This is Julia Ioffe’s post today at Puck News, which I am reprinting here. Russian-born and educated, she is one of the most knowledgeable reporters on Russia I am aware of. This analysis is a good explanation of the insanity operating in the mind of Vladimir Putin, an insanity all the world now has to put up with.
Some of you asked for places where you could use your credit cards instead of bank transfers. The below list are international charities working in Ukraine who can take donations from credit cards:
Libereco Partnership for Human Rights, evacuation and medical assistance
Easy to read how Trump and Putin are maniacs from the same pod 🙄… apparently all his followers are on board with this… provided they get to kill Democrats… Jesus, Mary and Joseph… how did this freaking happen?! Rhetorical… I know … uneducated, religious righteousness, science deniers … the world weeps…
Finally catching up. It has been a busy few days. There have been no amphibious landings. Belarus has not send any of its own troops. Russia's ground war is running into very strong headwinds, even in Kyiv where fighting is ferocious. I am so proud of our people, our soldiers, our volunteers. Putin has no idea how much he is hated and I expect he doesn't care. I feel vary badly for his young conscript soldiers who had no idea where they were being sent or why and whose mothers are frantic. All Russia is up in arms as they slowly learn what is going on, mostly from friends and relatives in Ukraine as it is almost blacked out in Russia.
Do not doubt for one second Putin's willing ness to use nuclear weapons. He is a suicide bomber. If Russia goes down he will take the world with it and has stated as much. He really has an ego problem. The date he declared war was the anniversary of the date we drove Yanukovych out of Ukraine. Glory to Ukraine and Glory to her Heroes.
Thanks TC. This is the Putin iteration of what Anne Applebaum describes as a globally webbed phenomenon. He uses his historical rationale to mask and justify his real goal, which is personal, autocratic power.
(2021, The Atlantic, Anne Applebaum, " The Bad Guys Are Winning")
Thanks for sharing, TC. I wonder how much of this is Putin trying to make Biden look bad in some fashion in hopes of getting another Republican majority running the US to help him achieve his "goals". He said himself (I parody) that the Trump years were a reprieve for him. Wake up people...if he turns to major cyber attacks, things are going to get extremely ugly...
Thank you for sharing her post,TC, and vouching for its credibility. I’ve read it three times already. It is important to understand an enemy. Especially a dangerous one.
Some of you asked for places where you could use your credit cards instead of bank transfers. The below list are international charities working in Ukraine who can take donations from credit cards:
Libereco Partnership for Human Rights, evacuation and medical assistance
https://www.lphr.org/en/humanitaere-soforthilfe-fuer-die-ukraine/
Caritas, humanitarian assistance
https://www.caritas.org/ukraine-appeal-22/
Malteser International, evacuation assistance. (Make sure you have selected "Ukraine")
https://www.malteser-international.org/en/donation.html?amount=100&interval=0&fb_item_id=24633
And then others of you were intrigued by the mention of the crowdsourcing of the Ukrainian army. If you want to do that, go to
Army SOS
https://armysos.com.ua/en/help-the-army
To fund protective and other defensive gear for the Ukrainian army, go to
Save Life
https://savelife.in.ua/en/donate/
Easy to read how Trump and Putin are maniacs from the same pod 🙄… apparently all his followers are on board with this… provided they get to kill Democrats… Jesus, Mary and Joseph… how did this freaking happen?! Rhetorical… I know … uneducated, religious righteousness, science deniers … the world weeps…
Julia Ioffe was a guest on Stephen Colbert's late show tonight. She spoke very factual and did not have much optimism about the current mess.
I read it earlier today. I appreciate Julia Ioffe's information and analysis of the situation.
Finally catching up. It has been a busy few days. There have been no amphibious landings. Belarus has not send any of its own troops. Russia's ground war is running into very strong headwinds, even in Kyiv where fighting is ferocious. I am so proud of our people, our soldiers, our volunteers. Putin has no idea how much he is hated and I expect he doesn't care. I feel vary badly for his young conscript soldiers who had no idea where they were being sent or why and whose mothers are frantic. All Russia is up in arms as they slowly learn what is going on, mostly from friends and relatives in Ukraine as it is almost blacked out in Russia.
Do not doubt for one second Putin's willing ness to use nuclear weapons. He is a suicide bomber. If Russia goes down he will take the world with it and has stated as much. He really has an ego problem. The date he declared war was the anniversary of the date we drove Yanukovych out of Ukraine. Glory to Ukraine and Glory to her Heroes.
Thanks TC. This is the Putin iteration of what Anne Applebaum describes as a globally webbed phenomenon. He uses his historical rationale to mask and justify his real goal, which is personal, autocratic power.
(2021, The Atlantic, Anne Applebaum, " The Bad Guys Are Winning")
Thanks for sharing, TC. I wonder how much of this is Putin trying to make Biden look bad in some fashion in hopes of getting another Republican majority running the US to help him achieve his "goals". He said himself (I parody) that the Trump years were a reprieve for him. Wake up people...if he turns to major cyber attacks, things are going to get extremely ugly...
Thank you for sharing her post,TC, and vouching for its credibility. I’ve read it three times already. It is important to understand an enemy. Especially a dangerous one.