How to look upon Putin's Russia: 1. Putin needs permanent war to stay in power. It gives him imperialist legitimacy & a cause of repression. Therefore, Putin is today's Hitler. He will not stop, so the only end to his war can be his ouster or death.

To understand how Russia’s economy continues to function despite Ukraine war sanctions, we need look no further than energy. Moscow is exporting a steady 28 million barrels of oil a week and 1.3 million m3 of LNG. Russia’s share of Europe’s LNG market has actually risen of late.

After becoming president in 2000, Putin was invited to the G8, represented Russia at D-Day remembrance and hosted by the Queen at Buckingham Palace. He’s now an indicted war criminal, absent BRICS summits and welcomed only by Kim Jong-un. Rarely has a world leader fallen so far.

MAGA fundraiser David Sacks’ recent open letter explaining his support for Trump over Biden got it wrong on just about every count, awkwardly regurgitating pro-Trump groupthink. David makes four specious main points: (1) Trump’s legal troubles result from Joe Biden’s

Nigel Farage’s remarks to the BBC, that NATO and the EU provoked the Ukraine war, are disgraceful. Russia signed the 1994 Budapest Memo guaranteeing Ukrainian territorial integrity and NATO is a purely defensive alliance. Putin bears sole responsibility for the over 500,000 dead.

Buzz Patterson I’m sorry, but I couldn’t disagree MORE. We cannot permit Russia to succeed in Ukraine. If we do, that will only encourage Putin to continue his aggressive ways, and the end result will be a Russia-NATO conflict. Listen to what Putin, his senior advisors, and his snapping

How predictable that just as Ukraine has halted Moscow’s latest offensive thanks to renewed US aid, Trump and his advisers are threatening to cut-off future assistance unless Kyiv agrees to ‘peace negotiations’ which would reward Putin by formalising Russia’s territorial gains.

Funny how the Tories are now concerned about Kremlin support for Reform, but ignored & denied Kremlin backing for Brexit, going so far as to try to suppress the Intelligence & Security Committee’s #RussiaReport & refusing to implement its recommendations. 🤔

Trump's latest claim, that all the civil cases he's embroiled in are part of a political conspiracy, is complete hogwash. He initiated a suit against us in London last year, lost, had his appeal request rejected and costs awarded against him. Four months on, he has yet to pay up.

This all serves to underline Trump’s obvious contempt for both the rule of law and the UK, America’s closest ally. In Britain at least, he remains in breach of a significant High Court costs order and faces the prospect of enforcement action being taken against him in future.

The UK’s new Labour government needs to dust off the ISC’s 2020 Russia Report classified annex with a view to sanitising and publishing it. The British people should know why Boris Johnson suppressed the report and just how far Putin and his cronies have corrupted our democracy.

“Russia's oil and gas revenues surged by 41% in the first half of 2024. Putin is successfully circumventing the democratic world’s price cap on Russian oil using a “shadow fleet” of tankers to work around international sanctions.” ⁦Vladimir Milov⁩ theins.ru/en/opinion/vla…

“it is a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in moscow” – zelenskyy

Isn't this the Lord Skidelsky who was suspended from the House of Lords after failing to properly declare his links to a think tank funded by Russian oligarchs who have since been sanctioned? thetimes.com/world/russia-u…

What kind of political fantasy world does Boris Johnson inhabit? After meeting Trump yesterday, Johnson declared him a reliable ally of Ukraine. But in reality Trump hates Ukraine and has picked as his running mate J.D. Vance, the most vocal opponent of aid to Kyiv in congress.

The British media and political class have started normalising Trump and his isolationist running mate J.D. Vance, thinking they might win in November. In reality this ticket poses a profound threat to our security, economy and Rule of Law. I hope we are planning accordingly.

The questions US politicians and all of us should be asking Netanyahu concern his lack of support for Ukraine (a threatened democracy with an elected Jewish leader) and his odd relationship with Putin. Russia is allied with Israel’s sworn enemy, Iran. It makes no sense at all.

Biden’s withdrawal in favor of Harris has upended a race that the Kremlin and its backers saw as “a window of opportunity” to settle the war in Ukraine on Russia’s aggressive, expansionist terms, according to current & former Russian officials & analysts. washingtonpst.com/world/2024/07/…

Whilst we all welcome the release of innocent Western journalists and brave Russian human rights activists today on a humanitarian level, they’ve been swapped for Kremlin assassins, intel agents and criminals. Our Russia deterrence posture has been further weakened as a result.

Although I greatly respect Kara-Murza and other democracy activists, their argument that ordinary Russians shouldn’t be hit by Ukraine sanctions is flawed. Sadly they have been largely passive to date and if they want sanctions lifted, need to rise up against Putin’s illegal war.