Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

Zelenskiy says Ukraine willing to discuss neutrality at Russia talks
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/m...s-on-putin

‘A Gift To Russian Propagandists’: CNN Analyst Slams Joe Biden Over Putin Remarks
https://dailycaller.com/2022/03/28/gift-...n-remarks/

Putin not seen ready to compromise ahead of peace talks
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospa...022-03-28/

Roman Abramovich, Ukraine officials in Russia peace talks possibly poisoned: reports
https://nypost.com/2022/03/28/roman-abra...ed-report/

'Poisoning' of Roman Abramovich at peace talks would be straight out of Putin's playbook
https://inews.co.uk/opinion/editor/poiso...TO=newsnow

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Excerpts from the five links above

“Our goal is obvious – peace and the restoration of normal life in our native state as soon as possible,” Zelenskiy said in a late-night video message that also set out his negotiating red lines. “Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are beyond doubt. Effective security guarantees for our state are mandatory.”

He used a video interview with independent Russian media outlets to signal his willingness to discuss the idea of Ukraine adopting a “neutral status”, and also make compromises about the status of the eastern Donbas region, in order to secure a peace agreement with Russia. But he said he was not willing to discuss demilitarisation, and said Ukrainians would need to vote in a referendum to approve their country adopting a neutral status.

Several rounds of talks have already failed to end the war sparked by the Russian invasion, which is now in its second month.

The latest round of negotiations, which are due to start on Monday, come amid warnings that the situation in the besieged city of Mariupol is now “catastrophic” and as Joe Biden tried to limit the fallout from his statement at the weekend that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power”.

When asked on Sunday if he wanted to see Putin removed from office in Russia he said simply “no”.

The president’s original comments were swiftly walked back by the White House and the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, who insisted the US did not have “a strategy of regime change in Russia – or anywhere else”. The UK, Germany and France also distanced themselves from Biden’s apparently unplanned remark.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Sunday that he would not have used Biden’s words, adding that he saw his task as “achieving first a ceasefire and then the total withdrawal of [Russian] troops by diplomatic means”.

He told broadcaster France 3: “If we want to do that, we can’t escalate in either words or actions.”

In his video address, Zelenskiy lamented a Russian invasion that has killed thousands and devastated numerous cities, amid questions as to whether a near-stalemate in fighting has forced Moscow to temper its demands...
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CNN analyst Kimberly Dozier reacted to President Biden’s speech in Warsaw, Poland over the weekend, calling it “indisciplined” and “a gift to Russian propagandists” Monday on CNN’s “New Day.”
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Ukraine and Russia were preparing on Monday for the first face-to-face peace talks in more than two weeks, but a senior U.S. official said Russian President Vladimir Putin did not appear ready to make compromises to end the war.

Ukrainian officials also played down the chances of a major breakthrough at the talks, due to be held in Istanbul after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan spoke to Russia's Vladimir Putin on Sunday.

But the fact that they were taking place in person at all - for the first time since an acrimonious meeting between foreign ministers on March 10 - was a sign of shifts behind the scenes as Russia's invasion has stalled and sanctions have hit home.

There was no sign of respite for civilians in besieged Ukrainian cities, especially the devastated port of Mariupol, whose mayor said 160,000 people were still trapped inside and Russia was blocking attempts to evacuate them.
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Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian officials — who reportedly were negotiating an end to Moscow’s invasion — suffered symptoms suggesting they were poisoned, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Abramovich, the oligarch who is thought to be close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and several Ukrainian government officials came down with the symptoms after meeting in Kyiv earlier this month, the Journal reported.

Abramovich and two members of the Ukrainian delegation developed symptoms that included red eyes, peeling skin on their hands and face, and constant and painful tearing, according to the report.
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In the latest bizarre, troubling development in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the billionaire Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and two Ukrainian negotiators appear to have been poisoned at peace talks.

[...] Certainly, poisoning is consistent with the Russian playbook during Putin’s rule. It is a form of psychological warfare against Kremlin critics – those defectors and dissidents who escape the state security net.

[...] Poisoning is theatrical: it allows the perpetrator to spread fear far beyond the target.

I doubt Russia wants peace.  They annexed the Crimea with the intension of using it as a staging area to attack the Ukraine later on, and that's what they have done.

The assassination of Boris Nemtsov(2015) was likely done because they wanted to continue their push at that time and didn't want the international community pushing for a peaceful resolution in the Ukraine shakeup of 2014.

What came after was the the destruction of a number of ammunition depots:
16 October 2014 Ammo depot explodes, Vrbětice in the Zlín District of the Czech Republic (Notibly Agents of Skripol's poisoning were involved)
26 September 2017 Ammo depot explodes, Kalynivka, near Vinnytsia, Ukraine

(Likely destroyed by Russia over the concerns that the ex-Soviet bloc countries were selling weapons between themselves to defend those ex-bloc countries from Russia.    There's actually a mention of how Georgia was using Ukrainian sold Anti-air during Russia's offensive there.)

Further during the time period Russia had been hiring criminal goons (Actual criminals like Oleg Smorodinov) to assassinate people within the Ukraine that either worked in counter-intelligence or were likely deemed a threat to their plans.

Putin is a shortarse. I have a friend who makes occasional guest appearances in my posts who is also a shortarse. While he was growing up with the other kids he didn't grow quite as much as most of them. Not much but enough to leave deep psychological (and maybe also literal) scars. While discussing Putin we came to the point where I couldn't proceed without mentioning the shortarse factor. "Aha!" he said and reeled off a string of notable shortarses in history (Napoleon springs to mind but there were many more). There is a shortarse history of the world that most (non-shortarses) would be totally unaware of. Putin (no doubt) is aware of shortarse history and I think he is probably wery wery dangerous.

Edit.. for background information my friend is only a few inches shorter than me and built like a brick shithouse.He is also the hairiest person I have ever encountered. He claims, and I have no reason to doubt this, that if he stopped shaving you wouldn't be able to find him.

If this war is due to little man syndrome, peace talks might be impossible because Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the same height as Vladimir Putin.

Lilliputins! Life mirrors art.

CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States)

Originally created after the fall of the USSR, a number of the ex-soviet now independent countries formed a "regional intergovernment organization".

Some points:

• All executives (leadership) of this commonwealth were from Russia or Belarus
  
• The language being pushed to be spoken was Russian
  
• Any elections held in member countries would have CIS "observers" (Namely there was always a Russian asset who could involve electoral tampering)
  
• Any countries that have now left the CIS (Georgia/Ukraine) have been targetted by Russian military assaults.
  

(Mar 29, 2022 03:59 PM)stryder Wrote: [ -> ]CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States)

Originally created after the fall of the USSR, a number of the ex-soviet now independent countries formed a "regional intergovernment organization".

Some points:

•   All executives (leadership) of this commonwealth were from Russia or Belarus
  
• The language being pushed to be spoken was Russian
  
• Any elections held in member countries would have CIS "observers" (Namely there was always a Russian asset who could involve electoral tampering)
  
• Any countries that have now left the CIS (Georgia/Ukraine) have been targetted by Russian military assaults.
  

Since its inception, one of the primary goals of the CIS has been to provide a forum for discussing issues related to the social and economic development of the newly independent states. To achieve this goal member states have agreed to promote and protect human rights. Initially, efforts to achieve this goal consisted merely of statements of goodwill, but on 26 May 1995, the CIS adopted a Commonwealth of Independent States Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

[...] CIS members, especially in Central Asia, continue to have among the world's poorest human rights records. Many activists point to examples such as the 2005 Andijan massacre in Uzbekistan to show that there has been almost no improvement in human rights since the collapse of the Soviet Union in Central Asia. The consolidation of power by President Vladimir Putin has resulted in a steady decline in the modest progress of previous years in Russia. The Commonwealth of Independent States continues to face serious challenges in meeting even basic international standards.

Heh. Still stagnating at the pre-1995 convention level of pretentious statements or moral rectitude posturing.

Pro-Kremlin Telegram channels in Ukraine aim to undermine peace talks
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ne...o-belarus/

Multiple pro–Kremlin Telegram channels are spreading narratives that downplay or discredit the ongoing peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia in Turkey. The Telegram channel Legitimniy (“Legitimate”) published a post stating that talks between Ukraine and Russia had ended and “there will be no results.” Seven minutes later, the channel published a rumor claiming that if the diplomatic negotiations did not bring any results, Russia would launch a massive attack in all directions.

As the Ukrainian delegation in Turkey outlined its proposals, pro-Kremlin Telegram channels tried to diminish them. The Legitimniy channel said that even though the bombardment of the Ukrainian cities continues, “the Ukrainian side started accelerating news of victory.” The channel claimed that Russia had established a police force within its occupied territories, concluding that it is not “profitable for Russia to make concessions now.” Finally, the channel argued against the peace negotiations by claiming that sanctions relief would not happen unless Russia admitted defeat and paid reparations to Ukrainian authorities.

Another Kremlin-linked Telegram channel, ZeRada, claimed that the Kremlin agreed to hold peace talks in Turkey to postpone Turkish ally Azerbaijan from launching an offensive against Armenia. The channel argued that Turkey would not support another conflict while the peace talks were happening. It also questioned Ukraine’s intentions to hold a referendum to finalize the country’s security status. The channel accused Ukraine of lying and questioned why Ukraine would suggest a referendum if it was winning the war.

—Roman Osadchuk, Research Associate