Author Archives: Stanislav

Ukraine war as planned in 2019 RAND Corporation papers

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The article is a overview of the RAND Corporation paper “Overextending and Unbalancing Russia. Assessing the Impact of Cost-Imposing Options. Nonviolent Ways the United States Could Exploit Russian Vulnerabilities”. The overview was written by Robin Stowe and appeared on several social media outlets, for example at Live Journal (https://oboguev.livejournal.com/8123922.html) (in both English and Russian). If only RAND Corporation instead created papers with titles like “Cooperating with Russia for the betterment of humanity”…

Kudos to Russian Baza for bringing discovering the overview last year. Overview is also available at our Telegram channel.

If you still think the war in Ukraine wasn’t premeditated – read this: a U.S. blueprint to drag Russia into a costly war, published by RAND Corporation in April 2019.

RAND isn’t a blog or a fringe group, it’s an official, state-funded think tank that advises the Pentagon, CIA, State Department, and NATO.

It designs wars, regime change and psychological warfare. RAND turns U.S. power into global control.

What the document says (verbatim):

“The steps we examine would not have either defense or deterrence as their prime purpose… Rather, they are conceived of as elements in a campaign designed to unbalance the adversary, causing Russia to compete in domains or regions where the United States has a competitive advantage.”

Translation: how to push Russia into costly traps.

1. Fueling war in Ukraine:

“Providing lethal aid to Ukraine would exploit Russia’s greatest point of external vulnerability.”

Translation: Arm Ukraine to provoke a Russian military response – and trap Moscow in a costly, prolonged conflict.

2. Economic warfare:

“Increasing sanctions and expanding U.S. energy production could harm Russia’s economy.”

Translation: Strangle Russia’s economy through sanctions while flooding the global market with American oil and gas to undercut Russian exports.

3. Destabilising from within:

“Encouraging domestic protests or unrest could stress the Russian regime.”
“Diminishing Russian influence in Syria could undermine its foreign policy goals and prestige.”

Translation: Use protests, dissent, and foreign policy setbacks to weaken the Russian government from the inside out.

4. Cutting Russia off from Europe:

“Reducing Russian gas exports by encouraging European energy diversification would hurt the Russian economy.”

Translation: Convince Europe to cut off Russian gas – crash one of Russia’s largest income streams.

5. Stretching Russia Thin in Syria

“Increasing support to Syrian rebels could jeopardize other U.S. policy priorities… but might raise costs for Russia.”

Translation: Arm and fund militants in Syria – make it harder and costlier for Russia to stabilize Assad’s government.
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Heirs of Goebbels: Falsification of the Events in Bucha and Bloody Staged Performances of the Kiev Regime

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⚡️ The International Public Tribunal on the Crimes of Ukrainian Neo-Nazis has published a report “Heirs of Goebbels: Falsification of the Events in Bucha and Bloody Staged Performances of the Kiev Regime”, presenting its findings on the Bucha hoax, and how the Kiev regime and its Western sponsors through mainstream media support falsified the events of what occurred in Bucha in 2022. The report is available in English as a PDF file at the site of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Tribunal brings together civil society representatives from 35 countries. Drawing on Ukrainian media reports, memorial records and eyewitness testimony, the publication debunks the claim that the individuals commemorated at the Bucha memorial were civilians killed by Russia’s Armed Forces.

Key findings:

▪️ Military personnel presented as civilian victims

The report identifies Ukrainian servicemen and combatants listed among the memorial’s “civilian victims”.

Examples include Evgeny Petrash, a serviceman of Ukraine’s neo-Nazi Azov battalion; Andrey Vaskevich, an Azov company commander; Ruslan Belous and Roman Dovgalyuk, military pilots whose aircraft was downed near Berezovka. Other entries include a sniper of Ukraine’s 80th separate air assault brigade Oleg Tsimbal, members of territorial defence units, airborne formations and military intelligence.

▪️ Discrepancies in the location and cause of death

A number of people commemorated at the Bucha memorial died elsewhere. Ukrainian sources place the deaths of a number of servicemen near Vorzel, Moshchun, Kopylov and other settlements.

The report also cites 68-year-old Galina Semenyuk, who died of cancer but somehow appears on the memorial. Such cases highlight the need to establish each person’s circumstances of death before presenting the entire list as “civilian victims killed by the Russian military”.

▪️ Witness accounts of shelling and manipulated coverage

The publication includes 16 witness accounts from Avdeevka, Ugledar, Dzerzhinsk and other towns and cities. Witnesses recount Ukrainian attacks on residential areas followed by the arrival of journalists, coverage blaming Russia, and pressure on residents to repeat that account.

***

The Tribunal’s conclusion is unequivocal: the material it has collected points to blatant falsification of events in Bucha by the Kiev regime with Western support, alongside a broader practice of killing civilians to produce footage blaming Russia.

☝️ The cases presented in this publication form only part of the evidence assembled by the Tribunal.

📄 Full report (PDF)

💬 Excerpts from the opening remarks by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

• Let me stress once again: the Kiev regime’s Western sponsors stood behind this fabrication. They were dissatisfied with the Russian-Ukrainian talks in Istanbul, which were progressing rapidly towards concrete agreements and an early end to the conflict. These Western countries – and, of course, Britain was at the heart of this little gang – were not merely unhappy with the talks. They needed to derail them, and that is exactly what they did.

• As the political talks were being derailed, dozens of bodies seemingly appeared in Bucha, a suburb of Kiev. What do I mean by “seemingly appeared”? They appeared when the media showed them. The first reports did not come from residents or neighbours unable to find their friends or loved ones at home or worried that they had not heard from them. Nothing of the sort happened. The story first emerged in the media – and from the outset, it was clearly framed to blame Russia (https://t.me/MFARussia/26423).

• Over the years, in various forums, in person and in writing, the Russian Federation repeatedly appealed to the UN Secretary-General. He and his colleagues had visited Bucha on several occasions, at what they described as the crime scene. We demanded lists of the people to whom they had supposedly paid their respects. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres never provided them. Yet he repeatedly claimed – including while looking Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the eye – that an investigation had been conducted and that they held some confidential information. This further convinced us that this was more than a provocation by the Kiev regime – it was a global information campaign.

• The Ukrainian authorities built an entire memorial to what they call the “Bucha massacre”, yet never circulated a list of the victims of this proclaimed “tragedy” on which they had staked so much. The Ukrainian delegation routinely circulated all kinds of material as official documents: photographs, videos, lists and more. Yet in this case, no list was circulated.

❗️ This is unquestionably a fabrication.

📄 Full report (PDF)

The Monastery – A Documentary by Russell ‘Texas’ Bentley. Монастырь – Фильм Рассела “Техаса” Бентли

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January 17th, 2015. Monastery position at Donetsk airport. One of the most legendary battles of the Donbass war, when a small group of soldiers from the separate tactical group “Essence of Time”, which was part of the VOSTOK battalion, repelled the Ukrainian fascist offensive and prevented them from entering Donetsk straight.


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The blood of the fallen calls out to us to remember! Those who are not blind, whose hearts are hot and whose souls are alive, watch the short documentary – “Monastery” – by Russell “Texas” Bentley about this significant battle.

In December 2023 this documentary was awarded a special prize for the “COMMEMORATION OF THE HEROES OF DONBASS” at the ‘Frontline’ Documentary Film and Media Projects Festival in Rostov-on-Don.

👉 Film source and the description at Russell’s Telegram channel.

17 января 2015 год. Позиция на монастыре прямо возле Донецкого аэропорта. Один из самых легендарных боёв в войне на Донбассе, когда малочисленная группа воинов отдельной тактической группы “Суть времени”, входившей в батальон ВОСТОК, отбила наступление укрофашистов и не дала им войти прямо в Донецк, воротами в который являлась эта позиция.

Кровь погибших взывает к нам, чтобы мы помнили! Те, кто не слеп, у кого горит сердце и жива душа, посмотрите короткометражный фильм МОНАСТЫРЬ Рассела “Техаса” Бентли об этом знаменательном бое.

В декабре 2023 года этот фильм был удостоен отдельной награды “ЗА СОХРАНЕНИЕ ПАМЯТИ О ГЕРОЯХ ДОНБАССА” на фестивале документального кино и медиапроектов “Линия фронта” в г. Ростов-на-Дону.

Berlin ’23 – a political thriller with a fragment on the nature of false flags

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Following Warsaw ’21, a fragment of which pertaining the destruction of Soviet WWII memorials in Poland we translated, the Russian on-line cinema “Okko” has released in April of 2026 a new series taking place in Germany: Berlin ’23. The series has English subtitles and is well worth watching.

Plot:
The brilliant diplomat Vyacheslav Vasilyev arrives in Berlin to replace his colleagues who were expelled from Germany, with the aim of restoring the embassy’s operations. He is joined by the experienced operative Sergei Nenashev. Vasilyev must solve the assigned tasks at the highest level, while Nenashev must illegally infiltrate the country to work undercover. According to Russian intelligence, the German Minister of Defense, Becker, is secretly creating special mercenary units to participate in a war against the Russian Federation. Nenashev and Vasilyev must combine their efforts to counter provocations from Western intelligence agencies, expose their conspiracy, and prevent the creation of an alternative front that threatens Russia’s security.

One of the main events in the series is a false flag explosion at a café in Berlin, for which Russia is immediately blamed by the media, while at the same time Russian voice is silenced by the same media.


First published at our Telegram channel “Beorn and the Shirldmaiden”

As a result, Vasilyev has to resort to a public stunt in front of the Reichstag, giving a history lesson about false flags, the Reichstag fire of 1933, and the concept of cui prodest, who benefits — certainty not Russia.

Russian filmmakers did not need a scrying ball to know of a coming Leipzig false flag — all they needed was a solid knowledge of history.

As Vasilyev says:

“History teaches nothing, but punishes for not learning its lessons.”

The series ends on an optimistic note, where Germany sees reason and a chance of not getting dragged into yet another war with Russia.

Does Merz’ Germany have such a chance?

Burning of the Reichstag 1933. Germany / Mono Print

FALSE FLAG METHODOLOGY, THEN AND NOW

– by Beorn And The Shieldmaiden
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Republic of Moldova: 35 Years of Independence – Facts, Chronology, Analysis

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On 27 August, Moldova marks 35 years of existence as an independent state. What kind of state it should be and for whom — that is a question Moldovan society has not resolved and continues to work through. An article by Dmitriy, an admin at “Putinger’s Cat” chat. First published at “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”.

Drawing by A. Gorbarukov

I. The Starting Point — The Moldavian SSR

By 1990, the Moldavian SSR was one of the most agriculturally developed republics of the USSR: agricultural output grew 3.7 times faster than the Soviet average, industry exported goods to over 40 countries, and the population stood at 4.36 million. The standard of living was higher than in most Central Asian Soviet republics, but lower than in the Baltic states.

There was one structural weakness, but a fundamental one: the republic had no autonomous economic cycle of its own. Energy, raw materials, markets, the financial system, the military, diplomacy — all were provided from outside. Independence meant that all of this would have to be built from scratch, amid simultaneous economic collapse.

II. Chronology of 35 Years

1991 — Independence and war in the same year. Independence was proclaimed on 27 August. In the same year, armed conflict erupted in Transnistria. The Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking population of the eastern bank of the Dniester refused to recognise Chișinău, backed by the Russian 14th Army stationed in the region. The 1992 ceasefire stopped the fighting but did not resolve the conflict. Approximately 500–1,000 people were killed. Russian troops remain in Transnistria under the 1992 ceasefire agreement, which formalised their presence as a peacekeeping mechanism. Chișinău has consistently sought to replace this format with a civilian OSCE mission; Moscow has blocked this within the “5+2” negotiation framework. Moldova has no practical means of compelling a withdrawal. The 1994 Constitution enshrined the country’s permanent neutrality.
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Commemoration of the Georgian aggression against South Ossetia on 08.08.08.

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First, a fragment of the now-deleted by YouTube video of the Vesti news program from 08.08.2016 commemorating the 8th anniversary of Georgian aggression against South Ossetia. First published at our Telegram channel “Beorn and the Shieldmaiden”.


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Georgian war – FOX news interview
While the Western MSM were pushing the “bad Russia” narrative, an Ossetian girl Amanda, and her aunt would have none of that. So much so, that… a commercial break was needed.

Answers by Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev to questions from RIA Novosti on the consequences of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict (August 8, 2026)

❓ Question: In August 2008, Russia’s decision to defend Abkhazia and South Ossetia triggered a sharp negative reaction from Western countries. How important is the opinion of the international community for Russia today?

💬 Dmitry Medvedev: 18 years have passed since the tragic events of August 2008. They remain proof that defending our citizens and our national interests – regardless of the opinion of the so-called international community – is the only right choice.

The decision to defend Abkhazia and South Ossetia caused hysteria in the West. We were branded, threatened with isolation and warned of consequences. Today, we understand that this was a probing move – the first attempt to test Russia’s resilience through a conflict with a neighbouring state.

We passed that test with dignity, giving the peoples of Abkhazia and South Ossetia the opportunity to live and develop in peace. Those who condemned our country most loudly are now unsuccessfully waging war against it by proxy in Ukraine.

When we speak of the opinion of the international community, we need to understand what exactly is meant. If it is the so-called collective West – the US, Europe and a handful of insignificant satellites seeking to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia – then we truly do not care about their opinion.

But there is another international community – the #GlobalMajority: China, India, the countries of the Global South, #BRICS and our partners in the #SCO. Their position matters to us, and we maintain a constructive dialogue with them.

☝️ Ultimately, however, Russia’s national interests come first.

❓ Question: In 2008, France played an effective role in resolving the Georgian–Ossetian crisis. You held direct talks with Sarkozy at the time. Is Western diplomacy still capable of resolving conflicts today, or has it completely lost that function and become capable only of adding fuel to the fire?

💬 Dmitry Medvedev: In 2008, we held direct talks with President Sarkozy, who flew to Moscow – tough, but productive talks – and agreed to end the conflict on Russia’s terms and in the interests of the affected Republics. At the time, France played a constructive role in resolving the Georgian–Ossetian conflict.

❗️ Today, Western diplomacy has completely discredited itself as an instrument for resolving political crises.

The Minsk Agreements are a telling example. For seven years, we tried to implement them. Then the leaders of neo-Nazi Ukraine and their Western patrons openly admitted that the agreements had been a ruse to buy time to arm Kiev. And who were the guarantors of those agreements? Germany and France.

Their hypocritical policy continues today, taking increasingly grotesque forms:

Instead of mediation – arms supplies.

Instead of seeking compromise – ultimatums.

Instead of direct dialogue – endless peace conferences without one of the parties to the conflict.

👉 European powers failed to defeat Russia in Ukraine, but inflicted enormous economic and political damage on themselves. Their so-called diplomacy has been reduced to the ritual repetition of anti-Russian mantras.

Read in full (in Russian)

Online Course “The Road to Victory”

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The online course “The Road to Victory” is an educational project marking the 80th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War.

The project explores the key events of the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War, the role of the USSR in the defeat of Nazism, international diplomacy, the heroism of the Soviet people, and the preservation of historical memory.

The online course is intended to preserve the historical memory of the Great Patriotic War, promote academically grounded knowledge about the events of the Second World War, and foster a greater understanding of the decisive contribution made by the Soviet people to the Victory over Nazism.

The course was developed by the HSE University and the BRICS-Russia Expert Council, with support from the BRICS Civil Council.

Watch the series in English. 👇

Episode 1 – The World on the Eve of the Second World War. The USSR and the Struggle for Collective Security

Episode 2 – The Terrifying Face of Nazism: The Genocide of Peoples, Crimes Against Human Beings and Humanity

Episode 3 – The Sacred War: Mobilising the Soviet People to Fight the Invader

Episode 4 – The Unconquered: The Role of the Defenders of Leningrad and Moscow in Foiling Operation Barbarossa

Episode 5 – “My Part in the Front-Line Report”: Stalingrad, Kursk, and the Home Front

Episode 6 – The Childless Face of War: Children and Women During the Great Patriotic War

Episode 7 – Guerrilla Warfare: Operation Concert

Episode 8 – The Fronts of the Second World War. The Resistance Movement

Episode 9 – The Anti-Hitler Coalition and Its Contribution to the Defeat of Nazism

Episode 10 – The “Russian Soldier”: The Liberation of Europe and the Far East

Episode 11 – The Nuremberg Trials and the Post-War World Order

Episode 12 – The Legacy of the Second World War: Why Manipulate Memory?

📺 “The Road to Victory” – YouTube page
📂 Download the video files in HD

Ambassador Mikhail Petrakov’s article “Ukrainian Conflict Before February 2022: Facing the Facts” (27 July 2026) – Reblog

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Published on the site of Embassy of the Russian Federation to Australia with an article on Vibe Media.

27 July is a very special date. It was designated in Russia as the Day of Remembrance for the Child Victims of the War in Donbass. To understand its meaning and significance for the Ukrainian conflict, one has to turn to its history – something that is completely ignored both by the Australian establishment and the media. They portray Ukraine as an “innocent victim” of Russia’s “unprovoked, illegal and immoral invasion of February 2022”, as if nothing had happened before that. Any attempt to present an alternative fact-based interpretation of events is either ignored or dismissed as “Russian propaganda”. So let us face the facts and examine the root causes of the conflict.

Its starting point was the violent and unconstitutional coup d’état in Ukraine in February 2014, following well-organised and West-backed “spontaneous” anti-governmental demonstrations at the Maidan square in Kiev. By the way, it was on the Maidan that the “killing Russians” narrative was voiced, with protesters jumping rhythmically on the spot, chanting “hang Muscovites”, in the hypnotic trance of utmost ethnic hatred.

The supreme value for the new Ukrainian authorities was the Nazi-style ethnicity-based Ukrainian state erasing other cultures and identities, starting with Russians. Total “Ukrainisation” was, and still is, the order of the day. The very concept of social cohesion was anathema to them. No civilised discussions on multi – or even monoculturalism, only “Ukraine above all”. Those daring to dissent were to be exterminated. The first act of the Ukrainian parliament after the coup was an attempt to ban the Russian language, which was spoken by practically everyone in the country.

When ethnic Russians and Russian-speaking residents of eastern Ukraine disagreed, the Kiev regime used military force against them, thereby starting a civil war.

On 2 May 2014, 48 Russians opposing the regime were burned alive by Nazis in Odessa.

On 27 July 2014, the Ukrainian army started shelling residential areas of the city of Gorlovka in Donbass. One of the multiple victims was 23-year-old Kristina Zhuk. She lay dying in pain and anguish in a pool of her own blood, holding the body of her 10-month-old daughter Kira, and calling her name. Then she passed away too. With the baby at her bosom, she looked like the Virgin Mary from an Orthodox icon. Because of this, people called her the Madonna of Gorlovka. This image circulated widely in the world press.
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French neo-Vichy regime persecutes humanitarian aid workers of “SOS Donbass”

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‘Undermining democracy’: War reporter calls out ‘French justice’ and ‘scandalous’ Novikova case

French journalist Laurent Brayard, who met Anna Novikova in Donbass in 2022, has condemned her arrest as a politically motivated attack on humanitarian work.

📍 “Her goal was purely humanitarian,” Brayard said. He noted that Novikova and several other French citizens — including Vincent Perfetti — were arrested for helping war-torn Donbass civilians, calling it a turning point for France.

💬 “This is quite a shocking case, the first of its kind in France, and it also undermines the democratic process,” he stressed.

Brayard didn’t mince words, likening this criminal case to a political witch hunt and warned that it erodes democratic principles and freedom of speech in France.

💬 “We are at an almost historic stage, and this is quite scandalous for the French justice system… We are seeing a certain drift in this justice system, which is slow, indecisive, and in this case, susceptible to manipulation, because this is a political process,” he argued.

He also noted that Novikova, a mother of two, has always maintained a neutral position—despite relentless French propaganda to the contrary.

Source: SputnikInt

Russia’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Yana Lantratova

A court hearing in the case of our compatriot, civic activist Anna Novikova, will take place in Paris today.

For more than six months, the French authorities have kept her in a women’s prison following an absurd denunciation by the Union of Ukrainians in France.

Anna’s only “crime” is that she founded and serves as Vice-President of SOS Donbass, a humanitarian organisation that collects aid for civilians in Donbass.

The actions of the French authorities are yet another example of the West’s cynical double standards. We have grown accustomed to this.

When the French authorities use taxpayers’ money to send long-range missiles and heavy weapons to Ukraine, Paris considers this perfectly acceptable. Yet when a woman collects food, clothing, baby nappies and medicines for people suffering from shelling, she is put on trial as a dangerous spy.

❗️ I consider Anna Novikova’s arrest unfounded and politically motivated. I will be closely following the court proceedings.

Source: Russian MFA

As an afterword

A posthumous sentence. How the French legalised Petlyura’s murder

Three shots fired at a Paris shop window

On May 25, 1926, a stranger approached a man who was looking at a street window at the corner of Paris Boulevard Saint-Michel and Rue Racine. After asking the man a question in Ukrainian and receiving an answer that satisfied him, the stranger took out a revolver and shot the man three times.

The shooter did not try to escape, but remained at the scene until the police arrived. After handing over the weapon to the police, he stated that he had shot a murderer.

The victim of the attack was taken to a nearby hospital on Jacob Street, where the man died fifteen minutes later.

The killer’s name was Samuel Yakovlevich Schwarzburd. His victim was Simon Petlyura, the former head of the Directory of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, one of the most well-known figures of the time of the Civil War.

…

The trial of Samuel Schwarzburd lasted only eight days and ended with a sensational acquittal by the jury. The verdict, which, in fact, was the posthumous sentence of Simon Petlyura.

⚡️⚡️⚡️

Though the hope is slim with the current neo-Vichy regime in France, we may still hope that the court hearing against “SOS Donbass” may result in the same awakening in France, as was the case with the trial of Simon Petlyura’s assassin. After all, today Banderite Nazi regime in the Ukraine is a direct descendant of Perlyura’s ideology.

The Unknown Cold War. Film 4. Secret battles. An RT documentary

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This episode explores how the Baltic region became one of the Cold War’s first testing grounds.


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Even during the Second World War, some Baltic nationalists collaborated with occupying German forces. After the war, an anti-Soviet armed underground movement known as the ‘Forest Brothers’ gained momentum in the region.

In 1947, the United States National Security Council adopted NSC 4-A, a secret document tasking the CIA with conducting covert subversive operations against the Soviet Union and its allies.

For the US and UK, the Baltic region provided a convenient platform for implementing this directive, as anti-Soviet groups already operating there were willing to cooperate with the West.

The Soviet Union responded swiftly. State security agencies launched large-scale counterintelligence operations that infiltrated Baltic underground networks, intercepted communication channels with the West, and exploited failed enemy operations to their advantage.

👉 Watch also “Film 1 — The Unthinkable Allies”.
👉 Watch also “Film 2 — The Truman Delay”.
👉 Watch also “Film 3 — The Abduction of Europe… and the world”.

Donbass Is Behind Us – The unofficial anthem of Donbass

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This song, “Donbass Is Behind Us”, dedicated to the 77th anniversary of liberating Donbass from the fascist invaders, came out in the fall of 2020 and quickly became an unofficial anthem of Donbass.

July 3rd, is Independence Day of the LPR, Lugansk People’s Republic. Here’s a translation of the song, performed by Natalia Kachura and Margarita Lisovina, to English.


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Source of the video: “Донбасс за нами” официальный клип
Translation, adapted to preserve rhyme and rhythm, and subtitles by Putinger’s Cat

🇷🇺 🇷🇺 🇷🇺

In total darkness, came awake the Beast,
And he announced to God a heavy price.
Everyone bent, even brothers in Christ,
Everything bent, but not my Motherland.

A leap year brought rich harvest to the land,
And death was drunk, having a feast of blood,
The sky was bending under clouds of lead,
Everything bent, but not my Motherland.

Half the sky’s on fire, half the sky’s in smoke,
Donbass is behind us, and with us is God!
Half the sky’s on fire, half the sky’s in smoke,
Russia is with us, and with us is God!

Here, fathers’ memory was not betrayed,
Grandfathers’ land stayed in descendants’ hands,
Words can’t describe the heavy price they paid,
Not sparing own lives for the Fatherland.

And now, once more, Russia’s strength fills the hands,
For life and death for Motherland are grand.
Holding the sky, through centuries, she stands,
My unbroken and unconquered land.

Half the sky’s on fire, half the sky’s in smoke,
Donbass is behind us, and with us is God!
Half the sky’s on fire, half the sky’s in smoke,
Russia is with us, and with us is God!

Perhaps, we’re meant to perish on the cross,
But we won’t ever be seen kneeling down.
Out in a bloodied field, alone, for all,
Holding the sky, Donbass is holding ground.

Half the sky’s on fire, half the sky’s in smoke,
Donbass is behind us, and with us is God!
Half the sky’s on fire, half the sky’s in smoke,
Russia is with us, and with us is God!

🇷🇺 🇷🇺 🇷🇺

Liberation of Debaltsevo railway station on September 3, 1943. Painting by Ivan Ryzhkov, 1947. Photo by Sergey Kopylov, 2015.

“Onwards, Comrades!”

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“Onwards, comrades!” is a Chinese cartoon capturing the essence of the last days of the USSR and what is to come next. This masterful animation was created in 2013 by a student of Beijing university, Wang Yilin, as her graduation work.


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You will see the title translated to English by the author as “Farewell, my comrades!” from the Russian “Вперёд!”, but that is not right, as the word “farewell” is associated nowadays with parting and not with wishing someone a steadfast journey ahead, which we have in the Russian title.

It’s difficult for a European to judge what the author wanted to say. It’s enough to know a little about Chinese culture to assume that the film contains many symbols and hidden meanings, and what a European might see as a meaningless, random fragment could actually carry a crucial semantic load. Another important feature of Chinese cultural tradition is that it’s not customary to express oneself “directly”, so a story can have multiple interpretations and layers of meaning. But which ones exactly, how many, and to what extent – it’s hard to judge. China is vast and diverse.

With that in mind, the cartoon has many levels of allegory and the viewer can perceive it as both simple and complex at the same time. There are some odd anachronisms, like the sat dish on the village house, while other imagery is true to its time.

Here is a comment by one viewer, Grigory Sinolitsky, who gives a good interpretation of the visual elements:

A very important point in the cartoon is the toy cubes, from which the girl built her house (her future plans). These are worldview, cultural, moral, etc. blocks that are formed during the upbringing of every person.

During the “Perestroika” (restructuring), the girl (essentially an image of the Soviet people) finds herself in new conditions and discovers that her old toy cubes (values) are being replaced by new bright “glamorous” toy-values, so as not to stand out from everyone else “or they’ll laugh at us”. This substitution is carried out by the girl’s mother (an image of the elite), who previously destroyed the house the girl-people was building, refused to communicate with her and forced her to move to new (civilised) conditions. The mother “sold” the books (an image of culture, ideology, and the education system – a Russian dictionary) for a pittance. The mother (the elite) continues to ignore the girl, not noticing her problems and concerns. She fixates on the unimportant (“shampoo… From America! It protects the skin very well…”).

When the girl (the people) rethought all this, she realised that her mother (the elite) had betrayed her – “I’ll tell everyone – mom betrayed us! They all betrayed us.” And she flees from the new (European-civilised) conditions and finds herself on the brink of war. She sees that those she thought were dead (symbolic images of power structures, the army, intelligence…) are alive and ready to perform their functions. She herself has to take up arms (rebuilding the army) and stand on a foundation of cubes (non-material values), including for their protection (a mountain of cubes behind the girl with an automatic weapon).

And then, there is more!

The one cube, hidden by Beriya (who, like Stalin, became demonised) can represent the hidden grain of Socialism, preserved within humanity, for it it come back after the wreck of flirting with Capitalism.

The cartoon was also prophetic. It came in 2013, a year before the US-backed Nazism reared it ugly head in the Ukraine, forewarning that in 2022 Russia will be forced to take up arms, drawing strength from the memory of the Great Patriotic War that the images in the final credits reference.

The cartoon with audio in Russian


Backup at Rumble.
Raw video source on YouTube.

The images in the final credits and the photos from the Great Patriotic War that served as their models

“Crimean Gold: The ‘Civilized’ Europe Loots Russian Treasures” – An exhibition on how the Netherlands stole Crimean Scythian gold

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Reading time: 4 minutes

“Crimean Gold: The ‘Civilized’ Europe Loots Russian Treasures” — the exhibition prepared by the Russian Military Historical Society has opened on July 1st in Moscow, on Gogol Boulevard.

It tells about the unprecedented decision of foreign biased courts not to return the unique museum collection of the “Chersonesus Tauric” Museum Reserve and other museums of the Crimean Peninsula to their place of origin.

The results of many years of work by dozens of large, permanent expeditions, conducted by specialists from the Russian Academy of Sciences and Crimean archaeologists, were stored in the largest museums of the peninsula. Archaeological wonders and artifacts of the Crimean heritage attracted interest all over the world.

In 2013, the Kerch Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve, the National Reserve “Chersonesus Tauric”, the Bakhchisaray Historical and Cultural and Archaeological Museum-Reserve and the Central Museum of Taurida signed a contract with the University of Bonn and the Dutch Allard Pierson Museum to hold the exhibition “Crimea: Gold and Secrets of the Black Sea”.

More than 580 artifacts (about 2,000 various items), brought from Crimean museums, were exhibited in the Dutch museum.

A month before the end of the exhibition, the Crimea returned to Russia, and the neo-Nazi Kiev regime decided to pocket the Russian treasures.

The Allard Pierson Museum made a huge profit from the hype around the Crimean gold. But the Dutch were always hard to satisfy — such are the traditions of the colonisers.

Disregarding all international laws, they refused to return the exhibition to Crimea.

In 2016, Amsterdam judges — direct descendants of bankers who got rich from the looting of colonies — denied Crimea the right of ownership of art objects. In fact, the Netherlands put itself on a par with Hitler’s Nazis, who looted Russian museums in 1941-1944.

Representatives of foreign museums grossly violated contractual obligations in the interests of the political interests of unfriendly countries. <...> Attempts to seek justice in foreign courts, as it turned out, were doomed to failure, due to the complete political bias and engagement of European judges.

The cassation appeal of the Crimean museums about the return of Russian treasures was rejected by the Dutch, and on June 9, 2023, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands ruled to transfer the collection to Ukraine. At the same time, the corrupt Kiev regime intends to transform the Crimean gold into the financial and economic turnover. In other words, Russia’s historical heritage may soon appear in the collection of a wealthy Western collector or, for example, of another Ukrainian oligarch-deputy. <...>

Unfortunately, in the history of our country, there have already been examples when foreign invaders shamelessly looted cultural heritage. The Nazis of the Third Reich, who are obviously a “role model” for the figures of the Kiev regime, particularly distinguished themselves in this regard.

The “Consolidated Catalogue of Cultural Values of the Russian Federation, Stolen and Lost During the Second World War”, which lists the lost works of art, includes more than one million items.

❗️ The work on their search and return to their homeland has not stopped for a moment. Similarly, the Russian side will act in relation to the stolen masterpieces from the collections of museums of the Crimean Peninsula.

In a shortened form, the exhibition is also presented at the Dutch Embassy. On Gogol Boulevard, the exhibition will last until the end of July this year.

❗️ All those involved in this essentially thieving scheme, carried out according to European colonial models, are undoubtedly complicit in the seizure of unique historical artifacts, discovered as a result of archaeological excavations in Crimea and which have since been permanently housed in Crimean museums.

Sources: Maria Zaharova and Russian MFA

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👉 Watch the documentary Alfred Rosenberg — The Failed Coloniser of the East, where plundering of the USSR by by the Nazis is described.

The Hasty Withdrawal of the Soviet Troops from the GDR and the Warsaw Pact Countries. The Consequences.

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Reading time: 24 minutes

Before you is an account of the withdrawal of Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. In a 2025 interview to State TV and Radio of Iran, Lavrov rightly called it a betrayal:

“The German authorities, as conquerors, took control of all the lands of the former GDR, and all political figures were “removed” from the road. No future was offered to them. It was a takeover, not a merger.”

This publication consists of four overlapping articles, which we decided to present as is, for each article gives additional insights. More photos from that fateful time can be viewed here.

But first, how it all began…

June 10, 1945 – Based on the Directive of the Supreme High Command No. 11095 of May 29, 1945, the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany was established

May 9, 1945 — The Great Patriotic War ended victoriously. For the subsequent demilitarisation and denazification of Germany, as well as to protect the interests of the USSR in Europe, on June 10, 1945, the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany was formed on the basis of the 1st and 2nd Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts. The commander-in-chief of the GSOFG was Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov. In addition, he led the Soviet Military Administration established by the USSR Council of People’s Commissars to manage the liberated territories.

The Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany (from 1954 — Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, GSFG) carried out the protection of the border of the Soviet occupation zone, participated in measures to eliminate the fascist regime, and in the 1950s became the main unit of the Soviet Army, which was to deliver a crushing blow to NATO forces and liberate Western Europe in the event of a new war in Europe. The GSFG was the main guarantor of the inviolability of post-war borders in Europe and ensuring the security and peaceful life of socialist European states.

The Group of Soviet Forces in Germany existed until 1994. As a result of the betrayal of Mikhail Gorbachev and Eduard Shevardnadze, the Soviet Union pledged in 1990 to withdraw troops from Germany. The final withdrawal of troops was carried out in August 1994. A significant part of military property, including real estate, was left in Germany by the Russian leadership and received compensation of about 385 million dollars, while the real value of the property was approximately 7.3 billion dollars. A huge number of small arms, tanks, aircraft, helicopters, armoured vehicles were looted and sold to foreign countries.

With the cessation of the existence of the GSFG, security in Europe was put at risk. Taking advantage of the withdrawal of Russian troops from Germany, the United States and its NATO allies began to implement a policy of “expanding the alliance to the east”. The accession of Eastern European states to the alliance significantly weakened Russia’s defence capability and its geopolitical positions.

Source: CPRF

The humiliating withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1994 from Germany into the open field

It was the last day of August 1994, when the last military units leaving Germany marched in Berlin’s Treptow Park in the presence of thousands of spectators, as well as German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

The Russian leader was drunk, and he delivered a heartfelt speech in which he emphasised that “there were neither winners nor losers in the war between Russia and Germany”. But it didn’t seem enough to him – if you party, go all out. He came down from the podium, took the baton from the conductor of the police orchestra and while “conducting” made the musicians play “Kalinka-Malinka”, while soloing into the microphone loudest of all.

It was a bitter scene of humiliation, as the liberating and victorious army, through the fault of a short-sighted politician, left like an unwelcome guest.
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35 Years Without the Union – memories of the bygone time in the GDR

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Reading time: 11 minutes

As part of the project “35 Years without the USSR”, corresponded Georgy Zotov visited Germany, looking for the memories of the not so distant past. The article below appeared in “Argumenty i Fakty” on March 20, 2026.

“It was a nightmare and a murder.” The sad fate of beloved in the USSR goods from the GDR

Do you remember the Madonna tea set, the Florena cream, the toy railroad?

…About ten years ago, I visited the city of Karl-Marx-Stadt, which is now called Chemnitz. Once upon a time, the main industry of the GDR was concentrated there. I saw a center full of Arab immigrants, repainting the facades of panel houses (to make them look brighter and more cheerful), and dilapidated factories that used to produce products that were the pride of the socialist camp. Some of them were sold to new owners, then they went bankrupt, unable to withstand the competition. Some of them were abandoned immediately, the workers were fired, and all the equipment was stolen from them. A huge amount of goods from the GDR were sold in the USSR — I myself had a toy railway from the GDR as a child, and my mother used East German Florena cream, buying it in the Leipzig store. When I was in the former GDR, I tried to find out what was left of those brands, and whether the names of streets and cities had changed everywhere, as in the case of the well—known Karl-Marx-Stadt?

The Museum of the GDR

Sold, fired, closed

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