That didn’t last long

[TOM4CWB]

Yahoo News

https://ca.yahoo.com/news/estonias-prime-minister-has-a-message-for-the-west-dont-worry-about-putins-feelings-223606146.html

Estonia's prime minister has a message for the West: 'Don't worry about Putin's feelings'

Michael Weiss·Sr. Correspondent
Mon, July 25, 2022, 4:36 PM
TALLINN, Estonia — Sitting in her office in Stenbock House, a well-appointed neoclassical building in the heart of Tallinn's medieval Old Town, Prime Minister Kaja Kallas wanted to discuss the last 80 years of European history. But she had only 20 minutes.

An attorney by training and a former member of the European Parliament, Kallas was in a tenuous position when she met with Yahoo News on July 8, so much so that she nearly had to cancel her interview. "There’s a chance I won't be here tomorrow," she said, referring to the collapse of her coalition government days earlier and her round-the-clock negotiations to cobble together a new one, something she managed to do on July 18 after briefly resigning.

Despite the turmoil in her own government, Kallas was intent on sending a message to the rest of the world about yielding to Russian demands on Ukraine.

"I think a fundamental mistake was made after the Second World War," she said, sitting beneath a painting of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments. "While the Nazi crimes were widely condemned, the communists' crimes never were. So we see a strong revival of Stalinism right now in Russia. Seventy percent of Russians support Stalin, despite his having murdered 20 million people, despite the deportations, the prisons camps, war, everything. History books in Estonia were rewritten after communism, whereas Russians are still being taught the same history that we had to read during the Soviet period, which was total crap."

...""When I was in Paris, driving around, I saw all those monuments to Napoleon and it made me think: For a small country, war always means destruction, pain," she told Yahoo News. "But for a bigger country, it's not always so. War also means glory, new riches."

Her allusion to France hardly seems accidental. Kallas has been an explicit critic of French President Emmanuel Macron's insistence that the West not "humiliate" Vladimir Putin, something she sees as a dangerous non sequitur. In a March 24 op-ed in the New York Times she wrote, "Putin cannot win this war. He cannot even think he has won, or his appetite will grow."

"I keep reminding my colleagues who want to pick up the phone and talk to Putin," she said, in another unmistakable reference to Macron, "OK, fine — talk to him. But don't forget he is a war criminal. Right now he's stealing Ukraine's grain and threatening famine to get sanctions lifted. His state propagandists talk openly about hunger as Russia’s last hope. This is who you’re dealing with."

The prime minister wholeheartedly agrees with historian Timothy Snyder’s argument that Putin doesn't require any face-saving concessions to withdraw from Ukraine. He rules in "virtual reality," she said, and because Russia’s information ecosystem is his plaything, he can pack up his army and go home whenever he chooses and dress up military defeat as a popular victory. "His people will believe him," Kallas said. "Don’t worry about Putin's feelings."...

[shtferbrains]

"I think a fundamental mistake was made after the Second World War," she said, sitting beneath a painting of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments. "While the Nazi crimes were widely condemned, the communists' crimes never were. So we see a strong revival of Stalinism right now in Russia. Seventy percent of Russians support Stalin, despite his having murdered 20 million people, despite the deportations, the prisons camps, war, everything. History books in Estonia were rewritten after communism, whereas Russians are still being taught the same history that we had to read during the Soviet period, which was total crap."

This to me is a great question about modern history that was never mentioned.
Why?

Because nobody wanted to stand up to them even today?

[TOM4CWB]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62367356

Oleksiy Vadatursky: Ukraine grain tycoon killed in Russian shelling of Mykolaiv
Published
2 hours ago

Share
Related Topics
Russia-Ukraine war
Oleksiy Vadatursky
IMAGE SOURCE, NIBULON
Image caption,
Oleksiy Vadatursky was worth $450m (£369m), according to a 2020 estimate by Forbes
One of Ukraine's richest businessmen has been killed with his wife in "massive" Russian shelling of the southern city of Mykolaiv.
Oleksiy Vadatursky, 74, and his wife Raisa died when a missile hit their home overnight, local officials said.
Mr Vadatursky owned Nibulon, a company involved in grain exports. He had also received the "Hero of Ukraine" award.
Mykolaiv mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said it was probably the heaviest Russian bombardment of the city so far.
There was damage to a hotel, a sports complex, two schools and a service station, as well as homes.
Mykolaiv is on the main route to Odesa, Ukraine's biggest port on the Black Sea, and has been hit repeatedly since Russia launched its invasion on 24 February.
A Ukrainian investigator works inside one of the damaged houses in Mykolaiv, southern Ukraine. Photo: 31 July 2022
IMAGE SOURCE, MYKOLAIV REGIONAL PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE
Image caption,
A number houses in Mykolaiv were destroyed in the latest Russian shelling, local officials say
The region's leader Vitaliy Kim said Mr Vadatursky's "contribution to the development of the agricultural and shipbuilding industry, the development of the region is invaluable".
Meanwhile, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's office, said he believed Russia had deliberately targeted the businessman.
Mykhailo Podolyak said one of the missiles hit the businessman's bedroom, adding that this "leaves no doubt" it was being guided.
Nibulon has built many storage facilities and other infrastructure for exporting grain.

[TOM4CWB]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62367356

Oleksiy Vadatursky: Ukraine grain tycoon killed in Russian shelling of Mykolaiv
Published
2 hours ago

Share
Related Topics
Russia-Ukraine war
Oleksiy Vadatursky
IMAGE SOURCE, NIBULON
Image caption,
Oleksiy Vadatursky was worth $450m (£369m), according to a 2020 estimate by Forbes
One of Ukraine's richest businessmen has been killed with his wife in "massive" Russian shelling of the southern city of Mykolaiv.
Oleksiy Vadatursky, 74, and his wife Raisa died when a missile hit their home overnight, local officials said.
Mr Vadatursky owned Nibulon, a company involved in grain exports. He had also received the "Hero of Ukraine" award.
Mykolaiv mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said it was probably the heaviest Russian bombardment of the city so far.
There was damage to a hotel, a sports complex, two schools and a service station, as well as homes.
Mykolaiv is on the main route to Odesa, Ukraine's biggest port on the Black Sea, and has been hit repeatedly since Russia launched its invasion on 24 February.
A Ukrainian investigator works inside one of the damaged houses in Mykolaiv, southern Ukraine. Photo: 31 July 2022
IMAGE SOURCE, MYKOLAIV REGIONAL PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE
Image caption,
A number houses in Mykolaiv were destroyed in the latest Russian shelling, local officials say
The region's leader Vitaliy Kim said Mr Vadatursky's "contribution to the development of the agricultural and shipbuilding industry, the development of the region is invaluable".
Meanwhile, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's office, said he believed Russia had deliberately targeted the businessman.
Mykhailo Podolyak said one of the missiles hit the businessman's bedroom, adding that this "leaves no doubt" it was being guided.
Nibulon has built many storage facilities and other infrastructure for exporting grain.

https://ca.yahoo.com/news/putin-managed-enrage-last-supporters-001435311.html

The Daily Beast
Putin’s Managed to Enrage His Last Supporters in Ukraine
Anna Nemtsova
Sun, July 31, 2022, 6:14 PM

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
ODESA, Ukraine—Russia has been bombarding the seaside city of Odesa since the earliest days of its war in Ukraine—but the critical grain port has become a symbol of ongoing local resistance, where even former pro-Russian stalwarts are now embracing Ukrainian patriotism.

“The longer the war goes on, fewer people sympathize with Russia in Ukraine. Those who spoke Russian in everyday life, switch to Ukrainian,” a long-time observer of Ukraine’s politics, Yevgeny Kisilyev, told The Daily Beast on Tuesday. “Even the most openly pro-Russian politicians, including Odesa’s mayor … have turned into passionate enemies of [Russian president Vladimir] Putin’s regime.”

Odesa, with its huge grain storage and shipping resources, is a much-desired target for Moscow. Russian missiles have been destroying the city since the first days of the war. In March and April, missiles killed dozens of civilians, including a three-month-old baby girl, Kira Glodan, her mother, and her grandmother.

The tragedy angered Odesa but the massacre did not stop. On July 1, one of the missiles hit an apartment block in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, killing 19 people. Weeks later, on July 20, “Russia fired eight missiles that cost millions of dollars, which our forces brought down along with a Russian drone,” Natalya Humeniuk, spokeswoman of the South Defense forces, told The Daily Beast in an interview last week.

Russia Accused of Blowing up POW Camp Killing 50+ to Cover Up Their War Crimes

The relentless attacks from Russia have hardened local sentiments against Putin. “During the first week of the war, Odesa’s mayor, Gennady Trukhanov—who many believed had a Russian passport—said nothing against Moscow,” local activist Julia Grodetskaya told The Daily Beast. “So concerned citizens consolidated, and patriotic volunteers worked hard on the city’s defense. Their actions, and constant Russian violence, changed the leadership and made local authorities more patriotic," she said, adding that now, “all former pro-Russian Odesans are ready to defend our city.”...

kraine is preparing to ship 16 vessels full of grain to the Turkish port of Izmir ending a long economic drought for the city. Odessens were watching the smooth and bare Black Sea on Sunday. The first vessel with grain is scheduled to leave on Monday but many fear Russia might strike at the ships in spite of Moscow’s agreements with Turkey. “Our favorite sea is like a battle field,” Dmitro Botskevsky, a retired skipper, told The Daily Beast. “Our military drone attacked Russian fleet’s headquarters today in Sevastopol, there are concerns about the safety of the passage for the grain, of course.”

Meet the Putin Lovers Who Want Him to Invade Their Country

Local defense volunteers—led by the Yacht Club’s director, Albert Kobakov—grew more numerous as the war dragged on. Hundreds of activists joined. “When the war began, I came here to show that I am not going to surrender,” said local activist Maya Dimereli. She and Grodetskaya said that the biggest concern in the first week of the war was that the city authorities would betray Odesa and hand it over to Russia.

The aftermath of a missile strike at Serhiivka village, Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi district, Odesa region of Ukraine on July 1.
State Emergency Services of Ukraine via Reuters
Instead, Odesa’s businessmen felt committed to helping their city. From the owner of a perfume store, Dmitry Malyutin, to the founder of a tourist company, historian Aleksandr Babich, the city’s elite opened their doors and supported the volunteers. “If not for our society, I am not sure how long our resistance would have lasted. Their self-organization is fascinating and time plays against Putin—he is bombing Mykolaiv violently but Odesa is his problem,” Sevgil Musaieva, editor-in-chief of Ukrainskaya Pravda, Ukraine’s legendary newspaper, told The Daily Beast. “Politically we are winning the war—the entire world is supporting Ukraine.”

Thousands of volunteers also signed up to be soldiers in the territorial defense units, since Odesa was keenly aware of the threat of a potential ambush by Russian forces from Transnistria on one side, and the advancing Russian army on the other. Captain Humeniuk, an officer of Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service and the voice of the administration of the defense forces in the southern region of Ukraine, told The Daily Beast that the city needed enough volunteers to fill one brigade—and instead got enough to fill three.

So for the time being, Odesa lives in a state of wary hope. The chief commander of operations in the south, Maj-Gen Andriy Kovalchuk, has served in peacekeeping missions in Liberia and former Yugoslavia. Now Kovalchuk and other military authorities guard the city with care, explaining to its people why beaches have been mined and closed, and giving updates on the war twice a day. The city’s restaurants and café verandas are crowded, and although air-raid sirens howl several times a day, on any given day, a visitor can hear a band singing Ukrainian songs on the central Deribasovskaya Avenue, and jazz music playing in the garden of the Tolstoy family’s house.

“We are going to win this battle, like we did World War II”, vows a Russian-speaking theater director named Anna, whose Jewish family went through the Nazi invasion. Before this war, she liked to say she had a “Russian soul.” But now she says: “Odesa, the first Hero City of the USSR, will win this battle too”—but this time, against Moscow."

[shtferbrains]

Report's of the first grain ship leaving Odessa today.

[jazz]

This is for Tom who seems to have a skewed view of the news.

Next week Pelosi lands in Taiwan against the express wishes of the Chinese.

Is that not an unnecessary provocation?

Pls tell us Tom what was the pressing needs for Georgia and Khasakistan to be nato members?

If you are going to talk geopolitics then be informed instead of posting media talking points.

[TOM4CWB]

This is for Tom who seems to have a skewed view of the news.

Next week Pelosi lands in Taiwan against the express wishes of the Chinese.

Is that not an unnecessary provocation?

Pls tell us Tom what was the pressing needs for Georgia and Khasakistan to be nato members?

If you are going to talk geopolitics then be informed instead of posting media talking points.

From all indications ;?Pelosi is not going to Taiwan…

I have no influence on US politics, Chinese policy, yet these directly influence our grain markets and risk management decisions.

The News is the news, I have no bias one way or the other….

Putin is a War Criminal, a fact not a surprise… the surprise was he sent a cruise missile into a specific persons bedroom (killing him and his wife by assassination ) (who were critical to grain infrastructure and marketing in the Ukraine) that had no direct connection with the Ukrainian defences… (in fact which virtually guarantees a further escalation of this conflict) destabilizing of global grain markets…

This increases the volatility factors in the grain trade, which is directly a commodity marketing component of decisions that we must face.

On point, relative commodity marketing information…

Blessings and Salutations

P.S. Seems Crimea has become a major exporter of wheat/grain…now some 50x more than last year…

Now Putin’s army has become major producers of grains and oil seeds from Ukraine, while Russian exports have also risen significantly … Murderers, Thieves, Torturers, Assassins, Not the kind of neighbors one would want to be calling themselves your ‘brothers’.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Then there is this:
Bulgarian farmers are protesting against cheap grain imports from Ukraine. They decided to block the roads and land crossing points through which the grain trucks pass.

[tubs]

How is Ukraine going to ship 20 million tonnes in 120 days they just did 26k in one week?

[biglentil]

Pelosi has been spotted on her way to Taiwan!