Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Oleg Shevchenko
[REGNUM] By February 1945, Germany was living out its last days as a Nazi state.
The Soviet armies were 70 kilometers from Berlin. Anglo-American military forces were advancing from the West. Hitler's allies were breaking off diplomatic relations with him and turning their once friendly troops against the Reich. In the Far East, the Japanese Empire was losing territory after territory under the heavy onslaught of American troops. But there was no understanding of what the world would be like after the obvious defeat of Germany and the prospective destruction of the Empire of the Rising Sun.
The desires of the allies of the anti-Hitler coalition were too contradictory.
The growing giant economy of the USA demanded new markets. The American armed forces had no equal in terms of the number of mobilized forces. According to the law of history, such power required political registration.
The British Empire had torn its economy apart, its finances had been reduced to rubble, it had lost many resources and was no longer able to hold on to the colonies that were demanding independence. The question was: would London survive as one of the world's centres of power or would it become a regional player with a great past and a bleak future?
The Soviet Union bore the brunt of the war against Nazism, defeated the elite divisions of the Wehrmacht, liberated Eastern and most of Central Europe, Soviet armies crossed the Oder and approached Berlin. But the rear was in disarray, economic and human losses were colossal.
Moscow could not allow a new war. Strong guarantees were needed that in the next 40-50 years the West would not unleash another, third world war against Russia.
The situation was complicated by the mutual distrust of the allies towards each other, a sense of intense competition and, in principle, the equal professional qualities of the leaders of the three countries: I. Stalin, F. Roosevelt, W. Churchill.
These were people around 70 years old, subtle diplomats, excellent strategists with gigantic many years of experience in politics. There were no newcomers or amateurs in the upcoming geopolitical chess game.
In early February, conference participants begin to arrive at the venue. Stalin arrives by train in Simferopol and speeds through Alushta and Yalta to the village of Koreiz, where the Yusupov Palace awaits him.
Churchill and Roosevelt fly out of Malta and land at a military airfield near the Crimean town of Saki. From there, armored cars transport the heads of delegations through Simferopol, Alushta, and Yalta to various palaces. Churchill occupies the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka, and Roosevelt occupies the palace in Livadia.
From February 4 to 11, a whole series of meetings of various levels took place in three palaces on the Southern Coast of Crimea - Livadia, Yusupov and Vorontsov - where the outline of peace and guarantees of mutual security for the next several generations were created.
The heads of the world's largest countries brought with them admirals and marshals, foreign ministers and scientists, not to mention an entire army of technical specialists: translators, telephone operators, security guards.
For the first time, heads of general staffs, ambassadors, heads of relevant ministries, leading economists... Brilliant photographers, cameramen, virtuoso radio operators and, of course, intelligence officers operating under various cover were able to talk to each other in person.
During these February days, all the tension of the military efforts of the three leading powers of the planet was concentrated between Yalta and Alupka. The airwaves literally crackled with ciphers, flying to different corners of the world and moving thousands of ships in the Pacific Ocean, million-strong armies in Europe, spurring the economies of the warring victorious powers.
The Germans managed to find out the time and place of the meeting. Sabotage groups were prepared, crews for long-range bomber aviation were assigned. But the precise and filigree work of Soviet counterintelligence managed to uncover the enemy's plans and prevent a threat to the lives of the leaders of the three countries.
Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill met almost every day in the State Room of the Livadia Palace at a large round table near a hot fireplace. The foreign ministers worked out the details of the leaders’ global decisions most often in the halls of the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka. The military advisers preferred the Yusupov Palace in Koreiz.
In addition, there was a series of bilateral meetings where issues of joint pressure on the uninvited colleague were discussed. Stalin formed a bloc with Roosevelt, Churchill entered into a situational alliance with the American president against Stalin: the combinations were very different and short-lived.
An important element of the negotiation process were diplomatic dinners, social lunches, conversations in the corridors, where the opponents' positions were probed and subtle hints were sent. Very often, toasts served as such a mechanism. The latter, by the way, were carefully recorded by the delegations and discussed at fleeting meetings of the advisers of the three heads of state.
The negotiations were incredibly difficult and extremely tense. There were times when Stalin would get up in anger and prepare to leave the conference. There was a recorded case when an enraged Churchill ran out of the conference hall and only returned after calming down.
Compromise is the main mechanism for creating a reliable peace; mutual concessions were not easy to achieve.
Ultimately, very important decisions were made and key principles were formed that made it possible to prevent a third world war and constructed the framework of a new world order based on international law for 80 years.
Three key results of the Yalta Conference can be named:
First, Germany's fangs were pulled out. It was decided to liquidate its military potential and not allow the country that had unleashed two world wars to pose a threat to peaceful and free nations. Only in recent decades has the West once again incited the FRG to militaristic ambitions: strengthening its armed forces, testing the Bundeswehr in hot spots.
Secondly, an instrument for resolving international disputes was created at numerous UN venues. During the existence of the UN, dozens of military conflicts were resolved and prevented. Assistance was provided to victims of military actions and environmental disasters. International courts have proven themselves quite effectively in difficult disputes over maritime law and have played an important role in punishing war criminals.
Alas, the ambitions of the United States extended to turning the UN into its own instrument for gaining world domination. Now the UN needs to be reformed and the principle of justice and sovereignty of the powers, which was declared in Yalta, restored.
Third, the Soviet Union managed to create a security sphere around its borders that blocked the West's attempts to pursue an aggressive military policy. Alas, 46 years after Yalta, this sphere was significantly undermined by the West, and by 2022 it was completely destroyed.
But friendly relations with Iran, Mongolia, and China have been preserved and strengthened. Yalta to this day is the legal source of our presence in the south of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands - strategically important centers of our power in the Far East.
On February 11, 1945, the delegations of the three countries left Crimea.
The most important documents of the meeting were published in all the world media. Documentary films were shot. Encrypted messages explaining the results of the diplomatic reception were sent to all embassies.
After the Yalta Conference, the Reich's hopes that Washington, Moscow and London would be unable to reach an agreement among themselves were dashed. Many of the top officials in Hitler's inner circle decided to negotiate peace with the USA behind their Fuhrer's back: the political rats heard the sound of the axe being used to build the gallows of the approaching Nuremberg Tribunal.
But in vain: Yalta-45 became a turning point, after which no one could even hint at any separate peace, and the principle of retribution for war crimes became the core of new values of international law. The Nazi ideology of "white masters", second-class countries, the superiority of the West over the East - was becoming a thing of the past, the dawn of a new, Yalta peace was coming.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The court recognized the crimes of the Nazis in Kalmykia during the Great Patriotic War as genocide of the Soviet people. This was reported on February 4 by the press service of the Investigative Committee of Russia.
Investigators, having studied the archives and carried out the necessary search activities, reconstructed the picture of the atrocities of the German invaders in the region. During the war, the fascists shelled and bombed settlements of the Kalmyk ASSR, set fire to crops and prevented harvesting. During the occupation, thousands of buildings and structures were destroyed. The Germans inflicted the most significant damage on the city of Elista.
Eyewitness accounts confirmed that "Punitive Expeditions" were operating in rural areas with the aim of reprisals against the local population. On the day of the capture of the Sarpinsky District, in one of the villages the occupiers hanged a civilian on the gate of a residential building, threatening to shoot anyone who tried to remove the body of the murdered man. The able-bodied population of the Kalmyk ASSR was driven into slavery. Investigators found a letter from one of the young men, in which he wrote about long-term work without a break under the supervision of German soldiers.
“The evidence collected by the investigation and the established facts indicate that all these crimes were aimed at exterminating the civilian population not only of individual settlements and regions, but of the entire Soviet people,” the department’s Telegram channel stated.
The court found the evidence sufficient to establish the fact of genocide of the peoples of the USSR by the Nazi invaders.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, in September last year the Tula Regional Court recognized the actions of the fascists against the region's civilian population during the Great Patriotic War as genocide of the Soviet people. As a result of the trial, it was revealed that at least 15,000 people suffered at the hands of the Nazis. The actions against the Soviet people were part of a German plan, according to which the region's civilians had to be expelled for further colonization of the territory by the Germans.
Commentary by Russian military journalist is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] "The events of 1932-1933 could not have been a man-made famine. This is evidenced by numerous sources, currently available to all researchers," TASS quotes Naryshkin as saying.
According to him, the myth "about an allegedly deliberate Holodomor-genocide aimed at destroying the Ukrainian peasantry" was cynically created at the time by radical Ukrainian nationalists in Germany and Poland.
In September, the Russian embassy expressed outrage at Switzerland's decision to recognize the "Holodomor" as genocide.
They recalled that the famine of the 1930s was not the first and not the last in the USSR; similar tragedies occurred in the Volga region, the Kazakh SSR, Crimea and Western Siberia.
Actually, when in the 90-10s we supported the rhetoric about the fictitious "Holodomor", thereby laying the foundation for the official recognition of this fake in the West. The same thing happened with Katyn, etc.
All this was not about the past, but about the present and the future. To stigmatize the Russian Federation and prepare for its dismantling and war against it. In this regard, official anti-Sovietism caused enormous damage to the Russian Federation.
There were those who argued the Irish Potato Famine was just peasants too lazy to farm, a temporary problem that would pass. There are those who argue there was no Nazi Holocaust of the Jews, that only a few tens of thousands died in work camps. Turkey throws a temper tantrum whenever their Armenian genocide is mentioned, and refer to the Kurds they’re currently trying to kill off as merely Mountain Turks.
#4
By decree of the Soviet Communist Party, farms, villages, and whole towns in Ukraine were placed on blacklists and prevented from receiving food, Grom.
Peasants were forbidden to leave the Ukrainian republic in search of food and during the winter of 1932–33, organized groups of police and communist authorities ransacked the homes of peasants and took everything edible, from crops to personal food supplies to pets.
Stuff they didn't teach you in school or the Young Pioneers.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/05/2025 9:24 Comments ||
Top||
As a side note, don't always use Russian sources for history. The messages are usually 'tailored' for desired outcomes.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/05/2025 11:20 Comments ||
Top||
#9
I used European and US sources
Like NYT, or BBC?
My opinions on the subject comes from reading "Archipelago Gulag" & similar books on the history of Soviet Union decades ago. Also books on European history some of which were written before Ukraine was invented.
Text taken from an article published in kommersant.ru
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] China did not hesitate, picked up the gauntlet and imposed tariffs on American energy products. The trade war began.
China imposes duties on US coal, oil, LNG in response to Trump
China has announced a 10% tariff on oil, large cars, pickup trucks, and agricultural machinery from the United States. According to the decision of the State Council, American coal and LNG will be subject to 15% duties. This decision was made in response to the 10% tariffs on goods from China that came into effect today, February 4, by the United States. They will come into effect on Monday, February 10.
The retaliatory measures were announced by the Tariff and Classification Committee under the State Council of the People's Republic of China. Its press release said that the unilateral imposition of tariffs by the United States seriously violates the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and also hinders "normal economic and trade cooperation between China and the United States." China has also filed a lawsuit in the WTO.
The stronger the trade war between the US and China, the better for us.
The price of LNG will most likely increase. P.S. China has also launched an antitrust investigation against Google.
#1
"China imposes duties on US coal, oil, LNG in response to Trump..."
So the cost to China results in buying LESS of the US coal, oil, LNG.
Regarding just the OIL.
Those Energy companies, exporting US Energy resources, will still need to sell part of what is around 1 Million Barrels of Oil a day, somewhere else.
[X]
John Ʌ Konrad V
@johnkonrad
Fact: Bribery is rampant in the U.S. government and military—but it’s also legal.
To understand what’s going on at USAID you must understand how bribery works in America today.
Here’s how to legally bribe a 4-star US Army General:
American bribery operates differently than the classic cash-in-a-suitcase (or bitcoin today!) model still used in most other countries. It relies on trust, time, and reputation—making it nearly impossible to prosecute.
Example 1: Bribing a General in Africa
A corrupt general in Africa demands $2 million cash (or gold or BYT) up front. Why? Because if you don’t pay later, he has no way to enforce the deal.
Example 2: Bribing a U.S. General (Legally)
If you’re a defense contractor in the U.S., you play the long game:
1.Invite the general into a secure, private meeting.
2.Thank him for his “dedicated support” on a project “for the American people.”
3.Wink.
4.Casually mention that a board seat might open up at your company—about five years after he retires.
5.Tell him to call you in ten years to “help find good candidates.”
Fast forward five years: Boom. He lands that board seat. It pays $500,000 per year for five years. Congratulations—he just pocketed $2.5 million, plus interest.
The Board Seat Shuffle
This gets even better. Say Widgets Inc. lands a huge contract thanks to General Smith, and Cogs Inc. gets another big deal thanks to Admiral Jones.
Instead of directly paying them off, Widgets Inc. gives a cushy board seat to Admiral Jones. Cogs Inc. returns the favor by hiring General Smith.
No money exchanged while they were in uniform. No laws broken.
The Enforcement Mechanism: Reputation
But what if Cogs Inc. fails to pay Admiral Jones?
Simple: Reputation kills them.
Word spreads fast in the high-trust world of defense contracting. Generals and admirals still in uniform hear the whispers. Suddenly, Cogs Inc. starts losing contracts.
Example 3: USAID
Want to bribe a Congressman? Here’s how the game works. First, get them to steer a juicy contract your way. Take some of that money and set up a nonprofit—nothing flashy, just enough to move funds around. A few years after they’re voted out, suddenly there’s a cushy board seat waiting for them. In the meantime, have them use their connections to secure a USAID grant for the next wave of Congressmen or staffers. Rinse and repeat to expand the ponzi scheme and just like that, you’ve built a self-sustaining influence machine.
The lesson?
The bribe is exactly the same as a cash payoff—it’s just delayed, sanitized, and hidden behind a veil of “corporate best practices.”
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how government bribery legally thrives in America.
If this goes viral I might post 2/2 an even more ingenious bribery system: How China Bribes A Foreign General
Posted by: 3dc ||
02/05/2025 04:05 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11134 views]
Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
[YouTube] (January 26, 2025) In this episode, Robinson and Victor discuss the results of the election and President Trump’s inauguration. More particularly, they talk about the biggest challenges he will face as president, the class- and culture war in the United States, Trump’s rhetorical abilities, the California wildfires, and geopolitics, including our relationships with China, Canada, Russia, and the Middle East.
[Premium] Victor Davis Hanson lays out the hard truth: No nation in history has done what America is doing now—opening its borders, accepting millions with no vetting, and funding the collapse of its own sovereignty. Trump is stepping in to reverse the damage, and Hanson breaks down exactly how.
From executive orders ending "catch and release" to taxing remittances, Trump’s strategy is clear: protect American jobs, enforce immigration laws, and reassert national strength. But Hanson takes it further—exploring Trump’s vision for Greenland, the Arctic power struggle, and why China and Russia are lurking in the shadows, waiting to seize control.
Will America wake up before it’s too late? Hanson’s insights cut through the noise and expose the global stakes of Trump’s battle to restore order. Buckle up—this is a must-watch.
#1
The questions I continued to ask those on blindly supporting the Democrats.
So, how was the Open Borders' & Perverse Sex stuff agenda building a better, safer and more secure America?
Why was the Biden Regime dolling out $$BILLIONS in debit cards and housing resources to those that entered the USA illegally, while we had more than 771,800 US Citizens Homeless in 2024?
I usually get a long pause, then a recital of some lame Democrat Talking Head news-speak quote.
[IsraelTimes] It is hard to predict what impact US president’s exile bid will have on hostage talks, though it does make Netanyahu’s proposals for the Strip seem far more reasonable in contrast
As is often the case with Donald Trump, there were plenty of headline-worthy statements that came out his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The US president said the Saudis were not demanding a Palestinian state; that the current Israeli government could complete the hostage release deal; that Iran is “very strong right now”; that the US would get more violent if Hamas didn’t release all the hostages.
Yet the statement leading evening news shows in the US and news sites around the world was about the future of Gaza: “The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous bombs and other weapons on the site.”
This wasn’t Trump speaking off the cuff. He was reading from prepared remarks during a joint press conference with Netanyahu, the first foreign leader to visit the White House since the Republican returned to office in January. Though he often stakes out up unexpected positions as a tactic to help get what he wants on other matters, he seemed to be sincere about this one.
Shortly before that, Trump said in the Oval Office that he wants Palestinians to leave Gaza, and that ideally they would not return to the war-torn region.
Netanyahu seemed not to know how to react to the outlandish plan. “I think it’s worth paying attention to this,” he said noncommittally. “We’re talking about tgit. He’s exploring it with his people, with his staff. I think it’s something that could change history, and it’s worthwhile really pursuing this avenue.”
The plan is not about to be implemented. Gazans, who survived 15 months of punishing attacks by Israel, largely don’t want to live in exile, and Trump isn’t going to send US troops to push almost 2 million people out of the Strip.
Nor will Egypt and Jordan go along with it, despite Trump’s confidence that their reliance on US aid and military support gives him enough leverage to push them to take in massive numbers of Gazan refugees. For both countries, Trump’s proposal crosses red lines.
Jordan’s regime lives in perpetual fear that the Israeli right will implement the idea that Jordan is Palestine, and will treat the Hashemite kingdom as the Palestinian state. Jordan is already mostly Palestinian, and the influx of hundreds of thousands more Palestinians will destabilize a country that already suffers from legitimacy problems and accusations that it serves as a Western stooge against the interests of Palestinians.
Egypt also sees the potential influx of Gazans as an existential threat. It remembers Hamas breaching the border wall in 2008, and up to 700,000 Palestinians pouring into the Sinai. The incident led to new ties between jihadists in the Sinai and Hamas, which helped the Islamc State affiliate in the peninsula carry out a bloody insurgency against Egyptian forces. The Sissi government in Egypt views the Muslim Brotherhood as its mortal enemy, and is not about to allow thousands of fighters from the Brotherhood-affiliated Hamas into the country.
Israel’s peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan are foundations of its national security, and it would be unwise to back a policy that could destabilize two regimes that cooperate closely on military and security issues.
Even if the plan doesn’t move forward, Trump even floating the idea presents its own dangers and opportunities.
Emptying Gaza of Palestinians is the dream of Israel’s far-right, and hearing the US president back the idea will make them believe that the goal is attainable. Now, even if Netanyahu can get Hamas out of Gaza, it won’t be enough for some coalition partners. They will want to see Netanyahu work to implement Trump’s plan, and could threaten his political survival if he opposes the idea.
If Netanyahu continues his approach of backing Trump’s ideas to stay in his good graces, he could undermine Israel’s alliances with Jordan and Egypt, with nothing to show for it.
Trump and Netanyahu have much they can accomplish together. They can put an end to Iran’s nuclear program, cement Israel’s place in the region, and go after hostile organizations like the courts in The Hague and various UN agencies. Wasting energy and political capital on Trump’s Gaza idea is not the ideal way to take advantage of the potential created by the current alignment of political stars.
And it is hard to predict the effect Trump’s proposal will have on hostage talks. It could convince Hamas that holding on to the male hostages is the only way to keep him from moving ahead with his Gaza program. And it gives the terror group the opportunity to present itself to the Palestinians and the Arab world as the one fighting to keep Gazans in their homes against US-Israeli designs.
At the same time, there is opportunity for Netanyahu in the chaos. Israel’s demands for Gaza — Hamas leaders in exile, its fighters disarmed, and a new international consortium overseeing the Strip — may suddenly seem reasonable and desirable to regional players compared to Trump’s suggestion. Moreover, the prime minister can curry favor in Egypt and Jordan if he quietly moves Trump away from the expulsion idea.
Even if the plan is a non-starter, it could have another important benefit. Trump isn’t afraid of challenging conventions and forcing leaders to disabuse old, tired notions. Moving Gazans to Arab countries might not work, but neither will ending the war while Hamas remains the strongest force in Gaza. New ideas are needed for Gaza, and for the Palestinian issue in general.
Trump might be detached from reality in the region, but his willingness to move beyond decades-old failed ideas could open the debate to novel approaches to the Palestinian issue, a challenge in desperate need of creative solutions in the coming years.
#2
They don’t want to be exiled. They do want to be able to move away.
The Trump plan long term provides a pathway to return for those willing to live peacefully and work hard in a resort. All the other plans are a pathway to rinse and repeat 10/7 and its sequelæ.
President Donald Trump’s meeting today, Tuesday, February 4, 2025, with Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, is Trump’s first meeting with a foreign head of state. And Trump arranges it in the midst of his incredible campaign to reestablish America First as our national policy. What’s the ultimate importance of this meeting?.
At first glance, President Trump is simply reminding the nation and the world that America and Israel are strong allies. Since Israel is a Jewish state, it is also a reminder that Trump stands fast with the Jewish people, as he did in his first term when he became the first U.S. President to acknowledge Jerusalem as the capital of Isreal. This action enraged the hornet’s nest of globalism and antisemitism at the UN, resulting in 128 nations voting for a UN resolution that condemned his action. Only nine nations voted against the resolution.
But many question Trump’s support of Israel. Is it driven by the power of the Jewish and Israeli lobby? Is it motivated by the seemingly close ties between our CIA and Israel’s Mossad? Will it lead to increased antisemitism in the U.S. and around the world?
In reality, the core of America First and the core of Judaism and Israel have enormous similarities. As I described in my book, Wow, I’m an American: How to Live Like our nation’s Heroic Founders, many of the Founders felt inspired by the Hebrew Bible, especially the Exodus of the Jews to freedom.
AMERICA FIRST AND THE JEWISH STATE AGAINST GLOBALISM
Although I have been very critical of Netanyahu as a globalist, my hope is that Trump’s America First policies will embolden Netanyahu to establish an Israel First policy in contrast to his earlier promotion of globalism. As Trump declared in his stunning address to the UN in 2017, America First is a policy for all nations in opposition to their destruction by the global predators.
Both an independent America and an independent Israel are inherently threatening to the emerging global domination that we call the Western and the Eastern Global Empires, as well as to the less powerful Islamic Global Empire which most immediately threatens Israel.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
