CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Star witness against ex-Goldman banker says wives used to disguise 

1MDB kickbacks

Luc Cohen

Thu, February 24, 2022, 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two Goldman Sachs bankers concocted a scheme involving their wives to conceal kickbacks they received for helping to loot Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, one of the bankers testified on Thursday at the corruption trial of the other, Roger Ng.

Tim Leissner, who had been Ng's supervisor at Goldman before becoming the star government witness against him, said he received kickback payments from a Malaysian intermediary, Jho Low, for helping embezzle funds Goldman raised for 1MDB through three bond sales.

Leissner testified after pleading guilty to money laundering and corruption charges, while Ng has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to commit money laundering and violating an anti-corruption law.

The charges stem from one of the biggest financial scandals in history, in which U.S. prosecutors say $4.5 billion of the $6.5 billion Goldman raised for 1MDB was diverted to government officials bankers and their associates through bribes and kickbacks.

Leissner, 52, said that after the first bond sale in 2012, he received $35 million from Low, and transferred half of it to Ng.

Both then discussed crafting a "cover story" to explain the payments so the banks processing the funds would not grow suspicious, Leissner said.

"His wife's family had previously made an investment in my wife Judy's business in China, and this was return of that investment," Leissner told the jury in Brooklyn federal court, referring to his former wife Judy Chan.

Leissner said the story was untrue, and that he did not know if Ng, 49, relayed it to his bank.

The statement could be problematic for Ng.

His lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, has denied the payment was a kickback, and said the men's wives had a legitimate business together.

Agnifilo has said he plans to call Ng's wife, Hwee Bin Lim, to testify in her husband's defense.

He may question Leissner about the payment during cross-examination, which will not take place until next week because the U.S. Department of Justice delayed disclosing about 15,500 documents related to Leissner to the defense.

Agnifilo signaled in his opening statement that he will challenge Leissner's credibility by asking about his infidelity.

Leissner testified on Thursday that in 2013, while separated from Chan, he forged divorce papers in order to marry Kimora Lee Simmons, the American model and former wife of U.S. music producer Russell Simmons.

Goldman in 2020 paid a nearly $3 billion fine and arranged for its Malaysian unit to plead guilty in U.S. court.

U.S. prosecutors indicted Low in 2018, but he has not been arrested by American or Malaysian authorities. Malaysia has said Low is in China, which Beijing denies.

Goldman Probed by SEC Over Messages Sent Using Unapproved Services

Daniel Taub and Sridhar Natarajan
Fri, February 25, 2022, 


(Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. became the latest bank to be investigated over employee communications over unapproved messaging services.

The New York-based company is cooperating with the Securities and Exchange Commission and producing documents related to a probe into “compliance with records preservation requirements relating to business communications sent over electronic messaging channels that have not been approved by the firm,” it said in a regulatory filing Friday.

In December, the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission imposed $200 million in fines on JPMorgan Chase & Co., saying that even managing directors and other senior supervisors at the bank had skirted regulatory scrutiny by using services such as WhatsApp or personal email addresses for work-related communication. This week, HSBC Holdings Plc said it’s being investigated by the CFTC over bankers’ misuse of WhatsApp and other messaging platforms.

In its filing, Goldman pointed to the probes elsewhere. “The SEC has stated that it is conducting similar investigations of record preservation practices at other financial institutions,” the bank said.

Wall Street firms have been required for decades to closely monitor and save their employees’ business communications, a task that’s been complicated in recent years by the proliferation of mobile technology and messaging apps. The system was strained even more as banks sent workers home at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, making it harder to see who might be using an unmonitored device.

In the JPMorgan case, SEC officials said they were aware of tens of thousands of messages involving more than 100 people that avoided routine surveillance. The communications that investigators were aware of involved discussions of company business, client meetings, investment strategies and market analysis and color.

The probe was ongoing and would entail other firms, officials said in December, adding that they were encouraging companies to self-report any violations.

HSBC Chief Executive Officer Noel Quinn said the CFTC’s work was part of a broad investigation by U.S. authorities.

“I don’t think it’s specific, I think it’s general across all financial institutions,” he said in a phone interview earlier this week. “They’re looking at the use of mobiles and WhatsApp and text messages to make sure it’s appropriate.”

CRIMINAL CRYPTO CAPITALI$M
Morgan Stanley Discloses U.S. Probe Into Its Block-Trading Business
Sridhar Natarajan and Katherine Burton
Thu, February 24, 2022,


(Bloomberg) -- Morgan Stanley said U.S. regulators and prosecutors are investigating various aspects of its block-trading business, acknowledging the firm itself is under scrutiny as authorities dig into how Wall Street bankers and money managers carry out stock transactions big enough to move prices.

The New York-based investment bank has been responding since August to requests for information from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the company said in a regulatory filing Thursday. It’s also been fielding requests from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission since June 2019, the firm said, noting that it’s cooperating.

U.S. investigators have been gathering communications involving employees at a number of banks, as well as outside money managers known to acquire slugs of stock in confidential offerings, Bloomberg reported last week. As part of the probe, authorities are trying to determine whether any banks’ dealmakers improperly tipped off investors to transactions big enough to move share prices.

Morgan Stanley overtook Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in recent years to become the biggest block trader in the industry. Authorities have sought information pertaining to several of its managers, people familiar with the matter have said, and in November the firm put a key executive involved in communicating with clients on block trades on leave.

No one has been accused of wrongdoing, and the opening of a probe doesn’t necessarily mean that civil or criminal charges will follow.

UPDATE 2-Credit Suisse tries to aid U.S. block-trading probe of rivals -Bloomberg News

Fri, February 25, 2022
(Adds details from Financial Times report)

Feb 25 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse Group AG is trying to help the U.S. Department of Justice potentially build a case related to block trading against rivals Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. (https://bit.ly/3t9DIPZ)

The Swiss bank's push to provide assistance apparently goes beyond banks’ routine cooperation with requests for information, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Credit Suisse has delivered a presentation to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, flagging potential issues with the collapse of Archegos Capital Management last year that led to billions of dollars of losses for global banks, according to the report.

A representative for Credit Suisse declined to comment.

The Archegos meltdown drew regulatory scrutiny towards block trading, which refers to the practice of buying and selling blocks of shares. Broker-dealers engage in block trading, either on behalf of clients or as part of a hedging strategy.

Reuters reported last week that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was probing whether financial executives may have broken the rules by tipping off hedge funds ahead of such trades.

In a filing on Thursday, Morgan Stanley said regulators and prosecutors in the United States were probing various aspects of its block-trading business.

China's securities regulator has ordered the Wall Street bank to provide it with information on the U.S. probe, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing a notice on the China Securities Regulatory Commission's website. https:// on.ft.com/3sifCTY

Morgan Stanley did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni)

Canada protest convoy organizer Pat King denied bail


Police work at a checkpoint after authorities took action to clear a trucker protest that was aimed at COVID-19 measures before growing into a broader anti-government protest and occupation, in Ottawa, on Sunday, Feb. 20, 2022

(Cole Burston/The Canadian Press via AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)


Fri, February 25, 2022

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — A Canadian judge denied bail on Friday to a prominent organizer of the three-week convoy protest against coronavirus measures in Ottawa.

Pat King was arrested on Feb. 18 and faces charges of mischief, counselling to commit mischief, counselling to commit the offence of disobeying a court order and counselling to obstruct police.

Justice of the Peace Andrew Seymour said he’s not satisfied that King, if released, wouldn’t commit offences similar to those he’s accused of.


The trucker protest grew until it closed a handful of Canada-U.S. border posts and shut down key parts of the capital for more than three weeks. But all border blockades have now ended and the streets around the Canadian Parliament are quiet.

Seymour said he also lacks confidence in King’s proposed surety, an Alberta woman who has known King for about four weeks.

King sat in the Ottawa courtroom wearing a camouflage jacket over a grey hoodie and matching sweatpants. King has been known to promote racist conspiracy theories online.

Other judges earlier denied bail to two other organizers behind protests against COVID-19 restrictions and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Ottawa protesters who vowed never to give up are gone, chased away by police in riot gear in what was the biggest police operation in the nation’s history.

Ukrainians and Russians are packing ATM lines, prompting fears of what happened in the US during the Great Depression


Ukrainians stood in long lines outside of banks and ATMs hoping to take out their funds, even defying curfew to do so.

DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images.


Jason Lalljee
Thu, February 24, 2022


After Russia invaded Ukraine Thursday, people in both countries started withdrawing cash from banks.


It's led to fears of bank runs, which triggered turmoil in the US during the Great Depression.


Bank runs can lead to bankruptcy, unemployment, lending shortages, and closed businesses.

Many of the Ukrainians who haven't already fled the country as Russia's threat turned into invasion stood in long lines outside of banks and ATMs hoping to take out their funds, Reuters reported on Thursday.

Meanwhile in Russia, people are also queuing outside of ATMs trying to get US dollars as its citizens worry their own currency's value will continue to tank, according to the Wall Street Journal. Banks in the capital city of Moscow are running out of money, according to MSNBC.

All of this has led to fears of bank runs, which is when people withdraw money en masse because they worry banks will cease to function. It has the potential to be a self-fulfilling prophecy, destabilizing banks to the point of bankruptcy. That's what happened in the United States during the Great Depression, and it triggered mass unemployment and loan scarcities.

In fact, what took place in the US between 1929 and 1939 serves as a case study of what can happen when banks can't keep up with withdrawals: for years to come, there could be less money to go around.

"Locations around the country that have more bank failures have larger declines in spending," David Wheelock, the senior vice president and special policy advisor to the president at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said during a workshop examining the Depression in 2013. Simply put, he said, "People lose money, they spend less."
Ukraine and Russia have taken steps to avoid bank runs

Banks in Ukraine are attempting to quell the possibility of economic havoc by imposing limits on withdrawals.

The Donetsk republic in eastern Ukraine limited withdrawals this week to 10,000 rubles, $129 per day, from ATMs. The National Bank of Ukraine also employed a cash withdrawal limit of 100,000 Ukrainian hryvnia per day on Thursday, or about $3,339, also halting exchanges for Ukranians trying to obtain foreign currencies.

To avoid catastrophe in its own country, Russia's Central Bank announced an emergency support package on Thursday as its stock markets plunged in response to its government's military action.

That package includes closing the stock exchange and purchasing millions of rubles to increase the value of the currency. The Central Bank has not yet imposed restrictions on how much cash people can withdraw.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said that although Russia is currently withstanding the impact of its shrinking currency and impending sanctions, additional interventions could "weaken Russia's economic base and its capacity to modernize."
The Great Depression is a cautionary tale

After the stock market crash of October 1929, anxious Americans withdrew massive deposits of cash, which frequently forced banks to permanently close, according to History.

Because banks only physically carry a limited amount of cash at any given time, sudden bank runs like the ones that spiraled throughout the country in the 1930s forced banks to sell their assets to acquire the cash to give people when they requested it — leading to bankruptcy.

The impact of such bankruptcies varied throughout the US, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, but it often had ripple effects on the rest of the economy.

"Hundreds of banks failed. Lending declined. Business faltered and unemployment rose," the Fed wrote. "The crises also generated deflation because they convinced bankers to accumulate reserves and the public to hoard cash."

A decline in deposits meant that the banks had less money to lend out, which meant that people had less money to pay for goods and services and that the prices of those goods and services deflated. According to the Fed, that deflation further forced banks, businesses, and debtors into bankruptcy, reduced consumption, and ultimately increased unemployment.

"Think of the financial system that keeps the wheels of the economy spinning — bank failure is like throwing sand into the wheel." Wheelock said. "Or even chopping off bits of the wheel altogether."

Bernie Sanders calls Putin a 'poster boy for greed and oligarchy' and says he should worry more about the people of Ukraine and Russia than his yacht

Joseph Zeballos-Roig,Juliana Kaplan

Thu, February 24, 2022, 

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

• Sen. Bernie Sanders heaped fresh criticism on Putin for his extravagant wealth.

• He assailed Putin as "the poster boy for greed and oligarchy" in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

• Sanders is prodding the Biden administration to impose severe sanctions on the Russian leader.

Senator Bernie Sanders is once again criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin after the Russian leader sparked the biggest land war in Europe in decades.

Sanders, a progressive from Vermont and the chair of the powerful Senate Budget Committee, called Putin "the poster boy for greed and oligarchy" on Twitter.

"Maybe, before starting a war that could kill thousands and displace millions, he might worry more about the people of Ukraine and Russia and less about his precious super-yacht," Sanders wrote.

He cited Insider's Julie Coleman, who reported on February 9 that a yacht said to belong to Putin left Germany hastily. The yacht wasn't finished with repairs, according to German media, but departed amidst concerns that the West would sanction Russia as it edged towards invading Ukraine.

The yacht, named Graceful, is reportedly worth $100 million, and costs $5 to $10 million a year to run. Putin's net worth has long been a bit of a mystery, although he may be one of the richest people in the world.

Forbes reported that American financier Bill Browder calculated in 2017 that Putin's net worth was $200 billion. Elon Musk, the world's richest person according to traditional measures, saw his net worth fall below $200 billion on Wednesday.

Sanders' comments came in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine early Thursday. Putin's military assault sparked an international outcry and unsettled financial markets around the world. The Associated Press reports that Ukraine's health minister said 57 Ukrainians have been killed and 169 wounded.

President Joe Biden condemned Putin in the harshest terms at a news conference, and assailed him for embarking on a premeditated war against Ukraine. "Putin chose this war," he said. "And now he and his country will bear the consequences."

He announced a fresh wave of sanctions targeting Russian banks as well as other senior officials and their families. Biden also tried steeling Americans against the prospect of higher prices for gas and food.

Those financial penalties, however, stopped short of targeting Putin. Some Democrats are already urging Biden to impose sanctions on the Russian leader, a dramatic step typically reserved for autocrats like the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

Sanders previously blasted former President Donald Trump for his praise of Putin, saying that it was "outrageous, if unsurprising" for Trump to praise the invasion as an act of "genius."

"The United States and our allies must impose severe sanctions on Vladimir Putin and his fellow oligarchs," Sanders said in an afternoon statement on Thursday. "At a time when thousands may die as a result of his war, Putin, one of the richest people in the world, should not be allowed to enjoy the billions he stole from the Russian people. The United States must also work closely with international partners to provide humanitarian relief for the Ukrainian people."

Russian troops enter Kharkiv;
Zelensky urges top UN court to halt Moscow's invasion - live updates

Jordan Culver and Caren Bohan, USA TODAY

Sun, February 27, 2022,

Russian troops entered Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv and fighting is underway in the streets, according to the Associated Press.

Videos posted on Ukrainian media and social networks showed Russian vehicles moving across Kharkiv and a light vehicle burning on the street. Residents were urged to stay inside.

The troops in Kharkiv arrived after Russia unleashed a wave of attacks on Ukraine targeting airfields and fuel facilities.

Two large explosions rocked an area south of the capital just before 1 a.m. local time. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said one of the blasts was near the Zhuliany airport and the other blast hit an oil depot about 25 miles south of the capital, according to the mayor of Vasylkiv via the AP. Russian forces also blew up a gas pipeline in Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, according to the Ukrainian president's office.

The United Nations says it has confirmed at least 240 civilian casualties, including at least 64 people killed in the fighting in Ukraine that erupted since Russia’s invasion on Thursday, according to the AP. Though, the UN believes the toll may be "considerably higher.”

A view of a residential building damaged by recent shelling in Kharkiv on Feb. 26, 2022. - Russia ordered its troops to advance in Ukraine "from all directions" as the Ukrainian capital Kyiv imposed a blanket curfew and officials reported 198 civilian deaths.

More than 200,000 people have fled the Ukraine to neighboring countries. UN officials believe up to 4 million people could leave if fighting continues.

Meanwhile, the United States and its European allies agreed to remove “selected” Russian banks from the international SWIFT messaging system, which allows for the movement of financial transactions.

A few things to catch you up:

THE NEWS COMES TO YOU: Get the latest updates on situation in Ukraine. Sign up here.

WHY IS RUSSIA INVADING UKRAINE?: Could this be the start of WWIII? We explain.

BACK IN THE STATES: What is the draft? And can it ever be reinstated here?

BANNED FROM SWIFT?: How banning Russia from the world banking system could impact the country

This general view shows damage to the upper floors of a building in Kyiv on February 26, 2022, after it was reportedly struck by a Russian rocket.

Kyiv eerily quite after explosions

The capital, Kyiv, was eerily quiet after huge explosions lit up the morning sky and authorities reported blasts at one of the airports. Only an occasional car appeared on a deserted main boulevard as a strict 39-hour curfew kept people off the streets. Terrified residents instead hunkered down in homes, underground garages and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale Russian assault.

“The past night was tough – more shelling, more bombing of residential areas and civilian infrastructure,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. “There is not a single facility in the country that the occupiers wouldn’t consider as admissible targets.”

An armed civil defense woman holds a Kalashnikov assault rifle while patrolling an empty street due to a curfew in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022.

Videos posted on Ukrainian media and social networks showed Russian vehicles moving across Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city. The images showed Russian troops roaming the city in small groups. In one image, Ukrainian troops were seen firing at the Russians and damaged Russian light utility vehicles abandoned nearby.

The images underscored the determined resistance Russian troops face while attempting to enter Ukraine’s bigger cities. Ukrainians have volunteered en masse to help defend the capital, Kyiv, and other cities, taking guns distributed by authorities and preparing firebombs to fight Russian forces.

– Associated Press

Zelenskyy asks UN top court to halt Russian invasion, says Moscow 'manipulating the notion of genocide'

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of manipulating the notion of genocide to justify invading its neighbor and urged the International Court of Justice to hold trials.

Located in The Hague in the Netherlands, the ICJ is the main judicial arm of the United Nations.

"Russia must be held accountable for manipulating the notion of genocide to justify aggression. We request an urgent decision ordering Russia to cease military activity now and expect trials to start next week," Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter.

The ICJ rules on disputes between states, including responsibility for breaches of international law. It is not linked to the International Criminal Court, also based in The Hague, which holds individuals accountable for atrocities.

– Caren Bohan and Associated Press

Zelenskyy is a lion of a leader | Opinion

“I need ammunition, not a ride.” Those are the words proclaimed by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In the midst of terrible death and destruction and the most egregious threat to Europe since World War II, Ukrainians are teaching the rest of the world a lesson about freedom, resolve and love of country.

When offered an escape from Kyiv, allegedly by the United States, the 44-year-old Ukrainian president immediately rejected the notion and demonstrated selfless leadership and a portrait of courage generally reserved for Hollywood.

Many leaders would have abandoned ship, putting their own personal safety above that of their countrymen. Zelenskyy, on the other hand, is taking a stand for freedom, boldly demonstrating that freedom is worth fighting for; that a government of, by and for the people is worth defending.

-- August Pfluger (Read more of August Pfluger's column.)

NHL star Alex Ovechkin called over over stance on war

Hockey Hall of Famer Dominik Hasek has called for the NHL to "immediately suspend contracts for all Russian players" amidst Russia's deadly invasion of Ukraine.

The 57-year-old Czech also had some choice words for Washington Capitals' Russian-born star Alex Ovechkin, a supporter of President Vladimir Putin.

Hasek, who played in the NHL for 16-seasons and is widely considered one of the best goaltenders of all time, called Ovechkin an "alibist," a "liar" and a "chicken (expletive)" after Ovechkin failed to publicly denounce Putin and his country's aggression.

-- Cydney Henderson

Ukraine rejects location for talks with Russia

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country is ready for peace talks with Russia but not in Belarus.

Speaking in a video message Sunday, Zelenskyy suggested meeting in Warsaw, Bratislava, Istanbul, Budapest or Baku. He said other locations are also possible but made clear that Ukraine doesn’t accept Russia’s selection of Belarus, which Russia has used as a staging ground for its invasion.

The Kremlin said Sunday that a Russian delegation had arrived in the Belarusian city of Homel for talks with Ukrainian officials. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the delegation includes military officials and diplomats.

-- Associated Press

Russia's cutting off port access

Russia was working Sunday to limit strategic strategic ports along the Ukraine’s coastline stretching from the border with Romania in the west to the border with Russia in the east. A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, said Russian forces had blocked the cities of Kherson on the Black Sea and the port of Berdyansk on the Azov Sea.

Russia’s military also put increasing pressure on strategic ports in the south of Ukraine, blocking the cities of Kherson on the Black Sea and the port of Berdyansk on the Azov Sea.

Cutting Ukraine’s access to its sea ports would deal a major blow to the country’s economy.

-- Associated Press

Russia targets Ukraine airfields in next phase

Russia unleashed a wave of attacks on Ukraine targeting airfields and fuel facilities in what appeared to be the next phase of an invasion that has been slowed by fierce resistance. The U.S. and EU responded with weapons and ammunition for the outnumbered Ukrainians and powerful sanctions intended to further isolate Moscow.

Huge explosions lit up the sky early Sunday south of the capital, Kyiv, where people hunkered down in homes, underground garages and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale assault by Russian forces.

-- Associated Press

Where are Russian military forces? Tracking the Ukraine invasion

'You cannot defeat a whole nation'

On Sunday morning, Ukranian writer Illarion Pavliuk plans to set out on a dangerous journey to help his countrymen as explosions rock Kyiv, and outgunned Ukrainian forces continue to maintain control of their capital.

Pavliuk is not a solider, but he does have a military background. In 2015, he was an intelligence volunteer in the war in Eastern Ukraine. And yet, this is what Ukraine has become – a country where internationally acclaimed artists are forced to kiss their children goodnight before they go off to defend their homeland from the occupying force. "We will never give up and we are going to win this war. You cannot defeat the whole nation. And Ukrainians are absolutely united as a nation now."

His words are haunting and powerful, with his children in the background.

"What can I tell you about this war? It is difficult to say a couple of words," he says. "I would never ever imagine my four children dropping their toys and running to sit in the thickest doorway in the house because of cruise missiles above our city; ballistic missiles.

"And I would never imagine this and I will never forgive Russia."

– Carli Pierson, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Russian troops in Kharkiv; Zelenskyy makes plea to UN - live updates

Many Russians aren't buying the war Putin is selling




Dave Lawler

AXIOS
Thu, February 24, 2022

Vladimir Putin has launched an unprovoked ground war in a neighboring country after only the most perfunctory attempt to convince his own people, and with no groundswell of support behind him.

Why it matters: That’s a dangerous proposition for any leader, even an autocrat as entrenched as Putin. But while some experts believe high casualties or sanctions-induced economic distress could destabilize Putin’s regime, others contend that a quick victory would solidify his historic legacy in many Russians’ eyes.

Driving the news: Hundreds of protesters marched through central Moscow Thursday night chanting "no to war," while hundreds more gathered in St. Petersburg, all despite an explicit threat of arrest from the Interior Ministry.

Meanwhile, several celebrities, journalists and other public figures publicly criticized the invasion.

That stands in stark contrast to the 2014 annexation of Crimea, when the government actively mobilized mass shows of support for a highly popular operation.

This time around, there was "no big demand" for war, and Putin — with his eyes apparently fixed on history rather than public opinion — hardly tried to generate one, says Alexander Baunov of Carnegie Moscow.

Rather than patriotic fervor, Baunov sensed the slight "embarrassment" of Muscovites on Thursday morning as they withdrew cash from ATMs in case Russia is cut off from the global financial system.

Breaking it down: Most Russians were not expecting war on any scale, let alone a full-scale invasion, but a majority also accepts Putin's argument that the West has created the crisis, says Denis Volkov, director of Russia's last independent pollster, the Levada Center.

Just 7% blamed the tensions over Ukraine on the Russian government according to one recent poll, Volkov says. The belief in Western culpability among most Russians "will not be shaken," he adds.

Perceptions of Ukraine were also trending downward before the invasion, in a sign that the relentless coverage on state TV had an effect even as it generated a great deal of fatigue, Volkov says.

Now public opinion is in flux. "It will depend on how long it will be, how bloody it will be, what the response of the West will be," and whether there is some form of protest movement, he says.

What to watch: Most of the groups that have rallied past protests have been systematically dismantled over the past few years, most notably Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation.

During court proceedings Thursday that could add 15 years to his prison sentence, Navalny accused Putin of launching the war "to cover up the theft from Russian citizens and divert their attention" from internal problems.

Vladimir Ashurkov, the now-exiled executive director of Navalny's foundation, told reporters over dinner in Washington on Tuesday that the timing of the trial was no accident. "Unfortunately, this Ukrainian shitstorm is putting it into the shadows," he said.

Ashurkov conceded that if Russia effectively absorbs Ukraine with minimal casualties and economic fallout, it could bolster Putin internally. Many in the business and governing elite have grown very concerned by Putin's maneuvers, he added, but Putin has shown little interest in any opinion but his own.

The bottom line: "Putin is starting to get more isolated from modernity, from the present time, and thinking of himself as a historic figure, making not politics but history," Baunov says.

He is indeed making history, but the domestic fallout could yet pull him back into the present.

Go deeper: Ukraine-Russia crisis latest developments

Ukraine: Media Groups Join Together For ‘United News’ & Urge World To Turn Off Russian Channels

Max Goldbart
Sat, February 26, 2022


Ukraine’s biggest media groups have united to broadcast one all-encompassing news service to cover the conflict, as they urge the world to impose “media sanctions” and turn off Russian channels.

In a statement in the past hour, 1+1 Media, StarLightMedia, Media Group Ukraine and Inter Media Group said they are now showing one newscast entitled United News, which is “promptly providing comprehensive information from different regions of the country.”

The media groups, the four largest in Ukraine, are taking it in turns to helm the show, which has been forged with the co-operation of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Security and Defense Council, the Office of the President of Ukraine and other government bodies.

“It is extremely important that people around the world have access to reliable and truthful information relating to the Russia’s war against Ukraine and the course of hostilities here,” said the statement.

With that in mind, the media groups urged the world to impose “media sanctions” and “turn off the broadcasting of Russian news channels on European satellites.”

“We have been waging an information war for years, and such media sanctions are globally important to Ukraine,” it added. “We understand how powerful the Russian propaganda machine is and what kind of effort the aggressor makes to spread fake news to cynically fool people. We absolutely oppose this.”

When the conflict started in earnest Thursday some Ukrainian channels were still showing entertainment programs but Deadline reported yesterday on a pivot to back-to-back news, with commercial advertising turned off. Ukrainian news bosses have reported through-the-roof TV news ratings in recent weeks and all media groups have enacted contingency plans in order to keep broadcasting.

The statement in full

On behalf of Ukrainian media groups – 1+1 media, StarLightMedia, Media Group Ukraine and Inter Media Group in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, we would like to express our honour and to address you with the following matter.

It is extremely important that people around the world have access to reliable and truthful information relating to the Russia’s war against Ukraine and the course of hostilities here. We understand how powerful the Russian propaganda machine is and what kind of effort the aggressor makes to spread fake news to cynically fool people. We absolutely oppose this!

As of 26 February, the channels of all Ukrainian media groups named above are broadcasting in the format of a single newscast named the United News. The media groups are taking turns in providing uninterrupted information. The Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Security and Defense Council, the Office of the President of Ukraine and other government bodies, on which the course of events depends, have joined the broadcasting. We objectively and promptly provide comprehensive information from different regions of the country 24/7. We are ready to provide TV providers with our signal, and thus, ask you to help spread this information.

We also suggest to our partners to turn off all Russian news channels so that Russia’s outright propaganda does not go beyond Russia itself. In particular, we ask to block, turn off the broadcasting of these channels on European satellites.

We have been waging an information war for years, and such media sanctions are globally important to Ukraine.

Now it is extremely important that people know the truth and understand the real course of events in Ukraine!

The technical parameters for broadcasting are as follows: satellite Astra 4A at 4.8°E, transponder 12 130 (B22), polarization vertical, frequency 27500, FEC ¾.

Putin’s war is gambling with Russia’s future. He’s going to lose this bet.


Alexei Nikolsky/Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

Brian LaPierre
Sat, February 26, 2022

Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is a cynical, brutal and inhumane example of the discredited and obsolete principle that “might makes right.”

Singlehandedly, Putin has plunged Europe into the worst military crisis since WWII and sank American-Russian relations to the worst depths of the Cold War period. With this obscene and grotesque invasion, Putin is gambling with the future of the country he has misruled and dominated for over two decades. Putin will lose this bet because his war is more than an exercise in ethical and legal nihilism. It is self-defeating.

Through his aggression, Putin has brought about the very outcomes against which he claims to be fighting. Instead of restoring its power, he has isolated Russia diplomatically and smeared its international reputation. Apart from his autocratic allies in China and Mar-a-Lago, Putin has united the world against him and reinforced its commitment to contain Russian expansionism. In contrast to the disunity and ambiguities of the Trump era, Putin has revitalized and given new urgency to both NATO and the Euro-Atlantic alliance of liberal democracies. Rather than rolling back America’s military presence in the former Soviet space, Putin’s hostile policies have led to increased military deployments on Russia’s western frontier.

Putin’s war has also exposed the Russian nation to potentially crippling economic warfare. Sanctions and countersanctions will hurt everyone. They will hit Russia harder and damage it more deeply given his country’s lack of economic depth, diversification and dynamism. If the sanctions regime is robust, unified, and lengthy, Russia will not be able to escape this economic noose through cryptocurrency transactions, Chinese support and internal currency reserves. As the ruble tanks and Russians watch the accumulated purchasing power of their hard-earned savings, pensions, and scholarships disappear, many Russians will wonder whether Putin’s military adventure abroad is worth the price of their lowered living standards and livelihoods.

Militarily, Russia has the force to overwhelm Ukraine in this opening phase of conventional military operations. Russia does not have the force, however, to occupy and control Ukraine in the long term through violence alone. Nor can it do so in the face of widespread Ukrainian opposition, resistance, and prolonged insurgency. While it will be easy to invade Ukraine, Putin will find that it is difficult to pacify it, impossible to Russify it, and dangerous to withdraw from it.

Lastly, I do not (and cannot) believe that the Russian public supports this war. For all his false flag operations, disinformation, and posturing, Putin has not prepared Russia to support a war of aggression and territorial aggrandizement in Ukraine. If this conflict is bloody and protracted, it will be deeply distressing and increasingly unpopular with the average Russian. It will also be deeply destructive to Putin’s political image and domestic reputation as a competent and rational technocrat.

Tragically, it is the ordinary people who will suffer the most from Putin’s hubris and mistakes. Undoubtedly, however, this war will produce many more collateral casualties. One of them—unbeknownst to all the cronies and sycophants in the Kremlin—may be Vladimir Putin’s domestic popularity, legitimacy, and power.

By Dr. Brian LaPierre is an associate professor of history at The University of Southern Mississippi School of Humanities. You can reach him at brian.lapierre@usm.edu.

Our leaders’ contempt for the truth have led us into war | Opinion


Alexei Nikolsky/Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

Leonard Pitts Jr.
Fri, February 25, 2022

Then as now, it began with lies.

On Sept. 1, 1939, Adolf Hitler’s forces crossed the border into Poland. The German chancellor did so on the pretext that ethnic Germans were being persecuted. German operatives, disguised as Poles, even staged an attack on a German radio station, yelling anti-German threats into the microphone.

With that lie, the most devastating war in the history of the world began.

It is far too early to know how devastating this latest European war will turn out to be, how many will die, how many will be left homeless and stateless, how the repercussions will play out across the globe. There is, however, an ominous resonance in the lies from which it arose.

First, Russian leader Vladimir Putin claimed he had no intention of invading Ukraine, even as he massed troops on that country’s border. Then he announced Russia would recognize two separatist regions. Finally, shortly before Russian ordnance began to pound the smaller country, he announced a “military operation” aimed at “peacekeeping” and “denazification.”

Now, as then, lies. And now, as then, what strikes you is not just the utter brazenness of them, but the threadbare flimsiness of them. Hitler, granted, put some work into his lie, but at the end of the day, was anyone really expected to believe that Poland, which had more horses than tanks, had suddenly decided to attack its heavily armed neighbor?

Putin’s lies are even shoddier. He would have us believe his forces were needed to keep the peace in a nation that was at peace and to evict Nazis from a nation whose democratically elected president is a Jew. These are the kinds of lies you tell when you don’t care what anyone thinks. Their very shabbiness is an expression of contempt.

And the fact that Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, J.D. Vance, Steve Bannon and other denizens of the American right either lionize this liar — “Savvy,” Trump called him — or dismiss the suffering of his victims — “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine,” said Vance — is a clear, albeit superfluous indicator of just how broken our own country has become.

Like Putin, much of the right bears allegiance not to truth, much less to democracy, but rather, to the brutish power of the strongman to do as he pleases, unfettered by such niceties. That’s what they very nearly imposed in 2016. It is what they promise in 2024. And if you’re not frightened, you’re not paying attention.

This moment has been a long time coming. A little more than a quarter century ago, a House speaker named Newt Gingrich declared politics war and an upstart cable network called Fox declared facts optional. It was called a conservative resurgence, but it was actually the foundation stone for the kingdom of lies our country has become.

No wonder Trump likes Putin and claims the feeling is mutual. Each recognizes himself in the other.

What they recognize, what they have in common, is that transactional disdain for the truth and, more to the point, for anyone naive enough to expect it. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented her Russian counterpart a red “reset” button, Russia accepted it, but kept right on being a thugocracy. TV pundits kept assuring us Trump was going to “become presidential” any second now, but to his last day, he remained a willful child. Now families seek refuge in Ukrainian subways, while Trump cheers their tormentor on.

Let no one be surprised.

What begins in lies tends to end in carnage.

Special forces evacuated German spy chief from Ukraine -Focus magazine

FILE PHOTO: The President of the German Federal Intelligence Agency (BND) Bruno Kahl attends the opening ceremony of the new BND (Federal Intelligence Service) headquarter in Berlin

Fri, February 25, 2022, 

BERLIN (Reuters) - The head of Germany's foreign intelligence service was in Ukraine when Russia invaded and had to be taken home overland in a gruelling two-day journey by special forces when the country's airspace was closed, Focus magazine reported.

The Federal Intelligence Service (BND) confirmed that Bruno Kahl had been in Ukraine on Wednesday for "urgent talks" but had to change his departure plans after the invasion began.

"Because of the outbreak of hostilities and the closure of Ukraine's airspace, the President had taken the land route back," the BND said in a statement on Friday, which did not mention the part special forces had allegedly played.

"This was a difficult and lengthy journey because of the streams of refugees going in the same direction. He is back in the European Union and is expected in Berlin today."
Related video: German president said in an address, 'Stop the craziness of this war'

Bild newspaper quoted sources as saying that Kahl had been in Ukraine to pass on important information in person. Kahl, a former politician rather than a career secret agent, had missed an earlier evacuation of German diplomats. He was now in Poland.

Massive flows of refugees fleeing the advancing Russian army have resulted in queues of many hours at Ukraine's borders with its western neighbours.

Former Ukraine president, armed with an AK-47, tells CNN Putin will 'never' take the country

Brendan Morrow, Staff Writer
Fri, February 25, 2022,

The former president of Ukraine spoke live with CNN on Friday from the streets of Kyiv, while armed with a rifle, amid Russia's invasion of the country.

CNN on Friday aired a live interview with Petro Poroshenko, who served as president of Ukraine until 2019 and spoke from the country's capital with an armed battalion behind him. Poroshenko spoke out against Russia's "disastrous aggression" against Ukraine, and he said there was fighting with Russia ongoing two or three kilometers away from him.

"Everybody should understand, Putin declared a war not for Ukraine," he said. "Putin declared a war to the whole world, to every single person who's watching now."

Poroshenko also called Russian President Vladimir Putin "simply crazy" and "evil" to "come here to kill Ukrainians." Asked by CNN anchor John Berman what he was armed with, Poroshenko held up a Kalashnikov, and he said that many Ukrainians wanted to enlist to fight against Russia, which shows "how Ukrainians people hate Putin." But he noted "we don't have enough arms."

When Berman asked how long he can hold out against Russia, Poroshenko replied, "Forever."

"Putin never will capture Ukraine, no matter how many soldiers he has, how many missiles he has, how many nuclear weapons he has," he said. "We Ukrainians are free people with a great European future."

CNN's interview with Poroshenko on the streets of Kyiv on Friday came as the network reported that U.S. intelligence officials "are concerned that Kyiv could fall under Russian control within days."