Pentagon Press Briefing | Russia Attack Ukraine Live | Russia Vs Ukraine | Russia Ukraine War | N18G
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Putin's new missile leaves the whole of Europe minutes from Armageddon: Hypersonic weapon used in Ukraine 'could hit London in 20 minutes' and strike anywhere in Europe with multiple nuclear warheads
Vladimir Putin's experimental hypersonic rocket unleashed on Ukraine for the first time yesterday could strike any city in Europe in under 20 minutes, it is feared.
Ukraine's air force raised the alarm early Thursday morning that Russia's forces had deployed an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) as security cameras captured the moment multiple warheads rained down over the city of Dnipro.
Putin later revealed the strike was conducted by the 'Oreshnik' - a never-before-seen intermediate-range ballistic missile (IBRM) - in response to Ukraine's use of UK-supplied Storm Shadow rockets to hit targets in Russia's Kursk region.
The weapon is not as powerful or fast as Russia's most fearsome ICBMs like the RS-24 Yars, which is capable of unleashing several separate nuclear warheads anywhere in the US after flying through space at 19,000mph.
But the 'Oreshnik' is still a hypersonic projectile that can fly at 10 times the speed of sound - or around 7,600mph - up to a range of roughly 5,000km, or 3,100 miles, according to Russian military sources.
If the missile was launched from the Kapustin Yar range in Russia's southern Astrakhan region, as it was in yesterday's strike on Ukraine, Putin could still comfortably hit any target in Europe or the UK without having to turn to his most powerful weapons.
Targets in London would go up in flames in under 20 minutes while Berlin further east would have less than 15 minutes before impact.
Russian military analysts also warned that the Oreshnik was certainly nuclear-capable, despite being armed with conventional warheads in the strike on Ukraine.
The moment Russia used the Oreshnik for the first time to strike Dnipro, on November 21
A Russian animation simulates how a Yars ICBM is deployed
The RS-24 Yars is capable of unleashing up to four separate nuclear warheads anywhere in the US after flying through space at 19,000mph
Russia's ambassador to the UK yesterday declared that Ukraine's use of Storm Shadow missiles on Russian territory means Britain 'is now directly involved in this war'.
'This firing cannot happen without NATO staff, British staff as well,' Andrei Kelin told Sky News this afternoon - a day after British-made rockets battered a military base in Russia's Kursk region.
The Kremlin followed with a statement this morning saying that yesterday's strike was a clear response to the West that Moscow will not tolerate further escalations.
And Vladimir Putin reportedly called a secret meeting with top military brass for this evening after a top British military official insisted the armed forces would be ready to fight tonight if called upon.
The US and UK authorised Kyiv to hit targets on Russian soil with Storm Shadow and ATACMS rockets over the weekend. Ukraine's forces acted quickly, putting them to use in two different attacks in Russia's Bryansk and Kursk regions.
'The main message is that the reckless decisions and actions of Western countries, which produce missiles, supply them to Ukraine and subsequently take part in carrying out strikes on Russian territory, cannot remain without a reaction from the Russian side,' Peskov said.
'We are in no doubt that the current administration in Washington has had the chance to familiarise itself with this announcement and understand it.'
But Western leaders have rebuffed the warning.
Sir Keir Starmer's office said yesterday: 'If (the suspected ICBM strike) is true, clearly this would be another example of grave, reckless and escalatory behaviour from Russia and only serves to strengthen our resolve.'
Swedish Defence Minister Pal Jonson said Stockholm would not be intimidated by Russia's provocations.
'The Russian escalation and provocation that we've been noticing recently is an attempt to scare us from supporting Ukraine, and that will fail. This will not happen,' Jonson told reporters at a joint press conference in Stockholm with his Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umerov.
A grab taken from handout footage released by the Russian Defence Ministry on March 1, 2024 purport to show the test firing of an ICBM belonging to the country's nuclear deterrence forces
The Pentagon said the Oreshnik was based on the RS-26 Frontier - another nuclear-capable missile that experts say blurs the lines between IBRM and ICBM.
Missiles are generally classified as ICBMs if they can strike targets at distances greater than 5,500km, or 3,417 miles.
The RS-26 is said to have a maximum range of roughly 5,800km with a single, lightweight warhead, but has mostly been tested with heavier payloads at much shorter ranges.
Development of the RS-26 was launched in 2008 and its first-ever successful test launch unfolded in May of 2012.
Based on its reported capabilities, the Oreshnik is likely a lighter, less powerful variant of an RS-26 missile designed for strikes at ranges between a few hundred and 5,000km.
US defence officials also confirmed yesterday that Moscow had notified Washington ahead of the strike on Ukraine through nuclear risk reduction channels to avoid triggering early launch warning alarms and a possible response.
Security cameras caught the moment several warheads streaked through the night sky and triggered a series of violent explosions in Dnipro yesterday.
The ferocity, speed and coordinated nature of the salvos suggested the explosions were caused by MIRVs (multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles) released by the Oreshnik.
MIRVs are typically a feature of nuclear ICBMs designed for full-scale attacks on targets thousands of miles away - one missile can carry multiple warheads that break up and can be guided onto separate targets.
Experts said Putin's use of an advanced hypersonic weapon to deliver a non-nuclear strike on Ukraine was very costly but served to illustrate how Moscow could dramatically escalate the conflict.
Dr Ruth Deyermond, Senior Lecturer in Post-Soviet Security at King's College London, told MailOnline: 'This strike has no obvious military value - they could achieve the same objectives without sacrificing (an ICBM or advanced missile).
'It looks very much as if it's signalling to the West what Russia could do if it chose to - launch a nuclear-armed missile. But it's actually a sign of weakness,' she added.
'The Russian government knows what would happen to it if they did attempt to use any kind of nuclear weapon, so they have to resort to bluffing.'
Dr Mattias Eken, a defence and security analyst at RAND Europe, added: 'The reported range of 700km (to Dnipro) falls short of the typical intercontinental range. Nevertheless, such a strike could have a symbolic value.
'The message that Putin and Russia are trying to send to the West is: we too have missiles that can strike anywhere in the world.
'Particularly after the US allowed ATACMS/Storm Shadow to target Russia, Putin may have felt compelled to demonstrate Russia's ability to use long-range missiles as well.'
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Putin says he will fire MORE of Russia's new hypersonic missiles at targets in Ukraine and has already begun mass production of the nuclear-capable weapon
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Vladimir Putin has said he will fire more of Russia 's new hypersonic missiles at targets in Ukraine
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'Ukraine's defence minister is already holding meetings with our partners on new air defence systems - exactly the kind of systems that can protect lives from new risks,' Zelensky said in an evening video address published on social media.
Ukraine's parliament canceled a session as security was tightened following Thursday's Russian strike on the military facility in Dnipro.
NATO and Ukraine will hold emergency talks Tuesday after Russia attacked Dnipro with the experimental, hypersonic ballistic missile that escalated the nearly 33-month-old war.
The conflict is 'entering a decisive phase,' Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday, and 'taking on very dramatic dimensions.'
Gen. Sergei Karakayev, head of Russia's Strategic Missile Forces, said the Oreshnik could reach targets across Europe and be fitted with nuclear or conventional warheads, echoing Putin's claim that even with conventional warheads, 'the massive use of the weapon would be comparable in effect to the use of nuclear weapons.'
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov kept up Russia's bellicose tone on Friday, blaming 'the reckless decisions and actions of Western countries' in supplying weapons to Ukraine to strike Russia.
'The Russian side has clearly demonstrated its capabilities, and the contours of further retaliatory actions in the event that our concerns were not taken into account have also been quite clearly outlined,' he said.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, widely seen as having the warmest relations with the Kremlin in the European Union, echoed Moscow's talking points, suggesting the use of U.S.-supplied weapons in Ukraine likely requires direct American involvement.
'These are rockets that are fired and then guided to a target via an electronic system, which requires the world's most advanced technology and satellite communications capability,' Orbán said on state radio. 'There is a strong assumption - that these missiles cannot be guided without the assistance of American personnel.'
Orbán cautioned against underestimating Russia's responses, emphasizing that the country's recent modifications to its nuclear deployment doctrine should not be dismissed as a 'bluff.' 'It's not a trick- there will be consequences,' he said.
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С интересом и понятными ожиданиями, Dimitriy.
West faces biggest threat since 1945 says Trump military adviser amid growing WW3 fears as Putin vows to keep up massive missiles attacks on Ukraine
War games with an increasingly belligerent axis of powers has placed the West in its gravest peril since the end of the Second World War, a top US military official and adviser to Donald Trump has warned.
The threat of direct conflict with Russia over the war in Ukraine has escalated in recent days following the decision to allow Kyiv to fire long-range missiles deep into Russia - prompting a stern warning of nuclear retaliation from Moscow.
General Jack Keane, former vice chief of the US army, told The Times that the war in Ukraine will remain a top priority for the incoming administration, despite fears Donald Trump could withdraw vital American support for Ukraine's war effort.
He described North Korea's decision to reinforce Russia's lines with troops as 'the biggest escalation in the war', warning the burgeoning alliance between Russia, North Korea, Iran and China presents 'the most serious and dangerous challenge' to the West in nearly a century.
'Putin is accelerating things. I'm in favour of negotiating with when it is in Ukraine's best interest. But I don't think he wants to negotiate a deal. He would rather take the whole country,' he warned.
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Tensions have ratcheted up in the wake of Russia's use of what appeared to be an experimental intermediate-range ballistic missile on Dnipro on November 21.
The missile - dubbed the Oreshnik - carries multiple warheads, is believed to be nuclear-capable, and travels at a speed and trajectory that makes it difficult to intercept.
Analysts have warned the missile was designed to send a message of 'back off' to the West after the US finally conceded Ukraine the right to use its ATACMS missiles to hit deep into Russia as Ukraine looks to slow the momentum of advancing troops.
Ukraine is still holding its ground in Russia's Kursk region, but Putin's forces have made gains in recent weeks with support from some 10,000 North Korean troops reported to have been deployed to help repel Ukraine.
Russia only yesterday claimed to have captured the settlement of Novodmytrivka in Donetsk region, their latest gain in what Defence Minister Andrei Belousov described as an accelerated advance.
General Keane warned that while Russia is struggling to make 'major gains' and is suffering 30,000 casualties every month, Moscow is working 'effectively' with its allies.
Putin said that Russia would keep testing its new hypersonic Oreshnik missile 'including in combat conditions' depending on the 'situation and the nature of the security threats that are created for Russia' in televised comments on Friday.
Amid mounting concern about the prospect of direct confrontation with Russia, NATO chief Mark Rutte held talks with President-elect Donald Trump in Florida on the 'global security issues facing the alliance' on Friday.
In his first term Trump aggressively pushed Europe to step up defence spending and questioned the fairness of the NATO transatlantic alliance.
Rutte, the former Dutch prime minister, had said he wanted to meet Trump two days after Trump was elected on November 5, and discuss the threat of increasingly warming ties between North Korea and Russia.
Trump's thumping victory to return to the US presidency has set nerves jangling in Europe that he could pull the plug on vital Washington military aid for Ukraine.
NATO allies say keeping Kyiv in the fight against Moscow is key to both European and American security.
'What we see more and more is that North Korea, Iran, China and of course Russia are working together, working together against Ukraine,' Rutte said recently at a European leaders' meeting in Budapest.
'At the same time, Russia has to pay for this, and one of the things they are doing is delivering technology to North Korea', which he warned was threatening to the 'mainland of the US (and) continental Europe'.
Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with the Ministry of Defence leadership, representatives of the defense industry and missile systems developers, in Moscow, Russia November 22
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Kim Jong Un taking part in a photo session with military staff in Pyongyang, November 21
Kim Jong Un (C, on podium) attending an opening ceremony for the National Defence Development-2024 exhibition in Pyongyang, on November 21
American isolationism could present an existential threat to Europe if leaders are unable to rise to Russia's challenge with heightened security and defence spending.
European military officials have warned that the West is at risk of falling behind poorer nations in the development of new weapons technology after decades of spending stagnation and cuts.
General Alfons Mais, head of the German army, called for considerably higher defence spending to allow Western countries to protect themselves after reports emerged of Russia's strike on Dnipro.
Speaking at the Berlin Security Conference, he said: 'It's our task to convey the message that the threat is real. Our way of life is in danger.'
'To maintain the cohesion of the alliance, Europe has to deliver. We cannot outsource our security to others,' he added.
Mais said the German military was racing to catch up on new types of warfare, such as the use of drones, which have rapidly developed during the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The conference also heard from the head of the UK's armed forces, Sir Tony Radakin, who warned that Britain simply does not have 'some of the civil aspects or planning aspects' that some other NATO allies have 'as part of their traditions' to handle a war.
Nordic nations are taking pre-emptive steps to safeguard their populations for the possibility of war, stockpiling supplies and readying citizens to find shelter, give first aid and potentially take a role in national defence.
But Britain's efforts on civil defence remain woefully light, with many Cold War-era preparations, like guidance, shelters and stockpiles, retired in the decades since.
'We are having those conversations to learn from our colleagues and see what might be appropriate for ourselves,' Sir Radakin told an audience of representatives from Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia and Lithuania.
'It's an area where we don't have the culture of total defence. We don't have some of the civil aspects or planning aspects that other countries within Nato have as part of their traditions.'
Sweden announced this week that it would be sending out five million pamphlets to residents urging them to prepare for the possibility of a looming conflict amid fears of escalation within Europe.
The Finnish government published a digital booklet preparing citizens for incidents and crises, and reminded residents of their 'obligation' to defending the nation.
And Norway also distributed booklets with advice on how to manage in the event of a crisis. Residents have shared how they have started stockpiling iodine after being told that it could help block the absorption of radioactive iodine in the event of a nuclear war.
Ukrainian service members attend a military exercises during drills at a training ground, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Chernihiv region, Ukraine, November 22, 2024
A Ukrainian service member attends military exercises during drills at a training ground, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Chernihiv region, Ukraine, November 22, 2024
The Oreshnik hypersonic missile used on Thursday morning can fly at 10 times the speed of sound - around 7,600mph - up to a range of 3,100 miles, according to Russian military sources.
If again launched from Kapustin Yar in Astrakhan, a missile could hit any target in Europe, destroying targets in London in under 20 minutes. Berlin would have less than 15 minutes before impact.
Russia reportedly closed the airspace around its Kapustin Yar missile testing site today, although it was not immediately clear whether this was to launch another strike or continue non-combat testing.
'Today, from 6:00 to 22:00, the airspace will be completely closed in the area of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) test site, Kapustin Yar, as part of testing,' an alert read.
'This could indicate the possible combat use of a medium-range ballistic missile. Do not ignore any alerts.'
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How the elite will see out the apocalypse: World's most luxurious bunkers from 200ft-deep Kansas Survival Condo to sprawling lairs buried in Swiss mountains - as the megarich prepare for WW3
The spectre of nuclear war is looming, with Vladimir Putin broadening the criteria under which Moscow can deploy its fearsome atomic arsenal and Kremlin mouthpieces threatening to sink the UK under a 'radioactive tidal wave'.
Sweden has warned its citizens to seek shelter in the event of a nuclear attack, while Norway and Denmark have issued advice on taking iodine tablets to protect against radiation in the event of a nuclear accident.
Among the mega-rich, more drastic preparations are being made, with many more investing in life-saving but also luxurious bolt-holes to see out doomsday over recent years.
'It got really busy, and it seems like the phone hasn't stopped ringing; World War III seems like it's coming,' Ron Hubbard, CEO of Texas-based Atlas Survival Shelters said earlier this year.
He was responding to news that Facebook Mark Zuckerberg was building a 5,000-square-foot bunker under his Hawaiian ranch, something the shelter entrepreneur said that prompted 'a buying frenzy.'
Appetite for secure underground lock-ups also increased amid uncertainty around the US election, bunker brokers claim, with sales reportedly booming over the past few months.
Hubbard's is among a host of firms which stand ready to meet the increased demand, as the global security situation becomes increasingly uncertain.
Others include Rising S, which says it has built 14 bunkers in New Zealand; Survival Condo, which converts abandoned US missile silos into underground apartment blocks; and Swiss firm Oppidum, which offers 'ultra-luxury' bunkers for billionaires.
Here, MailOnline takes a look inside some of the most deluxe doomsday dugouts on the market, and plans for secret lairs that only billionaires can afford.
Swiss firm Oppidum builds bunkers beneath wealthy clients' homes
The reinforced doors to the Survival Condo in Kansas, are guarded by security and surrounded by CCTV cameras and boasts bulletproof doors and tunnels
USA
America is the home of the 'prepper' community - with the number of people who are part of this survivalist movement doubling to 20 million since 2017, according to recent research.
While most focus on stocking up their homes or reinforcing their basements, those with disposable wealth turn to investing in bunkers, often in old military facilities.
One such shelter, developed by bunker company Vivos, was set up near the Black Hills of South Dakota, at a site consisting of 575 military bunkers that served as an Army Munitions Depot until 1967.
It was designed to accommodate about 5,000 people, with the interiors of each bunker kitted out by the owners at a cost of between $25,000 to $200,000 each.
The compound was designed with all the amenities of a small town, including a community theater, a school, gardens, a clinic, spa and gym. Vivos describes its bunkers as 'The Backup Plan For Humanity'.
The 'Survival Condo' is another luxury bunker designed to protect buyers from a potential apocalypse, but rather than being a former shelter it instead began its life as a Cold War missile silo.
Vivos underground bunkers describe themselves as 'The Backup Plan For Humanity'
Entrepreneur Larry Hall, a self-confessed doomsday 'prepper', bought the Kansas site in 2008, and transformed it into a luxury condo that can sustain 75 residents for more than five years.
The bunker descends 15 floors below the ground, each accessible by a high speed elevator. The communal areas are at the top levels, while the individual housing units sit below.
Constructed in the early 60s it was one of 72 structures designed to withstand a nuclear warhead 100 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Nagaski.
Hall bought the silo in 2008 for $300,000, after coming up with the idea following the devastation of the 9/11 attacks.
It houses a climbing wall, arcade, cinema, bar, and snooker room to keep residents entertained for years
Over the next two years, he had transformed the 200ft deep building into a self-sufficient bunker.
The only indication of the small community that lies below are the security guards and offices above ground, while the main entrance to the silo is a reinforced bulletproof door.
But Hall spent an estimated $20million converting it into a fortified shelter which features a library, classroom, medical centre, general store and an aquaponics area to grow vegetables.
It also houses a climbing wall, arcade, cinema, bar, and snooker room to keep residents entertained for years.
A library in the Survival Condo. The communal spaces are at the top of the complex while private living quarters are below
It has several different layouts for prospective buyers to choose from, including a 900-square-foot half-floor residence priced from $1.5million to a two-level, 3,600-square-foot penthouse that starts at $4.5 million.
As well as the price of buying a unit, owners must spend $2500 per month to cover the living expenses - food, Internet, electricity and water
'All of our people are self-made millionaires. They're very successful: doctors, engineers, lawyers, international business people... almost all of them have children,' Hall said. 'And they're concerned about the 'what if' scenario.'
According to Hall, those scenarios include superstorms, tsunamis, earthquakes and economic collapse.
Following a surge in interest caused by the shock of the pandemic, Hall reportedly has several more projects in the works in the US, Europe and Asia.
A cross section of one of Survival Condos missile silo turned 75-person shelter. The company has one completed and a second in the works
Germany
Like its luxury bunkers in the US, Vivos Europa One shelter, in the German village of Rothenstein, promises to have both 'life-saving' capabilities and luxury finishes.
The firm describes it as 'one of the most fortified underground survival shelters on Earth,' built into a military base used during the Cold War.
It claims the facility is 'capable of withstanding a substantial close range nuclear blast, a direct airliner crash, biological and chemical agents, massive shock waves, earthquakes, electro-magnetic pulses, flooding and virtually any armed attack.'
Pictures said to show the complex, which Vivos claims covers around 230,000 square feet, show futuristic interiors, were released in 2015.
Although the cost per apartment is not known, the property is reportedly valued at around $1.1billion - meaning it will likely be available only to the super-rich.
Each family buying a lot in the complex can expect a private 2,500-square-foot apartment, which the company says they can design and build to their own specifications.
They may decide to add a pool, a theater or a deluxe bathroom, and will also have access to a hospital area, several restaurants and a bakery, Vivos says.
Pictures said to show the complex, which Vivos claims covers around 230,000 square feet, show futuristic interiors, were released in 2015
Vivos has released pictures of swimming pools and other amenities in its underground bunker
Other common area amenities will include roadways, a wine cellar, prayer rooms, classrooms, a television station and a detention centre.
Families will pay a base sum for their apartment, along with their share of the costs for managing and staffing the complex, and other costs.
The investment could save their lives, Vivos says, as the 76-acre complex can survive a 'substantial' close-range nuclear blast or natural disaster.
In addition to its blast-proof living areas, the bunker also boasts 43,906 square feet of above-ground space, Forbes previously reported.
Underground, it features countless tunnel chambers, each with their own security system, and numerous sets of blast-proof doors with airtight seals.
It also has its own self-contained water and power generation system, as well as climate, ventilation, air filtration and communication systems.
Families will pay a base sum for their apartment, along with their share of the costs for managing and staffing the complex, and other costs
Switzerland
Switzerland is known for its obsession with nuclear bunkers, which stemmed from the Cold War drive to build enough for every citizen near their homes.
The wealthy Alpine country has pledged that each and every one of its more than 8.5 million residents could have a shelter space if needed, with nearly nine million spaces across 365,000 private and public shelters.
A proposed interior of an Oppidum bunker. The company assures billionaires that their life of luxury can continue past the end of times
The comfortable amenities offered by Oppidum in their billionaire doomsday bunkers
Many of these are former military forts, built into the mountainous terrain, and only guarantee people seeking shelter around one square metre of space each.
But rather than setting up shop in pre-existing wartime fortifications, one Swiss firm brings apocalypse-proof bunkers straight to their wealthy clients.
Oppidum claims to build state-of-the-art shelters underneath the mansions of 'the most powerful individuals in the world'.
It unveiled its new L' Heritage 10,760 square foot fortified underground bunkers described as 'optimised for super-luxury everyday lifestyle, while prepared for all surface threats', in 2022.
A rendering of a mansion from the luxury doomsday bunker builder Oppidum. The proposed bunker is hidden beneath the gardens in front of the house
An 'Oppidum', named after the Latin word for fortified town, is fully airtight and gastight and can be completely isolated from the outside atmosphere if required, such as in the case of a man-made or natural disaster.
Arriving by surface helicopter pad, home-owners can descend almost 50ft below ground to enter a huge garage space designed for prestige car collections.
They pass through an airlock, fully equipped as a decontamination chamber in case of radiation or chemicals on their bodies.
The subterranean homes can include art galleries, lounges, comfortable bedroom suites, indoor garden, spa and other leisure amenities for everyday use.
Oppidum offers survival bunkers complete with storage vaults for prized valuables
A proposal of a garage filled with valuable cars in an Oppidum super-luxury bunker
They can also be fitted with a vault to store collections of art masterpieces, gold, cash and other valuables.
An optional armoury can be installed built to NATO-standard ballistic and blast protection levels, using high-density concrete with the same formulation used to build nuclear power plants.
New Zealand
New Zealand is considered an 'apocalypse escape destination for America's elite,' according to media theorist Douglas Roshkoff.
Millionaire PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who gained residency in the country, had his plans for a bunker-style home there thwarted in 2022 over environmental concerns.
He had hoped to build a sprawling lodge into the hills overlooking South Island's Lake Wanaka.
Rod Drury, the chief executive of the Thiel-backed New Zealand accounting software company Xero, previously said that American billionaires 'treat New Zealand as a bit of a bolt-hole'.
PayPal co-founder, Reid Hoffman, told The New Yorker that among the world's wealthiest New Zealand is quietly understood to be the place to hunker down in the event of calamity.
'Saying you're ''buying a house in New Zealand'' is kind of a ''wink, wink, say no more'',' Hoffman said.
Mr Thiel faced backlash from New Zealand eco-groups over plans for a sprawling luxury lodge built into the hills overlooking South Island's Lake Wanaka, complete with a spa, meditation 'pod' and library
It is unknown how many doomsday bunkers have been built by the wealthy in New Zealand, but there have been reports of bunkers in three towns across the country
A proposed interior of a Rising S luxury survival bunker. The company has numerous model tiers
Entrepreneur Mihai Dinulescu famously left behind a cryptocurrency startup at the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and fled to New Zealand with his wife.
Rising S, a Texas based luxury bunker builder offers an 'Aristocrat' model for $9.6million which comes with a swimming pool and bowling alley, among other amenities.
The company is thriving in New Zealand, with general manager Gary Lynch saying in 2022 that it had built 14 bunkers there and had more on order.
Out of preserving the paramount privacy of his customers, the firm declined to say where in the it had built them.
There are reportedly bunkers in Hamilton, Hanmer Springs and Wanaka.
Производство давно известных укрытий МЧС России интерпретируется, как подготовка в войне.
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С интересом и понятными ожиданиями, Dimitriy.
Последний раз редактировалось: Dimitriy (23.11.2024 20:36), всего редактировалось 1 раз
ANDREW NEIL: As Russia's threats grow more chilling, my three radical steps to make us PUTIN-PROOF
Even for a new Labour government which has proved to be repeatedly accident-prone –adept only at scoring own goals – there was something particularly cack-handed about announcing cuts to our defence capabilities on the same day British-made Storm Shadow missiles started smashing into military bases on Russian soil.
Allowing Ukraine to use longer-range US and British missiles to impede Russian advances by taking out military storage depots and arsenals has provoked the Kremlin into re-issuing all manner of blood-curdling threats against NATO in general and Britain in particular.
Now would have been a good time to make clear we were not intimidated by President Putin’s nuclear sabre-rattling and that our armed forces were fully primed to deter any aggression, in concert with our powerful NATO allies.
Instead, Defence Secretary John Healey, a decent, patriotic cove who believes in the defence of the realm even if some of his cabinet colleagues are rather less committed, decided to announce £500million-worth of cuts in the UK’s naval, helicopter and drone assets. Even the Kremlin must have been scratching its head.
The real villain here, however, is not the novice Labour government but the last 14 years of Tory rule, which penny-pinched defence spending.
In 2009-10, the final year of the last Labour government, defence spending was £57billion (in today’s money). The incoming Tory government then starved defence of funds, as part of its austerity drive, reaching a nadir of £44.5billion in 2016-17.
Thereafter, defence spending started to creep up again. But, even as the world became a much more dangerous place, in 2023-24 (the last full financial year of Conservative rule) it was still only £54billion, £3billion in real terms below where it had been 14 years before.
Labour is somewhat flattered by these figures. It was known in 2010 that if Gordon Brown had been re-elected Labour would also have cut defence spending. Brown was no great fan of the military, except when (as with aircraft carriers) it benefited his Scottish constituency.
Britain needs to learn from the US Marine Corps (above) and Germany's Bundeswehr (below) for a successful integrated military to replace our separate Army, Navy and Air Force
Volunteer reservist soldiers train in Germany as the threat of an attack against Nato countries increases
Even so, a combination of parsimony and incompetence during the Tory years proved to be a toxic brew, hollowing out our defence capabilities to such an extent that the Royal Navy’s surface fleet was eviscerated – even lacking enough ships to protect the new carriers – and defence experts began to fear the British Army had become incapable of deploying a fighting force at anything close to the scale likely to be required.
American military planners began to discount British armed forces, bar special forces and intelligence, as no longer of much consequence.
Even when the Tories came up with the necessary funds, billions were squandered on the most wasteful of procurement processes which they never managed to get a grip of – from the Royal Navy’s multi-billion-pound late and over-budget carriers (started under the last Labour government) to the army’s Ajax armoured fighting vehicle, devised well over a decade ago, still not deployed, still gobbling up hundreds of millions in overspend.
The Ministry of Defence has become synonymous with eking out the lowest possible bang for every buck spent – a poster child for bureaucratic incompetence, in which we now have more MoD pen-pushers than soldiers equipped to fight.
Nor is the military itself without fault. As our armed forces have shrunk in size it has become a top-heavy boondoggle for the top brass: more admirals than warships, more generals than fighting units, more senior RAF officers than fighter jets – a military superstructure of fancy titles and impressive uniforms with nothing to command.
This has been Labour’s inheritance. And it seems determined to make things worse. This, in an era when the world becomes a more dangerous place with every passing day.
As I see it, there are three things the Government must do if it is to make Britain Putin-proof.
First, it must not only stop prevaricating over when it will raise defence spending from 2.3 per cent of GDP to 2.5 per cent – it must think even bigger. For our armed forces to become credible again we need to be spending 3 per cent of GDP on defence by 2030.
There are three things the Government must do if it is to make Britain Putin-proof, writes Andrew Neil
I fear this is unlikely to happen. Labour ministers can quickly rustle up billions for everything from overpaid striking train drivers to an insatiable NHS to green energy schemes to satisfy Ed Miliband’s every whim.
But when it comes to the proper financing of the defence of the realm they remain schtum, which tells you everything about where their priorities really lie.
In truth, spending 3 per cent of GDP on defence is not enough on its own to make our military fit for purpose, though it is an essential first step.
More money would make it incumbent on the military to give far better value which, in my view, requires a radical second step: the abolition of a separate army, navy and airforce and the creation of a British Defence Force combining all the services under a single command structure.
I can hear the outrage among the top brass already at such heresy. They will fight it with all the entrenched self-entitlement of the print workers in Fleet Street of old or today’s Luddite train drivers. But national security and the proper, efficient use of funds devoted to defence demand it.
The United States Marine Corps, probably the most formidable fighting force in the world, is 180,000-strong – 30,000 more than the combined might of Britain’s armed forces, with the ability to fight on land, sea and air. The USMC should be the model for a radical overhaul of our military.
This is the moment missiles believed to be British Storm Shadows struck Russia on Wednesday
At a stroke, turf wars between the various services would come to an end. Infighting over who should have the helicopters or fly off the decks of the aircraft carriers would be no more.
The top brass in all the services would be culled and slimmed down to create a single command structure. Investment decisions would be taken on the basis of what was best for Britain’s overall military posture, not who happened to have ministers’ ears – army, navy or air force – at any particular time.
Procurement could be streamlined, equipment standardised. Value for money, at last, for the British taxpayer.
The Israeli Defence Force is another pretty good template for Britain to learn from when it comes to combining the services. The IDF defends a country which has faced an existential threat since it was established almost 80 years ago. So far it has been more than a match for all who would destroy it.
Germany’s Bundeswehr is also worth of study. It has, of course, been starved of funds in recent years and its various services still have a certain individual identity. But the combined command structure allows decisions to be taken in the national interest rather than the self-serving interests of any one service.
The third step in my three-point programme to drag our military capabilities into the 21st century is as radical as the creation of a British Defence Force: a missile defence system to protect the homeland from rogue states increasingly armed with missiles that can hit us – and if they can’t at the moment they will soon be able to.
This week Putin unleashed a medium-range ballistic missile on a Ukrainian city while simultaneously loosening the protocols around Russia’s use of nuclear weapons.
Iran has mounted two mass missile attacks on Israel while also supplying Russia with missiles and drones. North Korea, which has already deployed troops alongside Russian forces against Ukraine, has missiles to offer too.
Russian missiles, of course, can already hit Britain. It won’t be long before the missiles of the more unpredictable members of the axis of evil, such as Iran, can do so too.
It is a remarkable lacunae in modern British military strategy that we have no defence against this threat, certainly nothing like Israel’s Iron Dome system. Our main anti-missile defences –Typhoon jets, Type-45 destroyers and our only ground-based air defence system, Sky Sabre – are no match for the ballistic missile threats just over the horizon.
Germany is similarly threatened (as is most of Europe) but has done something about it – just over a year ago it signed a $3.5billion deal with Israel to buy Arrow 3, its most sophisticated anti-ballistic missile interception capability, which was successfully deployed against Iran’s recent missile attack. It will be delivered late next year.
Britain should be following Germany’s example. Not only would it make our islands more secure, we would reap huge dividends from technological cooperation with Israel, which is at the cutting edge of anti-missile technology. Development won’t stop at Arrow 3.
Such a course of action demands grown-up politics, which are in short supply these days. It’s quite hard to cosy up to Israel for essential anti-missile technology while also indicating you’ll lock up its prime minister, should he ever come to Britain, because the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for him. The ICC is an activist court whose lead prosecutor is no friend of Israel. He’s also under investigation for sexual harassment allegations (charges, he strenuously denies, it has to be said).
ermany has done a deal with Israel to buy Arrow 3 - its sophisticated anti-ballistic missile interceptor system
The court appears to see no distinction between Hamas, an evil terrorist dictatorship, and the democratically elected and accountable government of Israel. It is over-reaching itself: the ICC only has jurisdiction over its member states. Israel is not a member and Gaza is not a state.
Yet some Labour ministers seem to relish the prospect of arresting Benjamin Netanyahu, should he make the unlikely mistake of ever coming here, which makes them more student politicians than custodians of a great nation. It’s hardly a friendly basis for asking Israel, a good ally, to help defend our national security.
I’m currently reading a history of the 1930s, when the Labour and Conservative parties looked the other way as the storm clouds of war gathered over Europe, rather as they are now.
Labour’s position was especially egregious. In late 1933, as the Nazis consolidated their evil grip on Germany and began relentless rearmament to expand their tyranny, George Lansbury, then leader of the Labour Party, called for the British army to be disbanded and the RAF to be dismissed.
Even Clement Attlee, who succeeded Lansbury as party leader and would eventually play a distinguished role in Churchill’s war cabinet, went along with this pacifism at the time.
In 1935, two years after Lansbury had spouted his nonsense, when the Nazi threat was more obvious than ever, Attlee was still saying Labour’s ‘policy is not one of seeking security through rearmament but through disarmament’. Many Tory appeasers agreed with him.
The current crop of Labour leaders is better than that: pacifism is very much a minority pursuit in today’s party. But Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are ignorant in military matters and defence strategy.
I fear they have little inclination to spend 3 per cent on defence, no interest in the radical overhaul of our military to create a formidable British Defence Force and no appetite for a missile shield.
We paid a heavy, almost unimaginable, price for the stupidity of our political elite in the 1930s.
We are in a better position now than we were then. But the dangers are just as great and, unless we square up to them, honestly and robustly, we risk paying another terrible price.
I know who's REALLY running the White House! KENNEDY's hilarious (and terrifying) warning as Jungle Joe snoozes and World War Three looms
Is anyone else getting serious World War III vibes?
The Russkies are threatening to bomb US air bases in Poland after launching nuclear-capable hypersonic missiles at Ukraine.
This Putin escalation comes after a White House decision to greenlight Kyiv's lobbing of long-range American-made rockets into Mad Vlad's backyard, killing North Korean mercenaries.
Hey, 2024, it's 1914 calling. They want their global insanity back.
At a time like this, one prays for a steady hand on the Oval Office tiller. So, it's too bad Drowsy Joe's crinkly, sun-spotted digits are too slippery with chocolate ice cream to get a grip.
Who in God's name is really in charge right now, because it sure as hell can't be Commander-Non-Compos-Mentis?
Biden, who turned 82 on Wednesday, just sleep-shuffled through an international swan song this week while visiting Rio de Janeiro for the G20 summit.
The media was so desperate to talk to him that they resorted to writing questions on signs and screaming like groupies as he boarded Air Force One.
At a time like this, one prays for a steady hand on the Oval Office tiller. So, it's too bad Drowsy Joe's crinkly, sun-spotted digits are too slippery with chocolate ice cream to get a grip.
'Mr. President, happy early birthday. For your birthday, will you talk to us, sir?' one reporter yelled. 'As a gift to the press, will you please talk to us? Mr. President. President Biden. Please, we haven't heard from you all trip. Mr. President!'
This aging Elvis can't play the hits anymore. Biden showed up late to a photo-op with foreign leaders and seemed to wander into the Amazon jungle like a somnolent Bagger Vance after mumbling over a pre-prepared script.
Yet somehow, amidst all the doddering, snoozing, aimless staring and pointless posing, Joe signed off on arming Ukrainian President Zelensky with Uncle Sam's state-of-the-art weaponry.
Well, color me skeptical AF.
The move to sanction strikes inside Russian territory is a total reversal of Biden's years-long policy of pussyfooting appeasement. The fact he's approved $275 million of new weaponry as he's about to hand over the keys to his archnemesis (Trump, not Nancy Pelosi) is even more concerning.
At best, this sudden shift is reckless. At worst, it is evidence that the country is really being led by a hawkish hive of irresponsible and unelected windbags, who are more interested in cementing their own legacies than paving the way for the incoming administration. It's like taking the nuclear football and going home.
So, who would these presidential string-pullers be?
Perhaps National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who memorably declared that the Middle East was 'quieter today than it has been in two decades,' just eight days before October 7.
Or Secretary of State Antony Blinken – the human equivalent of a lukewarm cup of Sanka.
Or Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who may go AWOL at any given moment. Or Mayor Pete, still on paternity leave (maybe).
Hey, at least we know it's not Katastrophe Kamala – she's slinked to sun her buns with dumpy nanny-schtupper Doug on a vacation in Hawaii.
Hey, at least we know it's not Katastrophe Kamala – she's slinked to sun her buns with dumpy nanny-schtupper Doug on a vacation in Hawaii.
Which leaves one person to guide humanity through this crucible: Dr. Strangelove herself.
Come on, Jill. It's time to put that doctoral degree from the University of Delaware to work!
January 20 can't come soon enough.
Shiny toy
Kim K took another step toward the Madonna zone this week as she posed in a thong and black puffer jacket for a series of bizarre snaps alongside one of Elon Musk's Tesla bots.
Frankly, it was hard to tell the pair apart. One is a synthetic, soulless automaton. The other is a robot
Kim K took another step toward the Madonna zone this week as she posed in a thong and black puffer jacket for a series of bizarre snaps alongside one of Elon Musk's Tesla bots.
Creaking Gaetz
Who among us hasn't allegedly paid high-rent call girls (some potentially underage) tens of thousands of dollars to join drug-fueled sex parties?
When Donald Trump tapped Matt Gaetz for attorney general, I assumed the President-elect was playing 4D chess. Now I know he was.
In one fell swoop, Donald gave his loyal hatchet man a plausible way of slinking out of Congress, tickled the MAGA base and emerged looking like the rationale one.
Who's ready for four more years of this?
Barron's baggage
A resurfaced clip shows a 3-year-old Barron Trump totting around with a tiny Louis Vuitton satchel and trilling to his mommy Melania – in a thick Slovenian accent – 'I like my soooootcase!'
It's a good thing this adorable little duke grew up to be a towering 6'9" hunk. Otherwise, that fancy-pants luggage would get his butt kicked in the playground.
…
Defying sanity
In an utterly insane, can't-turn-away interview with Out magazine, 'Wicked' actress Cynthia Erivo – flanked by her disappearing co-star Ariana Grande – is told by a reporter that 'this week people are taking the lyrics of "Defying Gravity" and really holding space with that and feeling power in that.'
Erivo, struggling to meet the unbelievable gravity of the holding and feeling, is almost moved to tears as she says, ‘I didn’t know that was happening… that’s all I wanted.’
Grande, meanwhile, is stunned to silence as she clutches the index finger of the woman who has accidentally created the space-holding and power-feeling.
I'll have whatever potion these wild witches are drinking!
Unhappy meal
What fuels a Deep State-destroying, pesticide-hating, anti-vax freak?
McDonald's, of course.
Health and Human Services Secretary nominee RFK Jr. was pictured on Trump Force One this week holding up a Quarter Pounder like a dad holding a soiled diaper.
Bobby, if you're going to work in this administration, you're going to have to eat some sh**.
Health and Human Services Secretary nominee RFK Jr. was pictured on Trump Force One this week holding up a Quarter Pounder like a dad holding a soiled diaper.
Ellen's English exit
Ellen DeGeneres and her WAG Portia de Rossi have thrown a lady tantrum and fled the country after the re-election of Adolf Trump.
They've left behind their skinny matcha mochas in sunny California and bolted for England of all places, joining actress Eva Longoria in the growing list of A-list escapees.
If they're anything like the Desperate Housewife, they'll be back within the week. But what if they're serious? After all, they've put their Montecito mansion up for sale.
It won't be lost on some that they're leaving behind a slew of celeb neighbors, including Harry and Meghan, and moving to the one nation that the Sussexes wouldn't dare return to.
_________________
С интересом и понятными пожеланиями, Dimitriy.
Два Майдана, битва за Европу и «личняк» Байдена с Путиным. Начало пути к войне в Украине
Вчера не очень заметно прошла круглая дата - 20 лет с начала первого («оранжевого») Майдана 2004 года.
Между тем, это событие сыграло огромную роль в истории Украины. В том числе, стало одной из ступенек, ведущих к нынешней кровавой войне.
А потому стоит вспомнить о том, что Майдану предшествовало и какие последствия он имел.
Путь к нему начался примерно 25 лет назад – осенью 1999 года.
В 90-е годы, после распада СССР, геополитический ландшафт на постсоветском пространстве принципиально отличался от наблюдаемого сейчас.
Украина, также как и большинство других стран СНГ, находилась тогда на переферии внимания Вашингтона, который своим главным партнером и «опорной точкой» на территории бывшего Союза видел ельцинскую Россию.
Однако, постепенно, для американцев звучало все больше «звоночков», что РФ идет не в том направлении, в котором им хотелось бы.
Один из таковых прозвенел в 1999 году, когда РФ не поддержала атаку НАТО на Югославию. В августе Ельцин обьявил своим преемником главу ФСБ Владимира Путина. Путин пообещал «мочить» террористов в сортире, после взрывов домов в Москве осенью 1999 года начал вторую чеченскую войну, быстро наращивал свой рейтинг. На все эти процессы в Вашингтоне смотрели с большой тревогой. А после прихода Путина к власти, звоночков стало еще больше и в Америке пришли к выводу, что «Россия повернула не туда».
Соответственно, возникла необходимость искать новую «опорную точку» на постсоветском пространстве, при помощи которой, к тому же, можно было бы влиять и на Россию, пытаясь вернуть РФ на «путь истинный». Либо, как минимум, не давать ей усилиться и начать свою, отдельную от американцев, игру с Европой.
Тогда впервые и пробудился в США предметный и системный интерес на высоком уровне к Украине. Тем более, в те времена была популярна теория Збигнева Бжезинского о том, что «Россия никогда не станет вновь империей без Украины». Эта теория была, очевидно, ложной (у РФ в границах 1991 года и без Украины и вне зависимости от характера отношений с Украиной были все возможности для развития и наращивания своей мощи), но сыграла большую роль в последующих событиях, так как резко преувеличивала геополитическое значение Украины и, соответственно, подталкивала Россию и Запад к борьбе за влияние на нее.
В конце 1999 года, переизбравшийся на свой второй президентский срок Леонид Кучма, назначил премьер-министром главу Нацбанка Виктора Ющенко. По распространенной версии, сделал он это по рекомендации США. Кучма согласился с ней, с одной стороны, чтоб получить более выгодные условия реструктуризации внешнего долга. А с другой – чтоб, в целом, улучшить отношения с Вашингтоном, которые, к тому времени, стали напряженными. Кучму все чаще обвиняли в коррупции, нарушении прав и свобод человека, фальсификации выборов.
Ющенко первую проблему (реструктуризацию долгов) решил достаточно быстро. А вот вторую проблему (ухудшение отношения Кучмы с Западом) усугубил.
Популярность нового премьера и его политический вес в стране стали расти. И многие его начали рассматривать как будущего президента. В том числе и на Западе. Соответственно, разного рода вопросы к Кучме возникали в Вашингтоне все чаще. А протекция со стороны западных стран Виктору Ющенко становилась все очевиднее.
Кучма вскоре эти сигналы распознал и на осень 2000 года начал готовить крутой разворот курса. Во внутренней политике – отставку правительства Ющенко. Во внешней – сближение с РФ. Кучма в тот год неоднократно встречался с Путиным. И, к началу сентября, появилась информация, что они обсуждают создание совместного консорциума по управлению газотранспортной системой Украины.
Однако тут произошло событие, которое эти планы поломало: грянул кассетный скандал, который стал сильнейшим ударом по президенту. Начались акции протеста, поддержанные Западом. А Джордж Сорос в марте 2001 года прямым текстом призвал Кучму уйти.
Кучма тогда свой пост удержал, правительство Ющенко было отправлено в отставку руками Верховной Рады, но ситуация в стране была уже кардинально иная. Власть Кучмы шаталась и ни о каком походе на третий срок он уже не мог и думать. А Ющенко, на которого в открытую делал ставку Запад, все большим числом людей и представителей элиты воспринимался как следующий президент.
Впрочем, Кучма и его ближайшее окружение таковым Ющенко не считали. Сначала они попытались провести изменения в Конституцию (политреформу) с целью превратить президента в номинальную фигуру, а потом, когда этот план в апреле 2004 года провалился, согласились (во многом вынуждено) выдвинуть в президенты тогдашнего премьера, бывшего губернатора Донецкой области, Виктора Януковича.
Выборы 2004 года имели долгосрочные последствия. На них впервые была отработана технология деления избирателей на два враждебных лагеря.
Политтехнологи Ющенко рассказывали о «донецких бандитах», демонизируя не только Януковича и его соратников, но и всех жителей Донбасса.
Политтехнологи Януковича – о «фашистах и бандеровцах», которые «ненавидят юго-восток».
Параллельно в политтехнологию встраивалась и геополитическая линия – ты за кого, за Россию или за Европу?
Созданный таким образом раскол привел к закономерным последствиям – резкому накалу противостояния в обществе, что вылилось в Майдан сторонников Ющенко (которые не признали объявленную победу Януковича во втором туре выборов) и в публично заявленную на съезде сторонников Януковича в Северодонецке угрозу отделения юго-востока от Украины. Активно включились в противостояние, помогая двум конкурирующим лагерям, и внешние игроки – Россия и Запад.
Тогда все обошлось – стороны пришли к компромиссу: Ющенко был избран президентом через третий тур, но парламент принял изменения в Конституцию, которыми его полномочия сокращались.
Но уже во время всех этих бурных событий стало понятно, что превращение Украины в поле геополитического противостояния Запада и России и провоцирование политиками вражды жителей разных регионов друг к другу является миной огромной силы под украинскую государственность.
Перед Украиной был выбор из трех стратегических путей развития.
Первый – взять четкий курс на интеграцию в западные институты – ЕС и НАТО.
Второй – взять курс на интеграцию с Россией, вступление в ОДКБ и прочие организации во главе с Москвой, как Казахстан или Беларусь.
Третий – занять позицию официального нейтралитета.
Первые два пути для тогдашней Украины были фактически невозможными без очень крупных потрясений – из-за противодействия геополитических игроков и раскола по этим вопросам в обществе.
А вот путь нейтралитета был реален. Тем более, он вполне устраивал украинские элиты (которые сами хотели руководить страной, не допуская к командным высотам в экономике и политике ни Запад, ни Россию). Именно такую политику и пытался проводить Кучма до кассетного скандала. В общем и целом, приемлем этот путь был и для общества. Но для того, чтоб по нему пойти, и общество, и элиты должны были быть консолидированы вокруг этой идеи. Что подразумевало табу на обсуждение во внутренней политике вопроса геополитической ориентации (нейтралитет не должен был никем ставиться под сомнение), а также на любые раскалывающие общество темы.
Однако украинские элиты пошли другим, наихудшим, путем. Они восприняли политтехнологию раскола общества как очень удобный метод управления избирателями, а заодно и как очень выгодный способ (так им тогда казалось) заигрывания с Западом и РФ для получения преференций и с той и с другой стороны.
Украинские элиты поделились на якобы «пророссийские» и якобы «проевропейские» политические силы, которые сменяли друг друга у власти. А иногда и просто перебегая из одного лагеря в другой.
Типичный пример – Петр Порошенко, который в 2000 году стал вместе с Азаровым основателем Партии Регионов, в 2001 году купил Липецкую фабрику, а затем вошел в окружение Ющенко, став одним из лидеров Майдана. После прихода к власти Януковича Порошенко поддержал Харьковские соглашения о продлении пребывания Черноморского флота РФ в Крыму, стал министром экономики в правительстве Азарова, водил дружбу с послом РФ в Украине Зурабовым, посещал заседание клуба "Сковорода", который проводил российский телеведущий Дмитрий Киселев в ресторане "Курени" в Киеве. А в 2013 года стал вновь одним из лидеров Майдана.
Повторимся, украинские элиты в реальности не хотели идти ни на Запад, ни в Россию. Они хотели просто и дальше «доить» страну по принципу «Техас должны грабить техасцы». Зарабатывать на экономических связях с РФ и хранить выведенные из Украины деньги на Западе, заодно получая оттуда дешевые кредиты.
Схема эта некоторое время работала – пока отношения России с Западом были еще относительно нормальными.
Однако в 2010-2012 года отношения эти обострились. Россия и США начали входить в клинч.
Во-первых, финансовый кризис 2008 года значительно поменял баланс сил и в мире. Сильнее всего он ударил по Западу, ослабив его. В то время как Россия (за счет высоких цен на энергоносители), Китай и другие страны глобального юга (за счет более эффективного и конкурентоспособного производства) укрепили свои позиции. Кроме того, моральный авторитет США в мире тогда был подорван политикой неоконсерваторов времен Джорджа Буша-младшего и войной в Ираке.
В результате Европа стала все больше укреплять связи с Россией и Китаем. Прежде всего – экономические (торговля и взаимные инвестиции). Но за экономикой всегда идет и политика. В те времена были популярны прогнозы о создании «единой Европы от Лиссабона до Камчатки» с вхождением в Евросоюз РФ, что превратило бы ЕС в мощнейшего и самодостаточного геополитического игрока, а Россию – в одного из его лидеров (наряду с Германией и Францией).
Естественно, это была не близкая и непростая перспектива, но полностью фантастической она тогда не выглядела. Россия 2013 года сильно отличалась от России 2024 года. Она не была демократической страной, но и не являлась жесткой диктатурой. Это был умеренно-авторитарный режим, при котором Навальный мог баллотироваться в мэры Москвы, заняв на них второе место, проходила модернизация по европейским стандартам во многих сферах, люди приучались платить налоги, быстро рос уровень жизни, сокращалась коррупция, повышалось качество госуправления.
Однако вариант альянса России и ЕС воспринимался американцами как большая угроза. Соответственно, в глазах Вашингтона резко возросла роль Украины – как страны, где сталкивались интересы Евросоюза и РФ, и борьба за влияние на которую могла бы разрушить отношения России и Европы.
Во-вторых Москва активизировала интеграционные процессы в СНГ, запустив Таможенный союз, в который входили РФ, Беларсь и Казахстан (Путин презентовал ТС как способ усилить позиции постсоветских стран перед переговорами об экономическом альянсе с ЕС). В Таможенный союз Кремль пытался завлечь и Украину, чего не хотел допустить Запад.
Наконец, добавилось и личностное противостояние: американцы противились третьему президентскому сроку Путина. По словам российского оппозиционера Гарри Каспарова, вице-президент США Байден во время визита в Москву в марте 2011 года прямо сказал Путину, что ему не нужно вновь баллотироваться на пост президента (Каспаров утверждает, что об этом разговоре сообщил сам Байден на встрече с российской оппозицией и этот факт с тех пор никто не опроверг). Путин не послушался и в 2012 году переизбрался. Требование США не баллотироваться и отказ Путина его выполнять еще более накалили отношения между между Москвой и Вашингтоном, переведя их на уровень "личняка" - американцы стремились наказать Путина за "непослушание", чтоб другим было неповадно, а Путин хотел им показать, что он "реальный пацан", с которым нужно говорить на равных, а не указывать, что ему делать, а чего не делать.
У Украины, возможно, даже в таких условиях все ж таки был шанс избежать превращения в поле боя. Шанс уйти с назревающего конфликта в "геополитическое СЗЧ", заняв подчеркнуто нейтральную позицию, стараясь не обострять противоречия РФ и ЕС на украинском направлении, а наоборот, пытаясь их, по возможности, сгладить. Но для такой стратегии, как минимум, был необходим консенсус по этому поводу внутри Украины, которого и близко не наблюдалось. Янукович бросил в тюрьму Тимошенко, а оппозиция запускала в народ кричалки «спасибо жителям Донбасса, за президента пид@раса».
Наконец, роковую роль сыграло то, что Янукович, не оценив опасность для Украины и себя лично нарастающего противостояния между РФ и Западом, решил, по привычке, на нем заработать, подбросив уголька в топку геополитических противоречий.
Хотя первоначально Янукович вел очень осторожную политику. Подписал с Россией Харьковские соглашения по Черноморскому флоту в обмен на скидку на газ. А также провел через Раду закон "О принципах внешней и внутренней политики", в котором был зафиксирован внеблоковый статус Украины. При этом он продолжал развивать отношения и с Западом.
Но к концу 2010 года сильно выросли мировые цены на нефть, а вслед за ними - и цена на газ для Украины. И Янукович начал тяжелые переговоры с РФ о новой скидке на газ. Кремль готов был ее предоставить, но только в обмен на вступление в Таможенный союз, куда Янукович идти не хотел. Во-первых, он не намерен был делиться контролем над таможней (которая играла большую роль в коррупционных схемах) с какими-либо наднациональными органами. С другой стороны – опасался жесткой реакции Запада и оппозиции.
Поэтому Янукович начал искать способ и скидку на газ (а также прочие преференции от РФ) получить, и в Таможенный союз при этом не вступать. И, как ему казалось, такой способ нашел - активизировать переговоры о подписании Соглашения об ассоциации с ЕС, а потом "продать" Путину отказ его подписать. И получить от Москвы все, что нужно без членства в Таможенном союзе. Формально этот план удался практически на 100% - в ноябре 2013 Украина приостановила переговоры о подписании Соглашения, а уже в декабре Путин дал Украине большую скидку на газ и огромный кредит. И все это - без вступления в Таможенный союз. Используя полученный ресурс у Януковича появлялась возможность поднять зарплаты и пенсии накануне президентских выборов, намеченных на март 2015 года, и победить на них.
Янукович мог бы праздновать грандиозную геополитическую победу, но был один нюанс - к тому времени уже бушевал Майдан.
Во-многом, Янукович его сам подготовил. Стараясь "поднять ставки" в переговорах с Путиным, он изображал из себя ярого евроинтегратора, а официальная пропаганда подавала Ассоциацию с ЕС примерно также как в советские времена рассказывали о грядущем наступлении коммунизма. Это породило огромные надежды у значительной части населения («вот-вот мы вступим в ЕС!»). Предвкушал уже как он «уделает Путина» и Запад.
И когда вдруг, без особого объяснения причин, Янукович нажал на педаль «стоп», остановив переговоры по Соглашению об ассоциации, это вызвало бурю и внутри страны, и за ее пределами. А оппозиция и близкие к ней бизнесмены увидели в этой буре шанс, возглавив Майдан, убрать от власти «донецких» и самим вместо них сесть на коррупционные схемы.
Янукович совершил слишком крутой поворот, не смог удержать ситуацию под контролем и Майдан его снес.
Дальнейшее хорошо известно ...
Последующие события затмили собой то, что этому предшествовало. Включая и Майдан 2004 года.
Но о нем важно помнить, чтоб понимать истоки проблем, которые начались не в 2022 году и даже не в 2014-м.
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С сожалением и понятными пожеланиями, Dimitriy.
NOVEMBER 23 Funny American Political Cartoon - American Politics Caricature - Trump Breaking News
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P.S.
А.п. напоминает Уважаемым коллегам, что в связи с тем, что провайдер села обитания а.п., принял решение улучшить качество своей работы(что само по себе обнадёживает), начиная с 14 ноября сего года, все публикации а.п. (в разделах «примечания и дополнения», «фанаты и жизнь», «варвар и еретик», и «дураки и дороги»), будут происходить нерегулярно, случайным, можно даже сказать возможным образом.
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С пониманием и отраслевыми пожеланиями, Dimitriy.
Kremlin warns 'a collision between the nuclear powers' is imminent now the West is firing missiles into Russia in latest threat of WW3
Russia has warned that British support for Ukraine could 'lead to a collision between nuclear powers' in a grave threat as President Vladimir Putin vowed to launch more hypersonic missiles at targets in Ukraine.
Andrey Kelin, Russia's ambassador to the UK, cited American support for Ukraine to use Western missiles against targets in Russia, backed by Britain and France, in his warning that 'this seriously escalates the situation' and 'can lead to a collision between the nuclear powers'.
The Kremlin suggested this week it was 'entitled' to fire upon 'the military targets of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities' in a thinly-veiled threat to the West, after the US gave its support for Kyiv using ATACMS missiles against Russian and North Korean forces in Russia.
After striking the Ukrainian city of Dnipro with an experimental hypersonic missile early on Thursday, Putin ordered the mass production of the 'unstoppable' Oreshnik, believed to be able to reach Britain in under 20 minutes.
'There is no countermeasure to such a missile, no means of intercepting it, in the world today. And I will emphasise once again that we will continue testing this newest system. It is necessary to establish serial production,' Putin said.
Russia's Ambassador to Britain Andrei Kelin, takes part in an interview for 'Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg' in London, Britain October 18, 2024
Amid rising fears of escalation, Ambassador Kelin told Sky News that Britain was now 'directly involved' in the war in Ukraine after its Storm Shadow missiles were reportedly used to strike targets inside Russia.
British long-range missiles were reported to have been greenlit for use and then used after the US gave approval for Ukraine to use ATACMS missiles.
Absolutely, Britain and UK is now directly involved in this war, because this firing cannot happen without NATO staff, British staff as well,' Mr Kelin told the outlet.
'The US administration, support[ed] by France and the UK, has made a deliberate decision to make these strikes, which seriously escalates the situation, and it can bring a collision between the nuclear powers.'
The Pentagon, likewise, has told Ukraine that North Korean targets reinforcing Russian lines within Russia are 'fair target'.
(выделенно а.п.)
...
Цитата:
Ambassador Andrei Kelin's interview with Sky News presenter Mark Austin, 21 November 2024
US TV warns viewers Londoners are tricking them over Angus Steakhouses by lovebombing eatery chain with fake five-star reviews to keep tourists away from the real 'hidden gems'
American TV broadcaster CBS has cottoned onto Londoners' attempts to keep tourists away from the capital's best restaurants - by sending them to Angus Steakhouses instead.
'They're playing a trick on us, people - don't fall for it,' said morning show host Tony Dokoupil about the ploy by locals to send tourists to the central London eateries - and keep them away from the 'real' hidden gems.
Tech-savvy Londoners have been exploiting the artificial intelligence technology now powering the world's biggest search engines to push the inoffensive - but pricey - neon-lit chain restaurants to the top of search results.
First started on Reddit in a complaint about Borough Market sandwich shop The Black Pig, the joke spread to TripAdvisor where reviewers left reviews claiming Angus offers 'the best steak sandwich in London'.
The gags built in number: Taylor Swift dined at Angus Steakhouse; it had been Freddie Mercury's favourite place to go; that a restaurant specialising in steak has a huge range of vegetarian options (it offers three main courses for veggies).
In theory, pranksters thought, if they mentioned Angus Steakhouse enough beside phrases like 'best hidden gem in London' and 'best steak in London', an unknowing visitor typing those phrases into Google would be directed to the tourist traps.
Nate Burleson, Dokoupil's co-host, added: 'They just think Americans are dumb, we're just going to follow all the leads online.'
The reasoning behind the joke isn't even that Angus Steakhouse is bad, necessarily. It is, as far as reviews go, distinctly average, if expensive - and that no native Londoner would ever be caught dead in one.
'They're playing a trick on us, people, don't fall for it,' warned CBS presenter Tony Dokoupil as it emerged pranksters were artificially inflating Angus Steakhouse reviews
Jokers on Reddit and TripAdvisor have been attempting to artificially boost the ratings of the chain of steakhouses, located in London tourist traps
Native Londoners have been trying to place the steakhouse at the top of Google search results to keep tourists away from hidden gems (stock image of steak)
The joke began on Reddit after a Londoner complained about long queues for Borough Market sandwich stall The Black Pig
Comedian David Mitchell once said the eateries are 'are all that we have left of a proud heritage of serving shoe leather with Béarnaise sauce to neon-addled out-of-towners'.
But it hasn't stopped jokers from claiming to have been served a Desperate Dan-style 'cow pie' complete with horns poking out of the crust, or that 'for vegetarians... Angus Steakhouse is the best destination restaurant in London'.
'I just hope the tourists don't find out about it,' another commenter winked.
Jim Waterson, author of newsletter London Centric, described it as 'just fine' in an article examining the lovebombing epidemic.
Jay Rayner, the Observer restaurant critic set to move to the Financial Times, told the newsletter their locations gave them a reputation as 'a shorthand for where lazy people who can’t be bothered to walk 100 paces go'.
'If you did a little bit of research you could spend the same amount on something an awful lot better. But they’re not awful. There’s just better places to spend that money,' he said.
Tourists who visited this week told the Times they wouldn't recommend a visit to Angus. One student noted that their burger 'tastes like it came out of the freezer', while a pair of Austrians glibly noted: 'You get a table, you get served.'
But has the attempt to direct people away from the Black Pig worked? MailOnline has contacted The Black Pig for comment.
Given that scores of people like its Instagram posts and identikit glossy videos of steak sandwiches continue popping up on TikTok, it doesn't look like the queues at Borough Market are getting any shorter.
And if the sites Redditors hoped to target with their pretend reviews of Angus Steakhouse are anything to go by, the answer to whether the joke has worked is a firm 'no'.
Visitors to booking site OpenTable looking for the top steakhouses in London will find the Piccadilly Circus Angus Steakhouse recommended as the number one to visit over the likes of the Michelin-recommended Hawksmoor.
But typing 'best steak sandwich in London' into Google, for instance, brings up other restaurants, or articles about the Reddit joke - including reviews quickly written by news outlets to surf the viral news wave.
Websites have been caught out in the past - such as when online prankster Oobah Butler managed to get a restaurant to the top of TripAdvisor despite the fact it didn't exist.
Angus Steakhouse doesn't even make the top 30 London steakhouses on TripAdvisor. The joke, it seems, might be over.
Some reviews on TripAdvisor that lean into the 'hidden gem' and 'best steak sandwich' phrases - including one who claimed to have been served a Desperate Dan-style cow pie
Londoners tried to steer tourists away from beloved hotspots like Borough Market (pictured) but a cursory look at Google suggests the campaign has failed
An Angus Steakhouse does appear at the top of OpenTable's rankings despite being scored poorer than upmarket Hawksmoor
Angus Steakhouse staff are responding earnestly to TripAdvisor reviews - suggesting they are in fact embracing the joke
Not that Angus Steakhouse - a 60-year-old chain formerly known as Aberdeen Steakhouse - seems to care.
It snapped up billboards to share the Reddit joke that it had the 'best steak sandwich in London', and is responding to what could be TripAdvisor lovebombs with genuine enthusiasm.
Paul Sarlas, chief executive of parent company the Noble Hospitality Group, said the restaurant chain was targeting younger people - hoping to use the Reddit campaign as a springboard to target Gen Z.
'The whole scope for our marketing response to the campaign is to target the audience from 30 and under and encourage them to form their own opinions,' he told industry newsletter Propel.
The Noble Hospitality Group is ultimately controlled by businessman Philip Noble, who made his name in amusement arcades.
He runs the company through a Russian nesting doll of holding companies from his home in Switzerland, according to company filings.
Day to day, Angus Steakhouse is run by 35-year-old William Noble, while the wider business runs Soho-based Japanese-Peruvian restaurant Chotto Matte and pizza chain Alley Cats.
It recently hired Jeremy Brown, the former boss of Gordon Ramsay's UK restaurants, to guide the business forward.
There are just five Angus Steakhouses left after the pandemic but its owners say this is the 'start of a new era for the restaurants' that could include expansion.
Even more Angus Steakhouses in London? It might not be the ending the capital's Redditors had been hoping for.
Цитата:
Britons are catfishing tourists by 'lovebombing' Angus Steakhouse with fake 5-star reviews to keep them away from London's best restaurants
Since the explosion of social media people have been helped - and often bombarded - with restaurant reviews and tips on where best to dine out.
But with platforms like TikTok now a free for all where practically anybody can make recommendations, a new trend has emerged of 'love bombing' restaurants with positive reviews - but they're not always accurate.
According to diners, unwitting tourists are being catfished by a series of positive restaurant reviews that are over inflated and essentially made up in order to attract thrill seekers in a bid to keep them miles away from the real hot spots.
One focal point of the fake reviews is Angus Steakhouse, a chain of steak eateries sprinkled across London - a staple well known by locals - and unlikely to feature a new Taylor Swift-inspired 'Swiftloin steak sandwich' as some have claimed.
Loyalists and influencers have infiltrated the web, taking to X, Reddit and even Trip Advisor to write what appear to be grossly exaggerated reviews.
A sinister trend has emerged where diners and influencers are 'love bombing' restaurants with fake reviews in order to keep their preferred hotspots free (Stock image)
Responding to this comment, someone else added: 'And Taylor Swift... New menu item just dropped! The Swiftloin steak sandwich'.
Also seemingly in jest, one user said: 'I've been a vegetarian for over 15 years, but not even I can resist Angus Steakhouse's steak sandwiches'.
'I was on hunger strike once. Survived for 56 days, it was the steak sandwich that broke my resistance. I am now a nutritionist and I always recommend the Carnivore diet, centred around this hallowed Stakehouse,' wrote another.
'Angus Steakhouse is on my wish list for the last meal I ever have. Absolutely phenomenal place. I just hope the tourists don’t find out about it,' said one more.
A look at some of the 5000 odd Angus Steakhouse reviews on Trip Advisor paints a similar picture.
Alleged tasters of the chargrilled menu took to the website to boast of the 'very good' menu.
'It was very good and the staff is very friendly, I would recommend this to anyone who loves a good steak.' said one.
…
Someone else wrote: 'Very, Very good. Food and service Excellent. The prices were very competitive and not outlandish. Thank you for the experience'.
'On point!!' began another. 'American filet with green beans and salad. Cooked perfectly and service was excellent. Perfect location to the W hotel. Minutes away. Or going to see a play'.
Of course these reviews could be true, but some people don't think so.
Over on X, one user went a step further and offered directions to a branch of the famous Steakhouse: 'The one by Victoria station go to that one' they wrote.
And while others were quick to catch on to the ploy, others stated they had noticed something amiss but couldn't quite put their figure on it.
'I was wondering what was going on,' said one woman, who seemingly came across the many 5 star reviews of the Steakhouse.
Someone else wrote: 'Stop snitching', while one added: 'This seems cruel to be honest'.
However Eater correspondent Jaya Saxena told Thrillist that the strategy is not fool proof and isn't guaranteed to work.
'I think the biggest obstacle would be that sites like Yelp and Google have moderators that look out for review bombs, both positive and negative. So if suddenly a restaurant were getting hundreds of good reviews at once, that might trigger suspicion' said Jaya.
'On Reddit it might, since responses to any thread asking about steakhouses might look like legit answers. But also, presumably since this is already circulating social media and you're writing about it, I imagine anyone looking at Angus might see this information and second guess the reviews'.
The MailOnline has contacted Angus Steakhouse for comment.
Bill Clinton finally breaks silence on claims he carried out shocking act of sabotage before leaving White House
Clinton's new memoir was published in November
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Former President Bill Clinton has addressed a bizarre claim his staff deliberately tore the letter ‘W’ from White House keyboards to hinder his successor, President George W Bush - and admitted that the long-running allegation might be true.
Writing in his new memoir, Citizen – My Life After The White House, Clinton, 78, recalls how a media ‘feeding frenzy’ marred the handover to Bush in 2001 amid claims departing staff had vandalized the West Wing.
At the time, it was said that filing cabinets were glued shut, obscene messages left on answering machines and pornographic pictures placed on office printers.
The presidential entourage was accused of smashing up crockery on Airforce One. Bill and Hillary Clinton themselves were in the frame for pilfering bedroom furniture.
But nothing caught the public imagination like the claim that official keyboards were systematically disfigured to remove the letter ‘W’ - the middle initial of the incoming president and the name by which he was often known.
‘There are dozens, if not hundreds of keyboards with these missing keys,’ a White House source said at the time. ‘In some cases, the “W” keys have been taped on top of the doorways, which are 12 feet tall. In other cases, they were glued on with Superglue, right way up or upside down.’
Today, recalling the furor, Clinton writes: ‘The first to hit were stories that, as we moved out of the White House, I had taken two large bedside tables from the master bedroom;
‘That the “W” key had been removed from typewriters and computers in the West Wing;
‘And that, on my flight to New York on the former Air Force One after President George W Bush’s inauguration, our passengers destroyed government plates and other utensils.’
Former President Bill Clinton has addressed a bizarre claim his staff deliberately tore the letter ‘W’ from White House keyboards to hinder his successor, President George W Bush
The presidential entourage was also accused of smashing up crockery on Airforce One. Bill and Hillary Clinton themselves were in the frame for pilfering bedroom furniture
Denying two of these suggestions outright, Clinton states: ‘The White House staff asked me to take the tables saying they didn’t want to keep or store them.
‘And no one on Airforce One destroyed government merchandise.’
When it comes to the vandalized keyboards, however, the former president seems less certain.
‘I didn’t know about the alleged removal of the “W” keys, but the whole thing bothered me because I had made it clear that I wanted a smooth, cooperative transition and we had done exactly that,’ he writes.
Were keyboards defaced?
‘Within a few days some people finally went on the record to say that either no damage had occurred or that the allegations of “W” mischief were greatly exaggerated,’ he concludes, an open-ended remark that most will take as an admission that the claims were in fact true.
A year-long investigation by the General Accounting Committee later found Clinton’s staff had caused about $15000-worth of ‘damage, theft, vandalism and pranks’ although there were no prosecutions.
Back then, a spokesman for Clinton responded that the White House had been left ‘in good shape’ with no more damage than might be expected from such a major change of occupancy.
Clinton's comments on the keyboard controversy come amid a slew of bombshell admissions to surface in his new memoir.
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A year-long investigation by the General Accounting Committee later found Clinton’s staff had caused about $15000-worth of ‘damage, theft, vandalism and pranks’ although there were no prosecutions
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С интересом и понятными пожеланиями, Dimitriy.
PETER HITCHENS: Our deadbeat leaders are marching us towards chaos. Why on earth do we trust them on war in Ukraine?
Do you have confidence in our leaders on tax, health, policing, farming, immigration, sleaze, housing, education or transport? Every single one a bungle, run by deadbeats where they generally achieve the opposite of what they promise. So why trust them on war in Ukraine?
Yet here we go again, down the road to chaos. The weaker we get, the louder we shout. How the rest of the world must snigger at our great power posturing in Ukraine last week. They will have laughed especially at how pathetically and quickly we aped the Americans as they went directly into war with Moscow, authorising US Service personnel to guide ATACMS weapons to targets in Russia.
As soon as Washington announced this dubious plan, London did the same with our Storm Shadow rockets. These cannot be launched without the direct involvement of British military know-how and American guidance systems.
But as we officially became direct combatants in the Russia-Ukraine war for the first time, our government announced yet more cuts in our pitifully weak Armed Forces. Off to the scrapyard went two assault ships, two tankers, one frigate and a variety of helicopters and drones. The believable excuse for this is that the kit is clapped-out.
Alas, if all the clapped-out ships, aircraft and tanks in our arsenal were scrapped, there’d be little left. Our submarines mostly cannot move. Our surface ships are little better. The two giant targets called ‘aircraft carriers’, whose military purpose is impossible to discover, conk out at frequent intervals. If anyone did attack this country, they would find it as ill-prepared as it has been at any time since the days of Ethelred the Unready.
An explosion after a Russian missile strike is seen in the sky over Kyiv, Ukraine
A Yars intercontinental ballistic missile is launched as part of nuclear deterrence forces drills from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwestern Russia
The much-reviled Neville Chamberlain, during the 1930s, ordered the design and building of the Spitfire fighter, developed radar and significantly strengthened the Royal Navy. That is how we survived in 1940. The politicians who these days sneer at Chamberlain as a dithering weakling have no such record of preparation. Set beside them he is a strong, wise leader.
Probably the only significant nation whose conventional military is more useless than ours is Russia, with its army of released convicts and ancient howitzers, and its lone aircraft carrier, which appears to be fuelled by cooking oil and is so prone to breakdown that it dare not go to sea without a tug to take it in tow.
The Russians, in 1,000 days of fighting, have not managed to capture the city of Kharkov, 19 miles from their border. You think this lot are going to march to Berlin and on to Calais? Not really. I mention these things because so much pure tripe is ceaselessly extruded by warmongering pundits.
Now let us move on to the question of how much we want to turn the European continent into a war zone. For this is the key issue of policy, and our governing, media and thinking classes are busily failing it.
For 23 years, from 1991 to 2014, Ukraine was a reasonably democratic, partially free and more or less contented country. But in 2008, this sensible arrangement was doomed. That was when the warmonger President George W. Bush – fresh from wrecking the entire Middle East with his Iraq invasion – declared that he wanted Ukraine to join Nato.
His then ambassador in Moscow, William Burns (now head of the CIA) warned: ‘Ukrainian entry into Nato is the brightest of all red lines for the Russian elite (not just Putin). In more than two and a half years of conversations with key Russian players, I have yet to find anyone who views Ukraine in Nato as anything other than a direct challenge to Russian interests.’ That is ambassador-speak for ‘Don’t do this, Mr President!’
Former ambassador in Moscow, William Burns (now head of the CIA) warned: 'Ukrainian entry into Nato is the brightest of all red lines for the Russian elite (not just Putin)'
His point was crucial. This wasn’t just Putin. It was all the nice, liberal, democratic Russians who we claimed we liked before Putin came to power.
Put very simply, normal Russians regarded a Nato Ukraine as we would see a Chinese military and naval presence in Dublin, or as the Americans would view – oh, let’s think of an equally far-fetched parallel – a Russian nuclear missile base in Cuba. Yet Bush did not give up, and nor did his successors. Finally, in November 2013, Ukraine’s democratically elected President, Viktor Yanukovych, refused (despite huge Western pressure) to go any further with plans to link Ukraine with the EU, a first step towards Nato.
Then, in February 2014, Yanukovych was driven from power by a violent mob, which, among other unlovable things, killed several police officers. The USA and Britain quickly condoned this lawless putsch, and recognised the resulting government – so showing that their supposed commitment to law and democracy is so much lavatory paper.
These are all facts. You’d strive to learn them from the BBC, but it was this process that brought about war in Ukraine.
Everything else, horrible as it might be, followed after. I do not defend it. I condemn it, especially the stupid and barbaric Russian invasion of 2022. But you cannot ignore its causes, or the way that Washington repeatedly ignored warnings of what might go wrong.
I am furious that we, who have no possible interest in this conflict, have been dragged into it.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that lobbing British-owned rockets into Russia will make us safer. The opposite is almost certainly true.
Our leaders plainly have no genuine concern for our national safety, or they would not have let our actual defences rot and rust as they have. Oh, how we need a proper patriotic opposition.
Princess Diana walking over a partly cleared minefield in Angola in 1997
Long years ago I made myself even more unpopular than usual by arguing the case for landmines.
Of course, like all munitions, they do horrible things. But they were useful, I pointed out, for small countries defending themselves against land attacks by bigger neighbours.
My view was squashed flat by the late sainted Princess Diana, shown here in a famous portrait as she walked through a partly cleared minefield in Angola in 1997. Soon afterwards, she called for an end to ‘the plague on Earth caused by landmines’. Sir Anthony Blair then agreed to the Ottawa Treaty, which bans them (easy if you’re surrounded by deep water). But – as I could have told you – the USA, China and Russia never signed it. The interesting bit is this: now the USA is supplying landmines (bad) to Ukraine (good), fickle public opinion has forgotten its former hostility to these weapons.
Цитата:
With Memes and in State Media, Many Russians Cheer on Putin’s Threats
While support for Vladimir V. Putin’s threats resounded in pro-war venues, some Russians reacted with worry, gallows humor and apathy to the suggestions of striking the West and using nuclear weapons.
A photograph released by Russian state media showing President Vladimir V. Putin during a televised address to the nation on Thursday, saying that the country’s forces had hit Ukraine with a new midrange ballistic missile.Credit...Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Sputnik
The day after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia raised the stakes in tensions with the West, many Russians awoke on Friday feeling anxious that the prospect of nuclear war had come slightly closer.
But in Russia’s tightly controlled news media and pro-government social media channels, there were only fawning reactions to the Russian leader’s new round of saber-rattling and promises that Moscow’s enemies would “tremble in fear.”
Mr. Putin announced late Thursday that Russia had launched a new intermediate-range ballistic missile at Ukraine, in response to Kyiv’s first use of U.S. and British missiles against targets inside Russia this week. Russia, he said, also has the right to strike nations “that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities.”
In the West, Thursday’s launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile and Mr. Putin’s remarks were perceived as a threat against Ukraine and its allies, and drew widespread condemnation as an escalation. In Russia, the events were billed as an important sign that the Kremlin would enforce its red lines, with the implication that enforcement could include nuclear weapons.
“This topic used to be a taboo in Russia,” said Denis Volkov, the director of the Levada Center, one of the few independent pollsters in Russia. “Within the elites, the consensus is shifting toward talking about it much more openly, and that Russia should make the West understand that it is serious.”
Russians have been largely desensitized to the Kremlin’s frequent bellicose statements and claims of being besieged by the West since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. But there are also signs that more Russians have come to accept and even cheer on Mr. Putin’s hawkish stance, accompanied by a steady stream of government and media claims that Ukraine and the West are the aggressors.
A growing number of Russians favor the initiation of peace talks, too, but the number of people who accept the use of nuclear weapons has risen slightly, polls suggest.
…
Though almost half the Russians surveyed in a poll this year found the use of nuclear weapons “unacceptable,” there has been a slight increase since last year in the number who consider it acceptable, to 34 percent, Mr. Volkov said. He did not discount that after Mr. Putin’s latest speech and the breathless media coverage that followed, that number could rise further.
Support for nuclear force dovetails with support for the Kremlin, Mr. Volkov said. But for many opposition-minded Russians, the use of a nuclear-capable missile still came as a shock.
“Sometimes it feels like I no longer care. You get so apathetic, but the ongoing background noise is one thing and using an ICBM for the first time is something else,” said Olga, 50, a university professor from Moscow, referring to early reports that misidentified the missile as intercontinental.
Olga, who asked that her surname be withheld for fear of repercussions, is strongly antiwar. She said she felt “a little anxious,” though she believes Mr. Putin is bluffing when he threatens to strike targets in the West.
Mr. Putin’s address did not trigger any visible displays of public anxiety in Russia, but the ruble, already battered by a new package of U.S. sanctions on Thursday, dropped further on Friday. The Russian currency on Friday afternoon was trading at its lowest point against the dollar since March 2022.
The threat of expanding the conflict beyond Russia and Ukraine and possibly using nuclear weapons seemed to fall on fertile ground: the apathy and helplessness that have gripped many Russians since the invasion began.
Ksenia A. Sobchak, a prominent media personality whose father was Mr. Putin’s boss in the 1990s, summed up the sentiment on Telegram with gallows humor: “He didn’t say if they will use nukes or not. But do they have to do it right now? Can they at least wait until after the holidays?”
…
A flagship news show on a state-owned TV channel, Rossiya-1, on Friday morning covered Mr. Putin’s big reveal with gusto, demonstrating the Oreshnik missile’s abilities in a set of sleek graphics. In one, a missile launcher placed on a map of Europe sent projectiles from western Russia to western Europe, reaching “all European capitals.” The host, Olga V. Skabeyeva, boasted, “Even London!”
Ms. Skabeyeva sought to portray Mr. Putin as magnanimous when she noted that Russia was under no obligation to notify the United States ahead of Thursday’s launch, but did so anyway: “We sent a notice to the Americans so that we avoid a Third World War.”
Russian state media, which have always been sensitive about Western press coverage of Russia, also portrayed Mr. Putin’s remarks as a public relations victory. On Friday, a lot of programming was devoted to a detailed press digest, citing news reports from the United States to Saudi Arabia and boasting that the president won front pages around the world.
Rossiya-1 on Friday broadcast a report on social media metrics, bragging that “Oreshnik” trended globally. The state-owned RIA Novosti news agency even published an article based on social media replies to a post by Dmitry A. Medvedev, a former Russian president who gloated over the missile strike. The report suggested that “residents of the West were rushing to offer their apologies” to the Kremlin for Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory.
While Russian media insisted that Mr. Putin was merely responding to Western aggression, some Kremlin-linked figures made it clear that his speech intended to scare the West into withdrawing support from Ukraine.
…
“Let them tremble in fear,” Andrei V. Kartapolov, who heads the defense committee in the State Duma, the lower parliamentary house, told the Russian news agency Tass on Friday. “We’re fighting for the right cause.”
In popular social media groups typically focused on local news, Russians weighed in on Mr. Putin’s speech, with some condemning his apparent appetite for escalation and others cheering on Russia’s army.
In the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, one resident on a popular Telegram group said Russia “has been set 25 years back in its development — what for?”
In Kursk, which became a frontline city this summer after the Ukrainian army seized swaths of Russian land near the border, some Russians on a popular group on VKontakte, a social network, celebrated the missile attack against Ukraine. Others wondered sarcastically if Mr. Putin would call an evacuation were he to strike nearby — many locals have criticized the government for not evacuating parts of the region as evidence mounted that a Ukrainian attack was imminent.
Meanwhile, Russian supporters of the war rushed to praise the president for upping the stakes in the confrontation with the West. Pro-Kremlin bloggers have been sharing memes showing Mr. Putin as an action hero in a movie poster, alluding to wordplay between “Oreshnik,” the name of the Russian missile, and the word “oreshek,” meaning “nut,” which is used in the Russian title of the American blockbuster “Die Hard.”
“Oreshnik. Premiere in Dnipro, November 21, 2024,” said a mock movie poster shared on a popular pro-war Telegram channel.
Voenkor Kotenok, a popular blogger, praised the attack on Dnipro as “a kind of a rain of fire from the sky that was like a movie for the Ukrainians.” But like some other pro-war commenters, he lamented that the Kremlin had notified the United States shortly before the missile launch.
Russia is “too humane and merciful,” he said. “An enemy is to be killed, not warned.”
Republicans Target Social Sciences to Curb Ideas They Don’t Like
Conservatives in Florida have moved from explosive politics to subtler tactics to uproot liberal “indoctrination” in higher education by removing subjects like sociology from core requirements.
Trustees at Florida International University marked for removal 22 courses that are heavily focused on social sciences.Credit...Martina Tuaty for The New York Times
Several years ago, to attract more students, Jean Muteba Rahier spiced up the name of his introduction to the anthropology of religion course. He called it Myth, Ritual and Mysticism.
Now Dr. Rahier, a professor at Florida International University in Miami, believes the name was perhaps too provocative for higher education in the Sunshine State.
Dr. Rahier’s class, which was flagged as having “unproven, speculative or exploratory content,” was one of nearly two dozen courses university trustees voted in September to remove from a core set of classes that students must choose from to graduate.
The slashing of core classes across the state, which has often been based on course titles and descriptions, is meant to comply with a state law passed last year that curbed “identity politics” in the curriculum. The law also bars classes from the core that “distort significant historical events” or that include theories that “systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States.”
Florida has become a testing ground for a raft of conservative policies meant to limit or expunge what Republicans describe as “woke” indoctrination in the state’s schools and colleges. Faculty and student critics have said this latest effort infringes on university autonomy and could reduce students’ exposure to courses they believe are necessary for a well-rounded education. Academic freedom advocates worry it marks a new, more organized approach.
Rather than trying to regulate what a professor can and cannot say — a legally questionable tactic — the new strategy is taking aim at entire courses.
…
The state’s scrutiny of the curriculum in the public colleges could serve as a model for Republican efforts in other states, as colleges are bracing for the return to power of President-elect Donald J. Trump, who has vowed “to reclaim our once great educational institutions from the radical Left.”
Already, lawmakers elsewhere have turned their attention to universities’ curriculums.
The Wyoming Senate this year passed a bill, rejected by the House, that would have defunded gender studies programs at the University of Wyoming. At Texas A&M University, the Board of Regents directed the president this month to eliminate “low-producing” programs, which included an L.G.B.T.Q. minor targeted by a lawmaker. At the University of North Texas, administrators removed terms like “race” and “gender” from some course titles, a move some faculty believe was in response to a state law banning diversity, equity and inclusion offices on campuses.
The 22 courses that trustees marked for removal at Florida International University are heavily focused on social sciences, including Introduction to East Asia, Intercultural/Interracial Communication and Labor and Globalization. More than two dozen other courses updated their descriptions to comply with the law. Similar efforts — though the exact number of courses affected wasn’t immediately clear — played out across the state’s public universities.
Ray Rodrigues, chancellor of the State University System of Florida, said the effort was fluid and wouldn’t be final until the Board of Governors, which oversees the 12-school system, meets in January.
“When the state begins to regulate what we can teach at the level of the university,” said Katie Rainwater, whose class, Sociology of Gender, is marked for removal from the core curriculum, “then we have to question whether the university can serve its social function, which is to be a place of free inquiry.”
…
In an interview, Mr. Rodrigues, an ally of Gov. Ron DeSantis, rejected the academic freedom and autonomy concerns voiced by faculty members, arguing that the effort doesn’t specify what a professor should be teaching in class.
“We’re a marketplace of ideas,” he said. “That’s what a university is. But the manager that runs the marketplace determines where within the marketplace the ideas will be housed.”
Mr. Rodrigues said he wanted to make general education “broad and foundational” and more standardized across the state, and doing so would make transferring credits for students coming from the state’s community colleges more seamless.
But Mr. Rodrigues also said that Florida was trying to address a concern among the public that higher education was “more about indoctrination than education,” citing a Gallup poll that found Americans’ confidence in higher education had plunged in recent years.
Scott Yenor, with the conservative Claremont Institute, has written that the core at many schools has become increasingly bloated, and argued that Florida is “bringing coherence and purpose to general education.”
Earlier in the year, the Florida Board of Governors eliminated Principles of Sociology from the core requirements, alarming sociology professors. The state’s education commissioner, Manny Diaz Jr., said at the time that sociology had “been hijacked by left-wing activists” and no longer served its purpose as a general education course.
…
Professors said they had not been involved in the decisions, which have flouted the traditional process for making curricular changes, though university officials said they had been.
The courses can still be taken as electives. But faculty worry that enrollments could plunge, financially hurting the departments that house them.
“They’re starving undergraduate enrollment in our courses,” said Dr. Rainwater, the sociology professor. “The worry is they’ll then be able to take away whole programs and justify it by saying courses aren’t filling up.”
Dr. Rahier’s anthropology course, which he began teaching in the 1990s, would regularly attract more than 100 students, he said.
“You have bureaucrats who are trying to interpret the laws,” he said of university staff and trustees. “They had a problem with the terms supernatural, mysticism and even myth. In anthropology of religion, we talk about religious myth because there’s no religion without myth. They have a nonspecialist’s understanding of the terms they’re judging.”
The slashing of general education in Florida suggests a broader shift — from local school board battles and speech crackdowns to a more technocratic push to transform education.
PEN America, a free-expression group, said efforts to target professors’ speech have declined in recent years. Bills it describes as “educational gag orders” — government mandates on teaching and learning — reached a peak in 2022, when 144 were introduced, compared with only 56 this year.
Some of the conservative efforts have faced legal problems. In Florida, a federal judge declared unconstitutional parts of the state’s Stop WOKE act, which prohibited schools from instruction that could make students feel uncomfortable about a historical event because of their race.
Adam Kissel, a conservative and former Education Department official, has argued for a different approach.
“A public college cannot and should not control the viewpoints expressed in the classroom,” he wrote. “Instead, a public college or a state legislature should assert its prerogative over the content of the curriculum at various levels.”
In an interview, Mr. Kissel further made a distinction between “viewpoint discrimination versus content accountability.” With the former, “the courts will slap you down every time.” The latter? “As a matter of curriculum, that’s within the authority of different levels of leadership to responsibly demand.”
But some professors detect a subtler form of ideas policing by the government.
Tania Cepero López, a faculty union leader, isn’t a caricature of a leftist university professor. An English instructor at Florida International University, she has voted for Republicans and is married to a conservative Republican.
She said she had not changed anything about her classes, but she said she knows many faculty members who had changed course descriptions and lesson plans to avoid attracting attention.
She has watched in horror in recent years, she said, as she saw the same government interference into education in the United States that she experienced in her native Cuba.
“These decisions are coming from the state, from people who are not teaching, who are not in the classrooms, who don’t know who our students are,” she said. “That’s how indoctrination happens. That’s how censorship happens.”
_________________
С интересом и понятными пожеланиями, Dimitriy.
Revealed: How Donald Trump’s alleged assassin tapped up UK-trained Afghan commandos to fight in Ukraine
...
Aman charged with Donald Trump’s attempted assassination was apparently messaging British-trained Afghan commandos about recruitment to the Ukraine war just three days before he was arrested at a Florida golf course.
Ryan Wesley Routh was arrested on 15 September after allegedly aiming a powerful AK-47-style assault rifle through the bushes at Trump National Golf Club in West Palm Beach.
The 58-year-old former roofing contractor from North Carolina had become fanatical about supporting Ukraine’s right to defend itself from Russia’s invasion. He was said to have contacted the Ukraine’s International Legion with ideas that Ukrainian military personnel described as “delusional”.
In messages linked to Routh’s Whatsapp number and seen by The Independent and investigative newroom Lighthouse Reports, there are discussions with Afghan special forces about how to get to Ukraine to fight.
The extraordinary revelation highlights the desperation of these Afghan commandos who were paid for and trained by the British to fight the Taliban but were left abandoned after Kabul fell in 2021.
Many have fled Afghanistan and are now trying to survive in Iran, as the UK drags its feet about offering safe haven - despite promising to do so nine months ago.
The Independent, in collaboration with Lighthouse Reports and Afghan news outlet Etilaat Roz, has been investigating attempts to recruit these former soldiers as fighters in foreign wars with the lure of high wages.
One former special forces soldier, Hafizullah, who is living in Iran, ended up communicating with Routh’s Whatsapp about potentially going to help Ukraine. Hafizullah served for eight years in a specialist unit known as Commando Force 333, which was set up and run by the British.
This photograph taken on Independence Square in Kyiv on June 23, 2022 shows US citizen Ryan Wesley Routh sticking up national flags of the countries helping Ukraine. (AFP via Getty Images)
He fled from Afghanistan to Iran with his wife and baby son in early 2022. In a sign of the breadth of recruiters trying to entice former Afghan soldiers into combat, Hafizullah says he has received offers to fight in Ukraine, Iraq and Syria since being in Iran.
Screen shots Hafizullah provided of his WhatsApp communication show Routh apparently encouraging him to send him a CV on 12 September - three days before he was arrested near Trump’s Florida golf course.
The phone number Hafizullah was communicating with matches the one on Routh’s Fight for Ukraine website. The Whatsapp profile also matches the profile Routh has been reported as using.
Routh is now being held in a detention centre in South Florida, charged with the attempted assassination of Trump.
Screenshots of Whatsapp exchanges with Ryan Routh’s number seem to show he was still trying to recruit people to the Ukraine war just days before his arrest (The Independent/Lighthouse Reports)
Hafizullah, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, said that he had been in contact with Routh on and off for two years. He said a friend of his, a former commander in the Afghan military, had passed on his number to Routh.
In an exchange on Whatsapp with Routh’s number, Hafizullah said that life in Iran is getting harder every day. Routh’s number replied on 12 September 2024 telling him to send in his CV, adding: “You’re a doctor are you not…CV is a universal item. Many samples online…Google it. It’s really not important yet.”
Hafizullah then replied: “So I’m waiting for you to call me whenever you want, I’m ready”. Routh then sent a google doc link, instructing him to “Send that form in”. The Independent has not been able to open the document link.
Aside from messaging Routh’s number privately, Hafizullah was also in a Whatsapp group with the same number, titled ‘Soldiers for Ukraine’, which was created in April 2023. Hafizullah said that the group had over 100 members.
Routh had previously told reporters in March 2023 that he was trying to pull together a group of Afghan veterans to fight in Ukraine, but his plan doesn’t look like it ever came to fruition.
Mr Routh told The New York Times in early 2023 that he was seeking recruits from among Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban. Routh said he planned to move them from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine and that dozens had expressed interest. “We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan since it’s such a corrupt country”, he said in an interview from Washington.
Hafizullah said that Routh had told the group about a month before his arrest that he was trying to find safe accommodation for their families in Kenya. Hafizullah explained that the former soldiers had initially asked for a safe place for their families to live in exchange for fighting for Ukraine.
The former Triple said that him and the group cut off their connection to Routh after his arrest.
While Routh’s efforts at recruitment seemed fanciful and will have ended following his detention, Hafizullah is certain that other offers to fight abroad will still be open to the move.
He has applied for help from the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD), under a relocation scheme called the Arap Relocation and Assistance Policy (Arap) for Afghans who worked closely with British forces. But Hafizullah, who said he had sent in his application two years ago, hasn’t heard back from the UK.
Hafizullah with his former Afghan special forces colleagues (The Independent/ Lighthouse Reports)
In February, the MoD announced that it would review around 2,000 rejections from the Arap scheme within 12 weeks, following revelations that hundreds of Afghans with credible links to specialist units had been refused under the scheme.
But nine months on, the review is still ongoing, with the armed forces minister Luke Pollard admitting that “it should not have taken this long”.
Hafizullah, who said he was living in partial hiding in Iran for fear of being deported, is still hoping that he might be helped by the MoD’s review. But he warned that desperate soldiers could be signing up to fight abroad as a way of earning money to feed their families.
He said that he had heard about recruitment efforts trying to hire Afghans to fight for Russia and Syria, explaining: “If you accept to fight somewhere, they will give you a card and you’ll have proper freedom until they send you.”
Hafizullah said he was aware of 25 people who went to fight for Russia, two of whom were from the Triples units. “When those 25 people reached Russia I lost contact with them,” he said, adding that he also knows of Afghans who are deployed to Syria for six months at a time.
He concluded: “I have three options: get killed in Afghanistan, get killed fighting on the frontlines in another country or commit suicide”.
Speaking about his wait for UK help, he added: “It really hurts. All these guys who are left behind, we know each other, we got paid by the British government, but now no one is hearing our voice.”
An MoD spokesperson said: “As the Minister for the Armed Forces made clear recently to parliament, we understand the frustration that the review is taking so long.
“Key issues within the review have been resolved and we are working hard to ensure that eligible former Triples and their families can move to start a new life in the UK.”
“The ‘Triples review’ remains high priority for the government and ministers have directed that it is delivered quickly, and with the care and diligence that it deserves.”
Цитата:
Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin hails ‘unstoppable’ hypersonic missiles as Moscow ramps up threats to West
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Vladimir Putin has hailed Russia’s “unstoppable” hypersonic missiles as he threatened to strike the West in a coded message.
The Russian leader claimed there was no way of stopping the intermediate-range “Oreshnik” ballistic missile used to strike Ukraine on Thursday.
He said last week’s attack on Dnipro was a direct response to Ukrainian forces striking Russia with US and British long-range missiles.
“There is no countermeasure to such a missile, no means of intercepting it, in the world today. And I will emphasise once again that we will continue testing this newest system,” Putin warned.
He also said: “We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against the military facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities.”
He claimed the new missile could be fitted with several conventional warheads and could be as devastating as strategic nuclear weapons.
Ukrainian air defence forces said the missile – which has a range of more than 3,400 miles and can be used to carry nuclear warheads – was fired from Russia’s Astrakhan region, on the Caspian Sea.
Despite the Kremlin’s rhetoric, Russian officials notified the United States about Thursday’s attack 30 minutes before launching the missile.
Цитата:
Rosjanie podbili stawkę. Zaatakowali Ukrainę czymś zupełnie nowym
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Według Pentagonu, Rosjanie odpalili w stronę Ukrainy "eksperymentalny pocisk balistyczny". Nie jest jasne, co dokładnie uderzyło w Dnipro, bo tego nie potrafią zidentyfikować sami Amerykanie. Prawdopodobnie było to jednak jedno z najdroższych pojedynczych rosyjskich uderzeń w Ukrainę w czasie tej wojny. I zarazem sygnał dla państw NATO, że ich obrona powietrzna może być niewystarczająca.
• Pierwszy raz w historii Rosjanie użyli w działaniach wojennych hipersonicznego pocisku balistycznego. Rakieta spadła na Ukrainę.
• Odpalenie pocisku potwierdzili Amerykanie. Nie są jednak w stanie precyzyjnie zidentyfikować, czego dokładnie użyto.
• Przed tego rodzaju atakami Polskę i Europę ma chronić tarcza antyrakietowa w Redzikowie. Nie jest jednak wcale pewne, że będzie to robić skutecznie.
Co spadło na ukraińskie miasto Dnipro - nie wiadomo. "Rosjanie musieli się nakombinować"
Problemem jest w ogóle ustalenie co właściwie uderzyło w miasto Dnipro. Według źródeł "Ukrainskiej Prawdy" chodzi o rakietę średniego zasięgu RS-26 Rubież, ale nie jest wykluczone, że chodzi o zupełnie nowy pocisk.
Z jego ostateczną identyfikacją mają kłopot komentatorzy i analitycy wojskowi. Napisał o tym na portalu X m.in. służący w przeszłości w Służbie Wywiadu Wojskowego podpułkownik Maciej Korowaj.
Wymieniał on m.in. takie pociski, jak RS-26 Rubież czy jego zaawansowaną modyfikację, znaną jako Oriesznik. Oba to IRBM-y (z ang. intermediate-range ballistic missile) - pociski balistyczne średniego (lub pośredniego, zależnie od nazewnictwa) zasięgu. Przy czym "średni zasięg" oznacza tu około 5-5,5 tys. km.
"MGŁA WOJNY"
CZYLI KRÓTKA HISTORIA "ORESZNIKA" ORAZ OSTANIA FAZA WOJNY...
Czy się bać...?
To skomplikowane ale postaram się to Państwu wyjaśnić.
Zapraszam...
W 2018 roku, kiedy Władimir Putin po raz pierwszy mówił o hipersonicznym pocisku rakietowym Ch-47M2 "KINDŻAŁ",… pic.twitter.com/jaub8hkoFn
— ppłk rez. Maciej Korowaj (@Maciej_Korowaj) November 22, 2024
O Orieszniku mówi w rozmowie z WNP.PL także były komendant Centrum Szkolenia Artylerii i Uzbrojenia im. gen. Józefa Bema w Toruniu płk Remigiusz Zieliński. Oficer wskazuje, że
aby trafić w Dnipro, miasto bez szczególnego znaczenia wojskowego, Rosjanie musieli mocno pogłówkować.
Prawdopodobnie był to Oriesznik (Kedr), czyli zmodyfikowana wersja pocisku RS-26 Rubież. Niewątpliwie Rosjanie musieli się poważnie nakombinować, żeby trafić cel położony w odległości ok. 1000 km, ponieważ standardowy zasięg tej rakiety to ok 5-6 tys. km. Inna jest wiec typowa trajektoria lotu i krzywa balistyczna dla tej odległości. To było dość karkołomne, pocisk musiał osiągnąć dość dużą wierzchołkową - rozpoczyna płk Zieliński.
O tym, że mamy do czynienia z czymś nowym zdają się także sygnalizować sami Rosjanie. Z Rosji napływają informacje, że nie jest to modernizacja, a zupełnie nowa broń, do której - jakoby - Rosjanie mają mieć zapasy pocisków. Według nich pokrywa ona swoim zasięgiem całą Europę i będzie obsługiwana przez Strategiczne Siły Rakietowe.
Sam pocisk RS-26 Rubież miał być zmodyfikowaną wersją pocisku Jars - takiego, jak widoczny na zdjęciu głównym.
Złą wiadomością jest, że Rubież i jego domniemany następca Oriesznik wyposażone są w głowię MIRV.
Co to znaczy? MIRV (z ang. multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle) to "ładunek" pocisku balistycznego, zawierający kilka niezależnie od siebie naprowadzanych głowic, zazwyczaj jądrowych, ale niekoniecznie. Widać to było nad Dniprem.
It took Russian RS-26 Rubezh ICBM 5 minutes to fly 790 kilometres and hit Yuzhmash plant in the city of Dnipro. By this strike, Russia is signalling to NATO how a nuclear strike on Europe could look like and most of NATO countries have no capabilities to stop these MIRV ICBMs. pic.twitter.com/FtArO4uUpL
— ADLER (@red_radahn) November 22, 2024
Dodaje też coś bardziej niepokojącego; przekonuje, że drabina eskalacyjna powoli się kończy. W jego ocenie użycie tego pocisku ma być pokazaniem, że Rosja jest w stanie używać pocisków średniego zasięgu.
- To był pokaz Rosji dla Zachodu - podsumowuje oficer.
Amerykanie zostali uprzedzeni. Rosja wyprzedziła USA w śmiertelnym wyścigu technologicznym?
W podobnym tonie wypowiada się inny rozmówca WNP.PL, wysoki rangą oficer Wojska Polskiego. Prosi o zachowanie anonimowości. On również mówi, że Rosjanie mogli wejść w posiadanie "czegoś nowego". Przesłanką do tego może po pierwsze zasięg uderzenia. Pocisk odpalony został z obwodu astrachańskiego, z poligonu Kapustin Jar. Odległość między Kapustin Jarem a Dniprem to około 1000 km. Pocisk miał ją pokonać w czasie 8-10 minut.
To sygnalizuje, że musiał on osiągnąć prędkość być może nawet 10 Machów.
Rosja notyfikowała USA na krótko przed wystrzeleniem nowego, "eksperymentalnego" pocisku pośredniego zasięgu (IRBM) na Dniepr - wynika z wypowiedzi wicerzeczniczki Pentagonu Sabriny Singh. Tym samym Rosjanie uprzedzili Amerykanów, że odpalą taki pocisk.
USA mogą mieć jednak znacznie więcej wiedzy na ten temat z innych źródeł.
- Jasnym jest, że Amerykanie dozorują Kapsutin Jar, także z wykorzystaniem satelitów. Są też w stanie śledzić na podstawie śladu cieplnego tor jej lotu - mówi oficer.
Na dowód proponuje uważne prześledzenie osi wydarzeń. W minioną niedzielę, administracja prezydenta USA oraz rządy Francji i Wielkiej Brytanii wydały zgodę na użycie na terenie Rosji broni dalekiego zasięgu: odpowiednio pocisków ATACMS oraz Storm Shadow.
Następnie Ukraińcy zaczęli faktycznie ich używać, atakując cele położone na terytorium Rosji. Pierwsze pociski spadły we wtorek. W środę, w trybie alarmowym zamykano w Kijowie ambasady państw zachodnich, w tym USA. W czwartek zaś, na Dnipro spadł pocisk.
Mamy do czynienia z czymś nowym w rosyjskim arsenale, budowanym w odpowiedzi na amerykańskiego Dark Eagle. Rosjanie zaskoczyli świat. Ukraińcy nie mieli czasu na odpowiedź, zwyczajnie nie mieli czasu. I nie jest to dobra wiadomość - wskazuje rozmówca WNP.
Można byłoby więc postawić pytanie: po co Rosjanie najpierw ujawnili, a potem potwierdzili posiadanie nowego rodzaju uzbrojenia w swoim arsenale? Oficer z którym rozmawiamy,
wskazuje, że jej użycie wpisuje się w konwencjonalne powstrzymywanie i odstraszanie:
miało powstrzymać Ukraińców od dalszych uderzeń na cele na terytorium Rosji i zarazem odstraszyć Zachód od dalszej pomocy Ukrainie.
Wyścig z wielokrotną prędkością dźwięku. Rosjanie wyszli na prowadzenie?
To było, jak mówi nasz rozmówca, pokazanie Ukrainie i Zachodowi, że takie działania będą niemile widziane i spotkają się z odpowiedzią Rosji. Ale jest, jak dodaje, także druga część przekazu. I w jego ocenie brzmi ona: "panowie, jeśli w 2026 r. zamierzacie w Niemczech rozmieścić swoje Dark Eagle, to mamy na to gotową odpowiedź".
Należy w tym miejscu wyjaśnić czym jest dwukrotnie przywołany Dark Eagle: to pocisk hipersoniczny, produkcji amerykańskiej. USA wciąż mają tę broń w fazie testowej, zaś Rosjanie właśnie dokonali de facto pierwszego testu użycia bojowego hipersonicznego pocisku balistycznego. I jest to stanowczo zła wiadomość dla Europy i NATO.
Mówi o tym także Dariusz Witkowski, zajmujący się tematyką rosyjskich systemów balistycznych. Wskazuje on, że według dowódcy rosyjskich Wojsk Rakietowych Przeznaczenia Strategicznego, gen. Siergieja Karakajewa, odpalenie pocisku było testem nowego systemu.
- W takim świetle użycie Oriesznika jest bardziej racjonalne. Test połączony z strategiczną sygnalizacją jako odpowiedź na zwiększone działania Zachodu w ostatnich dniach - mówi WNP.PL Witkowski.
Wszystko to, zebrane razem, daje ponury obraz. Rosjanie weszli, jak może się okazać, w posiadanie nowego rodzaju broni, który będzie poważnym zagrożeniem dla systemów NATO-wskich. Tego nie da się zestrzelić przy pomocy Patriota, pocisków CAMM, a problem może mieć także otwarta w ubiegłym tygodniu amerykańska baza tarczy antyrakietowej w polskim Redzikowie. Oddajmy jeszcze raz głos płk Zielińskiemu.
Trzeba będzie dostosować/zmodernizować obecnie używane przez Zachód antyrakiety do standardu reprezentowanego np. przez amerykański system THAAD, bo inaczej możemy mieć problem ze zwalczaniem takich głowic. Do przeciwdziałania tak szybkim pociskom należałoby użyć czegoś nowszego, niż jest obecnie w użyciu. Fizyka pocisków tego rodzaju, wymaga nieco innych środków przeciwdziałania - podsumowuje płk Remigiusz Zieliński.
Dla NATO, Europy i Polski może to być zatem ostatni dzwonek, by nie stracić przewagi w rywalizacji z rosyjskim zagrożeniem.
UK needs urgent review of 'woefully weak' anti-missile defences, experts say - amid concerns Britain would be 'wide open to attack' if Vladimir Putin launched missile strike on the country
Ministers are facing calls to order an urgent review of Britain’s ‘woefully weak’ anti-missile defences in the wake of Russia’s use of deadly new hypersonic weapons.
The calls come amid claims from a senior Army commander that the UK would be ‘wide open to attack’ if Vladimir Putin aimed his new missiles at this country.
Last night, the Ministry of Defence insisted that Britain operated a ‘robust approach to air and missile defence’.
However, Putin’s use of his new missile against Ukraine – coupled with his veiled threats to use such weapons against Britain – has sparked demands for action.
Critics claimed that, compared to Israel’s multi-layered missile defence abilities – including its famous ‘Iron Dome’ – Britain has few resources.
They said the UK lacked any real equivalent of Israel’s capability to intercept ballistic missiles at high altitude and up to 90 miles away.
Former Tory defence minister Tobias Ellwood told The Mail on Sunday that even without Russia’s new missile the UK is ‘woefully unprotected against mass drone and missile threats.
'Compared to Washington DC, with all its defence systems available in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, London is almost a sitting duck.’
Israeli rockets fired from their Iron Dome defence system. Ministers are facing calls to review Britain's 'woefully weak' anti missile defences
Former Tory defence minister Tobias Ellwood told The Mail on Sunday that even without Russia’s new missile the UK is 'woefully unprotected' from threats
He added that Putin’s use of the ‘Oreshnik’ missile, which can allegedly fly at ten times the speed of sound, should serve as ‘a resounding wake-up call across Whitehall’.
In response, the MoD highlighted that it has:
• The Sea Viper system on Type 45 destroyers which can track and destroy threats more than 70 miles away – and on service in the Red Sea shot down a Houthi rebel ballistic missile and attack drones
• Airborne defences including RAF Typhoons which recently disrupted Iranian missile and drone attacks on Israel
• The land-based Sky Sabre batteries which can detect threats up to 75 miles away using radar; the ‘battle-winning’
• Starstreak short-range air defence missile which cannot be jammed by enemy action
However, experts said last night that only six Sky Sabre launchers had been purchased by the MoD, with two currently in service in the Falklands and one in Poland.
Tim Ripley, editor of the Defence Eye website said: ‘Each night, the Russians are firing more than 150 missiles and drones at Kyiv. Yet we only have three Sky Sabre launchers and they can only be loaded with eight missiles each.
'The Type 45 destroyers are better. They have 48 missiles but once those are fired, they have to go back to port to reload, which takes days. And only two of our six Type 45s are currently fit for action.’
Putin’s (pictured) use of his new experimental missile against Ukraine – coupled with his veiled threats to use such weapons against Britain – has sparked demands for action
Former Army chief Lord Dannatt said there had been a missile defence programme before the 1997/98 defence review but it was cancelled, with resources diverted to the rest of the defence budget.
He called on the MoD ‘on behalf of the nation’ to look again at the anti-missile provision ‘and reach judgments on whether they should think about restarting a programme. But he warned it might well cost ‘many billions’.
An MoD spokesman said: ‘The UK operates a robust approach to air and missile defence, provided by Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force assets equipped with a range of advanced capabilities, working in tandem with our Nato allies.
The Defence Secretary also recently announced the UK will lead a new initiative to integrate and strengthen our collective air and missile defence.’
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Putin ramps up production of Russia's 8,370mph hypersonic missiles that he fired at Ukraine as he boasts 'no one in the world has such weapons'
Vladimir Putin has ramped up production of a new hypersonic missile he fired against Ukraine last week, boasting 'no one in the world has such weapons'.
The Russian despot fired the new Oreshnik missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday, after Ukraine fired American ATACMS and British Storm Shadow long-range missiles deep into Russia.
The Oreshnik, which means hazel tree, travels at speeds of around 8,370 miles per hour, and is capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads.
But Putin told the Russian nation in a televised address that the missile fired at a military-industrial site in Dnipro used conventional warheads.
After firing the Oreshnik, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned Britain and America of their 'reckless' action in supplying long-range missiles to Ukraine.
Peskov said: 'The main message is that the reckless decisions and actions of Western countries that produce missiles, supply them to Ukraine, and subsequently participate in strikes on Russian territory cannot remain without a reaction from the Russian side.'
This weekend, Putin boasted that no country in the world has the power to intercept the Oreshnik missiles, which fly at ten times the speed of sound. He said: 'There is no countermeasure to such a missile, no means of intercepting it in the world today.
'And I will emphasise once again that we will continue testing this newest system. It is necessary to establish serial production.'
He added: 'No one in the world has such weapons. Sooner or later other leading countries will also get them. We are aware that they are under development.'
The missile being fired into Ukraine led the country's parliament to cancel a session, as security in Kiyv was tightened.
Nato chiefs and Ukrainian leaders are expected to hold emergency talks on Tuesday.
But the West stood defiant against Putin last night, as France's foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, gave Ukraine the green light to fire French long-range missiles into Russia 'in the logics of self-defence'.
He did not confirm if French weapons were already being used but said that there were no 'red lines' when it comes to supporting Ukraine.
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SARAH VINE: Stockpiling tinned tuna won't save us from Armageddon. But I have ONE theory to stop us all from becoming consumed by terror
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At the risk of seeming contrary, I can’t get too wound up about the threat of World War III. I know it’s awful and that we’re all meant to be stockpiling mineral water and energy bars, lining the garden shed with lead, practising survival techniques and sourcing iodine tablets.
But seriously, what’s the point? If Putin launches a nuclear attack on Britain, what can I do? We’ll all be toast.
And even if I survive, it will just be an agonising, lingering death which no amount of tinned tuna can alleviate.
It’s not that I’m being defeatist or burying my head in the sand. It’s simply that if I have learnt one thing in life, it’s that there is no point getting too wound up about things you can’t control. It merely leads to anxiety and over-consumption of vodka.
Worrying over events we can’t do anything about – mostly happening in parts of the world where we have no agency – is pointless and self-defeating.
So why do we have this seemingly insatiable desire to catastrophise almost to the point of hysteria? Even the most cursory glimpse at the internet is enough to give the impression that those missiles are all but on their way.
I’m sure my grandparents’ generation didn’t get into such a state in the run-up to World War II, even though they had good reason. Then again, they never had social media. The range of their gossip and conspiracy theories never went much beyond the pub or the next village.
Now, the entire world is at our fingertips, a whole universe of potential paranoia to explore, a global arena in which to fry our tiny little minds. Press 1 for Hell, 2 for Fresh Hell.
Recent warnings from Putin have sparked concerns over the potential for 'World War III'
Sarah Vine writes that her generation was lucky – the last, pre-digital, age where the world still had an off button
This is not so much the Information Age as the Too Much Information Age. All day, every day, from all corners of the internet, our brains are bombarded with data.
This produces a curious effect. On the one hand, we’re supposed to feel empowered with all this knowledge. On the other, we feel powerless in the face of its enormity.
Instead of broadening our horizons, it has the opposite effect: our worlds shrink to the size of a smartphone. We are overwhelmed by a feeling of nagging anxiety.
In this digital age, we seem increasingly to exist somewhere between outrage and fear. Every possible worry, tragedy, injustice, worst-case-scenario in every part of the world funnels foremost into our minds. Rather than freeing us, it traps us.
Just look at the way everyone stares slack-jawed into their phones, scrolling into the abyss. Hours once spent doing useful, joyful, life-enhancing things are now wasted – our minds filling with other people’s misery.
Above all, it’s rewiring our brains. A recent study found a direct correlation between depression and so-called doom-scrolling. Scientists found that viewing distressing content online snares our brain in a negative feedback loop that reinforces a destructive, downward spiral.
We become infected with fear, our cortisol levels elevated by the constant perceived threat, even though we may be safe and sound in our beds. In other words, the internet is altering our brain chemistry – and not in a good way.
My generation was lucky – the last, pre-digital, age where the world still had an off button.
Today’s young have never known what that feels like. No wonder they’re all so angry, upset and confused. Their brains never get a moment’s let-up.
Also, I think this is the reason why they find it hard to formulate independent opinions rather than adopt a kind of hysterical groupthink with a closed circuit of ideas and beliefs devoid of all individuality. They know everything and yet understand nothing.
The truth is, we’re all controlled by what we see, read and hear on the internet. The world has become a Tower of Babel – a deafening, unintelligible cacophony of voices. We are all prisoners in a digital dictatorship. Control is not exercised by jackboots and bayonets – it’s easily achieved through social media and algorithms.
Of course, this suits the powers that be. A fearful population is compliant and the threat of World War III is just another deathly distraction from the daily problems that politicians prefer us not to focus on, since that might mean they would have to get off their backsides and do something.
It also offers endless excuses to restrict us all even more. Covid was the ultimate example: when we succumbed to panic, relinquished our rights and freedoms and, in some cases, our basic humanity.
But to what advantage? None, as far as I can tell. We’re still paying the price for that folly.
World War III may or may not happen. The sky may or may not fall. However, what we mustn’t do is to be consumed by worry and live in a permanent state of panic.
Much better to turn off, tune out – and enjoy this precious life to the full while we still have it.
I visited London's grumpiest new restaurant where customers are SHAMED for not ordering enough
'Will you lads be having anything to drink with your meal then?'
A standard question for any waiter to ask, but in the Yellow Bittern, a tiny 18-seater bistro recently opened on London's Caledonian Road, it's a pointed challenge with only one correct answer.
It's an answer we're determined not to give.
'Just some water for us thanks, it's a bit early for us.'
Hugh Corcoran, the chef cum poet cum communist owner of North London's most controversial new restaurant stiffens and shuffles back to his makeshift kingdom: the open plan kitchen where he ladles out bowls of Irish delicacies to his high brow clientele.
He never speaks to us again.
A man with an unrefined palate and distinct lack of literary nouse grapples with a £20 Dublin coddle
Hugh Corcoran, the chef cum poet cum communist owner of North London's most controversial new restaurant: The Yellow Bittern
However Corcoran has already upset his customers by claiming some of them don't understand the concept of lunch
Corcoran's new venture, which he co owns with Frances Armstrong-Jones and Oisín Davies, is less than a month old
Corcoran's new venture, which he co owns with Frances Armstrong-Jones and Oisín Davies, is less than a month old but has already made headlines for all the wrong reasons.
The dining spot only opens for lunch on weekdays, does not accept card or walk ins and seats just 18 people with prospective diners having to call or send a postcard to reserve a table.
The novel concept theoretically harkens back to the glory days of long salubrious lunches fueled by fine wine, fine food and titillating company.
But Corcoran has already upset his customers by claiming some of them don't understand his bold lunch concept.
In an Instagram tirade, the chef said: 'Little sharing plates has ruined dining. Or rather it has ruined diners. It is now apparently completely normal to book a table for 4 people say and then order one starter and two mains to share and a glass of tap water.
'There was at one point an etiquette in restaurants that if you booked a table in a nice place you at the very least had to order a main course (and possibly even a starter or dessert) and drink wine in order your table to be worth serving.
'For example, we do to the effort of dressing the table, of picking and arranging the flowers, of polishing the glasses etc and reserve the table for 2 hours for someone to order a meal which ends up costing £25 a head. It’s not worth us opening.
'Order correctly, drink some wine, and justify your presence in the room that afternoon. If you do not drink because you have done so to such excess that it cannot be permitted any longer, then come hungry and eat your fair share.
'Restaurants are not public benches, you are there to spend some money.'
Challenge accepted then Hugh.
At a first glance, the YB is a tiny bookish place filled with obscure artwork and old Irish maps
Below the tiny restaurant, a second hand book shop lurks although you won't find any Sally Rooney on the shelves
The £6 soda bread was washed down with half a bottle of Guinness each
The £6 radishes and butter consisted of some radishes and some butter
When we arrive at the Yellow Bittern, which I will henceforth be abbreviating to YB for ease and as it sounds suitably bookish (something Hugh loves), we are struck by how unassuming the place is.
In order to enter the establishment you must first ring a bell which summons one of the three members of staff to grant you entry.
We are met by Hugh who beckons us in and directs us to a table which is still covered in the detritus of the first luncheon.
While the table is hurriedly cleaned, we are left to stand awkwardly in the cramped aisle between the two banks of tables and assess the scene.
At a first glance, the YB is a tiny bookish place filled with obscure artwork, old Irish maps and perhaps bizarrely for a man who has made no secret of his desire to make money: a portrait of Lenin.
In order to be seated one of the tables has to be pulled out which results in my companion being trapped against the wall for the entire meal.
Should you wish to use the toilet or peruse the second hand bookshop downstairs, the entire process must be repeated.
You can at least read the menu though, which is located on a single chalk board by a a large serving table piled high with the days offerings.
On the day MailOnline visited, the YB is serving delights such as £6 soda bread, £20 Dublin coddle and £9 apple pie.
These prices are on the expensive side but they aren't overtly ridiculous in the way that some other London restaurants are, so that's a plus for the YB.
Where the YB makes most of its money you feel is through their extensive wine list, which doesn't exist on any physical menu, as Hugh simply reels off the selections to customers off the top of his head.
We do not give him the opportunity to do so and opt for some water.
When he is finally granted the stage by the diners to our left he is clearly in his element, listing off the different tasting notes and origin of each bottle in the vein of a man who clearly wants you to know he is an expert on wine.
Prices for the wine in the YB vary from £40 to £100 a bottle with single glasses setting customers back around £10.
After stewing over our water for the best part of 20 minutes without ordering (even though the restaurant only has 18 seats, service is glacial) we decide to ape the behaviour of fellow diners and order a £5 Guinness: to share.
The bottle is unceremoniously dumped on our table and we get to work nursing the stout.
The coddle is a disaster consisting of two ugly-looking sausages that taste like they've come out of a can floating in a sad broth
The coddle is a disaster consisting of two ugly-looking sausages that taste like they've come out of a can floating in a sad broth
On to the food then, and we decide to order some soda bread to share and the mysterious option of £6 'radishes and butter.'
Are they cooked in butter we wonder? Is this a cheeky play on words teasing the intricate nature of the dish? No. We are served a plate of radishes alongside a splodge of butter.
The radishes are fresh and tasty but the butter doesn't really add much to the dish. As a combination it seems fairly pointless, but maybe that's the point.
We're unsure but can't stew over it too long as our main course of £20 Dublin coddle and £6 green salad promptly arrives.
This is where things take an unsavoury turn. The green salad is, for want of a better description, a heap of gem lettuce slathered in a plain vinaigrette. Inoffensive but hardly a salad.
The coddle though is a disaster. Two ugly-looking sausages that taste like they've come out of a can floating in a sad broth next to some potatoes.
Between us we can only finish off one of the sausages, leaving the other one to float forlornly in a puddle of Hugh's making.
Our fellow diners are tucking into a far more hearty looking stew which had unfortunately run out for half of the day's second luncheon.
This of course begs the question: why complain about how little your customers are spending if your kitchen physically can't handle the demands of 36 covers a day?
Postcards adorn the walls of the YB in an effort to justify the restaurant's absurd booking policy
At the end of the meal, we have spent roughly £24 a head which according to Hugh's own estimations means we weren't worth serving
Questions, questions, questions - the answers of which are presumably stashed on the postcards pinned around the restaurant to justify their ridiculous booking policy.
In need of a toilet break, my companion begins the herculean task of extricating himself from the wall.
We are forced to move the table fully out into the aisle, spilling our water and scraping into our fellow diners who are packed against us like sardines.
During the process, a genuinely irritated server asked us not to do that in future but rather put our hand up and wait for assistance like we're in school.
So the vibe is less of a long luxurious luncheon and more of a put your hand up to go toilet and be grateful you're allowed.
School dinners at least are cheaper.
Having seen (and tasted) enough, we motion that we'd like to pay, a process which is elongated as we have conveniently forgot to bring cash (Hugh takes 'more pleasure' from physical currency).
At the end of the meal, we have spent roughly £24 a head which according to Hugh's own estimations means we weren't worth serving.
That's fine by us, as by our own estimations, the experience wasn't worth paying for.
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Javier Bardem 'offered £600,000 to star in Uber Eats advert' - following in the footsteps of Hollywood legend Robert De Niro
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When veteran film director Francis Ford Coppola singled out Javier Bardem as a potential 'heir' to Hollywood legend Robert De Niro, he probably didn't expect him to take it so literally.
But the Spanish actor is now set to follow directly in De Niro's footsteps after signing a 'six-figure deal' to appear in an advert for Uber Eats – just a year after the Taxi Driver star appeared in a similar ad.
Bardem, 55, could pocket £600,000 from the food delivery company for the new ad, which insiders say will be filmed in London.
And De Niro, perhaps, has reason to be worried. It comes in the same week it was announced that Bardem is also set to reprise De Niro's role in a television remake of 1991 psychological thriller Cape Fear.
He will take on the role of convicted violent rapist Max Cady, who seeks vengeance on his lawyer after serving a 14-year prison sentence, in a series for Apple TV+ which will see Martin Scorsese return as director.
De Niro's advert for Uber's membership scheme, Uber One, saw the 81-year-old appear alongside Sex Education star Asa Butterfield.
Spanish actor Javier Bardem (pictured) has signed a 'six-figure deal' to appear in an advert for Uber Eats
Robert De Niro last year starred in an advert for Uber's membership scheme, Uber One, which saw the 81-year-old appear alongside Sex Education star Asa Butterfield (pictured together)
Bardem won an Oscar in 2007 for his performance as violent psychopath Anton Chigurh (pictured) in the Coen brothers adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel No Country for Old Men
The pair slowly bond over their love of 'eating food' and 'going places' during the three-minute film, which is called Best Friends.
Whether Bardem, who is married to Spanish actress Penelope Cruz and best known for playing villains, will play to type remains unclear.
He won an Oscar in 2007 for his performance as violent psychopath Anton Chigurh in the Coen brothers adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel No Country for Old Men, and also played deranged former MI6 agent-turned-cyberterrorist Raoul Silva in Sam Mendes' Skyfall.
It was 15 years ago that Coppola gave an interview where he claimed Bardem could take over from actors like De Niro.
The director described him as 'ambitious' and – ironically, given his new partnership with Uber Eats – 'hungry'.
Both Bardem and Uber Eats were approached for comment.
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С интересом и понятными ожиданиями, Dimitriy.
Angela Merkel accuses Putin of gleefully 'enjoying' her discomfort after Russian president brought his pet Labrador into meeting with German chancellor despite her having a fear of dogs
Angela Merkel has accused Vladimir Putin of enjoying her discomfort after the Russian president brought his pet Labrador into a meeting despite her fear of dogs.
Following the pair's first meeting in Sochi in 2007, the German Chancellor claimed that Putin had deliberately brought along his pet Connie in an attempt to intimidate and unnerve her.
Putin, at the time, dismissed the claims and told German publication Bild: 'I did not know anything about that,' when quizzed on his intentions.
The incident became infamous in Germany with claims that that it was part of a power strategy by Putin to gain an advantage in their all-important first meeting.
Now, speaking to The Times, Merkel has opened up on her relationship and history with the Russian leader, claiming he knew perfectly well that she was frightened of dogs.
'I could tell from Putin's facial expressions,' she wrote, 'that he was enjoying the situation'.
Putin purportedly asked Merkel at the beginning of the meeting when Connie entered the room: 'The dog does not bother you, does she? She's a friendly dog and I'm sure she will behave herself.
'No, she doesn't eat journalists after all,' Merkel responded to Putin in his native Russian, in what was thought to be an attempt to make light of the situation.
Angela Merkel claimed that Vladimir Putin had deliberately brought along his pet Connie to their first meeting in an attempt to intimidate and unnerve her, knowing she was scared of dogs
She has now claimed she believes Putin enjoyed her discomfort at the 2007 meeting in Sochi
Merkel was pictured nervously smiling during the meeting as the big black Labrador sat by her feet
With her legs crossed and her hands firmly clasped together in her lap, Merkel was a picture of tension as she tried to disguise her longstanding fear of canines
Although she was laughing during the conversation, images from the 2007 meeting show how hard the German politician was trying to hide her fear.
Photos show Merkel wearing a nervous smile as she looked down at the large black dog while it walks towards her.
With her legs crossed and her hands firmly clasped together in her lap, Merkel was a picture of tension as she tried to disguise her longstanding fear of canines.
Putin said that Connie, who died aged 15 in 2014 and was a gift from Russia's Minister of Defence Sergey Shoigu, was a friendly dog.
Following a tense first meeting, it seemed Merkel would keep up her reservations surrounding the Russian President for several years to come.
In 2022, Merkel defended her approach to Ukraine and Russia during her 16 years as Germany's leader, saying she had 'nothing to apologise for'.
In her first substantial comments since she left office, Merkel said there was 'no justification whatsoever' for the 'brutal' and illegal war of aggression, adding that Putin had made 'a big mistake'.
She warned the tyrant president wanted 'to destroy Europe' and urged the EU 'to stick together now'.
In her recent conversation with The Times, Merkel also went on to share her feelings about Donald Trump's first term as President of the United States of America.
Merkel revealed in her book that she scolded herself for prompting Donald Trump to shake her hand in front of cameras when they met in 2017. Pictured: The pair attend the NATO summit at the Grove hotel in Watford, northeast London, on December 4, 2019
In her book, she revealed she scolded herself for prompting him to shake her hand in front of cameras when they met in 2017 before realising his rudeness was deliberate.
He wanted to create conversation fodder through his behaviour,' she wrote, while she was acting 'as though I were having a discussion with someone completely normal'.
She concluded from her Washington visit: 'There could be no cooperative work for an interconnected world with Trump.'
But she did explain how although the pair had experienced some mutual tension, she found herself agreeing with him on one issue.
'There was a point that I have to accept: he said that our expenditure for defence was not enough,' she admitted.
Merkel herself had argued for this, but failed to persuade coalition partners.
'But, otherwise, just stay firm. You don't have to be especially friendly, but you don't have to be especially harsh. Just be however you are as a person. You have to make the best of the situation. And especially don't be afraid. Don't be afraid.'
P.S.
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С интересом и понятными ожиданиями, Dimitriy.
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