speaking to Tucker Carlson, he called attention to the way that the West has been criminalizing the platforming of Russian media outlets. It’s a big departure from the Cold War, when mainstream media outlets such as the New York Times would regularly publish speeches that were given by Soviet leaders like Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev.

He told Carlson: “Now it’s practically criminalized.”

He pointed out how obvious this was when the conflict between Russia and Ukraine first escalated in February of 2022. He said: “One of the very first steps [the EU] took legislatively was to ban the platforming, to criminalize the platforming of Russian media, like RT and Sputnik. They made it a crime, and YouTube immediately pulled it off because they didn’t want their citizens hearing any information from the Russian perspective.”

This is putting us at a disadvantage by preventing us from getting a better idea of their viewpoints, he says.

“I mean, you can hate Russia, you can think Russia’s evil, you can think whatever you want about Russia, but why wouldn’t you want to hear from the other side?” he asked.

Carlson agreed, saying that a speech he heard from Russian President Vladimir Putin in which he announced his military operation was very insightful. He said that most Americans aren’t aware of what Putin is thinking, and he doesn’t understand why people want to remain ignorant.

Greenwald and Carlson concluded that this is due, at least in part, to the fact that “propaganda works.”

Russian state media target of censorship campaigns

The media outlet RT has been described by the U.S. State Department as a major part of the Kremlin’s propaganda and disinformation campaign and was blocked in the European Union and Canada in 2022. However, replicas of its articles appear on numerous other websites, and there has been a concerted effort to try to stop its message from spreading.

German Marshall Fund senior fellow Bret Schafer said: “It was quite evident when we were running the search results in the E.U. that if Russian propaganda is not showing up on Russian domains, it’s getting through, which is sort of a double whammy because it’s not just evading restrictions and bans, it’s doing so on sites that are less transparent than RT itself.”

YouTube blocked global access to all channels that are affiliated with RT and has taken steps to remove what it claims is “harmful misinformation.”

RT acknowledged in a statement that its content doesn’t follow the “U.S. State Department/NATO party line” but is glad to hear its content is reaching different platforms and users.

In September, Facebook owner Meta said that it would be banning RT along with Rossiya Segodnya and other Russian state media outlets from all of its platforms, which include WhatsApp and Instagram, on the grounds that they allegedly used deceptive tactics to conduct influence operations online.

“After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets. Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity,” the social media company said in a written statement.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that the world should treat RT’s activities like they would covert intelligence operations.

Sources for this article include:

• RT.com
• NYTimes.com
• Reuters.com

If they become convinced that we are planning to hit them before they can hit us, that could motivate them to do something really, really stupid.  We are closer to nuclear war than we have ever been before, and we definitely do not need western leaders making provocative statements that are only going to make things even worse.

For example, during a conference in Brussels NATO’s top military official said something that is now making headlines all over the globe.  The following comes from an article posted on MSN News entitled “NATO considers preemptive strikes amid rising tensions with Russia”…

NATO Military Committee Chairman Admiral Rob Bauer stated during a conference in Brussels that NATO leadership is contemplating the possibility of conducting precise preemptive strikes on Russian territory in the event of an armed conflict between Moscow and the Alliance.

It is now being claimed that Bauer was not actually talking about a pre-emptive strike on Russia.

But if you look at his actual words, it certainly seems like that was precisely what he was talking about…

During a question-and-answer session after his address at the European Policy Center in Brussels, Bauer said, “The idea was we are a defensive alliance, so we will only sit and wait until we are attacked, and then when we are attacked, we will be able to shoot down the ‘arrows’ that come to us,” referring to a Russian strike.

He also said that when responding to any attack, it would be “smarter” to “attack the archer, that is…Russia—if Russia attacks us. So you need to have a combination of deep precision (strikes) with which you can take out the weapons systems that are used to attack us.”

Needless to say, the Russians were not amused.

In fact, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov believes that Bauer was essentially announcing NATO’s “real plans”…

The North Atlantic Alliance has ignored all diplomatic protocol, allowing itself to make statements about the possibility of preemptive strikes on Russia, top Russian diplomat Sergey Lavrov said.

“Just the other day, Mr. Bauer, NATO Military Committee Chair, explicitly stated that it’s no longer enough, and ensuring the defense of the North Atlantic Alliance member states requires strikes on targets in Russia that NATO believes may pose a threat to the bloc. I think there’s nothing to comment on here; it’s just that they have forgotten all etiquette, publicly announcing their real plans,” he noted at the 20th meeting of the heads of security and intelligence agencies of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries.

If the Russians become convinced that we are going to hit them first, that will make it much more likely that they will hit us first. We really need to get the Russians to understand that we have no plans to do that.

Meanwhile, a French news source is reporting that European leaders continue to discuss “sending Western troops and private defense companies to Ukraine”…

As the conflict in Ukraine enters a new phase of escalation, discussions over sending Western troops and private defense companies to Ukraine have been revived, Le Monde has learned from corroborating sources. These are sensitive discussions, most of which are classified – relaunched in light of a potential American withdrawal of support for Kyiv once Donald Trump takes office on January 20, 2025.

That is insane!

What in the world are they thinking?

No matter what Donald Trump does when he gets into the White House, our European allies fully intend to continue to escalate this war.

It is madness.

On top of everything else, this week the New York Times has reported that the Biden administration has actually discussed the possibility of arming Ukraine with nuclear weapons.

When Dmitry Medvedev heard about this, he went ballistic…

Moscow will consider any threat of nuclear arms being supplied to Ukraine by the US as preparation for a direct war with Russia, former president Dmitry Medvedev has warned. The actual transfer of nuclear weapons would be tantamount to an attack on the country under Russia’s new nuclear doctrine, he added.

On Tuesday, Medvedev posted a message on Telegram that was quite ominous…

“Give nuclear weapons to a country at war with the largest nuclear power? The idea is so absurd that it raises suspicions about a paranoid psychosis in Joe The Walking Dead and all those who would advise such a move.”

He continued, “Yet I must comment on the nonsense: 1) The very threat of transferring nuclear weapons to the Kyiv regime can be considered preparation for nuclear conflict with Russia;

2) The actual transfer of such weapons can be equated to an act of attack on our country under article 19 of the Fundamentals of State Policy in the Field of Nuclear Deterrence.

The consequences are obvious.”

I don’t think that the Biden administration has any intention of giving Ukraine nuclear weapons right now.

But the fact that they are talking about it is really freaking out the Russians.

I really wish that cooler heads would prevail, but instead both sides just continue to escalate matters.

Over the past few days, Ukraine has launched more long-range missiles provided by NATO into Russian territory, and now the Russians have announced that they are preparing another “response”…

Russia is preparing a response to Ukrainian ATACMS attacks on Kursk Region, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday. Last week, US President Joe Biden authorized Kiev to use US-supplied long-range missiles against targets deep inside Russia’s internationally recognized borders.

In an official statement on Telegram, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that over the past three days, Ukraine’s forces had conducted two long-range strikes on Kursk Region using Western weaponry.

As I discuss in this video, many are anticipating that the Russian “response” will be even larger than last time.

Let us hope that the Russians only use conventional weapons, and let us hope that they limit their targets to Ukraine.

Because the Russians have previously identified a U.S. base in Poland as a potential target, and the Biden administration is making it clear that such a strike would trigger NATO’s Article 5…

White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said Monday that the U.S. has a ‘rock-solid’ commitment to NATO’s Article 5, should Russia strike the new U.S. anti-missile base in Poland. Article 5 is NATO’s principle of collective defense, that if one NATO member is attacked, all other NATO members go to war with the attacker, a world war-style response.

“We take our Article 5 commitments to our NATO Allies incredibly seriously. It’s rock-solid, and that’s not going to change,” Kirby said on Monday, according to Remix News.

Kirby was responding to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who on Thursday said that Russia is considering attacking a new U.S. anti-missile base in Poland.

We are dangerously close to a point of no return.

Once nuclear missiles start flying, there will be no going back.

The Russians have been working extremely hard to prepare for a nuclear war, and meanwhile the U.S. is still relying on hopelessly outdated systems from the 1970s and 1980s.

We must change course while it is still possible to do so.

Unfortunately, it appears that we are about to witness another series of escalations which will push us even closer to the unthinkable.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.