They don’t make world leaders like they used to, as far as Vladimir Putin is concerned. Talking to a Kremlin-friendly gathering of journalists at his traditional end-of-year press conference on Friday, the Russian president spoke with fond nostalgia of the old gang, saying he’d like to spend more time with “people close to me”, such as the former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, the former French president Jacques Chirac and Silvio Berlusconi, late prime minister of Italy.

There’s little chance of peace on earth with leaders like these

[GUSNOTE: LEADERS LIKE WHOM? JOE BIDEN? SCHOLZ? MACRON? URSULA VONTHINGSTERS? OH I SEE! THE IMAGE ON OFFER IS THAT OF PUTIN WITH A MISSILE IN THE BACKGROUND...]

BY Jonathan Este

High office aside, these men have another thing in common: They are all now dead.

Whether this was Putin’s way of saying that the only good European leader’s a dead European leader or whether it was an arch reflection on having outlasted all three is not clear. 

[GUSNOTE: Not clear? THIS IS HIGH SARCASTIC BULLSHIT FROM A “CONVERSATION”  ASSOCIATE EDITOR AND SENIOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS EDITOR… IF JONATHAN ESTE CANNOT UNDERSTAND WHERE PUTIN IS COMING FROM, THEN THIS DUDE NEEDS TO GO BACK TO PRIMARY SCHOOL. I KNOW, JONATHAN WAS SARCASTIC...]

What is clear, though, is that if he were to visit the countries they led next week, he’d be liable for arrest under the warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in 2023 on charges concerning the alleged illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.

[THIS WAS A BULLSHIT BOGUS CHARGE. PUTIN MADE SURE THAT THE YUCKRAINE REGIME COULD NOT HURT MANY CHILDREN WHOSE PARENTS AND GUARDIAN WERE HAPPY TO SENT TO RUSSIA. YUCKRAINE “FIRST LADY” DID THE SAME AND SENT KIDS TO THE EU, BUT DID SHE GET ICC CHARGED FOR IT? NO.]

Stefan Wolff, of the University of Birmingham, watched Putin’s press conference as it unfolded. He reflects here on what it tells us about his intentions for the war in Ukraine in 2025 and how that contrasts with the messages emerging from meetings between Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and top EU leaders, including European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the new president of the European Council, Antonio Costa.

[THE CONTRAST IS SIMPLE: PUTIN TELLS THE TRUTH, THE EU BODS TELL BULLSHIT TO PROTECT THE ILLEGITIMATE PRESIDENT OF YUCKRAINE (KIEV'S NAZI REGIME), WHILE SUPPLYING WEAPONS THAT ENSURE THAT 1,500 YUCKRAINIAN SOLDIERS ARE ELIMINATED DAILY.

Wolff observes that the rhetoric from both camps continues to insist on their maximalist war aims. Putin vows to get rid of “the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev, which seized power back in 2014” and “to drive the enemy out from our territory”. EU leaders, meanwhile, are talking of upping aid to Kyiv to enable Ukraine “not just to hold on, but to tilt the balance to their favour because Putin will not stop, unless he’s stopped”.

[WOLFF IS A FENCE-SITTING IDIOT FOR NOT EXPOSING THE OVERT ROLE OF THE USA IN THE “COLOR” REVOLUTION OF 2014 IN YUCKRAINE, NOR OF THE CLINTON FOLLOWED BY BUSH JUNIOR EXPANSION OF NATO, CONTRARILY TO THE SPIRIT OF THE HANDSHAKE BETWEEN REAGAN AND GORBACHEV. AS WELL, ANY ONE WHO IS KNOWLEDGEABLE WOULD KNOW THAT THE USA HAS VOWED TO DESTROY RUSSIA SINCE 1917.]

Trump, a game changer

But of course all that could change “in one day”, if incoming US president Donald Trump is as good as his word. And this, says Wolff, is the spectre that looms ever larger. A Trump-brokered peace deal, he says, “carries too many risks” including the “prospect of Putin using a mere break in the fighting to regroup and rearm and then posing an even greater threat to European security in the future”.

{THIS IS MORE BULLSHIT FROM WOLFF. I KNOW PUTIN ONLY WANTS PEACE AND HATES WAR, BUT HE WAS GIVEN NO CHOICE IN HAVING TO PROTECT RUSSIA FROM THE AMERICAN EMPIRE NEFARIOUS INTENTS.]

Putin’s war machine, meanwhile, lost a key figure this week when the man in charge of its Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Forces, Lt Gen Igor Kyrillov, was killed in a bomb blast outside his Moscow home. Ukraine’s security agency, the SBU, was quick to claim responsibility, saying that Kirillov had been charged in absentia for war crimes over what it said were 4,800 instances of Russia using chemical weapons since the war in Ukraine began in February 2022.

[THE SBU LIKE THE CIA IS AN ORGAN OF DISINFORMATION. RUSSIA HAS BEEN VERY CAREFUL IN ITS CHOICE OF WEAPONS, WHILE YUCKRAINE IS THE CULPRIT IN USING CHEMICAL WEAPONS, NO MATTER WHAT THE FOLLOWING “EXPERT” ANNELEEN VAN THINGSTERS SAYS…]

Anneleen van der Meer is an expert in chemical warfare at Leiden University. She’s been tracking reports of chemical weapons use in Ukraine and believes that the invading forces have used both tear gas and chloropicrin, a toxic nerve irritant. While not being as deadly as the sarin allegedly used by the Assad regime in Syria [FUCK! THE WHITE HELMETS STAGED THE ALLEDGEDLY], both will have made things much more unpleasant for the Ukrainian defenders.

Meer also believes that Russia’s use of chemicals – if accurately reported – are likely to have served a dual purpose. On top of any actual military advantage, the use of chemicals – in spite of a ban ratified by almost every country in the world – is designed to send the threatening message that Russia doesn’t feel bound by any of the rules of war: “This has effects beyond the battlefield, provoking fear in Ukrainian defenders but also challenging Ukraine’s own commitment to play by the rules,” she concludes.

[SHE CONCLUDES HER BULLSHIT WITH A TRAPEZIST'S APLOMB...]

View from Washington

One thing on which Putin and the incoming US president Donald Trump would appear to have in common is their attitude to the news media. If they aren’t compliant, they must be enemies of the people.

[AND THEY ARE... THEY HAVE BEEN AND WILL BE AGAINST TRUMP, NO MATTER WHAT]

Trump will at least expect to have a modicum of control of the agenda through his close (for the time being) relationship with Elon Musk, whose social media site X has gradually morphed into what appears to be a personal propaganda machine. [YEP, THE LEGACY MEDIA WASN'T A PROPAGANDA MACHINE FOR BIDEN, WASN'T IT? AND NOT TO MENTION THE HEAVY BIDEN CENSORSHIP UNDER THE GUISE OF DEALING WITH DISINFORMATION... ]

Musk has also been tasked, alongside fellow billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, with heading up a new department of government efficiency, which appears not to be a department at all but feels more like a kind of management consultancy group.

It’s a fair assessment of the quality of Trump’s initial appointments that the two billionaires are by no means the most curious choices. Not when compared to former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for defence secretary, who has been accused of sexual assault (which he denies) as well as – by his own admission – having once had an over-fondness for self-medication with alcohol.

[THAT IS MORE THAN A BULLSHIT “ASSESSMENT” FROM JONATHAN ESTE BUT WHAT THE HECK, BULLSHIT IS FREE, WHILE TRUTH IS HARD TO FIND. PETE HEGSETH IS FAR BETTER FOR THE JOB THAN THAT HORRIBLE LYING LLOYD AUSTIN THE THIRD.] 

Or there’s RFK Jr., Trump’s vaccine-sceptical nominee for health secretary. [HERE WE GO AGAIN... RFK IS ONLY SKEPTICAL OF THE BIG PHARMA'S UNTESTED (OR BADLY TESTED) VACCINES...] Or Jared Kushner’s dad, Charles, a lawyer disbarred in three states and real-estate developer, who has been picked as ambassador to France. Kushner senior served time for what the prosecutor called “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” he had prosecuted. You can look up Charles Kushner for yourself. Bring a strong stomach to the exercise.

The list goes on. Barbara Yoxon, an expert in international politics at Lancaster University, has been scratching her head on our behalf [COULD NOT DO IT YOURSELF, YOU PUNK?] at Trump’s picks. This looks like something out of the authoritarian leaders’ playbook, whereby he appoints a cabinet whose inexperience is matched only by their loyalty, in order to insulate himself from any potential plotting among his subordinates.

[KEEP SCRATCHING YOUR HEAD, LADY… THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION IDIOTS, ABOUT TO BE KICKED OUT WERE FAR WORSE IN DEVIOUSNESS, USELESSNESS AND DELUSIONS THAN THE NEW CROP.]

But, loyalty aside, Yoxon believes that picking a cabinet of none of the talents could be a risky business for Trump 2.0. Yes-men tend to tell a leader what he or she wants to hear, rather than what is sensible. With a trade war looming with Mexico, Canada and – possibly most consequential of all – China, as well as major wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and flashpoints pretty much everywhere you look around the globe, this could lead to problems. She concludes: “In this highly dangerous new world, it is even more important than ever that he choose advisers wisely.”

[YES, YOXON, BIDEN NEVER PICKED YES-MEN… AHAHAHAAAA… THE WORSE ADVISOR TO ANY US PRESIDENT WAS President’s Carter’s National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski]

‘China can help’

[WHY THE DISBELIEVING ' '?]

When it comes to Ukraine, as we know Trump has promised an immediate end to the conflict. It’s clear that all parties to the war are now watching Trump very carefully for clues as to how he might seek to achieve this. On a recent visit to Europe, he caught up with the Ukrainian president who reported their meeting to have been “good and productive”. For his part, Trump posted after the meeting on his Truth Social website that: “There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin,” – adding that: “China can help.”

Writing with his regular collaborator, Tetyana Malyarenko of the University of Odesa [SEE OUR ARTICLES ON ODESSA], Stefan Wolff notes that while Trump may be keen to involve China in any peace negotiations, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has his own agenda. And this may not favour bringing hostilities in Ukraine to a swift ending.

[ANALYTICAL IDIOCY… XI WANTS THE CONFLICT TO END ASAP… AND IN FAVOUR OF “REALITY”, MEANING THAT PUTIN HAS TO GET WHAT HE WANTS AND THAT THE WEST HAS TO SHIT SOMEWHERE ELSE, BUT XI IS POLITELY RESERVED.]

Tying the US up in a war in Europe plays into China’s hands, they write. Not only will it detract from Washington’s planned military pivot towards Asia, it also suits China to pit Russia and the west against each other in Europe.

The damage the war is doing to Russia’s economy can only serve Beijing’s interests. The “no-limits friendship” between Russia and China is fairly lopsided at present, with Beijing as very much the senior partner. That’s unlikely to change while Russia is mired in Ukraine and that suits XI just fine, Wolff and Malyarenko conclude.

[RUSSIA AND CHINA KNOW THEIR FRIENDSHIP BETTER THAN THESE TWO UNDER-AGED BRATS, WOLFF AND MALYARENKO. RUSSIA ANS CHINA WANT PEACE, THE USA HATES PEACE...]

The true meaning of genocide

Leaders across the Middle East will also be factoring in Trump’s imminent inauguration to their calculations. It’s too early to make any kind of informed prediction as to how the situation in Syria might play out. The latest announcement from Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), the rebel group which led the offensive that ousted Bashar al-Assad, is that rather than aiming for a federal set-up which might give Kurds in the country’s north a degree of autonomy, the HTS preference is for a unified state which would require Kurdish armed groups to disband and disarm, including the US-backed coalition, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). This will please Turkey, but it won’t go down well in Washington. We’ll have more on this in the new year.

One of our other focuses this week has been on a spat between the Irish and Israeli governments which led Israel to withdraw its ambassador to Ireland. Ireland has formally applied to intervene in South Africa’s case in the International Court of Justice over whether Israel is in fact committing genocide against the Palestinian people. Ireland says current international law concerning what comprises genocide has far too narrow a definition – which, it says could lead to a “culture of impunity in which the protection of civilians is minimised”.

International legal scholar James Sweeney of Lancaster Law School explains here how the law of genocide works and how it has been applied in the past.

[GENOCIDE AND ETHNIC CLEANSING IS ISRAHELL’S GOAL IN GAZA, LEBANON AND SYRIA. JONATHAN ESTE AND SWEENEY ARE PUSSYFOOTING LIKE KINDERGARTEN BABIES SUFFERING FROM NAPPY-RASH]

Jonathan Este, Senior International Affairs Editor, Associate Editor, The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/2024/12/22/peace-on-earth-world-leaders

MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

THESE WILL ALSO INCLUDE ODESSA, KHERSON AND KHARKIV.....

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

TRANSNISTRIA WILL BE PART OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION.

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

EASY.

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

HYPOCRISY ISN’T ONE OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS SINS.

HENCE ITS POPULARITY IN THE ABRAHAMIC TRADITIONS…

PLEASE DO NOT BLAME RUSSIA IF WW3 STARTS. BLAME YOURSELF.