It's a well-known fact that Moscow has a moral duty to supply subsidized energy to countries openly hostile to Russia, so why are gasoline-starved Russians complaining?
MIRACLE! Substack is at last allowing me to comment, like, etc...
When one tries to fix that shit, all one has to deal with is a fucking bot.
I haven't read that article. Why comment then? Because I want to say Riley i haven't stopped reading his Big Beautiful Articles and following his whereabouts.
Riley
So you had to live Russia and went to Egypt before going back to the US. That is the way it is...
I myself keep the Bugey Libre pseudo but I don't reside in Higher Bugey anymore. I myself had to move and found myself almost homeless. Thanks the Universe (or whatever pleases you) I now have found a place to live. It is in beautiful Bourgogne/Bresse, land of chicken, associated corn and most delicious wines. À propos wine, now that you will be in the US of Israël, I won't be able to fulfill my years long promise of sending some bottles of the divine beverage since the occupied French Post Office doesn't allow sending stuff to the USI... I haven't followed the news (lol) so I guess it is because the most powerful collapsing empire the earth has ever host must have illegally invaded a country or maybe because it does assassinate Venezuelans fishermen of bombing the shit out a country somewhere on the globe...
I wish you the best my friend!
Stay strong and flexible!
Lionel
Because there are good people commenting on that Riley's Substack that I appreciate and highly respect, they deserve to have a very big "SALUT À TOUTES ET À TOUS!"
SO glad to hear from you. I was getting worried. It's possible I might spend a few weeks somewhere in Europe before returning to Hamburgerland. If I do, and I have a reliable address, I'll pass it along to you. I remember your initial wine offering, which you made years ago it seems, and will do everything I can to accept your generous gift.
It sounds like despite your precarious situation, you've managed to land on your feet. Which makes me very happy. Wishing you all the best my friend. Let's stay in touch.
You are welcome to visit and stay for a while since there are beautiful heated cabins in the park to shelter a traveling Hobbit and maybe, if possible, I could go where you stay when you visit Europe.
"Good Tsar, bad Boyars" is a term which equally describes how oligarchs in Russia and the US dictate foreign policy. That's why it's so irrational.
Military conflicts are not about nation-state nationalism, the fear of autocracy, or any other manufactured narrative. Bloodthirsty conflicts are billionaire thug wars. Working-class tax dollars fund these needless conflicts to secure financial deals for billionaires. Unfortunately, the "deal" also requires that millions of proles are slaughtered for nothing. 😵💫
Then why didn't the US go to war with Iran when Israel did the false flag tanker attack during Trump's first term? Or just now when Trump hit Fordow? Why isn't NATO in Ukraine now, and why aren't western arms manufacturers flooding Ukraine with new equipment?
What I want to know Riley is what happened to the Casablanca Caucuses episode IV? 👀... can you link them all together please🙏 I'm still at the part where you got abducted for the 2nd time! ...and I'm worried for your safety 😄
Sadly (or maybe thankfully), there was never an Episode IV. Perhaps in the future I will get around to typing one up. It was a very goofy story, but I must admit I had fun writing it. Links to the first three parts can be found in the intro to Part I: https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/waiting-for-an-exit-visa-in-cringey
This seems to be a common theme these days. Rulers handing out money or supplies to other countries (like Argentina in my part of the world) and letting their own people pay higher prices while watching their own infrastructure collapse. Or buying foreign beef while their own farmers go bankrupt. Could there be a common thread somewhere? Hmm.
This is a truly good article beyond Russia. It made me look at my own self and my need to be a moral superpower and, in that need, compromise what’s true and sacred of my purpose. God bless you. Praying you and your beloved are ok.
It is wise to try to get along with your neighbors when the world's worst and largest terrorist organization has its sights on you. Also, it is my understanding that Russia sells fossil fuels for unusually low prices to its citizens in normal times. What is their inflation rate? Can it compare to the West's??? Would you rather they bombed the living daylights out of their neighbors like US/Israel? I am very glad Russia exists and that Putin was able to stabilize its economy. Truth is Russia has one of the lowest national debts in the world. I note you do not live in the USofA. Presumably for a lot of reasons. The cost of gasoline is crazy low here but we are paying more than a trillion dollars a year in interest (and another trillion a year for our armed forces who have now been turned on our own citizens in addition to MANY oil-producing countries around the world) in order to try to control the world's fossil fuel resources. How many countries have we decimated in the last 20 years? Yes. Trump/Epstein/Israel/et al. (the list of names is long) laundered stolen money from Russia. Was Putin involved? Maybe. But Russians who lived there at the time were as likely to be living under the poverty level than not and it was a very hard time for most Russians still living there. Of course, you are probably too young to have experienced that? I am SO glad Putin exists. I do NOT support the US wet dream of world-wide control. And if you and your girlfriend want back in Russia, stop re-publishing reactionary and dishonest-by-omission stories like this. It sounds like CIA propaganda. Don't make me barf. I much prefer stories about chickens. Russia has its own problems and history, but they have contributed a great deal to their neighbors, including something like 25 million of their citizens during WWII. I'm not wet behind my ears. I grew up on its border--what people like to call "West Asian" right now--so I know all about the KGB, oligarchs, controlled economies, living under totalitarian rule, etc. But I am very impressed by what Putin has been able to do for his country. And how adult and even-keeled he has been in these very disturbing times, unlike certain orange-hued spoiled brats.
The blog post you have commented on is an English-language translation of an article from a well-respected, Kremlin-aligned Russian media outlet, which asks very reasonable questions about why Moscow is subsidizing energy for not-particularly-friendly neighbors, even as Russians are facing a fuel crisis (rising prices, actual shortages in some areas) at home. I added my own thoughts at the end. But these are just my own opinions on the subject. Everyone is welcome to their own opinion.
You are welcome to disagree with the Tsargrad article, or my own thoughts on the article. Problem is, your comment is a series of unsupported assertions (many of which have very little to do with what this blog post is about) that don't actually address the core claims of the Tsargrad article.
I for one appreciate the article which gives a clearer view of
what is happening in many provinces and various satellite states affiliated with Russia. USA alt news focuses only on Moscow and St.Petersburg which are Russian showplaces or officials who spout the party line or only focus on war in Ukraine. In the USA people ignore the vastness of Russia and like here in the USA ignore what is happening outside large cities where most of the population lives. Winter is coming - huge shortages will affect morale and possibly reduce heating oil resulting in deaths. The cost of war is born by all the little people Thanks for printing this article to help educate us in the west who get no info or only propagabda from the ‘official’ media.
I don't know why your comment went to my spam folder, but it did. Never been to Russia. I do not know. However, I have been watching Russia for quite awhile now since the US, Europe, and Israel, as well as some actors who should know better, have been behaving extraordinarily badly for years now. And I am still impressed with Putin.
I Just watched a Danny Haiphong show (I think) with a number of knowledgeable geopolitical commenters in which one of them stated that Russia is only using roughly a quarter of their refineries. Approximately 75% of their refineries are not being used because Ukraine is trying to take out the ones in use. Which is sensible since so many countries are bound and determined to take out Russia. Which is crazy since they are operating on assumptions that are made up by the propaganda machines. That story said they had pre-existing treaties. Honoring pre-existing treaties is what NORMAL, grown-up countries do. The reason there's conflict between Russia and Ukraine is that the US and NATO and Ukraine are not normal or grown-up. Clearly.
So...that story still doesn't make much sense. Maybe it's part of the Russian propaganda machine. Who knows. I do not believe Russia is on death's doorstep. Sorry. That pig don't fly.
If Russia want to survive mast . Arrest al Oligarchs end banking’s elites end Chabad Lubovic sekte end arrests Putin end oligarchs in the FSB . This is only beginning of destruction of Russia by Putin 🤡
Who will arrest the ‘oligarchs’ or Putin’s cronies- the whole world now operates on a ‘mafia’ system every aspect of world governments bought and paid for, banks money launderers extraordinaire, corporations in collusion with government and big business part of war machine - the deck has been stacked post WWII and is in fact more like a huge worldwide cartel feeding off each other to our detriment. Black ops a way of life.
I fully agree. Thoughts and prayers for the Russian oligarchs who sell Russia's natural resources to countries killing Russians. It's a thankless task.
sarcasm is cheap and easy. i use it a lot. but it rarely does more than draw attention to a fact I have to admit. that's its aim. Rarely fixes anything.
In fact it is not news that the web of oligarchic interests much confuse and compound the difficulties of 'warfare'.
'warfare' need the quotes, doesn't it, because where does it begin and where does it end?
Always ready to scoff and mock ( and hound to death?) war profiteers and those who trade with the enemy we're silenced perhaps when we are made to see how we do or would do the same thing by choice in certain circumstances.
So what I got from this post was that the Russian state are making non-Russian lives somewhat better at the expense of the everyday wellbeing of ordinary Russian citizens, raising the question of why would the Russian state do that to their own people? It's a headscratcher certainly. In Britain, where criminal migrants who have entered the country illegally are now being provided by the British state with more resources (including new-build houses) and more legal rights than actual citizens (including veterans), many British people are asking similar questions. Seems to be a pattern. Perhaps treachery is very on-trend this season?
As a an now elderly reader of your column, this has taken me back to when the CCCP delivered the same largess to a large island off the coast of the US, and then asked them to allow very dangerous missiles to be based there; a long story everyone now knows about.
It remains my firm opinion that if one throws bricks through your neighbours windows, then they will throw bricks back through yours. So I have to disagree with the following from the article:
"Even the author’s more direct criticisms of the Kremlin—that it has failed to “articulate a mission” for Russia, leading to rudderless policy-making—rules out the possibility that the Russian government has articulated a mission, and that its seemingly directionless policy decisions, which often treat the interests of the Russian people as a secondary consideration, reflect this mission.
This is another example of the limitations of heuristic-based thinking. Common sense would dictate that the Russian government works to advance the interests of the Russian people. Ergo, if these interests are being neglected, it’s likely for completely innocent reasons: Cynical, self-serving neighbors are taking advantage of the Kremlin’s boundless generosity, while its search for a clear mission is burdened by its own naivety and desire to help others.
To presume otherwise would defy common sense and lead to unpleasant thoughts. "
It is thus surely without doubt that Russia is indeed delivering it's mission statement in Ukraine; that it wants it's once close neighbour to give it's land and population to Russia, or if it refuses; Russia will set too to destroy it's neighbour's land and kill their population. Yes, indeed, unpleasant thoughts, but that is surely the simple explanation of recent events.
History shows that those that start such wars seldom succeed. And then add that to set the war into motion required the deliberate elimination of anyone who would publicly stand up and argue, peacefully I must add, as a political rival to the present leadership.
Russia has a well presented mission. Sadly, it may very well have to be re-drafted in much more peaceful terms by the ordinary people of Russia; who, in turn, will, no doubt, face the possibility of their elimination as well; while trying to break through with a much more peaceful mission of their own. Debate anyone?
Good to know that the oligarchs there are doing very well. Important people should not be accountable or criticized
:)
Since the vast majority of people (including Russians) accepted the Covid hoax, it is clear that they will accept ANYTHING no matter how abusive.
As Robert Heinlein said, never try to educate a mark (sucker); you will only piss him off and waste your time.
MIRACLE! Substack is at last allowing me to comment, like, etc...
When one tries to fix that shit, all one has to deal with is a fucking bot.
I haven't read that article. Why comment then? Because I want to say Riley i haven't stopped reading his Big Beautiful Articles and following his whereabouts.
Riley
So you had to live Russia and went to Egypt before going back to the US. That is the way it is...
I myself keep the Bugey Libre pseudo but I don't reside in Higher Bugey anymore. I myself had to move and found myself almost homeless. Thanks the Universe (or whatever pleases you) I now have found a place to live. It is in beautiful Bourgogne/Bresse, land of chicken, associated corn and most delicious wines. À propos wine, now that you will be in the US of Israël, I won't be able to fulfill my years long promise of sending some bottles of the divine beverage since the occupied French Post Office doesn't allow sending stuff to the USI... I haven't followed the news (lol) so I guess it is because the most powerful collapsing empire the earth has ever host must have illegally invaded a country or maybe because it does assassinate Venezuelans fishermen of bombing the shit out a country somewhere on the globe...
I wish you the best my friend!
Stay strong and flexible!
Lionel
Because there are good people commenting on that Riley's Substack that I appreciate and highly respect, they deserve to have a very big "SALUT À TOUTES ET À TOUS!"
Lionel
Lionel!!!
SO glad to hear from you. I was getting worried. It's possible I might spend a few weeks somewhere in Europe before returning to Hamburgerland. If I do, and I have a reliable address, I'll pass it along to you. I remember your initial wine offering, which you made years ago it seems, and will do everything I can to accept your generous gift.
It sounds like despite your precarious situation, you've managed to land on your feet. Which makes me very happy. Wishing you all the best my friend. Let's stay in touch.
-- Riley
This might be the place where the Universe/jah (or whatever pleases you) drove Bugey Libre:
https://domainedeseveils.fr/
It could have been worst, couldn't it?
You are welcome to visit and stay for a while since there are beautiful heated cabins in the park to shelter a traveling Hobbit and maybe, if possible, I could go where you stay when you visit Europe.
Meanwhile I'll start collecting interesting bottles...
Let's stay in touch
Lionel
"Good Tsar, bad Boyars" is a term which equally describes how oligarchs in Russia and the US dictate foreign policy. That's why it's so irrational.
Military conflicts are not about nation-state nationalism, the fear of autocracy, or any other manufactured narrative. Bloodthirsty conflicts are billionaire thug wars. Working-class tax dollars fund these needless conflicts to secure financial deals for billionaires. Unfortunately, the "deal" also requires that millions of proles are slaughtered for nothing. 😵💫
Then why didn't the US go to war with Iran when Israel did the false flag tanker attack during Trump's first term? Or just now when Trump hit Fordow? Why isn't NATO in Ukraine now, and why aren't western arms manufacturers flooding Ukraine with new equipment?
Proxy wars are fattening the MIC while killing non-American proles.
What I want to know Riley is what happened to the Casablanca Caucuses episode IV? 👀... can you link them all together please🙏 I'm still at the part where you got abducted for the 2nd time! ...and I'm worried for your safety 😄
Sadly (or maybe thankfully), there was never an Episode IV. Perhaps in the future I will get around to typing one up. It was a very goofy story, but I must admit I had fun writing it. Links to the first three parts can be found in the intro to Part I: https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/waiting-for-an-exit-visa-in-cringey
This seems to be a common theme these days. Rulers handing out money or supplies to other countries (like Argentina in my part of the world) and letting their own people pay higher prices while watching their own infrastructure collapse. Or buying foreign beef while their own farmers go bankrupt. Could there be a common thread somewhere? Hmm.
This is a truly good article beyond Russia. It made me look at my own self and my need to be a moral superpower and, in that need, compromise what’s true and sacred of my purpose. God bless you. Praying you and your beloved are ok.
This reminds me of the Great Famine of China (1959 - 1961): food export continued unabated during this period.
Really makes you think about the priority of global elites, east or west.
It is wise to try to get along with your neighbors when the world's worst and largest terrorist organization has its sights on you. Also, it is my understanding that Russia sells fossil fuels for unusually low prices to its citizens in normal times. What is their inflation rate? Can it compare to the West's??? Would you rather they bombed the living daylights out of their neighbors like US/Israel? I am very glad Russia exists and that Putin was able to stabilize its economy. Truth is Russia has one of the lowest national debts in the world. I note you do not live in the USofA. Presumably for a lot of reasons. The cost of gasoline is crazy low here but we are paying more than a trillion dollars a year in interest (and another trillion a year for our armed forces who have now been turned on our own citizens in addition to MANY oil-producing countries around the world) in order to try to control the world's fossil fuel resources. How many countries have we decimated in the last 20 years? Yes. Trump/Epstein/Israel/et al. (the list of names is long) laundered stolen money from Russia. Was Putin involved? Maybe. But Russians who lived there at the time were as likely to be living under the poverty level than not and it was a very hard time for most Russians still living there. Of course, you are probably too young to have experienced that? I am SO glad Putin exists. I do NOT support the US wet dream of world-wide control. And if you and your girlfriend want back in Russia, stop re-publishing reactionary and dishonest-by-omission stories like this. It sounds like CIA propaganda. Don't make me barf. I much prefer stories about chickens. Russia has its own problems and history, but they have contributed a great deal to their neighbors, including something like 25 million of their citizens during WWII. I'm not wet behind my ears. I grew up on its border--what people like to call "West Asian" right now--so I know all about the KGB, oligarchs, controlled economies, living under totalitarian rule, etc. But I am very impressed by what Putin has been able to do for his country. And how adult and even-keeled he has been in these very disturbing times, unlike certain orange-hued spoiled brats.
The blog post you have commented on is an English-language translation of an article from a well-respected, Kremlin-aligned Russian media outlet, which asks very reasonable questions about why Moscow is subsidizing energy for not-particularly-friendly neighbors, even as Russians are facing a fuel crisis (rising prices, actual shortages in some areas) at home. I added my own thoughts at the end. But these are just my own opinions on the subject. Everyone is welcome to their own opinion.
You are welcome to disagree with the Tsargrad article, or my own thoughts on the article. Problem is, your comment is a series of unsupported assertions (many of which have very little to do with what this blog post is about) that don't actually address the core claims of the Tsargrad article.
I for one appreciate the article which gives a clearer view of
what is happening in many provinces and various satellite states affiliated with Russia. USA alt news focuses only on Moscow and St.Petersburg which are Russian showplaces or officials who spout the party line or only focus on war in Ukraine. In the USA people ignore the vastness of Russia and like here in the USA ignore what is happening outside large cities where most of the population lives. Winter is coming - huge shortages will affect morale and possibly reduce heating oil resulting in deaths. The cost of war is born by all the little people Thanks for printing this article to help educate us in the west who get no info or only propagabda from the ‘official’ media.
I don't know why your comment went to my spam folder, but it did. Never been to Russia. I do not know. However, I have been watching Russia for quite awhile now since the US, Europe, and Israel, as well as some actors who should know better, have been behaving extraordinarily badly for years now. And I am still impressed with Putin.
I Just watched a Danny Haiphong show (I think) with a number of knowledgeable geopolitical commenters in which one of them stated that Russia is only using roughly a quarter of their refineries. Approximately 75% of their refineries are not being used because Ukraine is trying to take out the ones in use. Which is sensible since so many countries are bound and determined to take out Russia. Which is crazy since they are operating on assumptions that are made up by the propaganda machines. That story said they had pre-existing treaties. Honoring pre-existing treaties is what NORMAL, grown-up countries do. The reason there's conflict between Russia and Ukraine is that the US and NATO and Ukraine are not normal or grown-up. Clearly.
So...that story still doesn't make much sense. Maybe it's part of the Russian propaganda machine. Who knows. I do not believe Russia is on death's doorstep. Sorry. That pig don't fly.
If Russia want to survive mast . Arrest al Oligarchs end banking’s elites end Chabad Lubovic sekte end arrests Putin end oligarchs in the FSB . This is only beginning of destruction of Russia by Putin 🤡
Who will arrest the ‘oligarchs’ or Putin’s cronies- the whole world now operates on a ‘mafia’ system every aspect of world governments bought and paid for, banks money launderers extraordinaire, corporations in collusion with government and big business part of war machine - the deck has been stacked post WWII and is in fact more like a huge worldwide cartel feeding off each other to our detriment. Black ops a way of life.
You are 100% right system round the world is run by 👹 elite end oligarchs
Thanks, Ed. Good article.
Hoe benefiet from this war , only one country China .
Yep. I'll echo that:
We mustn’t be too quick to judge. It’s not easy being the world’s only moral superpower.
And we can leave out the sarcasm if it is there, it's in the eye of many a beholder I'm sure, it sure as hell ain't easy to be Russia.
I fully agree. Thoughts and prayers for the Russian oligarchs who sell Russia's natural resources to countries killing Russians. It's a thankless task.
Business as usual for venal rulers who have no moral compass.
sarcasm is cheap and easy. i use it a lot. but it rarely does more than draw attention to a fact I have to admit. that's its aim. Rarely fixes anything.
In fact it is not news that the web of oligarchic interests much confuse and compound the difficulties of 'warfare'.
'warfare' need the quotes, doesn't it, because where does it begin and where does it end?
Always ready to scoff and mock ( and hound to death?) war profiteers and those who trade with the enemy we're silenced perhaps when we are made to see how we do or would do the same thing by choice in certain circumstances.
This sounds like Putin is making all these 'independent' republics very dependent.
So what I got from this post was that the Russian state are making non-Russian lives somewhat better at the expense of the everyday wellbeing of ordinary Russian citizens, raising the question of why would the Russian state do that to their own people? It's a headscratcher certainly. In Britain, where criminal migrants who have entered the country illegally are now being provided by the British state with more resources (including new-build houses) and more legal rights than actual citizens (including veterans), many British people are asking similar questions. Seems to be a pattern. Perhaps treachery is very on-trend this season?
It's like setting up people to commit crime in order to punish them in the future.
Sounds familiar?
Time to switch to safe, affordable Chinese electric vehicles
As a an now elderly reader of your column, this has taken me back to when the CCCP delivered the same largess to a large island off the coast of the US, and then asked them to allow very dangerous missiles to be based there; a long story everyone now knows about.
It remains my firm opinion that if one throws bricks through your neighbours windows, then they will throw bricks back through yours. So I have to disagree with the following from the article:
"Even the author’s more direct criticisms of the Kremlin—that it has failed to “articulate a mission” for Russia, leading to rudderless policy-making—rules out the possibility that the Russian government has articulated a mission, and that its seemingly directionless policy decisions, which often treat the interests of the Russian people as a secondary consideration, reflect this mission.
This is another example of the limitations of heuristic-based thinking. Common sense would dictate that the Russian government works to advance the interests of the Russian people. Ergo, if these interests are being neglected, it’s likely for completely innocent reasons: Cynical, self-serving neighbors are taking advantage of the Kremlin’s boundless generosity, while its search for a clear mission is burdened by its own naivety and desire to help others.
To presume otherwise would defy common sense and lead to unpleasant thoughts. "
It is thus surely without doubt that Russia is indeed delivering it's mission statement in Ukraine; that it wants it's once close neighbour to give it's land and population to Russia, or if it refuses; Russia will set too to destroy it's neighbour's land and kill their population. Yes, indeed, unpleasant thoughts, but that is surely the simple explanation of recent events.
History shows that those that start such wars seldom succeed. And then add that to set the war into motion required the deliberate elimination of anyone who would publicly stand up and argue, peacefully I must add, as a political rival to the present leadership.
Russia has a well presented mission. Sadly, it may very well have to be re-drafted in much more peaceful terms by the ordinary people of Russia; who, in turn, will, no doubt, face the possibility of their elimination as well; while trying to break through with a much more peaceful mission of their own. Debate anyone?