Category: Education

#57. Patrik Baab: “Is Russophobia a form of racism?”

Original title: Who is funding the conflict? Michael Schneider on the power of banks & BlackRock
Interviewer: Patrik Baab1
Guest: Michael Schneider
Published: July 26, 2026
By: Gegen den Strom @PatrikBaab-Official2
On: YouTube

My comment: see footnote3

In total this is a discussion about the hidden mechanisms of power, the necessity of civic courage, and the urgent appeal: Recognize the patterns of history before they repeat themselves.

Michael Schneider

Michael Schneider looks back on decades of work as a critical intellectual and bestselling author. He argues for a return to reason and shows why the loss of historical awareness poses the greatest threat to a peaceful future in Europe.
A discussion about the hidden mechanisms of power, the necessity of civic courage, and the urgent appeal: Recognize the patterns of history before they repeat themselves.

In this interview, writer and professor Michael Schneider analyses the historical and economic driving forces behind the current confrontation with Russia. While the official narrative often emphasizes moral values, Schneider looks behind the scenes of a system driven by financial interests and a deeply rooted historical repression.

The conversation with Michael Schneider covers:
– The Economics of War: Why the Third Reich’s campaign in Russia was also a gigantic amortization plan for the German economy and what role financial capital plays today in fuelling conflicts.
– The Power of Banks: How financial giants like BlackRock and Goldman Sachs extend their influence to the highest levels of government and use wars as a means of securing devalued loans.
– Reversal of Perpetrator and Victim: Why the crimes against Soviet citizens remain a taboo subject in Germany’s collective memory and how this repression is giving rise to a new, dangerous Russophobia.
– The Betrayal of Intellectuals: The failure of the academic elite and the creeping conformity in media and universities, which increasingly marginalizes critical voices.
– Civilizational Regression: How digitalization and AI are leading to a society without history and why the legacy of the Enlightenment is under such massive attack today.
– The Crumbling Empire: Why the USA, as a “bankrupt state,” is ruthlessly sacrificing its vassals in Europe for its own interests – from deindustrialization to the destruction of vital infrastructure like Nord Stream.
“An empire that treats its vassals this way only shows how deep in the shit it is itself.”

Michael Schneider looks back on decades of work as a critical intellectual and bestselling author. He argues for a return to reason and shows why the loss of historical awareness poses the greatest threat to a peaceful future in Europe.

Timestamps
01. Economics and History: Can a Lost War Be Won? — 00:00
02. The Russian Campaign as an Amortization Plan for German Industry — 01:45
03. “All Wars Are Bankers Wars”: The Role of Financial Capital in Modern Conflicts — 03:50
04. The Power of Banks: When BlackRock and Goldman Sachs Managers Rule — 06:10
05. Plundering Ukraine: Contracts on Raw Materials and Energy Resources — 07:50
06. Managing National Debt: How to Make Money from the Ruin of Others — 11:10
07. The Suppressed Crime Against Humanity: Commemoration Culture and Its Blind Spots —13:40
08. Perpetrator-Victim Reversal: The Creeping Inheritance of Russophobia — 16:40
09. Collective Relief: Why February 24, 2022, Was Used as a “Liberation to Hate” — 19:55
10. The Betrayal of Intellectuals: Careerism vs. Civil Courage — 25:45
11. Ideological Purge: Self-Censorship in Publishing Houses and Universities — 28:30
12. Embedded Philosophy: How the German Mind Became a Sycophant of Power — 32:20
13. Civilizational Regression: From the Enlightenment to a Historyless AI Society — 38:15
14. Identitarian Thinking as a Substitute for Reason: The Legacy of the Enlightenment in Danger — 43:10
15. Aggression Shift: How Social Anger Is Politically Instrumentalized — 50:10
16. A Tottering Colossus: The USA Between Financial Collapse and Aggression Against Vassals — 55:20
17. Nord Stream and Deindustrialization: When Empires Sacrifice Their Allies — 57:55

Footnotes

  1. Patrik Baab is a German journalist and author. His research has focused on topics including intelligence agencies and political assassinations, the war in Ukraine, Russia, and geopolitical issues. He has worked in Eastern Europe and Russia, Scandinavia, Ukraine, the Balkans, and the United Kingdom. Source: Website Patrik Baab, about ↩︎
  2. Gegen den Strom: @PatrikBaab-Official ↩︎
  3. My comment:

    At 24:08 Michael Schneider makes a big mistake by stating that it was a mistake of Putin to march into Ukraine. As the Russian investigative journalist, who worked for “Echo of Moscow” and “Novaya Gazeta”, Yulia Latynina said: “They left us no choice…” in the interview with the Ukrainian Diana Panchenko: “”I WANT TO RETURN TO RUSSIA.” A Big Interview with Latynina“, published on Panchenko LIVE channel, @PanchenkoOnline on July 12, 2026.
    The cause of the decision to enter Ukraine via the start of the special operation is directly related to all what happened before that day in 2022, and which started in 2014 in Maidan, with the massacre, orchestrated by the USA and the coup, that followed, also orchestrated by the USA.[1][2][5]

    The anti-Russians in Ukraine even wanted to stop the foodsupplements in 2015 to Donbass and to create a genocide there[2]. In the documentary “Donbass”[6], made by Anne-Laure Bonnel in January 2015, we can even witness a long convoy with trucks, from Russia, transporting food to Donbass. The docu is available on YouTube.
    There was a war going on, because of NATO expansion[8], NATO provoked the Russians by expanding, Jens Stoltenberg even admitted it[9], they did it in order to get the answer where they were begging for and are experiencing now. To make the western citizens believe that Russia started the war.
    The correct sentence is: Russia was provoked to start te war.

    At the end there was indeed no other choice left, than to start with the “enough is enough”, and that is not a mistake, but a must in order to stop the NATO violations, and even till the moment of the present, NATO continues provoking. It is, since the attacks deep inside Russia not about provocations anymore, but a real war and Russia reacts on it in the legal way, in the way NATO/the collective west has begged for, laughed about, and downplayed, humiliated the Russians, making the blood of the Russians boil and finally attacking targets deep inside Russia.

    A filthy, vile, extremely aggressive anti-Russia rhetoric, full of slander and hatred was and is used by NATO’s secretary general Rutte, a maniacal warmonger. We have all heard it, it was/is his face, his mouth, his voice and he was not forced to walk to the microphone, and not forced to speak. He did it voluntarily. With joy and pleasure. NATO has even started with hiring two psychologists from the Cambridge university, to create a psychological system that creates “mass formation[10]”, and is named “Cognitive Warfare”. It is published on the NATO website[11] and not hidden. Even the names of the psychologists are publicly available[11].
    What we witnessed and are witnessing is the big mistake of the west. Not of Russia.

    So, please correct that, Michael Schneider, and start to read the following utterly important books, articles and even 2 lectures.

    [1] “The Russia Ukraine War And Its Origins, From the Maidan to the Ukraine War” – professor Ivan Katchanovski
    [2] “What I saw in Ukraine – 2015-2022 – diary of an international monitor – far away from the mainstream narrative” – Benoît Paré
    [3] “Ukraine: The Great Manipulation – 2022-2024 – decryption of war propaganda” – Benoît Paré
    [4] “[Stalingrad] is our reference point now more than ever, an unparalleled symbol of resistance, our enemies’ worst nightmare…Whosoever tries it will meet the end of all the others – Swedes, Napoleon, the Germans and their allies…Russians are like the Scythians: they wait, they suffer, they die, and then they kill.” Source: The Franco-British Plot to Dismember Russia, written by investigative journalist Kit Klarenberg, on Substack, June 26, 2024.
    [5] Jeffrey D. Sachs: “The ninth anniversary of the Ukraine war“, published on his website, on February 28, 2023.
    [6] Documentary “Donbass”, made by Anne-Laure Bonnel in January 2015. Published on YouTube.
    [7] “Three types of Ukrainians, how we were divided“, a lecture by the Ukrainian Diana Panchenko, Панченко LIVE @PanchenkoOnline (21 April, 2026)
    [8] YouTube “The Expansion of NATO Since 1949” by @WawamuStats
    [9] YouTube “Jens Stoltenberg admits NATO expansion provoked Ukraine War“, by @World_Politics1
    [10] Book: “The Psychology of Totalitarianism“, written by Dr. Mattias Desmet. YouTube: Neutrality Studies / Pascal Lottaz, May 3, 2026: “EU in Grip of Deadly Mass-Formation”  | Prof. Mattias Desmet
    [11] Lecture: “Dr. Jonas Tögel: Die Kognitive Kriegsführung der NATO – mein Vortrag bei W.I.R.“, published by Dr. Jonas Tögel on his YouTube channel @DrJonasToegel – Brilliantly explained in the lecture, at 1:19:56 – “Inoculation Theory and Misinformation”, published 29th October 2021 in NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, by Jon Roozenbeek and Sander van der Linden. see post. ↩︎

#56. The majority of people living in Ukraine are ethnic Russians

Lecture by: Diana Panchenko1
Published: April 21, 2026
On: YouTube Панченко LIVE

Title:
Three Types Of Ukrainians: How We Were Divided

Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
02:30 Part I: Three Types of Ukrainians
04:53 How does the hierarchy work in Ukraine?
06:33 What is life like for “third-class” people in Ukraine?
08:31 Ukraine’s plan to destroy “second-class” people
10:10 How Zelenskyy betrayed his own mother
11:25 Taras Shevchenko – a second-class Ukrainian
14:21 Part II: Shame
17:00 How Zelenskyy’s complexes destroyed Ukraine
17:50 Part III: Who is Ukrainian?
19:05 How did the USSR create Ukraine?
20:58 The history of nationalism in Ukraine
24:05 Ukraine under the USSR vs. Ukraine under Zelenskyy
27:44 Who built Ukraine?
28:37 Conclusion

This is a very important and very personal video. It tells you everything you need to know about Ukraine’s tragedy.
I will tell you about three kinds of Ukrainians.
From the perspective of a third-class Ukrainian, born in Mykolaiv.
About how we were divided into the good and the bad. About how they decided to remake us, the bad guys. And those who couldn’t, to destroy.
I appeal to all residents of Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, and other cities in the Southeast.
You should not be ashamed of yourselves.
You are not worse, but better.
You must and can stand up for yourselves.
I dedicate this video to you. And I believe in you.
Ukraine will not become Lviv. Rather, it will not become Ukraine.

Footnote

  1. Diana Panchenko was born 21 May 1988, in Nikolayev (Lviv region), Ukrainian SSR, USSR. In August 2025, Panchenko’s YouTube channel, which had 1.8 million subscribers and millions of views as of September 2024, was deleted following a request from Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation. See also: #55. A Big Interview with Yulia Latynina ↩︎

#55. A Big Interview with Yulia Latynina

“They Left Us No Choice.”
Latynina on the Maidan, the war,
and how the West “divorced” both Ukraine and Russia.

Published: July 12, 2026
By: Панченко LIVE 1
On: YouTube

Yulia Latynina [Source – CC BY-SA 4.0]

Today, our guest is Yulia Latynina—one of Russia’s most famous journalists, the former voice of Ekho Moskvy 2 and Novaya Gazeta 3, a person considered for years a symbol of the liberal opposition 4 and an unconditional supporter of the Western agenda.
But in this conversation, you’ll see a very different Latynina 5.

Who, in her opinion, fired shots on the Maidan? Why were Russian-speaking Ukrainians turned into strangers in their own country? How did the West exploit Ukraine in its own grand game? Why did a conflict they promised to prevent ultimately lead to Russians and Ukrainians finding themselves on opposite sides of the front?

After this interview, some will say that Latynina betrayed her own people. Others say she said for the first time what many were afraid to say out loud.

Timecodes:
01. Introduction — 00:00
02. Introduction and why Latynina watches Panchenko’s channel — 00:41
03. Russian language in Ukraine: what Russian liberals 6 overlooked — 02:09
04. How to admit your mistakes and not fear “cancellation” — 03:33
05. Accusations of a “new trough”: grants and USAID 7 , 8 — 05:32
06. Maidan 2014 through Panchenko’s eyes: “black sheep” in their own country — 07:06
07. “Three types of Ukrainians” — 09:59
08. Sternenko, the “Russo-cutter,” and the murder charge — 11:15
09. Who really shot on the Maidan? 9 , 10 — 15:32
10. Korsun, Anti-Maidan Buses, and Right-Wing Activists — 20:47
11. Odessa, May 2: Trade Union House — 22:12
12.The First Night of Maidan: Provocateurs, Inter, Lyovochkin — 24:00
13. A Pre-Planned Scenario and Yanukovych’s Flight — 28:20
14. Maidan Money: Oligarchs, USAID 11, Jeffrey Sachs 12, 13 — 34:03
15. Russia and Ukraine as “Western Colonies” — 38:42
16. 1991 and the Rosy Picture of the West — 42:24
17. What is “Victory” for Russian Liberals? 14 — 45:04
18. Soft Power: Activists as a “Second State” — 46:22
19. Zelensky, Paris, and 70 NGOs against Peace — 47:03
20. Do You Trust Putin Today? — 51:24
21. February 24, 2022: Elite Shock and a “Stream of Shit” Addressed to Russians — 52:16
22. The Victim Has the Right to Everything 15 — 55:52
23. Zelensky’s Team Euphoria and London 2020 — 1:04:06
24. Who’s Winning and Whom Latynina Is Rooting for — 1:06:38
25. Istanbul, Trump, and the Game Against China — 1:08:26
26. Who Benefits from War: The US, Europe, and the Thucydides Trap — 1:10:30
27. Balance of Power: Russia vs. Europe — 1:14:33
28. Does Latynina Want to Return to Russia? — 1:19:06
29. Would They Head an RT Analogue? — 1:23:39
30. Panchenko’s Personal Story: Losing Friends and Returning People — 1:25:08
31. The Idea of ​​a Great Debate: Solovyov, Korchinsky, and Others — 1:26:07
32. Can Russians and Ukrainians Fight Together Against the West? — 1:27:31
33. Are Russians Fighting Russians? — 1:31:13
34. Why Was the Russian Press Silent? — 1:35:14
35. Will Russia Become “Fashionable” Again? The Dud Phenomenon — 1:37:02
36. Poland’s U-Turn and Karaganov’s Signals — 1:38:21
37. Sacralization of Death and the Seizure of Churches in Ukraine — 1:42:11
38. “Ukrainians Are the Most Unfree People” — 1:44:00
39. Finale and Acknowledgments — 1:45:29

Footnotes

  1. Панченко LIVE: owner is Diana Panchenko, born 21 May 1988, Nikolayev(Lviv region), Ukrainian SSR, USSR. In August 2025, Panchenko’s YouTube channel, which had 1.8 million subscribers and millions of views as of September 2024, was deleted following a request from Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation. ↩︎
  2. Wikipedia English: Echo of Moscow; Wikipedia Russian: Эхо Москвы ↩︎
  3. Website: Novaya Gazeta / Wikipedia English: Novaya Gazeta / Wikipedia Russian: Новая газета ↩︎
  4. Liberal opposition: see also the post: 53. Yulia Latynina: the Russian opposition journalist ↩︎
  5. Read also the post: 53. Yulia Latynina: the Russian opposition journalist ↩︎
  6. The term “liberals” is in Russia used for those who oppose the Putin government. See also 53. Yulia Latynina: the Russian opposition journalis ↩︎
  7. USAID: see also blog post 12. Ukraine and USAID ↩︎
  8. USAID: See also the short video on Panchenko’s YouTube channel about this subject “Bags of money on the Maidan“: “I saw money being handed over on the Maidan myself.”
    Panchenko and Latynina discuss who financed the Maidan: Western money through USAID, oligarchs’ money, and funding of Ukrainian media. And why no “Maidan” is possible without the support of the media and intelligence agencies. ↩︎
  9. Referred to is professor Ivan Katchanovski, who researched the entire “Maidan” revolt and massacre, and this is all collected in the book, available on the website of Springer Link: see The Russia Ukraine War And Its Origins, From the Maidan to the Ukraine War
    NOTE: Please sign 51. An Open Letter in Support of Academic Freedom and Ivan Katchanovski (Published) ↩︎
  10. See also the short video: “The “victim” label justifies everything“: Latynina on one simple question about Maidan 2014: if the shooting took place from the Ukraina Hotel (as Ivan Katchanovsky’s investigation shows), then why hasn’t the authorities found the snipers in over 10 years? Because they didn’t want to. ↩︎
  11. USAID: See also the short video on Panchenko’s YouTube channel about this subject “Bags of money on the Maidan“: “I saw money being handed over on the Maidan myself.”
    Panchenko and Latynina discuss who financed the Maidan: Western money through USAID, oligarchs’ money, and funding of Ukrainian media. And why no “Maidan” is possible without the support of the media and intelligence agencies. ↩︎
  12. Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, website / YouTube ↩︎
  13. See also the short video on Panchenko’s YouTube channel about this subject “Bags of money on the Maidan“: “I saw money being handed over on the Maidan myself.”
    Panchenko and Latynina discuss who financed the Maidan: Western money through USAID, oligarchs’ money, and funding of Ukrainian media. And why no “Maidan” is possible without the support of the media and intelligence agencies. ↩︎
  14. Liberals: see also footnote 6, and the short video: Latynina: Russian liberals are useful idiots. Yulia Latynina, in an interview with Panchenko, discusses how the independent Russian press, in her opinion, was integrated into the vast USAID machine and failed to notice what she saw with her own eyes on the Maidan. ↩︎
  15. See also the short video: “The “victim” label justifies everything“: Latynina on one simple question about Maidan 2014: if the shooting took place from the Ukraina Hotel (as Ivan Katchanovsky’s investigation shows), then why hasn’t the authorities found the snipers in over 10 years? Because they didn’t want to. ↩︎

#52. Russians are like the Scythians

“[Stalingrad] is our reference point now more than ever, an unparalleled symbol of resistance, our enemies’ worst nightmare…Whosoever tries it will meet the end of all the others – Swedes, Napoleon, the Germans and their allies…Russians are like the Scythians1,2: they wait, they suffer, they die, and then they kill.” Source

Scythians, Simeon Netchev (CC BY-NC-ND)

This post is opened with a quote from an article published on Substack in June 2024, by Kit Klarenberg (investigative journalist): The Franco-British Plot to Dismember Russia, because I was impressed by the last sentence of that specific quote: “Russians are like the Scythians: they wait, they suffer, they die, and then they kill“.

That last sentence fits Russia’s president Vladimir Putin’s system, in the way he protected his sacred red line, dating back to the 1990s: “Ukraine must never join NATO”, and all that has followed ever since, and what has created a logical historical timeline about what has been provoked by the west, by NATO expansion, and it seems that the last point of the quoted sentence has been reached: “…. then they kill”. Reason to believe so: the constantly increasing amount of shameless, provoking Ukrainian (=NATO) drone attacks, deep inside Russia, created severe, deadly answers and more are expected3,4.

To offer eventual readers the possibility to become updated about the causes of the long awaited answers from Russia on Ukrainian (=NATO) drone attacks on targets even deep inside Russia, the following articles and videos are published here, without additional personal comments.

Admin.

1. NRK5 shows a map

Ukraine: The Lord of the Drones
Fredrik Tombra – Correspondent
Torstein Georg Bøe – Photojournalist
Published June 20, 2026

Map, published on June 20, 2026, 12 days before the Russian strikes on Kiev and Sumy. Published by NRK, in their article Ukraina: Dronenes herre

2. Col. Douglas Macgregor6 explains

Published: June 30, 2026, 2 days before the Russian strikes on Kiev and Sumy
Published: July 1, 2026, 1 day before the Russian strikes on Kiev and Sumy.

3. Stanislav Krapivnik7 explains

Published: July 2, 2026, after the Russian strikes on Kiev and Sumy

Timestamps
00:00:00 Donbas school strike report
00:08:20 Targeting civilians and terror claims
00:19:01 Diplomacy, trust, and Trump
00:26:23 Russia prepares for wider war
00:35:23 Retaliation and war aims
00:45:51 NATO control and war cohesion

4. Alexander Mercouris8 explains

Published: July 2, 2026, after the Russian strikes on Kiev and Sumy

Timestamps
00:00:00 Introduction and Kiev strike overview
00:00:37 Scale of the massive strike
00:02:20 Missile and drone types used
00:04:32 Oreshnik hypersonic speculation
00:09:28 Why Oreshnik was held back
00:11:41 Russian justification for the strikes
00:14:09 Targets hit including Volgograd factory
00:16:15 Casualties and future strike campaign
00:17:04 Why Kiev is being targeted
00:20:37 Zelensky warns of Belarus threat
00:22:34 Source confirms Chernihiv offensive plan
00:28:01 Kupyansk situation update
00:33:30 Kharkov region recapture plan
00:34:14 Donbass pressure and Dobropillia advance
00:37:01 Sloviansk and Kostiantynivka clearing operations
00:41:11 Zaporizhzhia and Orikhiv front
00:47:21 Zelensky floats autumn elections
00:48:43 Zelensky requests more EU funding
00:50:48 UK defense spending controversy
00:59:04 Europe energy crisis and Trump LNG threat

5. The Duran9 explains

Published: July 2, 2026, after the Russian strikes on Kiev and Sumy

Timestamps
00:00:00 Russia launches massive strikes on Kiev and Sumy
00:00:58 Why Russia calls these strikes retaliatory
00:01:58 The pattern behind Russia’s escalating campaign
00:06:24 Russian air campaign targets Ukrainian logistics
00:08:32 Drones hit gas stations to choke supply lines
00:11:04 Ukraine’s Flamingo missiles strike
00:12:34 The new Dirty Dagger missile threat
00:17:56 Russia’s gasoline import mystery explained
00:18:30 Zelensky’s Pantheon of Heroes sparks backlash
00:21:35 Belarus Lukashenko meets Putin as Syrsky10 breaks with Zelensky

Footnotes

  1. Information about the Scythians is published on the Russian Wikipedia page, marked as a good article with a silver star. Скифо-сибирский мир. Since not any other language offers guaranteed correct information, it is a must to read all other languages with caution: Wikipedia can also provide misinformation, this depends on the editors. The opening text of the Russian page, machine translated:
    —- The Scytho-Siberian world (sometimes Scytho-Saka, Scythian world/circle, etc.) is a conventional name adopted in archaeology for a cultural and historical community whose sites are widespread in the steppe, part of the forest-steppe, and foothill zones of Central Eurasia (from the Lower Danube region to the Baikal region and Mongolia). It included a number of archaeological cultures, primarily united by the presence of three distinctive artefact complexes (the so-called Scythian triad). The probable place of formation is Central Asia, and the period of existence is the first millennium BC. This period in the Eurasian steppes is commonly referred to as the Scythian era.
    —- Representatives of the Scytho-Siberian world are Iranian-speaking Caucasoids, sometimes with Mongoloid elements. The majority were nomadic pastoralists, while a small portion of the population in the forest-steppe were sedentary herders-hunters and pastoralists-farmers. In the Eurasian steppes, the advent of the Early Iron Age is associated with the cultures of the Scytho-Siberian world; they had contacts with Ancient Greece, China, the Near East, and other countries.

    Name
    The name “Scytho-Siberian world” refers to the geographic distribution of this cultural and historical community, limited to the territory of its most famous tribes, the Scythians, in the west and encompassing part of the Siberian region in the east. Literature also sometimes uses the term “Scytho-Saka world,” adding another eastern boundary—Central Asia, inhabited by tribes known collectively as the Sakas. A shorter name, simply the “Scythian world,” is also used. Some authors use the word “world” in parallel with the meaning “circle,” for example, the Scythian-Siberian circle of archaeological cultures or monuments. Also synonymous is the term “Scythia” in the broad sense of a toponym or the Scythian-Siberian historical and cultural region. The term “Scythian cultures” is also present in literature.
    For all other following info please visit the Russian Wikipedia page.

    Since it is relevant here: Russian classical music, composed by Alexander Borodin, the video: In the steppes of East Asia – Mongolia ↩︎
  2. World History: Scythians ↩︎
  3. Videos APT, July 2, 2026
    – Russian Drones Hit Central Kyiv, Damaging Biochemistry Research Institute | APT
    – Russia Pounds Kyiv Overnight: Missiles, Drones Kill 11, Apartment Blocks Reduced to Rubble | APT
    ↩︎
  4. Ray McGovern: Ukraine has launched a string of high profile drone strikes on Moscow, St Petersburg and oil refineries. Commentators are, once again, claiming Russia is losing the war. But is it? ” Read his full article, published on June 23, 2026, on his website, and on Substack. ↩︎
  5. NRK is the Norwegian public broadcasting, radio corporation and news website. The corporation is state-owned, guided by its bylaws and ethical guidelines, with a board partly appointed by the government, through the Ministry of Culture and Equality, and elected by staff. Its bylaws and ethical guidelines secure independent editorial control for journalists and editors. ↩︎
  6. Colonel Douglas Macgregor is is a decorated combat veteran, an author of five books, a PhD, and a defense and foreign policy consultant. Macgregor was commissioned in the Regular Army in 1976 after 1 year at VMI and 4 years at West Point. In 2004, Macgregor retired with the rank of Colonel. In 2020, the President appointed Macgregor to serve as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense, a post he held until President Trump left office. He holds an MA in comparative politics and a PhD in international relations from the University of Virginia. YouTube playlist – Substack ↩︎
  7. Stanislav Krapivnik is a former US Army officer, supply chain exec and military-political expert, now based in Russia. He was born in Lugansk during the Soviet times, migrated to the US as a child, served in the US army, did not like what it was doing in former Yugoslavia, quit, and returned to Russia. Mr. Krapivnik is an independent contractor and consults and appears in the international media in his areas of expertise in military matters, NATO, America, history, economics and supply chains. Substack ↩︎
  8. Alexander Mercouris (The Duran) is a writer on international affairs with a special interest in Russia and law. He has written extensively on the legal aspects of NSA spying and events in Ukraine in terms of human rights, constitutionality and international law. He worked for 12 years in the Royal Courts of Justice in London as a lawyer, specializing in human rights and constitutional law. His family has been prominent in Greek politics for several generations. Together with Alex Christoforou he hosts the “The Duran” YT channel, plus his own YT channel. Bio, Videos ↩︎
  9. The Duran is a very popular YouTube channel, founded on 25 May 2016, by Alex Christoforou, a geopolitical analyst and Alexander Mercouris, who is a writer on international affairs with a special interest in Russia and law. He has written extensively on the legal aspects of NSA spying and events in Ukraine in terms of human rights, constitutionality and international law. He worked for 12 years in the Royal Courts of Justice in London as a lawyer, specializing in human rights and constitutional law. His family has been prominent in Greek politics for several generations. Videos. Total views, as of July 2, 2026: 256,185,789 and total subscribers is 530.000. ↩︎
  10. Oleksandr Syrskyi is a Ukrainian military officer holding the rank of four-star general who has served as the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine since 8 February 2024. ↩︎

#48. Донбасс за нами – Donbass za nami

To be well informed about the political situation in Donbass, Ukraine: read the book: “What I Saw In Ukraine – 2015-2022 – Diary of an International Observer” written by Benoît Paré. From 2015 to 2022, he worked as an unarmed civilian observer for the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in the Donbas, making him one of the very few Western observers deployed for extended periods on both sides of the contact line. Due to what he perceived as a systematic pro-Ukrainian bias of the mission, he eventually resigned. Read the full text here and watch the on YouTube published discussions and interview with Benoît Paré, collected in this playlist

[2020]
текст песни / Testo / Lyrics / Paroles / Sanat :
Vladimir Leonidovič Skobtsov [Владимир Леонидович Скобцов]1,2

музыка / Musica / Music / Musique / Sävel:
Mixail Xoxlov [Михаил Хохлов]

в исполнении / Interpreti / Performed by / Interprétée par / Laulavat:
Natal’ja Kačura [Наталья Качура], Margarita Lisovina [Маргарита Лисовина]

Continue reading below the video

Note: The hidden message in the video, the two men and their relationship with each other, is not clear for not insiders. There is no explanation in the video information about it. In case you know, do not hesitate and contact “Sustainable Politics” (search in the info part of the website, below the post)

YouTube video information, machine–translated

“Donbass is ours.”

Music by M. Khokhlov, lyrics by V. Skobtsov.
Performed by soloists of the Donetsk State Academic Musical and Drama Theater named after M. Brovun – Natalia Kachura and Margarita Lisovina.

The theater’s actors Ivan Bessmoly, Pavel Bodrov, and Elena Lesogorova also took part in the filming of the video.

Cameramen: I. Kuzemko, R. Novikov
Producers: A. Bernatovich, V. Levchuk
General Producer: S. Pelyanicin

The First Republican Channel of the DPR expresses gratitude for their assistance in the production of the video to the DPR National Migration Service, the DPR Ministry of Information, the DPR Ministry of Culture, and the Donetsk Republican Museum of Local History.

The following text is a machine translation of an in the Italian language written explanation of the reason why this song is added to the website “Anti War Songs“, written by Riccardo Gullotta. The Admin of “Sustainable Politics” has added essential notes where needed, because the text is not entirely aligned with what we have learned to know in the meantime as absolute facts. The following text was published in or earlier than 2022. The exact date is not mentioned.

Origins of the song

The song was performed for the first time in Donetsk in September 2020 to celebrate the liberation of Donbass from Nazi troops in September 1943 after the bloody Battle of Saur-Mogila [Ukrainian: Савур-могила, Russian: Саур-Могила].

Admin: |[Wikipedia – English: Savur-Mohyla, Russian: Саур-Могила, Ukrainian: Савур-могила. ATTENTION: an authentic Ukrainian Wikipedia page concerning this subject, does not exist. It is a UK Wikipedia page, as you can see in the URL of that page on Wikipedia. It is a fact that Wikipedia is not per se correct, truthful, in its category politics. UK is severe anti-Russian and guilty of unprecedented western collective = NATO propaganda. The content of the by UK published text can be mixed with misinformation, and it is important to read it with caution. Rus Data: Мемориальный комплекс «Саур-Могила».

In 2014, the same location was the scene of fierce fighting between the Ukrainians of the 25th Airborne Brigade and the separatists of the self-proclaimed Republic of Donbass. The hill changed hands eight times in a month, until the Donbass separatists finally took control of it on August 26, 2014.
The song quickly gained great popularity and is considered the iconic song of Donbass.

Opinions

In the exacerbated climate of an eight-year war, dating back to 2014,

Admin: This is an indication that the article was written in 2022.

it’s understandable how, judging by the ratings, the citizens of Donetsk have overwhelmingly identified with the words of the author, the poet Skobtsov, a native of the region. In short, it’s a patriotic song we intend to keep our distance from, as we would with any artistic expression that gives too much prominence to flags and diversity in an exclusive manner.
In this case, we are urged to go further and express our clear dissent. We absolutely dislike its use for propaganda (unless, perhaps, it was even commissioned). However, the other side isn’t joking when it comes to propaganda. They are certainly more sophisticated and more abreast of the techniques and strategies of mass communication.

Admin: |[Read: Professor Mattias Desmet, The Psychology of Totalitarianism, and Dr. Jonas Tögel: NATO’s Cognitive Warfare]|

Moreover, since this is the side under attack, certain “approximations” are overlooked, especially since raising a few timid objections would make one look like a foolish servant of the tyrants of the day.
Note the titanic bronzes in the clip, symbols of warrior virtue, a perennial warning to any reckless pacifists; the thug in camouflage, with his steel jaw and lectorial-style chest plates. The recurring phrase “Donbass / Russia / Moscow is with us, and so is God” is to be dismissed with disdain.

Admin: |[The video, the song and the lyrics can only then be understood, if one is up to date about what really happened in Ukraine, and therefore it is a must to read: What I Saw In Ukraine – 2015-2022 – Diary of an International Observer written by Benoît Paré. From 2015 to 2022, he worked as an unarmed civilian observer for the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in the Donbas, making him one of the very few Western observers deployed for extended periods on both sides of the contact line. Due to what he perceived as a systematic pro-Ukrainian bias of the mission, he eventually resigned. Read the full text here and watch the on YouTube published discussions and interview with Benoît Paré, collected in this playlist.]|

Aside from the resonance of the terrible “Gott mit uns” (God with us) that evokes the Teutonic Knights and the Nazi paraphernalia of the Third Reich, we are fed up with anyone’s enlistment of God. For everyone, it is an infamy that clashes with common sense, a charade intended to brainwash the masses; for believers who have not given up on reflection (thus excluding fundamentalists), it is absolute blasphemy in many respects.

Admin: |[The pre-occupied western attitude / mindset of an outsider, the author, concerning the people of Donbass, within the context of their belief, religion, and what they have suffered, is understandable, because of the impact of severe western propaganda |[Dr. Jonas Tögel: NATO’s Cognitive Warfare]|, on every single western citizen, spread via the mainstream media, and western politicians. However, the link that has been created by the author of the article between the text of the song, and the rhetoric of the WWII German leader and his people, is out of line, completely. Those with the WWII ideology do not live in Donbass, but in Kiev. For more info, watch the list with documentaries about Ukraine, and specifically about Stepan Bandera, a Ukrainian fascist, who is still honoured, every year, in Kiev, and praised in all schoolbooks in Ukraine, as a national hero. The existence of Neo Nazis in Kiev, since the Maidan Massacre and coup in Ukraine, is a fact, and not even hidden.]|

A few words on Donbass

Admin: The following text is a very short summary of the history of Ukraine. Jeffrey D. Sachs recommends in his article: The Ninth Anniversary Of The Ukraine War, published February 28, 2023, the documentary: Ukraine On Fire (Igor Lopatonok, Oliver Stone), published in 2016. Duration: 1:33:57

The first traces of settlements date back to the 7th century BC, when they were founded by the Scythians. Then came the nomads of the western steppes (between the Danube and the Altai). In the 16th century, the region was governed by the Zaporizhian Cossacks in the north and the Tatars of the Crimean Khanate in the south. In 1793, at the end of the Russo-Turkish War, the region was annexed by Catherine II to Russia. The event that significantly influenced the region’s subsequent development was the Crimean War of 1856. Indeed, coal imports from England, an enemy country, ceased. The Tsarist empire found itself forced to turn its attention to the Donbas coal basin. With the development of the railway network and the establishment of the steelworks in the late 19th century, the region became the iron and steel hub of the Russian Empire.
In 1917, the Ukrainian People’s Republic was proclaimed in Kiev, pro-Kerensky and anti-Bolshevik. The Ukrainian Bolsheviks fled Kiev and took refuge in Donetsk, where they founded the “Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Socialist Republic” as a reaction to the Ukrainian People’s Republic. It lasted only a short time, less than a month, before being overwhelmed by the advance of the Germans who then occupied Ukraine. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the civil war between the Reds and the Whites from 1918 to 1920, the Soviets refused to recognize the independence of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic. They made it an oblast of Ukraine to promote its Russification.

Stalin’s forced industrialization led to significant development in the region at the expense of Ukrainian peasants, many of whom were deported to Siberia and decimated by the famine of 1932.

For the sequel, namely the civil war that began in 2014, see the report’s notes below.

Regarding the complexities of the Minsk agreements, it must be noted that they have not been respected by either side.

Admin: |[Benoît Paré writes on his LinkedIn profile ONLY about “the sabotage of the Minsk agreements by Ukraine”.]|

The most tangled knot (the conundrum, as the Anglo-Saxons call it) concerns the sequence of provisions set out in the protocol. For Ukraine, the military provisions must be implemented first, followed by the political ones; for Russia, the opposite is true.

Specifically, for Ukraine, the roadmap was: a ceasefire, Russian withdrawal from Donbas, return of the Russian-Ukrainian border to Ukrainian control, free and fair elections in Donbas, recognition of the territories in question as a result of a decentralization program, but not a special status with the ability to challenge them in parliament.

Admin: |[To know the exact details of what happened in Ukraine: read The Russia Ukraine War And Its Origins, From the Maidan to the Ukraine War, a scientific research of professor Ivan Katchanovski, and published on Springer Nature Link. (Open Access.). Also watch “Donbass“, a documentary, made in January 2015, by Anne-Laure Bonnel.]|

Footnotes

  1. English machine-translation: Vladimir Skobtsov
    —- Skobtsov Vladimir Leonidovich – author of the Donbass national anthem “Donbass is behind us”, poet, bard, member of the Union of Writers of Russia. The great Junna Moritz called him the Orpheus of Donbass.
    Without leaving his fighting native Donetsk for 11 years, Vladimir Skobtsov wrote and published books of poems about Donbass – “Unconquered”, «Metal Resistance», «Donbass Za us (lyrics: Donbass is behind us https://stihi.ru/2020/09/08/8426)», co-authored many collections, translated into foreign languages.
    By decree of the President of Russia, for dedication, personal contribution to supporting the moral and psychological state and strengthening the morale of the participants of the Northern Military District, he was awarded the medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, laureate of the patriotic literary award “Prokhorovskoe Field”, laureate of the Russian Ministry of Defense award in the field of culture and art, laureate of the Orthodox Literary Prize of S. Nilus and other domestic awards. 
    In the SVO he took part in the position of adviser to the head of the project “Detachment named after Maxim Krivonos”.
    Songs based on poems by Vladimir Skobtsov are performed by Sergei Galanin, Alexander Marshal, Yulia Chicherina, rock bands «SerGa», «Demarsh», «More», ensembles; Black Sea and Pacific fleets and others.

    Junna MORITZ

    LEGENDARY ORPHEUS OF DONBASS

    “We didn’t recognize”.
    Impudent will
    The one under whom
    were you shaking?.

    A. Pushkin “To the Slanderers of Russia”
    1831

    Poetry is the language of secret knowledge, the Old and New Testaments are written in this language, all the sacred books, all the myths of the peoples of the world, where the latest news of the day is both for tomorrow and for the day after tomorrow.
    Pushkin has a hundred times less high technology and a hundred times “worse” rhyme than today’s rhymes, who, with the delight of mutual admiration, recognized the brazen will of exactly who Russia should tremble under. Today, Russian poetry is divided into those who recognized and those who did not recognize this brazen will of the one under whom to tremble!..
    The wonderful poet Vladimir Skobtsov did not recognize, and worse, he is the legendary Orpheus of Donbass, the great Resistance to trembling! Magnificent quotes of his poetry will survive any statute of limitations, but now I don’t want to turn him into a quotation tank and into a quotation bank. And I want you, the precious Reader, to see in this book a dear, living, reverent Man who has a strong, thoroughbred talent, God’s gift, the language of secret knowledge. And regardless of any events, such a poet is always a historical event, his poetry turns the reality of the hegemonster into invalidity!.. This is the language of secret knowledge – how not to tremble!.. ↩︎
  2. Lyrics in English: (Machine-translation)
    Donbass is behind us
    Vladimir Skobtsov
    The Beast woke up in pitch darkness
    And the Beast to God is called the price
    Everyone caved in – and the brothers in Christ,
    Everything caved in, but not my country.
     
    It was a fruitful leap year
    And the blood of death was drunk, drunk
    The sky bent from the clouds of lead
    Everything caved in, but not my country.

    Here the fathers were not betrayed to memory
    Here they did not give up their grandfather’s land
    At what cost – you won’t find words
    Here they did not take care of life for the Fatherland.
     
    And again Russian power is in the hands of
    Both life and death for the Motherland are red
    Stands and keeps the firmament for centuries
    My unconquered country.

    Let him be destined to perish on the cross,
    But you can’t bring us to our knees
    In the bloody pole one for all
    Donbass stands and holds the firmament. 

    Chorus:

    There is a flame in the middle of the sky
    And the choice is strict –
    Russia is with us,
    And God is with us!

    In the middle of the sky, flame,
    And the choice is strict –
    Donbass is behind us,
    And God is with us!

    Donetsk, 2020 ↩︎

Additional:

Today, June 7, 2026, per month, 40,000 Ukrainians die in a war that the Kiev-Azov-Neo-Nazi regime and its western allies want to continue. NATO pushes Ukraine/Kiev to continue a fight, a war, that could have been avoided, if Boris Johnson would not have travelled to Istanbul, in 2022, with the Washington mission to eliminate the peace deal that was signed.

#47. Col. Douglas Macgregor: USA Collapsing: Washington‘s Soviet Moment Is Here

Discussion with Neutrality Studies [Pascal Lottaz], and colonel Douglas Macgregor, published May 29, 2026

Summary
Hegemony is over not only on the outside but within the US, too. The decline is irreversible says Colonel Douglas Macgregor. Pascal Lottaz and Col. Macgregor talk about Russia’s next moves in Ukraine, the risk of wider NATO escalation, U.S. support for foreign wars, and why America’s base network and war spending may be unsustainable. Macgregor argues the U.S. is losing control, the economy is the real pressure point, and a major pullback from overseas is coming.

Links

McGregor Warrior Substack: https://macgregorwarrior.substack.com
The National Conversation: https://thenationalconversation.org

Neutrality Studies Substack: https://pascallottaz.substack.com

Timestamps

00:00:00 Russia and Ukraine Turning Point
00:13:40 NATO Pressure and Nuclear Risk
00:15:14 America Rejects Another War
00:21:27 Bases, Parties, and Retreat
00:24:50 Soviet Collapse and U S Decline
00:29:21 Cuba Puerto Rico and the Hemisphere
00:32:24 Empire Mindset and Iran
00:37:23 Media Pressure and Public Pushback
00:40:44 Debt, Cuts, and the End Game

#46. Jeffrey Sachs: An Open Letter to Chancellor Friedrich Merz

Economist and diplomat Jeffrey Sachs is calling on German Chancellor Merz to begin immediate talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin about peace in Europe.
https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/article/jeffrey-sachs-an-open-letter-to-chancellor-friedrich-merz-10038768
Published: May 27, 2026
In: Berliner Zeitung
By: Jeffrey D. Sachs

Chancellor Merz,

When I wrote an open letter to you a half year ago, I urged Germany to pursue diplomacy with Russia rather than the normalization of war. Six months later, the situation in Europe is dramatically worse. Europe and Russia are slipping into open war. And in that drift, Chancellor, your responsibility is singular. No European leader — not in Paris, not in Warsaw, not in Rome — holds the position that Germany holds, or has the power that you personally hold, to interrupt this catastrophe. Will you try for peace?

You yourself, with Prime Minister Meloni and President Macron, called in January 2026 for Europe to restart relations with Russia and described Russia as „a European country.“ Yet you did not pursue diplomacy. With the future of Europe at stake, this is an extraordinary abdication of leadership. Have you, in your months as Chancellor, attempted one substantive dialogue with President Putin? Has your foreign minister attempted one substantive dialogue with Foreign Minister Lavrov? Real conversations, the kind that ended the Cold War. The answer, as far as the public record reveals, is no. Not once. And not for want of recognizing the urgency.

The past days have brought a dangerous acceleration that should focus every European mind. Both capitals are now under sustained attack: Ukrainian long-range drones have struck deep into Moscow, including civilian sites; Russian missile and drone strikes against Kyiv have greatly intensified. Ukrainian drones have crossed into the airspace of the Baltic states, raising the immediate prospect of an incident that could pull Europe directly into the war. A horrific Ukrainian strike on a boys’ school in Lugansk has further eroded what little remains of restraint. And on May 25, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, acting on instructions from President Putin, formally notified the United States Secretary of State that the Russian Armed Forces are now launching „systematic and sustained strikes“ on facilities and decision-making centers in Kyiv, and the Russian Foreign Ministry has advised that the United States and other countries „ensure the evacuation of their diplomatic personnel and other citizens from the capital of Ukraine.“ That message is the prologue to a major escalation. Diplomacy is more urgent than ever.

The way to defend Ukraine is not continued slaughter, but peace on terms that are agreeable to all parties. Instead, we face escalation, with more deaths, more destruction, and the real prospect of a war that expands beyond Ukraine. By calling for ever more weapons, ever greater war-fighting capacity, and ever louder demonstrations of „resolve,“ and by signaling that Germany is preparing for war rather than working to end it, you have allowed Berlin to become an accelerant rather than a brake to a European-wide war.

Germany’s Responsibility: Six Particulars

Germany bears profound responsibility for the situation it now confronts. Before German policy can be reset toward peace, Germany’s record must be confronted honestly. I set out below six serious failures of German foreign policy vis-à-vis Russia since German reunification in 1990.

First — the 2+4 Treaty and NATO’s eastward expansion. On 12 September 1990, in Moscow, Germany signed the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany — the „2+4 Treaty“ — that completed German reunification. That treaty was secured because Mikhail Gorbachev was given solemn assurances, by Hans-Dietrich Genscher, by Helmut Kohl, by James Baker, and by other Western leaders, that NATO would not move eastward. The declassified record — including the now-public memoranda assembled by the National Security Archive of George Washington University — is unambiguous: those assurances were given and were clearly meant at the time to apply beyond the territory of the former GDR to Eastern Europe. These assurances were reaffirmed through 1990 and 1991.

The 2+4 Treaty restricts the placement of NATO troops in the former GDR, and recalls the principles of the Helsinki Final Act, which emphasizes that no nation’s security should come at the expense of another’s. Does any serious person believe that the Soviet Union cared about Western troops on the territory of the former GDR but was indifferent to NATO armies in Warsaw, Vilnius, or Kyiv? Of course not.

The matter of NATO enlargement was discussed in detail and explicit assurances of non-enlargement to the East were given by Germany to the Soviet leaders — and then were broken. Germany was the principal beneficiary of those assurances, which were the quid pro quo for Germany’s reunification. Yet as early as 1993, German leaders began to promote the violation of those assurances.

Second — Chancellor Merkel’s own testimony. In her memoirs, Angela Merkel writes with striking candor that she understood at the time of the 2008 Bucharest Summit that inviting Ukraine and Georgia into NATO would be tantamount to a declaration of war on Russia. She knew Russia’s red line. And yet she gave in to American pressure, accepting the compromise communiqué that Ukraine and Georgia „will become“ NATO members. That single sentence set in motion the catastrophes of 2014 and 2022. Merkel’s later candor is a gift to her successors: she has told you, plainly and in her own words, what was understood at the time. Germany should not now pretend otherwise.

Third — the betrayal of the February 21, 2014 agreement. On 21 February 2014, in Kyiv, Germany’s then–Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, together with his Polish and French counterparts, brokered an agreement between President Yanukovych and the opposition. The agreement provided for a return to the 2004 constitution, the formation of a national-unity government, and early presidential elections. President Putin was consulted; the agreement was confirmed. It was a serious diplomatic achievement under conditions of intense violence. Yet within twenty-four hours Yanukovych was forcibly overthrown by a violent coup. Germany did not insist on the agreement it had just guaranteed. Instead, following the U.S. lead, Germany backed the new government, as if there had been no agreement in place. That decision persuaded Moscow that Western signatures could not be trusted.

Fourth — Minsk II. In February 2015, Chancellor Merkel personally negotiated Minsk II in the Normandy Format and pledged Germany’s political backing through the Declaration of Support adopted in Minsk on 12 February 2015. For seven years, the key political provision — autonomy for the Donbas regions within a sovereign Ukraine — was never implemented by Kyiv. Germany did not press Kyiv to implement the autonomy provision it had championed — and Merkel later acknowledged that the agreement had been used as a holding action to allow Ukraine to rearm. President Hollande said the same. The guarantee, in other words, was not a guarantee at all. It was a stratagem — once again at Washington’s behest. Once again, the message to Moscow was that Western signatures cannot be trusted.

Fifth — Nord Stream. On 7 February 2022, in the East Room of the White House, President Biden announced — with then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz standing beside him — that „if Russia invades… then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.“ Asked how, he replied, „I promise you, we will be able to do that.“ The pipelines were destroyed seven months later in an act of sabotage in the Baltic Sea. The available evidence — investigative reporting in the United States and Germany, the trail followed by the German federal prosecutor, and the public statements of former officials — points overwhelmingly to a joint Ukrainian-American operation. The German government has long known this. And yet Germany has permitted the public blame to fall on Russia, against the direct evidence, while an act of industrial sabotage against the German economy has gone unprosecuted and unanswered.

Sixth — the April 2022 Istanbul agreement that was within reach. Just weeks after Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators converged in Istanbul on the terms of a peace agreement: Ukrainian neutrality outside NATO, multilateral security guarantees, agreed troop limits, and the political resolution of the Donbas and Crimea questions over time. The agreement was within days of signature. Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, one of the mediators, has confirmed publicly that the deal was close and that the West — the United States and the United Kingdom in particular — moved to block it. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s mission to Kyiv in April 2022 to instruct Ukraine not to sign is a matter of public record. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian lives, and the wider European order, have paid the price for that US–UK intervention. Germany has not raised its voice on this — even though Germany, more than any other European state has borne the economic consequences.

The Second Catastrophe: Germany’s Economic Self-Destruction

Your first concern must be peace. Yesterday’s message from Moscow tells us how late the hour is. But there is a second catastrophe unfolding alongside the first: the willful destruction of the German economy, with Berlin as both author and victim.

Germany’s industrial economy was built on trade with Russia. The destruction of Nord Stream and the subsequent severance of Germany’s trade relations with Russia have left Germany buying natural gas from the United States at prices several times higher than the Russian pipeline gas it replaced. This is industrial suicide. Germany’s chemical sector, its steel sector, its glass industry, its energy-intensive manufacturers — the very foundations of the Mittelstand — are losing international competitiveness day by day. Skilled jobs are draining out of the German economy. And the German taxpayer and the German consumer are making a transfer of national wealth from Germany to American gas producers at a scale unprecedented in postwar Europe.

On top of this, the German government is now pledging an enormous defence build-up — hundreds of billions of euros over the coming decade — to arm for a war that diplomacy can easily prevent. This is a profound misallocation of national resources. The fundamental challenge facing Germany in this decade is competitiveness in the digital age. Every euro spent on tanks, missiles, and artillery shells is a euro not spent on Germany’s AI capacity, its chip-design and chip-fabrication capability, its energy infrastructure, and the high-speed digital networks that Germany needs to remain a top global economy.

The hard reality, Mr. Chancellor, is that there is no security to be bought with these arms that diplomacy cannot buy at a tiny fraction of the cost, and there is no prosperity to be had without the digital and energy investments that this arms buildup will crowd out.

My Appeal

Chancellor Merz, more than any other European leader, the question of whether Europe descends into general war, or returns to negotiation, and to economic sanity, rests with you. The hour is very late. Yesterday’s formal message from Moscow to Washington says so explicitly. Please open a dialogue with President Putin. Please send your foreign minister to Moscow or invite Russia’s Foreign Minister to Berlin. Please reopen the OSCE channels that Germany has allowed to atrophy.  Please tell Kyiv to cease its strikes on civilian targets.

Most importantly, please tell the German public the truth: that a negotiated peace based on Ukrainian neutrality is the realistic path out of catastrophe, and that restoring a normal economic relationship with Russia is the realistic path out of Germany’s industrial decline.

The terms of an acceptable agreement that Germany could propose are clear. The fighting would stop on an armistice line. All sides would renounce any future resort to violence on the question of borders. Ukraine would restore its neutrality, and NATO would permanently renounce further eastward enlargement.

Europe and Russia would restore economic relations and would stop the warmongering. The OSCE would once again become the central forum for European security, with the fundamental precept that European security is indivisible, not based on military blocs dividing Europe. Alongside this peace, Germany would redirect its national resources toward the digital, AI, semiconductor, and energy investments that Germany’s economic future demands.

History will record what you do in the weeks ahead, and what you fail to do. So will the German public. So will the peoples of Russia, Ukraine, and Europe generally. It’s time for diplomacy, Mr. Chancellor. The choice is yours to make.

Respectfully,

Jeffrey D. Sachs

University Professor of Columbia University 

#42. Ukrainian Drones Over Helsinki. Finland Dragged Into Conflict

Drones Over Helsinki. Finland Dragged Into Conflict
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYeq4EYG0MA
Published: May 20, 2026
By: The Duran,
Discussion, analysis: Alexander Mercouris and Armando Mema

Ukrainian drones have been crossing into Finnish airspace for the fifth time, forcing 2 million Helsinki residents to seek emergency shelter and raising urgent questions about whether Finland is being quietly dragged into the Ukraine conflict. Alex Christoforou and Alexander Mercouris of The Duran are joined by Finnish analyst Armando Mema to examine why the Finnish government is not shooting down the drones, what Moscow really thinks about NATO member Finland allowing its territory to be used as a transit corridor, and how the country has gone from a model of peaceful neutrality to a front line of European insecurity. Is Finland paying the price for a NATO membership that offers far less protection than its leaders promised?

ARMANDO MEMA


1. Neutrality Studies video, published November 24, 2025: The NATO Effect: Erasing Anti-War Voices in Finland | Armando Mema

2. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@armandomema878

3. Telegram: https://t.me/armandomema

4. Twitter/X: https://x.com/armandomema

#41. The LEGO movies

Neutrality Studies & Indica: Iran DESTROYS Western War Narrative… With Lego Movies | Explosive Media
Published: May 19, 2026

“The Iran-War is fought not only on the battle field, but also on the media-front. And Iran won it BIG-TIME with the incredibly popular Lego movies, explaining the Iranian position and exposing the US system of war and destruction. At the same time, the makers of the Lego movies also build bridges to the US population. Together with Benjamin Schoendorff from the Resistance is Fertile Podcast I interview one of the Iranian’s behind the videos from the group that calls itself “Explosive Media”—the Lego Resistance Front”. – Pascal Lottaz, Neutrality Studies

Additional information
  1. Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/ExplosiveMediaa?e9s=src_v1_cbl
  2. Explosive Media: https://lnk.bio/ExplosiveMediaa
  3. Substack: https://resistanceisfertilepodcast.substack.com/p/iran-destroys-western-war-narrative
  4. Sign the petition “Reinstate the YouTube Resistance is Fertile channel!” https://www.change.org/p/reinstate-the-youtube-resistance-is-fertile-channel?source_location=psf_petitions
  5. indi.ca: https://indi.ca
Time stamps

00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:40 Lego strategy and mission
00:06:01 Values dignity and cultural voice
00:08:56 Western audiences and narrative warfare
00:12:05 Creative process humor and empathy
00:16:04 Risk audience and media resistance
00:22:01 Peace front and speaking to the West
00:28:24 AI as the new equalizer
00:33:03 War creativity and spiritual meaning

Comment 1

I look forward to a movie about NATO, and Rutte

Comment 2

Enemies are those who deny truth, facts, historical facts, and truth is a constantly opening of deeper truths. The deepest and at the same time Highest Truth, is Spiritual Light, Universal Light, recognized by those who have been evolving, during many incarnations, from a dark being to a Light Being, able to fathom the Light, to watch it, without being dissolved by it. Darkness hates Light. Darkness disappears totally in Light. Additional info (Mattias Desmet): The psychological value of truth

Comment 3

Peace can only be when people sit together at the same table, and talk with each other. Only allowed to leave the room, as professor Jeffrey Sachs metaphorically explained, before they all agree. We are not so far yet, though, that people can sit at the same table, because addicted to war, and searching for the economical profits of war. As long there are egoistic goals in world leaders, there will never be peace. Only the goals that serve mankind, humanity, are noble goals. Sustainable goals. Personally I consider the decision, made in the Kremlin, to move forward in Ukraine, in order to hold NATO expansion, as the last possibility in that area, to stop darkness, and in that idea I also include the paintings and drawings of Archangel Michael, who uses the sword to kill the dragon of evil. If this would not happen, we are all lost anyway.

[Rudolf Steiner calls Michael the guiding spirit of our age, who gives us the courage to fight against the forces of the ‘dragon’ within – egoism, untruthfulness and selfishness.The name Michael is derived from the Hebrew name Mikha’el, meaning ‘who is as God’.  The ancients of the Bible called him the messenger of Jehovah. But in our modern era that Rudolf Steiner calls the age of the Consciousness Soul, Michael is now the messenger of Christ Himself, and the leading spirit of our time.]

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

Up ↑