lucia maria manea

[Anton Gerashchenko @Gerashchenko_en]

Everyone is discussing who is behind - and what lies behind - Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s message to Putin that the war in Ukraine must end. These words were repeated three times. Pay attention to Putin's body language: he looked shocked, angry, and displeased.

Some experts believe Tokayev was delivering a message to the Kremlin from Chinese leader Xi Jinping and that it had been coordinated.

I agree that it was a message intended for Putin. Tokayev is a very experienced politician, and it's obvious he would not have made such statements on his own.

But I have a different explanation for this statement. It lies in Kazakhstan's interests in Novorossiysk: Kazakhstan has temporarily suspended oil exports through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) marine terminal near Novorossiysk because of drone attacks on tankers in the Black Sea. This route accounts for about 80% of the country's oil exports, forcing Kazakhstan to reduce production as well. Since Kazakhstan has no direct access to the sea, it cannot quickly reroute all of its exports through other routes.

The war unleashed by Putin is becoming a serious obstacle and a threat to the entire world, affecting many interests. It is no longer just a local conflict but a war with global consequences.

How did Putin react to Tokayev's words? I am certain that they triggered yet another flare-up of Putin’s paranoia: he will look for an "internal trace" and launch another round of repression against the Russian "elites," since he perceived everything as a personal internal threat.

Putin has completely lost touch with reality and has become a problem for everyone: inside Russia, for its "allies," and for the West.

The madman is interested in only one thing - an endless war. He has completely lost his grip on reality. As Boris Nemtsov once said: "He's f*cking insane - Vladimir Putin." Now that is obvious to everyone.

The only question is how - and how soon - this will end.

[Mike Pompeo @mikepompeo]

Yet more evidence of the concerted effort to suppress the Covid lab leak hypothesis. The fact that this isn't a bigger scandal is astonishing.

https://t.co/Y9Ko4foBcR

[Mike Pompeo @mikepompeo]

It seems highly likely that yesterday's horrific attack on two men in New York City - one of whom was wearing a kippah - was motivated by anti-Jewish hatred.

The normalization of antisemitism by Mayor Mamdani and the DSA has real consequences.

[Mike Pompeo @mikepompeo]

As with the Soviet Union, communist dictatorships remain adept at cultivating useful idiots and zealots in the West to undermine America from within.

https://t.co/cVezYklolA

[Mike Pompeo @mikepompeo]

This is great news. Putin is on the back foot; together, the US and Ukraine can win this thing.

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

BROWDER: If you look at whole situation with Russia, the big question is how Putin affords this war after all the sanctions we've placed on him?

Answer is simple: he affords this war because there's one huge loophole. Putin is able to sell his crude oil all over the world.

He gets hundreds of billions of dollars from the sale of that crude oil, and then funds his military and his war.

The idea of this Russia sanctions bill is to say, "Okay, let's go to the people who buy this oil, and say we're going to penalize you big time if you buy the oil. You can buy oil from anyone else, just don't buy it from Russians."

That's what this bill is all about. It closes the last remaining loophole, and really puts Putin's economy in a bind if it gets passed.

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Kasparov: During Maidan in 2014, Ukrainians looked to America as the model of self-government. Now the example runs the other way.

Ukrainians keep practicing democracy under fire, while Trump erodes the same faith in the vote that once made America their example. 10X

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Kasparov: Even under Russian attack, Ukrainians keep holding their own government accountable, not only fighting at the front.

Trump, by contrast, has spent years chipping at US institutions, and now he is going after the most important one of all, the vote itself. 9/

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Kasparov: Ukraine runs the opposite way. When Zelenskyy fired Mykhailo Fedorov, the architect of its drone offensive, public backlash forced him to reverse course.

He kept the modernization program, put a Fedorov ally in charge of the army, and gave Fedorov himself a prominent new post. [But Fedorov refused]. 8/

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Kasparov: The war grinds down Russia's economy through fuel shortages, and its young men keep dying at the front in large numbers.

Yet candidates in the coming elections barely mention the war. This is a zombie democracy, elections on paper with no political pulse left. 7/

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Kasparov: Russians learned their vote changed nothing. Under Putin, every election cycle degraded the country's institutions further.

The Kremlin controls every stage, from registering candidates to writing their platforms. The elections are not rigged so much as irrelevant. 6/

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Kasparov: Russia went the other way. Boris Yeltsin, its first president, launched the 1994 Chechen war mainly to justify holding power.

Yeltsin manipulated his 1996 reelection before a vote was cast, won, then handed the presidency to Putin in a backroom deal, not to the voters. 5/

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Kasparov: Every peaceful handover of power after 1994 strengthened Ukraine's institutions, one transition at a time.

When Putin moved to block Ukraine's turn toward Europe, the 2014 Maidan uprising drove out pro-Russian president Yanukovych, and Ukrainians learned they ran their future. 4/

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Kasparov: Ukrainians live in a true democracy because they trust it depends on them. When Zelenskyy fired Fedorov, public protests forced him to backtrack.

Trump is undermining Americans' faith in their own elections. To see where that leads, look at Russia - The WP. 1/

[Dr. Fred Hoffman, Lieutenant Colonel (ret.) @InfoAgeStrategy]

Labeling Russian behavior against the West as "hybrid warfare" simply provides nervous Western politicians with a convenient way to dismiss legitimate popular concerns that Russia is, in fact, already at war with us.

[Johanna Nyman @JohannaNyman5]

“Russia and Belarus are intensifying aggressive operations across NATO’s eastern flank. Labeling these varied actions – from sabotage to migration pressure – as “hybrid warfare” de facto normalizes state-sponsored terrorism. Russia uses these gray-zone tactics to exploit NATO’s defensive nature, instil fear, and shift red lines without triggering military conflict. The West must abandon vague terminology and establish clear limits by calling these hostile actions what they truly are.”

I couldn’t agree more. https://t.co/HlAqyEKhP6

[luda 🇺🇸 @luda8t]

Beautiful community note

[Euromaidan Press @EuromaidanPress]

Ukrainian fired defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, refused every alternative job Zelenskyy offered him

He said only three roles truly shape the war: the president, the defense minister, and the commander-in-chief, and he will take back his old ministry or nothing https://t.co/LkjVdcJVfV

[Gabrielius Landsbergis🇱🇹 @GLandsbergis]

While allies discussed the impossibility of controlling the Black Sea, Ukraine took control of it. Allies bought oil, Ukraine bombed refineries. Now allies avoid sanctioning the shadow fleet, so Ukraine sinks it. Maybe we should stop pretending we are in the driving seat here.

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

Freedom leads to innovation and innovation wins wars. Ukraine is free and Russia is not.