Russia

[LFC]

Russia's mercenary army has been, and continues to be, a real problem. They are shadow troops being used towards ends the Kremlin doesn't necessarily want to own and they commit war crimes without any disciplinary structure. Huh. Actually that sounds an awful lot like Blackwater.

For nearly a decade, U.S. officials watched with alarm as a shadowy network of Russian mercenaries connected to the Kremlin wreaked havoc in Africa, the Middle East and most recently Ukraine.

A number of them now say they wish the U.S. government had done more.

President Vladimir Putin has increasingly relied on the Wagner Group as a private and unaccountable army that enables Russia to pursue its foreign policy objectives at low cost and without the political backlash that can come from foreign military intervention, U.S. officials and national security experts said.

In recent years, governments in the Middle East and Africa hired the fighters to crush insurgencies, protect natural resources and provide security — committing grave human rights abuses in the process, according to U.S. officials and international watchdogs.

In Syria, Wagner fighters were filmed gleefully beating a Syrian army deserter with a sledgehammer before cutting off his head. In the Central African Republic, United Nations investigators received reports that the mercenaries raped, tortured and murdered civilians. In Libya, Wagner allegedly booby-trapped civilian homes with explosives attached to toilet seats and teddy bears. Last month, German intelligence officials linked Wagner mercenaries to indiscriminate killings in Ukraine.

The U.S. was slow to respond to the danger, and it now finds itself struggling to restrain the use of the mercenaries across the globe, according to interviews with more than 15 current and former diplomatic, military and intelligence officials. Unilateral sanctions have done little to deter the group. Diplomacy has stumbled.

“There was no unified or systematic U.S. policy toward the group,” said Tibor Nagy, who served the State Department for nearly three decades, most recently as the assistant secretary of state for African affairs until 2021.

The Kremlin officially denies any connection with the activities of Russian mercenaries abroad, and much about Wagner’s structure and leadership remains unclear. But experts say that Wagner’s top officers have participated in meetings between foreign leaders and top Russian officials. They also say the Russian air force has transported Wagner fighters to launch the group’s international missions.

[goldenvalley]

Is there anything in Post WWII accords or UN stuff about use of mercenaries?  Seems like that should be a war crime...soldiers that have no allegiance except to money.  

[goldenvalley]

Is there anything in Post WWII accords or UN stuff about use of mercenaries?  Seems like that should be a war crime...soldiers that have no allegiance except to money.  

[LFC]

Russia doesn't want to talk about the war.

Russian state media have been ordered not to “draw attention” to the fact that Friday will mark the first 100 days of Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. The Latvia-based news site Meduza says the Kremlin is apparently afraid that allowing the pundits on state TV to discuss the landmark date would just remind people how much Putin’s “special operation” has been “dragged out.” Russians were warned to avoid any mention of the word “war” after the Feb. 24 invasion, but Kremlin propagandists now routinely portray the conflict in Ukraine as the beginning of a wider war with NATO, the beginning of a global conflict, helping to explain away Russia’s military failures. “Focusing on dates related to the war can make Russians think about the goals and success of the invasion,” a source in Russia's Presidential Administration told Meduza, drawing a comparison with five-year plans in the Soviet Union, which also tended to end in failure.

[LFC]

Russian industry is hurting from a lack of access to tech.

Russian companies have been plunged into a technological crisis by Western sanctions that have created severe bottlenecks in the supply of semiconductors, electrical equipment, and the hardware needed to power the nation’s data centers.

Most of the world’s largest chip manufacturers, including Intel, Samsung, TSMC and Qualcomm, have halted business to Russia entirely after the US, UK, and Europe imposed export controls on products using chips made or designed in the US or Europe.

This has created a shortfall in the type of larger, low-end chips that go into the production of cars, household appliances, and military equipment. Supplies of more advanced semiconductors, used in cutting-edge consumer electronics and IT hardware, have also been severely curtailed.

And the country’s ability to import foreign tech and equipment containing these chips—including smartphones, networking equipment, and data servers—has been drastically stymied.

“Entire supply routes for servers to computers to iPhones—everything—is gone,” said one Western chip executive.

The unprecedented sweep of Western sanctions over President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine are forcing Russia into what the central bank said would be a painful “structural transformation” of its economy.

With the country unable to export much of its raw materials, import critical goods, or access global financial markets, economists expect Russia’s gross domestic product to contract by as much as 15 percent this year.

I didn't realize just how far behind they already were.

Russia lacks an advanced tech sector and consumes less than 1 percent of the world’s semiconductors. This has meant that technology-specific sanctions have had a much less immediate impact on the country than similar export controls had on China, the behemoth of global tech manufacturing, when they were introduced in 2019.

[LFC]

IBM has left the building.

IBM is laying off its entire staff in Russia after suspending operations there in March, according to an internal memo made public on Tuesday. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna says the tech company is leaving the country after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, a war that’s still raging today with no end in sight. About 1,000 people in Russia are expected to lose their jobs, according to Reuters.

“We chose to suspend operations so that we could evaluate longer-term options while continuing to pay and provide for our employees in Russia. As the consequences of the war continue to mount and uncertainty about its long-term ramifications grows, we have now made the decision to carry out an orderly wind-down of IBM’s business in Russia. We see this move as both right and necessary, and a natural next step following our business suspension,” Krishna said in the memo.

[LFC]

Putin is betting on the electoral success of the American political party he has purchased. His investment has clearly already produced a huge return on investment. In 2022 and especially 2024 it may pay off even more.

With Vladimir Putin’s bloody war in Ukraine crossing the 100-day mark, the Kremlin seems to be abandoning any pretense of diplomacy. There are several reasons Moscow aborted its initial half-hearted attempts to negotiate with Ukraine, including tangible gains on the battlefront and Western media’s waning attention span. But if Russian state TV is any indication, another reason Putin’s regime is now rejecting the idea of a diplomatic resolution has to do with the approaching midterm elections in the United States.

During the latest broadcast of state TV show Sunday Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, participants discussed the price Russia would ultimately have to pay for its intended conquest of Ukraine. Across various state media outlets, the U.S. midterm elections have been mentioned as a potential saving grace that could halt American support of Ukraine and loosen the screws of sanctions against Russia. During Solovyov’s show, Andrey Sidorov, deputy dean of world politics at Moscow State University, asked: “Are we going to count on their electoral issues? Will anything change if Republicans prevail in November in the United States?”

The host, Vladimir Solovyov, responded enthusiastically. “Yes, yes, a lot will change. They will calmly say, ‘Why do we need to be involved and send so much of our own money?’” Russian state media has been frequently airing statements showing dissent within the Republican party with respect to U.S. support for Ukraine, often featuring clips from Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News, as well as comments made during public hearings and media appearances by former U.S. President Donald Trump, former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, Senator Rand Paul, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Congressman Matt Gaetz.

Echoing popular Republican talking points on Ukraine, Solovyov predicted: “Republicans will come and say, why the hell do we need a corrupt, Nazi Ukraine? They will ask: whom are we supporting? Yes, Russia is bad and the sanctions will stay, but why do we need to keep throwing so much money over there? Our schools lack funding, we have plenty of our own problems. Instead of fortifying the border with Mexico, helping our small businesses, we’ve given that money to corrupt Ukraine and no one knows where it went.”

[LFC]

Good job, Vlad. I guess he's expecting to make it all back once the American political party he owns is back in power.

According to a report from Business Insider, Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine has reportedly managed to destroy 15 years of financial gains Russia has made with no end in sight.

The report points to a prediction made by the highly influential Institute of International Finance, that said the unprovoked invasion, which was then followed by international condemnation and sanctions, has plunged Russia back to economic levels seen in 2007.

According to the IIF, made up of experts from top global financial firms, the economic devastation has three components, with the organization pointing to "companies pulling out of Russia and laying off workers, a collapse in exports thanks to sanctions and talented Russians leaving the country."

Elina Ribakova, the IIF's deputy chief economist, explained the Russian incursion triggered the "full disintegration of 30 years of investment," adding, "What is the number you are going to put on ripping apart 15 years of value chains."

"The IIF forecasts that Russian gross fixed capital formation will contract 25% in 2022, imports 28% and exports 25%," the report states before adding that, "Additional measures, such as those related to the financial system and/or key Russian exports (and imports), would be possible and could lead to dramatic consequences for the Russian economy, as well as the government’s ability to continue its war effort in Ukraine. However, the costs of such actions could be significant for the sanctions-imposing countries as well."

According to Insider's Kieran Corcoran, "Russia is teetering on the brink of a historic debt default as it has encountered more and more difficulties in paying its foreign creditors after having been cut out of the financial system. Domestic capital controls have shored up its currency, but with demand for energy declining in many parts of the world, it's had to offer fuel at huge discounts, particularly crude oil."

[LFC]

Hyperbole or long term planning?

Vladimir Putin suggested on Thursday that it’s time for Russia to stay in the business of territorial expansion — drawing direct allusion to long wars with the West to that end.

It comes as the Russian army has spent weeks trying to take the Donbas — Ukraine’s eastern region that, according to Kremlin propaganda, should be full of ethnic Russians waiting for Moscow’s arrival.

Instead, and after earlier retreats from Ukraine’s north, Putin has found himself stuck in a slow, slogging campaign. Russian rhetoric and saber-rattling has increased as the stagnation continues.

So on Thursday, after visiting an exhibition dedicated to Peter the Great’s 350-year anniversary, Putin remarked on how little had changed over the intervening centuries.

“Peter I fought the Northern War for 21 years,” Putin remarked. “It seemed then, fighting with Sweden, that he took something away … but he wasn’t taking anything away, he was returning!”

Putin added that Peter I founded Russia’s imperial capital — St. Petersburg — on territory taken from Sweden during that war.

“When he laid the new capital, not one country of Europe recognized this territory as Russia, they all recognized it as Sweden’s,” Putin said. “And there, since time immemorial, the slavs had lived alongside the Finno-Urgic peoples, and this territory was located under the control of the Russian state.”

It’s another dubious history lesson from a leader who launched his war against Ukraine with two lengthy lectures and an essay expounding on his view of the circumstances that led to the creation of modern Ukraine, from Kyivan Rus to 1991.

But Putin inserted another reference in his Wednesday remarks: Peter the Great’s campaign to take Narva, a city that’s currently part of Estonia.

[LFC]

Putin is expecting to outlast U.S. resolve on Ukraine. He's already pushing his agenda at American voters. I'm sure he has the GOP already lined up. If the 2024 elections bring us a Republican trifecta then how long before Moscow Mitch pays back his benefactors by saying something like we've done all we can and we can't just keep spending money to help them. I give it less than 6 months. Hell, it might be after the 2022 elections as they try to cut off Biden from providing aid.

The May intelligence bulletin from the Office of Intelligence and Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security says the Kremlin’s influence arm has focused Russian influence operations that are targeting American audiences almost entirely on the war in Ukraine. Russian state media and proxy information operations are working to paint Western support for Ukraine as the reason the war is dragging on so long, and the reason there is a growing food crisis. Never mind the fact the conflict and grain export problems exist because Putin chose to invade Ukraine in the first place.

“Outlets claimed… that Western nations prolonged the conflict by sending military aid to Ukraine,” reads the intelligence brief, which focused on Russian information operations in May. “Outlets claimed that Western actions were causing global food prices to soar.”

The intelligence team also assesses that the Russian government remains one of the primary threats to the United States due to its “malicious cyber operations against federal and state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, election organizations,” and more.

The Russian influence shops have also particularly been zeroing in on the idea that Western security assistance to Ukraine has been escalating the war.

“Outlets regularly published stories about Western arms shipments and pledges of aid to Ukraine, saying that they further destabilize and prolong the conflict,” the intelligence assessment states. “Outlets spread claims that there was no accountability for weapons entering Ukraine, which would likely lead to them being misdirected.”

These kinds of narratives are only likely to increase in the coming days as Putin seeks to shore up his power, according to Brian Harrell, a former Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security.

“As health related rumors swirl surrounding Putin, I suspect we will see an uptick in propaganda and even counter-messages from loyalists,” Harrell told The Daily Beast.

Any good spy will tell you it’s impossible to get inside Putin’s head. But Russian information operations can offer a clue. In distracting Americans from supporting Ukraine, and as Russian forces continue to try to take key Ukrainian cities, Putin is likely hoping that he can stave off defeat in Ukraine and therefore stave off an ouster, too.

“Putin’s thinking: ‘I can outlast all you people. And if I get this to 2024, I might get a Republican who doesn’t feel like Joe Biden,’” Hoffman told The Daily Beast. “They’re students of American politics. Of course he’s going to look at the midterms and he’s looking at anybody who’s… against the war in Ukraine.”

[LFC]

When I read an article like this I wonder if it's truly the author's opinion or if somebody is trying to sow doubt in Putin's head about his shrinking inner circle. Maybe it's a bit of both.

The ‘Fucking Hammer to the Head’ That Could End Putin
The Russian president’s next move could spur the beginning of his chaotic undoing.

Russia has been a pariah state on the world stage ever since President Vladimir Putin chose to invade Ukraine in February.

Putin himself might be next.

As the war enters its fourth month, and with sanctions packages slapped on Moscow and Russian troops dying daily in fierce fighting in Ukraine, rumors have bubbled up that Putin’s closest cronies are plotting his ouster. Talk has come and gone that Putin is dealing with health crises and cancer, too.

But Putin’s political future and political viability within Moscow is still up in the air—for now, at least—according to Putin watchers, former senior members of the U.S. intelligence community, and the Biden administration. And it all depends on his next move.

For the time being, Putin has secured a vise-like grip around his inner circle and has begun filtering out those who might seek to undermine his power. He’s pushed out those deemed untrustworthy and placed members of the Federal Security Service (FSB) on house arrest. He’s sidelined top Russian officials who have criticized the war, according to British intelligence. Cherry-picking among his closest advisers might temporarily prevent a Putin ouster, according to Ronald Marks, a former CIA clandestine service officer.

“I think he’s OK as long as the siloviki are on his side,” Marks said, referring to members of the elite security services. “And he’s done a nice job of getting rid of those who aren't on his side.”

But service to the Russian government in support of Putin is not guaranteed, according to Daniel Hoffman, a former CIA Moscow chief of station.

As soon as his top advisers become dissatisfied with their situation or feel on edge about the war, it’s curtains for Putin. And it’s not going to be pretty.

“Nobody’s gonna ask, ‘Hey Vladimir, would you like to leave?’ No. It’s a fucking hammer to the head and he’s dead. Or it’s time to go to the sanatorium,” Hoffman told The Daily Beast. “They schwack him for it. That’s what they’ll do.”

Three key members of Putin’s inner circle to watch, according to Hoffman, include Nikolai Patrushev, the chief of Putin’s Security Council; Alexander Bortnikov, the director of the FSB; and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

Even watching those three, predicting Putin’s political future—and particularly trying to get inside his head to determine what his plans are—is impossible. But the writing is on the wall. Vladimir Lenin died. Nikita Khrushchev was ousted. Leonid Brezhnev died. Mikhail Gorbachev was booted in a surprise ouster. The list goes on.

“They either drop dead in office or someone comes knocking on the door and says, ‘Vladimir Vladimirovich, guess what, it’s time to go. You’re gonna love that dacha down there,’” Marks said.

And while Putin’s pared down his inner circle, if Russia’s economy takes a turn for the worse, unrest grows to unmanageable levels, or the battlefield losses start spiraling, Putin will be walking the plank.

So far, Russian public opinion hasn’t reached a tipping point for the siloviki, according to Marks.

But when it does—and when protests in pockets around Russia are replaced by massive social unrest—the siloviki are going to bail on Putin.

[LFC]

More economic trouble in Russia as they are blocked from getting spare parts for their fleet of Western passenger jets. The amount of economic clawing back that Russia needs to do just keeps growing.

An Airbus A320-232 with the tail number YU-APH made its first flight on December 13, 2005. Since then, the aircraft has clocked millions of miles, flying routes for Air Deccan, Kingfisher Airlines, Bingo Airways, and Syphax Airlines before being taken over by Air Serbia, the Eastern European country’s national flag carrier, in 2014.

For eight years, YU-APH flew without any issues—until it landed at 10:37 pm on May 25, 2022, at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport. It had flown in from Belgrade and was due to take off again on a late-night return within the hour. But there was a problem: The pilot had reported an issue with the plane’s engine casing that needed to be fixed. The supplier of the broken part, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Collins Aerospace, reportedly refused to fix the problem, citing sanctions against Russia resulting from its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The plane was stuck. (Collins Aerospace did not respond to a request for comment.)

It took six days for the problem to be fixed and the A320 to depart Moscow for Belgrade. Air Serbia also did not respond to a request for comment about how the engine casing was replaced or fixed and who manufactured the part. YU-APH managed to remedy its fault, but there are increasing international concerns that planes flying into, from, and around Russia could become a safety risk as sanctions prevent them from being maintained properly. Patrick Ky, executive director of the European Union’s Aviation Safety Agency, said at a recent conference that he felt the situation was “very unsafe.” “In six months—who knows? In one year—who knows?” he said.

As of the end of May, there were 876 aircraft in the Russian commercial jet fleet, according to data provided by Ascend by Cirium, an air industry consultancy—down from 968 aircraft in late February. Most of these were made by Airbus or Boeing planes, both of which stopped supplying spare parts to Russian airlines in order to adhere to sanction rules. “They’re not allowed to get any type of part from Boeing or Airbus,” says Bijan Vasigh, an economics professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. “The transfer of any part or technical expertise to Russia is prohibited.” The problem is that aircraft need constant maintenance, repairs, and replacements.

Planes aren’t simple things, with a cornucopia of parts coming together to keep passengers in the air. And because of the high-stakes nature of flight, some parts need to be changed very regularly. Anyone who’s ever watched a plane land from the ground or a viewing observation deck will know that bringing a heavy metal tube to a halt is a challenge. Tires are among the hardest-hit parts of a plane, burning rubber as the brakes are applied, with puffs of smoke often coming from wheels—and plenty of slick, black trails left on the tarmac. Tires are changed every 120 to 400 landings a plane makes. Internal flights running short domestic routes could make four journeys a day, meaning the wheels need to be swapped out every one to three months. Boeing stopped supplying the Russian market on March 1. Airbus followed a day later. “They’re going to wear down,” says Max Kingsley Jones, senior consultant at Ascend by Cirium, of the wheels. “They can’t source replacement tires: That’s a potential risk."

Worn-down tires would just be the first indication of decay. Planes are powered by computer systems that require regular maintenance, with some systems programmed to switch off after a number of flight cycles or calendar days and reset. That includes aircraft engines and auxiliary power units, the electricity generator that pumps compressed air through the cabin in flight and powers the firing of the engine when the plane is first turned on. “Some of those parts are life-limited,” says Kingsley Jones. “They literally have to be taken off the aircraft and replaced when they get to a certain age or a certain number of flights.” Despite the stereotype of running old, dilapidated planes into the ground, Russia’s fleet of aircraft compares favorably with those in much of the rest of the world. The average age of a Russian-run plane is 10.5 years, according to the Association of Tour Operators of Russia. The age of the average passenger plane worldwide is 10.3 years, according to management consultancy Oliver Wyman.

[indy]

It's the new Russian Roulette.

[jackd]

Russian roulette with airplanes is a serious "upgrade".

[goldenvalley]

Congratulations Putin.  You're so threatened by NATO that you've now opened the door for NATO to invite Finland and Sweden to join the alliance which just happened.

Both Finland and Sweden had been militarily nonaligned for many years, but decided to apply to join the alliance after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. With Russia attacking a neighbor, both countries felt vulnerable, though Sweden, with a long tradition of neutrality, was more hesitant.

Mr. Putin warned both countries against joining NATO, but his threats proved counterproductive.

The two countries bring geostrategic benefits to the alliance. Finland shares an 830-mile border with Russia and has a well-equipped modern army; Sweden can control the entrance to the Baltic Sea, which will help a great deal in NATO planning to defend the more vulnerable countries in Eastern Europe.

Looks like the north western buffer zone is gone.  

[jackd]

Putin has warned that the nuclear free zone is no longer guaranteed. Like what's the big deal about that to countries so near Russia anyway?

[LFC]

Finland and Sweden to Putin: "We're afraid you're going to attack us."

Putin to Finland and Sweden: "Join NATO and I'll attack you!"

[LFC]

Russia is waging cyberwar on Lithuania. Is it any wonder none of these nations want to trust them? Putin in a monster and any nation in partnership with Russia is effectively a hostage. He doesn't want partners, he wants vassals.

Internet services in Lithuania came under "intense" distributed denial of service attacks on Monday as the pro-Russia threat-actor group Killnet took credit. Killnet said its attacks were in retaliation regarding Lithuania's recent banning of shipments sanctioned by the European Union to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

Lithuania's government said that the flood of malicious traffic disrupted parts of the Secure National Data Transfer Network, which it says is "one of the critical components of Lithuania's strategy on ensuring national security in cyberspace" and "is built to be operational during crises or war to ensure the continuity of activity of critical institutions." The country's Core Center of State Telecommunications was identifying the sites most affected in real time and providing them with DDoS mitigations while also working with international web service providers.

"It is highly probable that such or even more intense attacks will continue into the coming days, especially against the communications, energy, and financial sectors," Jonas Skardinskas, acting director of Lithuania's National Cyber Security Center, said in a statement. The statement warned of website defacements, ransomware, and other destructive attacks in the coming days.

[jackd]

The issue will be whether the "West" has the stamina to hold Russia off.

[goldenvalley]

Jul 1, 2022 15:25:51 GMT jackd said:

The issue will be whether the "West" has the stamina to hold Russia off.

Stamina or will?  

[jackd]

Both.

[pnwguy]

Even if it's DeSatanist, a GOP president 47 will look the other way at Putin. Autocrats give professional courtesy to their peers.

[LFC]

Putin is now the leader of what is effectively the new Nazi Party. The leader of boot licking Belarus is down with that. Of course the way they tell it everybody else are the Nazis.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his invasion of Ukraine he cited the "self-cleansing of society" and the "purification" of the motherland. It led foreign policy experts to fear that the invasion was part of a larger war of genocide.

By the end of May, Russian state TV was threatening to invade Poland. Now that the war has been going on for 131 days, a Daily Beast report cited Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko hinted that the next war will be against Europe as a whole.

“The time has come for the forgetful Europe to give itself a moral cleansing,” Lukashenko said, according to Belarusian state television's BelTA.

Lukashenko talked about fighting Nazis in World War II, known to Russians as the “Great Patriotic War,” and said that their efforts aren't over.

It is “a war to destroy the Slavic ethnos, cultures and entire nations. Today we often say that this war is not over yet,” Lukashenko said. “It is not over yet because not everyone who was involved in the monstrous facts of that war… has been punished. That war is not over yet because once again, as at the frontline, we are defending our historical memory.”

[LFC]

And now for the Jews. It's always gotta' come back to the Jews in some fashion. It's almost like the blind hatred of Jews is in some people's DNA.

In response to growing tension with Israel over its invasion of Ukraine, the Russian government has ordered the Jewish Agency to cease all operations in the country, The Jerusalem Post reports.

The move could greatly undermine the ability of Russian Jews to immigrate to Israel, of which thousands have already secured the paperwork to do so, but the sanctions on Russia have caused most international airlines to stop flying to the country.

Sources in Russia's Jewish community told the Post that "people from the Jewish community have been feeling the Iron Curtain setting on them and they fear they won't be able to escape the country" and that "a number of Jews have said that the Russian authorities are trying to arrest them and that they fear for their lives."

The Jewish Agency works to facilitate aliyah from Jewish communities around the world. If the organization is blocked in Russia, it will be the first time in the past 30 years that aliyah efforts are banned in the country.

[goldenvalley]

Jul 5, 2022 21:00:06 GMT LFC said:

Putin is now the leader of what is effectively the new Nazi Party. The leader of boot licking Belarus is down with that. Of course the way they tell it everybody else are the Nazis.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his invasion of Ukraine he cited the "self-cleansing of society" and the "purification" of the motherland. It led foreign policy experts to fear that the invasion was part of a larger war of genocide.

By the end of May, Russian state TV was threatening to invade Poland. Now that the war has been going on for 131 days, a Daily Beast report cited Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko hinted that the next war will be against Europe as a whole.

“The time has come for the forgetful Europe to give itself a moral cleansing,” Lukashenko said, according to Belarusian state television's BelTA.

Lukashenko talked about fighting Nazis in World War II, known to Russians as the “Great Patriotic War,” and said that their efforts aren't over.

It is “a war to destroy the Slavic ethnos, cultures and entire nations. Today we often say that this war is not over yet,” Lukashenko said. “It is not over yet because not everyone who was involved in the monstrous facts of that war… has been punished. That war is not over yet because once again, as at the frontline, we are defending our historical memory.”

This is what happens when the country's leadership has nothing to offer its citizens but a scapegoat for the failures of the leadership.   People seem to love a good fight...for the Slavic World, against the Jews, whoever...and they fall for it more often than not.