Global commentator on geopolitics, China, and the Middle East. The Arab Spring Ruse at: tinyurl.com/5av4a8ha

Virginia
Replying to @khamenei_ir
It started here. Now we're finishing it. Deal with it.
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John Rossomando ☦ retweeted
Look what’s happening on European soil in 2026 because The President Of America is a Russian agent and European Leaders are cowards.
North Korean ballistic missiles struck Dnipro earlier tonight. Weapons from North Korea. On European soil. russian aggression. Ukrainian civilians. And the world will stay silent again.
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John Rossomando ☦ retweeted
Absolutely unreal story that just broke from NYT: Two Trump top political advisors, James Blair and Chris LaCivita, were just paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to "give election advice" to the pro-Russia authoritarian government of Republika Srpska. nytimes.com/2026/10/06/us/po…
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John Rossomando ☦ retweeted
We got the warning at around 10pm that the Russian strategic bombers had taken off, with the estimate that the missiles will arrive around 3am. People headed to shelters and the metro for the night. Shortly after 3am, the warning came that the missiles will slam into Kyiv. Which they did, starting at around 3:20a. It’s 4:50a right now, and we can’t hear any more explosions from the shelter. Apparently, one building (not residential) in Obolon was confirmed hit as well as some storage facility. More info after sunrise. There might be a second wave coming around 6am.
⚡️Explosions heard in Kyiv amid large-scale Russian missile attack. kyivindependent.com/russia-s…
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John Rossomando ☦ retweeted
Browder: Putin doesn't care about the Russian-speaking population anywhere. If he did, Russia wouldn't be starving Russian-speaking people in occupied eastern Ukraine. He wouldn't have sent 1.5 million Russian-speaking young men to their death or disability in this war. 1/
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John Rossomando ☦ retweeted
👇🏻 @FoxNews kirakou’s main job is demoralization. The Demoralization of a nation in information warfare waged by our enemies.
Ladies and gentlemen, Introducing you to your current media star, appearing in practically every media outlet, including Fox News…. while openly on the Russian government’s payroll. Doesn’t even deny it. Soooo that’s the state of our news media, folks.
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John Rossomando ☦ retweeted
Tucker Carlson never makes the same arguments about the Soviet Union and Russia! WWII began when the Soviet Union united with Nazi Germany to invade and split Poland that was a mutual defense treaty partner of Britain forcing Britain to enter the war. And Tucker doesn't make the same argument he makes about Ukraine that the Nazis felt threatened by the Soviet Union being too close to German territories and the Russians should've simply made a deal with the Nazis to handover their western territory to the Nazis to satisfy the concerns that Hitler had! The woke right (or closet Commie-Nazis) only blame the west for the wars and never point fingers at the expansionist totalitarian regimes that actually start the wars!
Never Go Full Tucker
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John Rossomando ☦ retweeted
For someone like Putin who has been committing genocide and war crimes, being accused of violating the international health regulations is not a big deal.
Exclusive: The U.S. has warned Moscow that its failure to disclose details about the death of a lab worker from a plague research center in Siberia violates international health obligations. on.wsj.com/4rWwhK8
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John Rossomando ☦ retweeted
Many #Americans view #Ukraine as hopelessly corrupt, a perception fueled in part by reports about the #Biden family's involvement with the now-defunct #Ukrainian energy firm Burisma and repeated corruption scandals within Ukraine's Defense Ministry. However, leaders of Ukraine's anti-corruption movement in parliament, known as the Rada, and in civil society say strong popular pushback against corruption has started to bite. Transparency International, an NGO that monitors corruption, reported that progress is being made. In 2019, it gave Ukraine a score of 30 out of a possible 100 on its Corruption Perceptions Index. A score of zero indicates a country is perceived as highly corrupt, while 100 indicates it is perceived as clean. Today, Ukraine's score stands at 36 amid a growing civil society anti-corruption movement. In 2013, before the #Euromaidan Revolution and Russia's subsequent annexation of #Crimea and support for an insurgency in the #Donbas, Transparency International gave Ukraine a score of 25. By contrast, #Russia stood at 28 in 2013, compared with 22 today. While Ukraine has worked to fight corruption, Russia has become more corrupt, according to Transparency International, which cited "fully centralised, opaque governance that suppresses media, civil society and political opposition." "Its authoritarian approach stifles independent voices, restricts civic engagement and spreads corrupt practices across the region, undermining neighbouring democratic institutions," the organization said. Transparency International gave strong marks to Ukraine's anti-corruption movement and said it is responsible for the country's 11-point increase since 2013. Before the revolution, Ukraine stood alongside Iran, Cameroon and Nigeria among countries with some of the world's worst corruption scores. "Despite these challenges, some countries demonstrate that change is achievable when civic space and independent institutions are defended," Transparency International said in its most recent report. "In Ukraine (36), sustained pressure from NGOs, the public and journalists has helped drive governance reforms. In 2025, civil society mobilisation protected key anti-corruption institutions, allowing them to operate independently. "Ukraine's specialised anti-corruption system has increased investigations and secured convictions, including in politically sensitive procurement and defence cases. However, further reforms are needed to protect defence and reconstruction funds from misuse." Anti-corruption advocates acknowledge that much remains to be done, but they note that it took decades after the U.S. Civil War for anti-corruption efforts to take hold in America. The Gilded Age after the Civil War was marked by a "cynical spirit and crudeness of the new age and the graft, corruption, and material values," according to the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library. Ukrainian anti-corruption Member of Parliament Yaroslav Yurchyshyn told Newsmax he takes inspiration from Mark Twain, whose 1873 novel, "The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today," satirized the rampant corruption of his era. It took nearly 40 years before President Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement tackled that corruption. By comparison, Ukraine has been independent for 35 years, roughly the same amount of time it took the U.S. to begin seriously confronting corruption after the Civil War. It has also been more than a decade since pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, whom opponents accused of being aligned with Moscow, was overthrown. "We have a problem with corruption, a very deep problem as a post-Soviet state, but we are on the path of reforms," Yurchyshyn said. "When we hear about Russia or Belarus, we don't hear about corruption investigations or who commits these crimes because they are mostly totalitarian countries where only one kind of corruption can exist. That's the kind of corruption that can exist with the connection to the head of the country." He continued: "So when you look at Russia you only have corruption that has connection with Putin. Without it, it can't exist." While independent corruption investigations face severe constraints in Russia, Yurchyshyn said American intervention and assistance have helped Ukraine build institutions capable of investigating and prosecuting corruption. "With help from America, we have created anti-corruption institutions, national anti-corruption bureaus, special anti-corruption prosecution," he told Newsmax. The process of cleaning up corruption at an institutional level is underway. Although Ukraine has not reached the level of some of its neighbors, the war has made fixing the system a bigger challenge. "We have some corruption cases, but we don't have any untouchable person in our country," Yurchyshyn said. "First of all, we have to become clean, and when we do we have a lot of wreckage. Day by day we … become better." Before the 2013 revolution, Ukraine had what Yurchyshyn called a "semi-totalitarian" regime that hid corruption, but Ukraine's robust civil society now brings official corruption to public attention. That includes independent media outlets such as the Kyiv Independent and NGOs such as Holka, meaning "The Needle" in Ukrainian, that highlight alleged corruption. Iryna Fedoriv, leader of Holka, quoted slain Ukrainian journalist Heorhiy Gongadze, who founded the independent newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, as saying corruption exists in every country. Gongadze was kidnapped and murdered in 2000 after criticizing then-Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. By contrast, today's more open society allows Ukrainian activists to highlight corruption and publicly protest it. Former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, for example, has loudly protested what he sees as corruption in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's inner circle. Critics of Russia point to the deaths of prominent figures who challenged the country's government and exposed alleged corruption. Former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on a Moscow bridge in 2015 after highlighting official corruption. Yuri Shchekochikhin, a Russian lawmaker and investigative journalist, died after a mysterious illness in 2003 while investigating corruption involving powerful officials, including allegations involving the Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the KGB. Where Ukraine's media once operated under greater political constraints, social media and independent outlets now help galvanize Ukrainians who view corruption as one of the country's most pressing concerns after the war with Russia. "The key question is not if we have corruption but rather if we have tolerance toward it or do not have tolerance toward it," Fedoriv said. "In Ukraine among the Ukrainian NGOs we have reached the level where we have a zero level of tolerance to corruption, and NGOs are very strong. And they are trying to highlight these cases of corruption." Ukraine's prosecution and exposure of corruption would not have been possible without the support and activism of these NGOs, she said. While Ukraine has a long way to go before becoming corruption-free, anti-corruption advocates say it has made significant progress since the 2013 revolution. John Rossomando ✉ John Rossomando is an experienced national security and counterterrorism analyst and researcher who writes for Newsmax and has been featured in numerous publications and has been consulted by numerous U.S. government agencies. © 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
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John Rossomando ☦ retweeted
Replying to @John_Rossomando
May be of interest...
Replying to @JackpotsRevenge
Burisma IS russian. And russia wants NATO gone so they can freely invade their neighbors. NATO has never invaded russia. And Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states have every right to protect themselves. redstate.com/jenvanlaar/2023…
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John Rossomando ☦ retweeted
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear station is constantly losing power to the cooling system and russians are flying explosive drones from the roof. The war in Ukraine affects the entire planet because russian aggression doesn’t stop at the borders here
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🚨 COUNTER-ATTACKS ACROSS THE ENTIRE FRONT! 🇺🇦⚔️ Ukrainian forces unleash simultaneous counter-offensives across major flashpoints—striking back from Kupiansk and Lyman all the way down to the Zaporizhzhia axis! The momentum is shifting as Ukrainian troops fight for every single kilometer, turning defensive lines into aggressive forward pushes! 💥
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🚨 ISW: OPERATION VIVALDI DERALLS RUSSIAN PLANS! 🇺🇦💥 The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) confirms that Ukraine’s 'Operation Vivaldi' near Lyman has severely disrupted Russia's dream to encircle Sloviansk and Kramatorsk! Pro-Kremlin milbloggers admit positions are deteriorating as Ukrainian forces capture new strategic springboards for even larger upcoming operations! ⚡️
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John Rossomando ☦ retweeted
Kyiv Metro is already filling with people seeking shelter as the city prepares for a large-scale Russian missile attack tonight.
NEW: Actions by the Russian Federation indicate preparations for a possible large-scale missile attack against Ukraine tonight or in the early morning. During the day, Russia carried out multiple redeployments of its strategic aviation. Up to 10 Tu-95MS and 3 Tu-160 strategic bombers could be involved in a potential attack. The last major Russian attack involving strategic bombers was on September 8. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said today that Ukrainian intelligence indicates Russia is preparing a major attack. The timing is also notable: tonight is the night before Vladimir Putin’s birthday, October 7. Putin turns 74 tomorrow. Ukraine is preparing for what could be another extremely difficult night. I will provide further updates.
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John Rossomando ☦ retweeted
Yes, that’s the question: is this Irkutsk Plague Institute still working on developing BW pathogens as it did for decades, even in post-Soviet period?
Unaltered plague is treatable. Weaponized plague can be designed to resist antibiotics. WaPo: “Several current and former U.S. officials said they were hoping to learn whether Russian officials’ reportedly elevated response was because they had worked to alter laboratory samples of existing plague, a technique known as gain of function.​“ washingtonpost.com/politics/…
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John Rossomando ☦ retweeted
In 1992, Boris Yeltsin admitted the Soviets had a BW program. Months later, Frank Wisner — then Under Sec State — led a US delegation to Moscow to press Russia to come clean on its biological warfare program. Russia never did so. What’s important in Wisner’s declassified speaking points (below) is the heavy emphasis on Russia’s plague weapons, including work on “genetic engineering and other techniques” & “to make plague bacteria resistant to antibiotics, and to make the agent more suitable for weaponization.” The Irkusk institute is not mentioned by name, but rather indirectly as part of “the former USSR's anti-plague infrastructure” where agents were developed for biological warfare (p.4). It is important that Russia release the details on what pathogen killed Dariya Shipilova, & whether offensive BW activities continue at the Irkutsk lab where she worked. nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NS…
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John Rossomando ☦ retweeted
Browder: If Putin gets Ukraine, he won't stop there. He can't be a peacetime president. He needs to be a wartime president. He then gets an 800,000-person army under his control, plus all the equipment the West has given the Ukrainians, to carry on with the rest of Europe. 1/
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John Rossomando ☦ retweeted
Russia’s "Africa Corps" regularly carries out brutal punitive raids and indiscriminate airstrikes on settlements. Russians commit mass executions of civilians, torture, looting, and the burning of homes. Who specifically gives the orders? One of them is Major General Valery Morozov, who tries to stay out of the public eye and is one of the curators of these war crimes committed by Russia in Africa. According to sources, he has been operating in Africa since 2022, with his presence reported in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. Various sources describe his position as the "head of the Russian military mission in Mali," "senior leader of the Russian military group," or "head of the group of military specialists from the Russian defense ministry in the Republic of Mali." War criminals must be held accountable. Watch the video below. These are their orders ⤵️
A former Wagner fighter, now in Ukrainian captivity, said Russian mercenaries in Mali used captured Africans as live subjects for brutal "tactical medicine training." In 2023-2024, Russian instructors deliberately maimed African prisoners, after which the mercenaries practiced stopping bleeding. Explosives were strapped to one prisoner’s leg and detonated. Russians then practiced applying a tourniquet and bandaging the wound. Another prisoner was shot in an artery near the armpit, while another was used for knife training - Russians practiced stabbing a person in the heart. Another prisoner had his leg chopped off with an axe. According to the Russian mercenary, all of the prisoners died during these "training exercises." He was in Mali from September 2023 to April 2024. After returning to Russia, he signed a contract with the Russian defense ministry in 2025 and later joined the GRU’s 14th separate special forces brigade. He was captured while fighting against Ukraine. 📹: Dmytro Karpenko
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John Rossomando ☦ retweeted
Walid is correct: we have real Islamist terrorists inside our government. I tried to warn the FBI that Al-Qaeda planned to invite one of them to join the upcoming homeland plot, and they did nothing with the information. I seriously doubt they even asked him whether Al-Qaeda had attempted to contact him. We need a new model for dealing with terrorist threats inside this country. The current one is failing, and pretending otherwise is putting Americans at risk.
Jihadi Nidal Hassan had a top security clearance, remember that, remember it very well. Many jihadists inside America have security clearances...
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I saw this up close. The US armaments industry is mired in corruption and bureaucracy. It is unable to compete with shifting supply chains and cheaper innovations elsewhere. American politicians are shortsighted.
Replying to @John_Rossomando
Make no mistake about it. Trump’s relentless insults against Europeans show results. Quietly Europe ramps up its military. Ukraine is the motor of tech innovation and battle tactics. The American defense industry is losing bc Europe buys now European.
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John Rossomando ☦ retweeted
In the 1990s I worked with Ken Alibek, the former No. 2 in the Soviet biological weapons program, after he defected to the US. He claimed that they had engineered a strain of plague that was antibiotic-resistant & that they had worked on plague chimeras (fusing 2 or more pathogens). He specifically called out Irkutsk for being involved in the BW program. This outbreak is deeply worrisome. This may not be just “the plague.” It may be far worse.
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