Ukraine

Watching the Shadows

Trump Corollary: spheres of influence, white supremacy

Donald Trump’s new National Security Strategy instates a “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine. Like the Roosevelt Corollary of 1904, which was used to justify the “gunboat diplomacy” of that era, this new corollary openly calls for dividing the world into spheres of influence—with the Western Hemisphere assigned to the US. Russia is obviously pleased as punch over this, as it implicitly gives Moscow a free hand in Ukraine—and Putin will likely consider this an acceptable pay-off for his betrayal of Venezuela. However, China is less likely to surrender its massive investments and mega-projects in Latin America in exchange for a free hand to take over Taiwan. The document’s text on Europe is even more sinister, revealing a white supremacist agenda that looks not to Washington’s traditional allies to counter Russia, but to the continent’s Russian-backed far-right movements to counter Washington’s traditional allies. In Episode 308 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg exposes the NSS as a further step toward consolidation of a Fascist World Order. (Image: White House)

Watching the Shadows

Podcast: Trump for War-is-Peace Prize II

Trump continues to pursue his perverse ambition to win the Nobel Peace Prize—now proffering “peace” plans for Ukraine and Gaza that would actually reward war crimes, and therefore portend wider war. In both cases these new “peace” plans are merely sanitized recapitulations of earlier proposals—for the surrender of the Donbas and Crimea to Russia, and for Israeli annexation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and “transfer” of their indigenous inhabitants. Meanwhile, the actual winner of this year’s Peace Prize, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, is obsequiously pandering to Trump, and playing along with his bellicose designs on her country. In Episode 306 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg cuts through the Orwellian war-is-peace propaganda. (Image via Twitter)

Europe

Russia calls up more reserves as Ukraine war stalls

Russian authorities are preparing to call up thousands of reservists for active military service—while insisting they will not be sent to Ukraine to fight. The Main Mobilization Directorate of the General Staff announced orders that men who have been drafted and served in the military will be subject to mandatory “mobilization” for the purpose of “safeguarding strategically important facilities.” With the lines in Ukraine largely frozen in a war of attrition, the move would free up President Vladimir Putin to expand the Russian force for the “special military operation,” which is numbered at some 700,000 troops—mostly reservists who have signed contracts with the Defense Ministry. General conscripts are not sent to Ukraine, and the last call-up of reserves for the war, in September 2022, sparked a flight of young men from Russia to neighboring countries, and even scattered protests. The denial that the new mobilization is for the Ukraine war seems aimed at appeasing popular discontent, even while freeing up other soldiers to expand the invasion force. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Europe

‘Swan Lake’ anti-Putin protest in St Petersburg

Hundreds of young Russians gathered in a square in the center of St. Petersburg to defy censorship by performing a banned song that calls (in barely veiled terms) for the overthrow of Vladimir Putin. The crowd converged on the city’s iconic Palace Square to sing “Swan Lake Cooperative” by exiled rapper Noize MC, which was outlawed in May when judicial authorities labeled it “extremist.” The song title refers to the practice in Soviet times of suspending all regular TV and radio broadcasts to play Tchaikovsky’s ballet “Swan Lake” continuously whenever the old leader died or was deposed and the transition to a new one was underway. The lyrics go: “The old man still clings to his throne… When the czar dies, we’ll dance again, ‘Swan Lake’ on every screen… I want to watch the ballet… Let the old man shake in fear…” (Photo: Kanal13)

Europe

Belarusian political prisoners as pawns in power game

NATO launched a new exercise dubbed Eastern Sentry in response to the ongoing joint Russia-Belarus military exercise dubbed Zapad (West), which involves thousands of troops, naval maneuvers in the Baltic Sea, and simulated nuclear strikes. Yet two US military observers were invited to Belarus to observe the Zapad exercise, standing on a viewing platform to review forces from the same Russian army that is fighting in Ukraine. This appears to be part of a US rapprochement with Belarus, coming days after 52 Belarusian political prisoners were released in a US-brokered deal. However, the dissidents protest that they were expelled to Lithuania and not given the choice of remaining in their own country. One, former Belarusian presidential candidate Mikola Statkevich, has already been returned to a penal colony after refusing to accept exile. (Photo of Russian T-14 Armata tank via National Security Journal)

Watching the Shadows

Podcast: Trump for War-is-Peace Prize

In Donald Trump’s perverse ambition to win the Nobel Peace Prize, he is citing his supposed diplomatic victories in ending six conflicts: Armenia-Azerbaijan, Congo-Rwanda, Israel-Iran, India-Pakistan, Thailand-Cambodia and Egypt-Ethiopia. In Episode 292 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg examines each of these examples, and breaks down how claims to have won “peace” are either extremely overstated or (more often) total Orwellian jive. The implication that Russia-Ukraine will be next, as Putin escalates his aggression, puts a hideous crown on the irony. (Image via Twitter)

Europe

Podcast: Alaska 2025 = Munich 1938?

Russia’s irredentist claims on its former holding Alaska have provided fodder for comedians, but the stakes at the Trump-Putin meeting in the Last Frontier are no laughing matter. Despite the escalating mutual nuclear threats between Washington and Moscow, Trump’s call for a Russia-Ukraine “land-swap” obviously means Kyiv being forced to accept Moscow’s annexation of much of its territory in exchange for the return of other pieces its own territory illegally occupied by Russia. Meanwhile, Moscow sends drones to threaten NATO member Lithuania, which sits on the critical corridor to the Russian exclave (and tactical missile outpost) of Kaliningrad. Germany has responded by sending troops to the Baltic country—its first post-war foreign deployment. Appeasement of aggression failed to win peace at Munich in 1938, and there’s no reason to hope it will in Alaska today. But the difference is that the contending powers today have nuclear weapons. In Episode 291 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg takes an unflinching look. (Map via Wikipedia)

Planet Watch

Podcast: in defense of dissident minorities

Amid the massive war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine and Israel in Gaza, there are dissident Russians and dissident Israelis who are courageously protesting, and resisting the consolidation of a pro-genocide consensus. Recent violent and deadly attacks on perceived Israeli or pro-Israel human targets in the US meanwhile point to the dangers of the notion of collective guilt. In Episode 281 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg urges that dissident minorities must not be dismissed as irrelevant, but encouraged and offered solidarity. (Photo via Novaya Gazeta)

Europe

Operation Spiderweb: Russia responds with nuclear threats —of course

In a covert operation dubbed “Spiderweb,” the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) destroyed or damaged 41 Russian warplanes at four air-bases across the Russian Federation—Belaya (Irkutsk oblast, Siberia), Olenya (Murmansk oblast, in the Arctic), Dyagilevo (Ryazan oblast, near Moscow) and Ivanovo (in the eponymous oblast, also near Moscow). Kyiv claims it has disabled 34% of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet in the operation, carried out with over 100 drones launched from trucks hidden across Russian territory. While the Kremlin’s top officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have not commented on the Ukrainian operation at all, Russian pro-war propagandists are calling it “Russia’s Pearl Harbor,” and demanding vengeance. Prominent state TV personality Vladimir Solovyov said on his program that the Ukrainian operation is “grounds for a nuclear attack,” and called for retaliatory strikes on the Ukrainian president’s office in Kyiv and airfields in NATO members Poland and Romania allegedly used by Ukrainian aircraft. (Image via Kyiv Independent)

Europe

Russia: anti-war saboteurs face military trials

A Russian military court in Yekaterinburg sentenced 27-year-old anarchist Alexey Rozhkov to 16 years in prison for what prosecutors classified as a “terrorist act”—throwing Molotov cocktails at a military recruitment office in March 2022, causing minor damage. The incident, which occurred shortly after the start Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, was one of the earliest in a brief string of such actions across Russia in protest against the war. Meanwhile, another young anarchist, Ruslan Sidiki, took the stand in his trial at a military court in Ryazan, accused of destroying railway tracks, leading to the derailment of 19 carriages of fertilizer. Sidiki is also accused of the attempted destruction of military aircraft, on both occasions using GPS-guided drones. He said he undertook the actions to halt the movement of munitions toward the border with Ukraine, and that he took measures to avoid harming humans. He said he rejected the “terrorism” charge, since his “goal was sabotage, not the intimidation of the population.” (Image of Ruslan Sidiki: Mediazona via Meduza)

Europe

Russian activist arrested for ‘Putin Hitler’ message

A 68-year-old veteran opposition activist was arrested after displaying a sign reading “PUTIN HITLER” from a prominent bridge over the Moskva River in the center of the Russian capital. Grigory Saksonov, also known as Uncle Grisha, climbed over the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge holding the sign and clad in wetsuit before lowering himself into the water below with a rope. He was pulled out of the river by police and taken away in an ambulance. Saksonov faces charges of “taking part in an unauthorized action” and “disobeying a police officer.” Saksonov’s action came three days before Vladimir Putin presided over the 80th anniversary Victory Day parade in Red Square, a massive spectacle marking the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. (Photo via Novaya Gazeta)

Watching the Shadows

Trump boasts 100 days of deportation and detention

At a Michigan rally to commemorate the first 100 days of his term, Donald Trump focused onhis border crackdown and deportations above all else. While he bragged in his speech of firing “unnecessary deep state bureaucrats,” his racist attacks on migrants took center stage. Those attacks accelerated and entered uncharted territory the following week: the administration launched massive immigration raids, targeted sanctuary cities in an executive order, prosecuted migrants for breaching a recently declared “military zone” near the border, separated families, and even deported US citizens. (Photo: WikiMedia via Jurist)