Last Post Date Politics Blogs (942)

A Russian peasant has 4 evils to strangle against: winter, spring, summer, autumn.

The last winter 16 regions experienced weeks and months without central heating and water, both warm and cold. In terms of Russia, it's many thousands. We can call it "winter".

The most of the heating infrastructure was built in the Soviet times and now just failing because of old age. What was built under later times.... well, as I said somewhere else, 60-85% from every project got stolen...You can call it “corruption”.

Now, there's corruption before. Petr the first decreed: "Whoever would steal a rope, will be hung on that rope..." and it didn't work. Not that they stopped stealing. And not that they stopped hang for stealing. It just didn’t work.

But under putler's times it – corruption - assumed gargantuasque proportions:

This time of year, the snow is melting and south Ural is sitting under water. I checked Guardian and found nothing on the subject. Hence, the inquiring minds are to check "Russian links".

There were dams. They didn't hold. The authorities said: "A rodent gnaw throw it" about one dam (built 10 years ago). And "The citizens took the stuff from" about the other. They evacuated people in the middle of the morning: one second you are there in a nightgown and slippers... the other second - you are in a boat and it is. The rescuers are not allowed to take pets in the boats.

*I will not start about roads and aqueducts built by Romans 2 tou… before our time…*

There are videos, when a rescuers boat came to the area days after and a man tears off tales of a roof with his bare hands – are they’nt supposed to have tools? - in order to free a cat captured under. There was about 3 cm left for the cat to breath.

Yes, corruption kills. Not only animals. Do you know how many old, handicapped, bed-ridden people got under along with the bound / caged animals? Neither do I.

(Do we have to bother at all about handicapped old people and bound animals?)

But our site is a site of good news: so, some of animals were rescued.

And to continue the happy news: while some areas in Russia are getting under water, the other areas are starting to experience grass- and forest fires. Because as always.


Less happy news are: the same category of men working in heating-maintenance, rescue-teams, building et cetera. Now, the wages in those positions are low, you can’t support your family on.

They promise, and at some occasions, they pay more money, that a usual blue-color worker will earn in his life. And they don’t tell about “meat attacks”. They say: you’ll be guarding a military supply store long in the country.

Well… an early spring…

Pakistan’s top court directs central bank to issue funds for snap polls

The parliament had on Thursday (13) ruled it wasn’t possible to spare Rs 21 billion ($74.79 million) in funds for the snap polls, which the court had ordered.

Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial had summoned officials from the finance ministry, the central bank and the Election Commision of Pakistan (ECP) to his chamber on Friday to seek a reply on the funds, warning that non-compliance would have consequences.

The parliament had on Thursday (13) ruled it wasn’t possible to spare Rs 21 billion ($74.79 million) in funds for the snap polls, which the court had ordered.

The court order said the chief justice directed the central bank’s acting governor and the finance ministry to coordinate and “forthwith allocate and release” the money from federal consolidated funds no later than April 17.



China spent £194.97 billion rescuing ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ nations, says study

Argentina was the largest beneficiary, receiving £90.80bn, equivalent to $111.8bn, followed by Pakistan with £39.39 ($48.5bn) and Egypt with £12.67 ($15.6bn)


Countries have received bailouts to extend loans and remain solvent. China claims over 150 countries have joined the trillion-dollar BRI infrastructure initiative launched by President Xi Jinping ten years ago.

According to Beijing, the objective of the initiative is to strengthen friendly trade ties with other countries, especially those in the developing world.

Japan, India, France to announce launch of Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring negotiation process


Sri Lanka confident of Chinese support in debt restructuring: central bank chief

The central bank chief of the crisis-hit South Asian country said Sri Lanka is optimistic of China’s continued support, pointing to how Beijing “did the right thing in giving Sri Lanka financing assurances last time”.

“I think this is probably the first time China has given it that fast,” he said.

With the help of the International Monetary Fund and other partners who also helped share information, said Weerasinghe, the debt restructuring process can continue.

“Obviously China is a country that has been helping Sri Lanka for a long time and [it has[ invested a lot [in Sri Lanka]. [It will be in the] best interest of both China and Sri Lanka to complete this process soon and we can get back to repaying our debt service obligations,” he said.

“Sooner the better for both countries,” he added.

In February, China’s Exim Bank gave Sri Lanka a two-year moratorium on its defaulted loans and said it would discuss additional re-structuring within that ‘window’.

In early March, Sri Lanka secured a 2.9 billion dollar extended fund facility from the IMF after obtaining assurances of support from China.

Much to my shock I'm horrified to find out asylum seekers/migrants/refugees are entitledallowed to vote in our up coming referendum 8th/march

Surely this is wrong?
I wait eagerly to be corrected

Although I know I'm registered nevertheless, I checked earlier to be sure...
Don't know why or how but turns out there is an error with my PPS number, which means I may not be registered at all, so if like me you care about your country and you plan to vote a double NO NO, don't take your registration for granted, be certain you ARE.

The deadline for registering and updating your details is 20th February.

The Washington Post

Fact Checker Analysis
President Trump has made 4,229 false or misleading claims in 558 days

See:

There are about 1000 political prisoners in Russia now. It is more, than there were in late USSR times. That means, that the present putler's regimen is worse.

Kara-Murza
Yashin
Chanysheva
Scochilenko
Pivovarov
Gabyshev
Gorinov
Berkovich

Here's the full list of political prisoners:



Who will be next?

I hope that whoever becomes leader in the forthcoming USA and UK elections will show leadership with regard to the situation between Russia and Ukraine. The signs are that if Trump wins he may not look favourably on continuing the supply of finance and weapons to Ukraine. This would put great pressure on the outcome of the war.
Whoever becomes UK prime minister ( unlikely to be Sunak ), I hope he will stand up in support of Ukraine and be persuasive to the President that America must show solidarity in that country's fight for freedom.

IRAN'S retaliation against Israel for the embassy attack, was inevitable. They said they would do something, and they were then obliged to act. But, they knew that their drones and missiles would be shot down. America warned everyone in advance and so Israel etc were prepared. It took about 8 hours for the missiles to reach the appropriate air space, and then strangely enough, some Arab countries joined in to shoot them down. Iran is no doubt not liked in the middle East and perhaps the message has got home.

Crocus concert hall in Russia just outside Moscow was attacked by 4 gunmen last Friday, who shot at random people in order to kill indiscriminately and then set fire on the building. The following smoke killed more people, than the shooters. Then the roof collapsed eventually, killing more. The latest number I saw: 133 people dead.

Questions and inconsistencies.

- The attack has lasted for ca 19 min. The closest riot police unit is located in 8 min ride from the place. Took ‘em 1.5 hour to arrive.
- The attack is deemed as a well-prepared and professional by experts. Looks like the terrorists knew the premises and what to do with their weapon. Yet their exit method raises a lot of questions. Like why did they get into the same vehicle after the attack? And then why it took several hours to spot them and stop? Why did they go to the Ukrainian (Belarusian) border that is under heavily surveillance because of the war, while Kazakhstani border is bloody totally transparent?

(In the middle of the escape calamity: how did they manage to set afire this enormous building? They didn’t have anything with them to cause it. Was any inflammable material placed in advance? How? By whom? And why didn’t water-sprinkling system react? Was it turned off? Was there any? Eh? Hallo?)

- The video of the captured gunmen raises a lot of questions too. Is it really a hardened ISIS fighter? Prepared to die for jihad? Eh?



It is Russian secret services’ major f*ck-off, no doubt. But on the other side: what would you expect. To investigate terrorist threats and prevent them takes one breed of men. To lift female anti-war protesters by their hair – that’s another. Guess, what type works for huilo?

There’s a concern, of course, in what way huilo is going to use this horrible event. The ghouls are talking about returning execution. The political prisoners, like Kara-Murza, Yashin, Chanysheva or Berkovich can be among the first.


By the way, did you see “Finist, the Bright Falcon”? It’s what Berkovich is arrested for. Here’s the link to the piece for an inquiring mind (translation in the right corner):

Words fail me

Hey Bill!