Steinmeier formula
Both sides of the Russia Ukraine negotiations agreed to the Steinmeier formula in 2016.
Steinmeier is currently Germany’s President but back then he was the German Foreign Minister.
The agreement states that elections would take place in Eastern Ukraine and be observed by outsiders under Ukrainian law.
But despite Zelensky agreeing to this in 2019 and Putin agreeing to it from the very beginning no progress eventually took place. Why?
A quick skim and scan of Steinmeier search engine results reminds me of the EU Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.
After the agreement the parties disputed what it meant and how therefore to go through with it.
I have zero background knowledge on the Russia Ukraine conflict but it looks to me as though that is why the elections never happened.
The UK withdrawal agreement also took forever to be agreed.
The wranglings led to the exit of Theresa May.
What was eventually agreed by Boris Johnson is about to be reneged on by his own Government – the one which actually drafted and signed it in the first place.
Zelensky appears to be acting in much the same way.
The Spectator podcast has been talking about the triggering of article 16.
I believe this means Britain withdrawing from the EU withdrawal agreement and the end of the Good Friday Agreement that currently keeps Northern Ireland and Ireland on good terms.
Which would mean trading with the EU without any mutually recognised trade standards and higher costs to export.
This would lead to increased tension on the UK EU Irish border as the EU would not want to allow unregulated goods like any American food to enter the EU through Northern Ireland.
The fact that none of these issues has been resolved means that the whole Ukraine thing is just a distraction.
Which means we are in no position to lecture.
How can we tell Russia to stick to agreements when the Ukraine itself has not?
And more importantly nor have we.
Things that once appeared unthinkable have become the new normal. It would be wise to bear that in mind when people say things that challenge the limits of our psychological beliefs.
Did the neo nazi shooter in New Zealand in 2018 previously visit Ukraine and wear an Azov symbol during the shootout?
Suddenly Facebook is allowing the sale of this type of neo Nazi merchandise on its platform.
This is the guy who funded Zelensky – Ihor Kolomoyskyyi
So Zelensky is Jewish, rode into power backed by the exiled Ukrainian Israeli Cypriot billionaire banker Ihor Kolomoyskyyi whose channel aired the TV show in which he became President – and now is in bed with the antisemitic Far Right.
Zelensky enriched himself using offshore accounts and has gone to war instead of allowing elections as agreed.
The offshore angle is covered by Luke Harding of the Guardian below.
Harding can do some amazing work but appears to be under the influence of the UK intelligence agencies. His role in the incrimination of Julian Assange of WikiLeaks came out in the UK hearings and shows him up as an operative. This would not be so hard to take if he just admitted it. Maybe that will happen in a few years time. I believe Assange gets married in jail on Wednesday.
Farage, Russia, Brussels, Malta
Red Dalia – Farage & Lithuanian Kompromat
When Nigel met Soviet Maltese Kevin, in Brussels
Daphne Caruana Galizi was eventually killed for messing with the wrong people. Her murder feels quite Jamal Kashoggi and David Kelly in that she was to some extent an insider who was exposing systemic wrongdoing. I understand she was from an established Maltese family. Perhaps her objections to rampant corruption in Malta were far harder for the targets of her ire to simply ignore.
I came across her when looking up Kevin and Sharon after seeing the reference in the Stephanie Kirchgaessner Guardian piece above. Stephanie, Luke, Carole and Peter Jukes are all very anti Julian Assange. Is that because they all more or less (Peter excepted) work for the Guardian and the Guardian is a tool of the state?
The Sunday Times has turned up the heat on Lord Evgeny Lebedev of Siberia and his father Alexander Lebedev lately – they fail to mention that the Evening Standard was bought off the Daily Mail owners the Rothermeres for a £1 in 2009. Or that former Sunday Times writer and Standard, Mail, Mail On Sunday and Tatler editor Geordie Greig organised the sale and co-owned the Standard with the Lebedevs for many years.
So it is no wonder Lebedev and Murdoch were such chums. Both backed Boris and the Tories repeatedly and of course both backed Brexit. It was very clever the way Osborne was brought into the Standard. He had been spotted on Oligarch Oleg Deripaska’s yacht with Mandelson in 2008 and was photographed with Abramovich at Chelsea football games. All these characters are Zionists, Tories, and money launderers – with the last category being the most significant. Why wouldn’t they all get along?
But spats happen. And now Bill Browder, an other obvious bad actor, is leaping into action.
Don’t forget the so called SLAPPs.
These are legal actions brought by wealthy individuals or corporations to stop activists and journalists telling the truth about wrongdoing. They’re designed to protect reputations. It’s funny to see Murdoch accusing Russians of engaging in SLAPPs. Few have done as much to prevent truth from circulating as Murdoch.
But of course now Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Justice Secretary Dominic Raab are championing Magnitsky laws and unexplained wealth orders to confiscate laundered money (selectively) and say they wish to prevent wealthy entities from using SLAPPs.
The hypocrisy would be staggering if it weren’t quite so reliable.
As mentioned yesterday it was disappointing to see Russell Brand talk about Saudi ownership of the Independent but not mention Lebedev. Such dots need to be joined and to go so close and just leave it feels worse than careless.
Geordie Greig was close to Ghislaine Maxwell and the New York Times has reported that MBS knew Jeffrey Epstein
So there you have it. State sponsored sex trafficking. Apparently Ukraine was a source of Epstein’s victims.
Things are now taken to another level by allowing thousands of Ukrainian refugees to cross borders towards the west – who will protect them?
The journos who have done the work to show how close MBS is to Lebedev and Lebedev is to Johnson show themselves to be compromised when they pick on the likes of Assange and Corbyn.
It’s just rivalry and retribution. But it also shows that they are closer to Clinton, Epstein, the intelligence agencies and the war machine than they make out.
The Guardian won prizes for its work with Snowden and Assange and now does nothing to exonerate them.
Some of the pressures facing some bloggers and journalists in news rooms are studied in All The News That’s Fit to Click – check it out.
Meanwhile in the Sunday Times…
