Putin claims that the rights of Russian speakers in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia are being violated. You know Putin's lies. You know what happened four and a half years ago.

Lavrov on his conversation with German official Wadephul: When we met, I invited him to lay out the purpose of his visit. He took out his notes and read a text that was a verbatim repetition of what German leaders state officially and publicly on a daily basis. That is essentially what Mr. Wadephul told me. I gleaned nothing new from it. The subtext was something like: "I came to see you—I deigned to engage with you—so now, in return for this 'gesture of goodwill' on my part, you need to make concessions on the Ukrainian front and ensure an agreement regarding the Black Sea region so that tankers and dry-cargo ships can pass through without issues." Those ridiculous European clowns never cease to amuse 😂🤡

How does it save money for Canadians to force waitresses and welders to pay taxes to the EU?

The most common argument for taking a hard line on the Ukraine war is that Putin is a bully who must be pushed back and fully rebuffed, so that he won't try something like this again. But what if, hypothetically, this deterrence goal is already achieved? What if the war has already gone so badly for Putin that he would never risk getting into such a situation again? People have this idea that Putin could stop the war at any time and retreat from the occupied territories, and that his refusal to do so shows he still hasn't learned that war doesn't pay. But I think this is a mistaken belief. If Putin were at this point to simply admit full defeat, it would be a huge blow to him. He could well lose power, and perhaps even his life. Maybe Putin would badly prefer to end the war, but has no realistic way of doing so that preserves his power at home. Recall that he initially thought he would win the war in a few days. In this model he made a big blunder, and now can't see a way to get out of the situation. If we consider this possibility, we should also consider that future wars may already be sufficiently deterred, even if Putin is allowed to keep the occupied territories and claim victory. That would let him stay in power, but it would not make new wars an attractive prospect, since he now knows they will be far harder and more personally dangerous than he first assumed. In other words, the deterrence that a defeat is supposed to deliver may already be in place without the defeat. If we are indeed in this situation, then continuing the war is a bad path that causes more death and destruction without a realistic route to a significantly better outcome. It burns many lives on the battlefield to achieve little more than we could already have. One could argue that a better outcome is still possible: fight long enough to force him to accept defeat. There are two objections to this. First, we must weigh what is gained from this against the enormous cost in other people's lives of trying to achieve it. Second, if admitting defeat would likely cost Putin his power and quite possibly his life, as argued above, then facing that prospect he may be tempted to escalate to nuclear warfare. So instead of a marginal improvement at best, this course could make things radically worse. I cannot prove that Putin has already been deterred, nor can anyone prove the opposite. Putin cannot tell the truth about his situation, and we cannot take him at his word. But if there is a significant possibility that he has been, then we ought to think hard and with an open mind before sacrificing many more lives.

I don’t know if people realize that, but putin’s supporters outside Russia are dumber than actual putin’s supporters in Russia. 🇷🇺 🤡

21.02.2014: “Yanukovych will not remain in power under any circumstances.” Alexander Borodai states that Russia must withdraw its support for Yanukovych. The annexation of Crimea had begun the previous day, 20 February; seven days later, Borodai himself was in Crimea.

Every time Baltics speak about russian sabotage and military provocations, we get ignored, but the bigger countries just repeat our words louder and people start believing them. Pretty sure there is a word for behaviour like this.

Russia never wanted to become part of Europe. It always wanted to retake part or even all of Europe. Yeltsin told Clinton that clearly

Der „friedfertige“ Putin führte übrigens 1999-2009 Krieg gegen Tschetschenien, 2008 Krieg gegen Georgien, annektierte 2014 militärisch die Krim und intervenierte im Donbass, führte seit 2015 Krieg in Syrien und seit 2022 den Krieg gegen die Ukraine mit einer Großinvasion.

James Warren, executive editor of Newsguard, emails that when he went to bed last night the NYT hed was: “In Trump’s White House, China’s Dictator Is Welcome. American Media, Less So." This a.m.: “In Trump’s White House, China’s Strongman Is Welcome. American Media, Less So."

Given how conspicuously often Moscow has lately insisted that it has no intention of attacking NATO countries, a reminder: in 2023, Andrei Mordvichev, now Commander-in-Chief of Russia’s Ground Forces, said Ukraine was “only the beginning.”

Trump: You know what I want Zelensky to do? Make a deal. I want him to settle with Putin

Putin is responsible for launching a full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine. Why are we inviting him to the G20 Summit? It’s a betrayal of our service members, allies, and democracy, and we can’t stand for it. I’m demanding answers from @SecRubio and @SecScottBessent.

Looks like Ribbentrop and Molotov just gave each other a follow on Twitter.