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If stevie P had been around in 1776, he would have been one of George's mercs.
The Hoffman article reads like it was written by the CIA. In the hopes of driving a wedge between China and Russia. The article is not incorrect in many of its assumptions, rather it reads like a wishful hope.
Of course they are still adversaries in a larger regional manner, but they are also partners against the United States.
As the number two and number three threats to America, they cannot afford to be taken down individually. Neither can afford to risk fighting the United States now without the other to help.
Maybe in 10 to 20 years China might be able to stand against the US by itself given the way the United States military and economy are declining.
But not in 2023.
We may be a grizzly bear, but we have a lot of enemies that could work as a pack of wolves. Our allies are bunny rabbits and twittering birds.
Of course they are still adversaries in a larger regional manner, but they are also partners against the United States.
As the number two and number three threats to America, they cannot afford to be taken down individually. Neither can afford to risk fighting the United States now without the other to help.
Maybe in 10 to 20 years China might be able to stand against the US by itself given the way the United States military and economy are declining.
But not in 2023.
We may be a grizzly bear, but we have a lot of enemies that could work as a pack of wolves. Our allies are bunny rabbits and twittering birds.
Less than 10 years. Why? Remember the Germans had a superior army compared to the Russians. The Germans inflicted greater causalities but the Russians had numbers that eventually wore the Germans down. China is not weak with the world's largest military. They stole our intellectual property and got help from Iran and Russia to build a capable military.
Grizzli bear with identity, gender and diet crisis all at once. So imagine a bear and a pack of wolfs where bear ponders do i run like a sheep, do i fuck them instead of mauling them. All the while knowing that all the berries it ate beforehand are making his lower stomach make sounds threatening to soil itself (all similarities with real persons are not intentional) and becoming laughing stock for the wolfs out there…
We are hollowing out quickly. Why are they buying up our SPR when they can get Russian oil? Because our president is selling it off at a low price? To lower our SPR?
What else is our president doing to hurt us and benefit China? Allowing a deep scan via laser of our ICBM silos?
How is the patriotism and grit of American citizens in 2023 compared to even 40 years ago? Will the Democrats stand behind the United States at war with both China and Russia? Will the United States citizens be OK with continuing these wars once we've lost 5000 American sailors in one day of engagement at sea?
Our 6? Mil Branches are chasing like 400,000 available possible American recruits with standards lowering and recruitment more difficult with each passing year. Think Starbucks employees
We are depleting through our precision munitions, which we favor over the old-school simplicity that Russia favors (with old Soviet supply stocks) With the situation in U, either we start digging into our current stocks to provide arms to UF, start fighting ourselves, or U collapses spectacularly. Don't put it past our president to botch it spectacularly. Think of the pullout in Astan with people falling off the landing gear on takeoff. Rs may be shooting at us with equipment even now left over from our "eviction notice" level evacuation from Astan.
CHINA IS FOCUSING ON BUILDING THEIR NAVY.
Specifically for Taiwan. That fight will be in our military area of strengths, maritime and aerospace (credit D Macgregor). The advantage for them being fighting 110 miles off their mainland shoreline.
Our power projection in the form of carrier battle groups is tremendous in terms of 70 aircraft each, escort ships, etc
But they would be shooting missiles from LAND. Which means they can keep launching them the way Russians launch artillery. Yes, a carrier on the move in open water is a difficult target, but even with electronic countermeasures, once engagement starts, the carriers are not going to be moving nearly as fast or far and we are limited in terms of how many defensive missiles we carry on board the escorts. And i doubt we could intercept all of the Chinese missiles perfectly.
Our 3-4 floating air bases and battle groups 1/2 way around the globe vs their formidible naval forces 110+ miles off their mainland after they've prepared and decided on invasion supported by all missiles, air force, and non-naval assets they choose to support with.
They don't have to have perfect parity to match us for this particular fight.
We may have one and a half million soldiers on active duty, we may have aircraft, tanks, ships...
but we are spread thin throughout the world maintaining and manning multiple bases not just to surround Russia and China, but throughout the globe
It's not as if we can bring all of it to bear quickly and immediately to a specific theater in either Ukraine or Taiwan leaving bases and homeland and assets completely unprotected
As I keep mentioning like a broken record, if we are fighting Russia in Ukraine, and China for Taiwan, that will be the United States fighting into theaters in two locations on the other side of the world
Logistically speaking, it would be unsustainable for us for any extended length of time. Not just in terms of treasury spent, but our manpower would be stretched thin quickly. Transportation will become an issue
Russia has been doing it for exactly one year now, and they can quite frankly fight a battle in their front yard for a protracted period of time deciding to go back in and drink lemonade and come out whenever they wish
Pretty much the same deal for China
Although we have allies that would allow us to base in their country and help provide logistics to some degree, parts, munitions, service members, any specialty items that we need for logistics would have to be transported halfway around the world between two different theaters
Between a blockade of Taiwan and our engagement in Ukraine directly... they would simply sit there and keep poking us knowing that each day we would lose more in terms of attrition than they would
I don't trust that the people in charge wouldn't do something stupid and desperate because they jumped into something without an exit plan
I'm definitely not on their side, but China and Russia seem to be far more calculated and careful and their decision making
Just my personal opinion, but we seem rather reckless in the engagements we choose, and our exits never seem to come out very clean, it's like every relationship we get into ends up in a messy messy break up
We literally left Afghanistan like the girl crying on her knees, and her boyfriend standing over her about to beat on her again for being with us. We got what we wanted, decided it was not worth the fight and abandoned her, and literally took off in the middle of the night.
How is Ukraine going to react when the West stops sending supplies and equipment? Are we going to send in American troops to fight on behalf of NATO? NATO country troops posing as mercenaries notwithstanding.
I know the banks are already lining up to "rebuild" Ukraine. Was it JP Morgan Chase that already signed something with them? Who will end up owning Ukraine?
I may be wrong on the number but I believe China was aiming for close naval parity with the United States around 2030 or a bit after
(naval)
This might apply to green water only not necessarily blue
Our economy isn't doing so great, it's possible that China is doing worse, but like the EU currently we are weakening over time fairly quickly
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I'm sharing this to be humorous. I understand that America's number one export is money in the form of the dollar. And other countries likely would fail in manipulating us via manipulating currency.
I don't argue that China is not on the right side in regards to intellectual property. But right or wrong doesn't matter, they don't care. They will use any means necessary to grow stronger, and unfortunately in world politics "might makes right"
Just look at how the American hegemony makes use of that concept in a unipolar world
Just look at how the American hegemony makes use of that concept in a unipolar world
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Viewpoint: How I Helped Trump and Giuliani Undercut Ukraine — TIME
BY LEV PARNAS The other day I watched some street interviews in Moscow. The first person said the Russian invasion...
apple.news
The View Essay
VIEWPOINT
How I helped Trump and Giuliani undercut Ukraine
By Lev Parnas
The other day I watched some street interviews in Moscow. The first person said the Russian invasion of Ukraine was justified because Ukrainian government officials were Nazis. The second said the invasion was necessary because Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is a Jew and, as such, is stealing everything. Later, I watched Donald Trump give a campaign speech praising Russian President Vladimir Putin and calling the U.S. intelligence community “lowlifes.” Meanwhile, the people of Ukraine are dying by the tens of thousands.
If that makes you feel bad, you may be able to imagine how I feel: I was used by Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani in ways that helped pave the way for Putin to invade Ukraine, my native land. If Trump and Giuliani’s plans had worked, the Ukrainians might not have had the weapons, medical equipment, and other supplies they needed to fight back.
In 2021 and 2022, I was convicted of several serious crimes including fraud, making false statements, and illegally funneling foreign money to the Trump campaign. I was sentenced to 20 months in prison, served four, and am on home confinement for the remainder. Now that I am paying my debt to society, it is important to tell my side of the story.
My connection to Trump came through Giuliani, with whom I had done business, and through the large campaign donations I had made to Trump’s campaign. Giuliani, who desperately wanted to be Secretary of State, recruited me to help him further Trump’s interests overseas.
I had no official position, but my primary task was to be their go-between with Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs and government officials. In retrospect, I concluded that my real job was to help undermine and destabilize the Ukrainian government. Trump and Giuliani argued that Ukraine’s leaders were corrupt and anti-American, but I believe there were other reasons Trump had it in for them. He viewed them as political enemies who had supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, hurting his feelings and engaging his unquenchable thirst for revenge.
Trump also hated the Ukrainian government because Putin did. Some have said that Putin has compromising information on Trump, I never saw evidence of that. Rather, I think the Russian leader had a lot in common with Trump’s father Fred. Both men were authoritarian leaders who valued ruthlessness and considered it the only way to succeed. I first met Fred when I was selling condos in Brooklyn as a kid, and he and Putin struck me the same way.
The plan that Giuliani and Trump put into operation was simple. Giuliani sent me to collect compromising information that Eastern European oligarchs had on Hunter Biden’s activities in Ukraine to use against Joe Biden. It was also my job to persuade the new Ukrainian government to announce an official investigation into Hunter Biden. If it didn’t, the U.S. would not send Trump or Vice President Mike Pence to Zelensky’s inauguration, threatening Zelensky’s domestic stature. Trump also paused much-needed military aid for Ukraine while he tried to get Zelensky to open the Biden investigation.
TRUMP DIDN’T CARE if this made Ukraine vulnerable to Russia, which had annexed Crimea in 2014. At about the same time, Trump casually asked me, “How long do you think Ukraine could hold out against a Russian invasion?” I responded, “Not long, without our help.” I eventually realized that not only was I enabling Trump’s dirty tricks in the 2020 election, I was also risking that Ukraine would be essentially unarmed when Putin invaded.
Trump weakened Zelensky, but fortunately Biden won the 2020 election and Ukraine received a steady supply of weapons. Since my arrest, I have done my best to help the people of Ukraine with charitable works, but Giuliani is still peddling his version of events, and even now Republican politicians are campaigning to stop the pipeline of weapons and supplies. They are just trying to please Trump, exactly as Giuliani does. And whether they realize it or not, they are making it easier for Putin and his gang to steal everything they can from Ukraine.
Parnas is a businessman and a former associate of Giuliani’s, serving a sentence for fraud and campaign-finance violations
Watch When Truth Isn’t Truth: The Rudy Giuliani Story, a new four-part series from TIME Studios, beginning Feb. 19
JABIN BOTSFORD—THE WASHINGTON POST/GETTY IMAGES
lol
Viewpoint: How I Helped Trump and Giuliani Undercut Ukraine — TIME
BY LEV PARNAS The other day I watched some street interviews in Moscow. The first person said the Russian invasion...
The View Essay
VIEWPOINT
How I helped Trump and Giuliani undercut Ukraine
By Lev Parnas
The other day I watched some street interviews in Moscow. The first person said the Russian invasion of Ukraine was justified because Ukrainian government officials were Nazis. The second said the invasion was necessary because Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is a Jew and, as such, is stealing everything. Later, I watched Donald Trump give a campaign speech praising Russian President Vladimir Putin and calling the U.S. intelligence community “lowlifes.” Meanwhile, the people of Ukraine are dying by the tens of thousands.
If that makes you feel bad, you may be able to imagine how I feel: I was used by Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani in ways that helped pave the way for Putin to invade Ukraine, my native land. If Trump and Giuliani’s plans had worked, the Ukrainians might not have had the weapons, medical equipment, and other supplies they needed to fight back.
In 2021 and 2022, I was convicted of several serious crimes including fraud, making false statements, and illegally funneling foreign money to the Trump campaign. I was sentenced to 20 months in prison, served four, and am on home confinement for the remainder. Now that I am paying my debt to society, it is important to tell my side of the story.
My connection to Trump came through Giuliani, with whom I had done business, and through the large campaign donations I had made to Trump’s campaign. Giuliani, who desperately wanted to be Secretary of State, recruited me to help him further Trump’s interests overseas.
I had no official position, but my primary task was to be their go-between with Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs and government officials. In retrospect, I concluded that my real job was to help undermine and destabilize the Ukrainian government. Trump and Giuliani argued that Ukraine’s leaders were corrupt and anti-American, but I believe there were other reasons Trump had it in for them. He viewed them as political enemies who had supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, hurting his feelings and engaging his unquenchable thirst for revenge.
Trump also hated the Ukrainian government because Putin did. Some have said that Putin has compromising information on Trump, I never saw evidence of that. Rather, I think the Russian leader had a lot in common with Trump’s father Fred. Both men were authoritarian leaders who valued ruthlessness and considered it the only way to succeed. I first met Fred when I was selling condos in Brooklyn as a kid, and he and Putin struck me the same way.
The plan that Giuliani and Trump put into operation was simple. Giuliani sent me to collect compromising information that Eastern European oligarchs had on Hunter Biden’s activities in Ukraine to use against Joe Biden. It was also my job to persuade the new Ukrainian government to announce an official investigation into Hunter Biden. If it didn’t, the U.S. would not send Trump or Vice President Mike Pence to Zelensky’s inauguration, threatening Zelensky’s domestic stature. Trump also paused much-needed military aid for Ukraine while he tried to get Zelensky to open the Biden investigation.
TRUMP DIDN’T CARE if this made Ukraine vulnerable to Russia, which had annexed Crimea in 2014. At about the same time, Trump casually asked me, “How long do you think Ukraine could hold out against a Russian invasion?” I responded, “Not long, without our help.” I eventually realized that not only was I enabling Trump’s dirty tricks in the 2020 election, I was also risking that Ukraine would be essentially unarmed when Putin invaded.
Trump weakened Zelensky, but fortunately Biden won the 2020 election and Ukraine received a steady supply of weapons. Since my arrest, I have done my best to help the people of Ukraine with charitable works, but Giuliani is still peddling his version of events, and even now Republican politicians are campaigning to stop the pipeline of weapons and supplies. They are just trying to please Trump, exactly as Giuliani does. And whether they realize it or not, they are making it easier for Putin and his gang to steal everything they can from Ukraine.
Parnas is a businessman and a former associate of Giuliani’s, serving a sentence for fraud and campaign-finance violations
Watch When Truth Isn’t Truth: The Rudy Giuliani Story, a new four-part series from TIME Studios, beginning Feb. 19
JABIN BOTSFORD—THE WASHINGTON POST/GETTY IMAGES
So now they are trying to pin this on Trump.
Psst... Trumps administration was the fist to Provide lethal aid to Ukraine. Something Obama refused.
I remember I was paying attention.
Little known fact.....
Speaking of Eleanor Roosevelt, does anyone know her maiden name? Don't cheat......
now look it up.
Ok now that you are back and going what the ever living fuck. Keep digging, it gets more interesting.
"For economic stability and a successful fight against the enemy, Ukraine needs more help."
On top of that, Kyiv said it will need $17 billion this year for urgent energy repairs and de-mining and rebuilding some of its critical infrastructure.
While the EU is expected to provide the lion's share of funds to cover the budget deficit at $18 billion, and Washington a further $10 billion, Kiev has yet to identify sources of funding to meet those additional costs.
/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/IOOWXB3V35NW5EGDG4MICBQ2AQ.jpg)
www.reuters.com
On top of that, Kyiv said it will need $17 billion this year for urgent energy repairs and de-mining and rebuilding some of its critical infrastructure.
While the EU is expected to provide the lion's share of funds to cover the budget deficit at $18 billion, and Washington a further $10 billion, Kiev has yet to identify sources of funding to meet those additional costs.
External backers pour billions into Ukraine to counter war damage
Pictures of devastation in Ukraine following Russia's invasion have sparked urgent questions over how its reconstruction can be paid for. But before they can even begin to be answered, Kyiv is seeking billions just to ride out this year.
www.reuters.com
It won't matter who wins or who loses....... It's the "rebuilding" ..... Follow the money. A once in a lifetime opportunity for big money to make more big money.
We can't build a wall, extinguish a burning rail car, rebuild a city after a hurricane / wildfire / tornado or cure cancer. We can rebuild a shit hole half way around the world.
Save the whales, save the trees, save the children.... The list is long.
Speculation from some is that Ukraine as a nation is gone regardless of the geography of the Western portion left (most of it).
They are poor, defenseless, require $ and rebuilding. Banks, nations, they will all descend upon Ukraine like animals eating it alive while it's on it's back helpless to move or defend itself. The consensual rape hasn't even started yet (they have no options but the ones offered). Their western allies feel like they've already given too much. The rest of the world couldn't care less.
The EU would be NUTS to take Ukraine into their fold given the financial liability.
Ritter mentions in the video that given our president's decision to take out Nordstream might just push the Germans over the edge. Out of NATO?
as the heart of the EU they could screw them over as well given Norway and other EU countries and UK, US allies assisted with the Nordstream bombing that put Germany at such risk. And forced them to buy Liquified Natural Gas from the US via transport vis ship at 3-4x the price they paid through Nordstream from Russia.
Basically, our president decided it was okay for German citizens to freeze and to destroy their economy to ensure they wouldn't capitulate to Russia and then buy LNG from the United States at a huge markup. They might not be happy about it.
Ukraine is over. How many of their citizens that left are going to return to help rebuild vs staying where they are in the UK, Russia, Poland?
Pre 2014 Russia was still benefiting from the industry that was occurring in Ukraine, for example the fuel pumps for the Su-27/30/34/35 were made there, a long with a laundry list of other things. While not denying there is potentially money to be made in the reconstruction, the big shift is away from the Russian sphere.
It was a win win for the west. If Russia doesn't strep up they take it over. If they do, it all gets destroyed. I think the ladder is now the goal, destruction. Notice the final Fight in Mariopul was at a massive steel mill, which was all but destroyed.
I don't want to side rail the thread too much, but "uncle ted" was something a young FDR looked up to. Wanted as many kids as Ted had, wanted to sec of the navy.....basically walk in his foot steps. Interviews with his college girlfriend are not kind to him, he was a total nut job. How Hoover did not land on his commie ass is past me, likely the last name.
The North American economy is headed for a spectacular melt down too. That will not help supply warfighters or good will from reluctant “allies”. Europe is broke too. All hail the new king, BRICS.
I don’t think its a de rail. Looking at and understanding the past, helps one understand the present and potential future. We live in a time of interconnected communication like no other. In that we are able to gain a better understanding of world events. There are definitely generational aspirations present in Ukraine.
by now, everyone should see this for exactly what it is."For economic stability and a successful fight against the enemy, Ukraine needs more help."
On top of that, Kyiv said it will need $17 billion this year for urgent energy repairs and de-mining and rebuilding some of its critical infrastructure.
While the EU is expected to provide the lion's share of funds to cover the budget deficit at $18 billion, and Washington a further $10 billion, Kiev has yet to identify sources of funding to meet those additional costs.
External backers pour billions into Ukraine to counter war damage
Pictures of devastation in Ukraine following Russia's invasion have sparked urgent questions over how its reconstruction can be paid for. But before they can even begin to be answered, Kyiv is seeking billions just to ride out this year.
the globalists are charging Russia the bill to demolish Ukraine, and all of it's old, dated infrastructure. Simultaneously they are ruining Russia in preparation for the ultimate color revolution. And they are eliminating as much of the patriotic white male population of both countries as they possibly can.
The United States is deliberately ruining it's economy in order to rebuild Ukraine for the NWO. By the time it's over, many Americans will be unable to support themselves in the jobless economy ruined by inflation. Savings will be worthless, property will be sold for pennies on the dollar, white men who cannot get jobs due to white-hating discrimination will keep offing themselves (something that Obama's people used to brag about) and everyone will be so desperate that they will do whatever .gov tells them to do. No more American Dream, no more Life, Liberty, and Property. The new reality will be far worse than what any of us can imagine.
Regardless of what the .gov trolls insist on and lie about, Russia is nothing to any of us. Not good bad or indifferent. Those people are simply trying to keep their own head above the globalist tidal wave. The people who truly despise you, who are going to fuck you over with the full power of the law after they impoverish you and take everything you own are the ones you need to watch out for.
That is no lie. One thing I have learned is we 'mericans have issues understanding these "generational" issues. These people have been killing each other for several millennium and people "in charge" love to stoke that....get people in a frenzy. I look at turkey and Greece in the 70's over cyprus. The people are in general "don't care", but when some political idiot starts the snowball rolling then the "people" get their panties in a wad....and we get what we have now. When it goes too long like ukraine people start to look a bit too close, and it starts to unwind. Real reasons for this start to show up. I would bet we will see an end to this before the year is out.
They can get them on the market I’m willing to bet. Making this assumption is a bit much. I would question does RU even run 223 ammo much?
Yeah, well being a combat medic has it's risks.....I never received any leniency from the Taliban or al queda when I was doing my job while deployed. Being in combat has risks......
Doc
Russian media proposed dividing Ukraine into parts...
warnews247-gr.translate.goog
Αυτή είναι η πρόταση ειρήνης των Ρώσων: Διαμελισμός της Ουκρανίας σε τ
Ρωσικά ΜΜΕ δημοσίευσαν μια πρόταση τερματισμού του πολέμου η οποία προβλέπει την διαίρεση της Ουκρανίας σε τρία τμήματα, την απορρόφηση
warnews247-gr.translate.goog
Unfortunately for Ukraine ''Fisher - Price' version as you say is much closer to the reality than MSM propaganda that is being parroted 24/7 with explicit goal of keeping the bags of cash flowing, Ukraine is doing 10th! round of the draft to fill the trenches , and now kids with less than 3 months to legal age are forbidden to leave the country, they are needed for the next round in the meatgrinder.Fisher-Price version of reality
Zerohedge
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zerowww.zerohedge.com
A Russian Mole in Germany Sows Suspicions at Home, and Beyond
A director at Germany’s spy service was picked up on suspicion of passing intelligence to Russia. German officials and allies worry just how deep the problem goes.The small Bavarian town of Weilheim, where a director of Germany’s spy agency lived and was arrested in December on suspicion of spying for Russia.Credit...Ingmar Nolting for The New York Times
By Erika Solomon, Christopher F. Schuetze and Julian E. Barnes
A few days before Christmas, a convoy of security vehicles invaded a quiet corner of Weilheim, a quaint Bavarian town of pastel squares and fastidiously kept cobblestone streets. Their target seemed as unassuming as the setting: a local children’s soccer coach.
Nothing ever stood out about the man, fellow coaches recalled. He was not short, but not tall — friendly, yet never wanting to discuss anything but soccer. Grasping for words, most landed on the same choice: “unremarkable.”
That changed when they learned he had been arrested on charges of treason and spying for Russia in one of the gravest espionage scandals in recent German history.
The coach, a 52-year-old former German soldier, worked for Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, or B.N.D., as a director of technical reconnaissance — the unit responsible for cybersecurity and surveilling electronic communications. It contributes about half of the spy agency’s daily intelligence volume.
As a Russian mole, he would have had access to critical information gathered since Moscow invaded Ukraine last year. He may have obtained high-level surveillance, not only from German spies, but also from Western partners, like the C.I.A.
German intelligence has had a long and troubled history of Russian infiltration, stretching back decades. But the latest case now threatens to shake the sometimes tentative trust of Western intelligence agencies in Germany at a critical moment when Russia has presented Europe with its biggest security threat since World War II — and as Moscow is escalating its espionage efforts across the continent.
The arrest came shortly after a flurry of raids across Europe that uncovered so-called illegals, or secret Russian agents, in the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway.
The German authorities are still trying to determine what damage their mole may have done. But the discovery of a double agent has rattled German political circles.
Some leaders are openly questioning the loyalties of their own security services, and just how deep the problem of Russian sympathizers runs within their ranks.
The Germany authorities — who, in public, hailed the arrest as a victory against Russia — have batted away journalists’ inquiries. They have identified their chief suspect, the soccer coach, only as Carsten L., in keeping with strict privacy laws. British news outlets have identified him as Carsten Linke. A New York Times investigation confirmed his name, hometown and background.
Privately, three officials familiar with the investigation — who requested anonymity in order to share details because discussing the inquiry publicly is illegal — worry the case could be the tip of an ominous iceberg.
“Recruiting other spies is the top tier of espionage,” one of the officials said. “And our technical reconnaissance unit is one of the most important departments of the B.N.D. To find someone relatively high up there? That makes this case explosive.”
The case has already led to a second arrest — that of a Russia-born accomplice, who acted as a courier, and, according to one official, brought some 400,000 euros in cash to Mr. Linke from Moscow for his information.
It is still not clear who recruited whom, two people following the investigation said, but the authorities believe the men were put in touch by a German military reservist who is a member of the far-right populist party, the Alternative for Germany, or AfD.
German intelligence was apparently tipped off to the mole by a fellow Western agency, those following the investigation said.
The case has also exposed other serious vulnerabilities for Germany, which former American intelligence officers said in recent years has been seen as not aggressive enough in its vigilance over Russian spying and its counterespionage efforts.
For years, as German politicians pushed economic ties with Moscow — in particular, buying its gas — they closed down many intelligence units focused on Russia.
Yet President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who started his career as a K.G.B. agent in Communist East Germany, took the opposite tack: He made Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, a priority target.
“They have highly specialized experts who speak fluent German, who know their way around very well, and who launch very targeted operations in Germany,” said Nico Lange, a former German Defense Ministry official, who is now a senior fellow at the Munich Security Conference. “On our side, you actually have almost no one left who knows Russia, speaks fluent Russian, and watches the other side closely.”
Investigations so far suggest that Mr. Linke’s connection to Moscow predated the invasion of Ukraine last February. The question plaguing German officials, should the accusations be confirmed, is what would drive an intelligence officer, a nationalist who spent years in the military serving his country, to then turn against it?
No clear financial incentives have been found, nor was Mr. Linke in debt.
The only hints of potential motives are his apparent far-right sympathies. A search of his home and offices, two people familiar with the investigation said, found fliers from the far-right AfD party. At work, Mr. Linke had openly told colleagues he felt the country was deteriorating, and he was particularly disdainful of its new center-left government, one of those following the inquiry said.
Over the years, far-right groups have grown increasingly sympathetic to Russia, enamored of Mr. Putin’s nationalistic rhetoric. Germany has struggled to root out far-right sympathizers in its security services, including in the military, even dismantling part of its special forces.
Mr. Linke’s digital footprint, under aliases discovered by German media, was small.
A Google account of his, using the alias “Steen von Ottendorf,” first found by Germany’s Der Spiegel newsmagazine, has one YouTube
A supporter of the right-wing Alternative for Germany party in 2019. The only hint of Mr. Linke’s potential motives are his apparent far-right sympathies. A search of his home and office found fliers for the party.
Ottendorf, a town in eastern Germany, has no clear connection to Mr. Linke, but it is home to a thriving “Reichsbürger” scene. The Reichsbürger, a loosely aligned far-right group, believe in a conspiracy that the modern German state does not actually exist. Some of the group’s followers were behind a coup plot that German police foiled late last year.
One German politician following the investigation worries that some military and intelligence officials still admire Russia and aspire to closer relations, even after the invasion of Ukraine.
“It’s a kind of conviction, wanting to cooperate with Russia — it’s a romantic belief,” the official said. “I worry there are many others who hold that conviction in our security services.”
To Germany’s allies, such concerns may seem familiar. Since the days of the Cold War, Germany’s intelligence agency suffered from Russian infiltration, said Erich Schmidt-Eenboom, a historian who has written several books on the agency and keeps a list of all of the B.N.D. agents who were “turned,” exposing hundreds of operatives.
Among them was the 1961 case of Heinz Felfe, a K.G.B. mole who revealed B.N.D. operations across Europe. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Germany learned that a top director, Gabriele Gast, who worked closely with the chancellery, spied for the Stasi, the East German secret police, for 17 years.
“The B.N.D. has been considered by all partner services to be a complete molehill,” Mr. Schmidt-Eenboom said. “Its internal security has failed over the years — time and time and time again.”
Many German intelligence officials live in Weilheim, a convenient 40-minute drive to the regional B.N.D. office
According to Mr. Schmidt-Eenboom, the information available to Mr. Linke was vast: internet espionage, German surveillance stations, mobile listening devices in southern Ukraine, and the German Navy’s reconnaissance ships observing the war from the Baltic Sea.
On top of that, Mr. Linke would have had access to reports from allied American services like the C.I.A. and the National Security Agency, as well as from Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters.
Mr. Linke appeared to use that to his advantage, having requested reports related to Russia or the war from an employee who herself was investigated, but then later released as an unwitting accomplice, according to the people who have been following the investigation.
Shortly before Mr. Linke was discovered as a mole, he had been promoted to head personnel security checks. The damage he might have done there would have been far greater: He could have passed on tips about agents vulnerable to blackmail or bribes.
Some officials say German intelligence has played down what confidential information may have made it into Russian hands, saying only that German intelligence was confirmed to have been sent to Moscow.
But Western security officials worry that Mr. Linke also passed along intelligence on the Ukraine war from allies — possibly the British. American officials acknowledged that the case had shaken allied spy services.
Some officials have acknowledged it has slowed or stopped some information from being offered by the Americans and the British. But the curb on sharing — which varied by country and spy agency — was sharpest immediately after the case broke, and the partnership has rewarmed some since.
Other officials say that Germany remains a critical partner in the Ukraine war, and that American officials are keen to make sure the arrests do not derail cooperation.
“NATO countries share key intelligence for its own security and for the ongoing war in Ukraine,” said Mick Mulroy, a former C.I.A. officer. “A compromise in one NATO member could lead to a compromise of the whole and have serious consequences.”
A month after Mr. Linke was taken into custody, an accomplice, Arthur Eller, 31, was detained by the F.B.I. in Miami. After an interrogation, he was put on a plane to Munich, where he was arrested by German investigators.
A naturalized citizen, Mr. Eller was born in Russia and moved to Germany with his parents in the 1990s. He also served in the German armed forces.
Erich Schmidt-Eenboom, a historian of the B.N.D., in his office in Weilheim. “Its internal security has failed over the years — time and time and time again,” he said.
Mr. Eller worked more recently as a businessman with ties to companies in Germany and Africa, including a Nigerian-registered petroleum trading company he ran alongside a Swiss-based gold dealer and a Nigerian businessman.
He and Mr. Linke are believed to have first met in 2021, three people familiar with the investigation said, at a yearly festival run by the Weilheim sports club where soccer coaches and their families snacked on coffee and cake or drank beers in the afternoon. The two were put in touch by one of Weilheim’s local members of the far-right AfD party who once served in the military with Mr. Eller and remains a reservist.
Travel logs and flight records found by a Russian investigative group, the Dossier Center, show Mr. Eller took hundreds of flights to New York; Los Angeles; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Baku, Azerbaijan; Belgrade, Serbia; Tbilisi, Georgia; Prague; Doha, Qatar; Shanghai; Geneva; and countless Russian cities.
Many trips to his native country were very short, but he usually stayed in the best hotels in Moscow and St. Petersburg, according to the Dossier Center. He also made trips to surprisingly obscure Russian locations, like Nizhnekamsk.
Mr. Eller has been cooperating with the investigators, people familiar with the operation said. Mr. Linke has so far remained silent.
According to people following the inquiry, Mr. Eller has told investigators that he believed that he was working with Mr. Linke on a B.N.D. operation. But German authorities have expressed wariness of his version of events.
Mr. Eller also said he served as a courier, taking documents to Russia and bringing money back. Four times, he said, he passed envelopes of cash late last year to Mr. Linke, one person familiar with the investigation said.
At their last handoff, Mr. Linke’s boldness apparently went as far as to have a B.N.D. agent working at the Munich airport pick up Mr. Eller and collect a final cash exchange for him — an envelope that investigators believe held 100,000 euros.
The German authorities are investigating that person but have not labeled the agent a suspect. Rather, so far, they believe that the agent was an unwitting accomplice.
Yet for some German officials, that is hardly a reason for relief.
“Every time we dig,” one said, “it just gets deeper and deeper.”
Oleg Matsnev contributed reporting from Berlin.
That speech was 9 months ago. The First 33 Billion congress approved. They passed Omibus since then...
Mean while...
John McCain in Kiev in 2014 during the Coup.
@LRRPF52 Wana tell more stories about how the coup was Russian dis information...lol
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I’m one of the only people in the thread I’m aware of who has lived throughout the region being discussed, been studying Russian order of battle since the 1970s, and so far the only one who brought up key people related to this topic such as:
Yanukovych
Zlochevsky
Elena Baturina
Viktor Shokin
James Biden
I’m the only one who has laid out a timeline of the events leading up to the 2014 false flag operations ordered by Putin, after he lost his puppet Yanukovych.
The rest of the pro-Russian propaganda retards have none of this experience, no knowledge or recognition of the timeline, just keep droning "Ukraine bad, US bad, NATO bad, Putin great strong leader, bastion of Russian orthodoxy and good will to mankind, bad Americans forced him into the SMO” slaughtering hundreds of thousands while displacing millions from their homes.
As long as you keep getting distracted by them flashing signs in front of your face, you don’t have the sense to zoom out and see what’s going on. Russia can’t make good military equipment, can’t train properly, can’t maintain a competent military leadership structure, and can’t do logistics. That’s why they have to put most of their eggs into propaganda and lies. It’s all they have, and all they really have had since the early 1900s. There is no need to trade with them for most nations, especially the US. So they penetrated the government in every possible way they could to try to control their destiny.
The US did not help overthrow Ukraine’s government in 2014. The Ukrainian people and most of their politicians threw Yanukovych out.
Yanukovych kept packing the government with Ethnic Russians from Donbas and Crimea into Kiev to slowly take over on-behalf of Putin, for a future hopefully annexation or subjugation of Ukraine under Russia.
79% of Ukraine voted to normalize trade relations with EU. How many times are you going to post this retarded Russian BS?
Remember that the Ukrainian government stayed intact after Yanukovych fled. That’s when Hunter Biden was inserted in Burisma, and then Vice President Joe Biden came in threatening the new President Poroshenko that he has to fire Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Putin’s puppets Yanukovych and Zlochevksy.
Who did this benefit? Not the US. It benefitted Putin long-term, and Biden short-term financially.
you act like gods gift to this topic but most of the crap you spouted has been proven wrong. Yet you bull headedly act like you know every thing.
You don't
Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call
A transcript of the alleged conversation between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the US ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt discussing the crisis in Ukraine.
www.bbc.com
he probably thinks we didn't fund shah and his army when they were killing iraqis, and then we didn't put saddam in power and arm him to kill iranians after the shah was overthrown. likewise, the rich elite and "bankers" funded germany and the nazi party in the hopes they would hold the commies at bay, until it sort of backfired.
Game over boys.
He is “the only one”.
Get that through your heads you are all dumb, ignorant fucks as he is “THE ONLY ONE”.
He's not the "ONLY" one. I skip over Stevie P's posts as well.
Will you please share how the next few months, end of the year, next year will unfold?
How this will end?
dude. but he brought up Joe Biden!
literally nobody else in this thread has done that. Joe Biden has been a Russian asset since the Soviet Union was around.
James Biden you dumb fuck.
You are shinning his ego!
Let’s go have a beer and make fun of him.
I genuinely want to hear the thoughts on the timeline of how this will unfold and how it will end.
ok, help me out then. was he the guy saying that Putin is immortal, or was that someone else?
not if Russia takes the whole ball of wax which is what I want. I want the Russians to overrun them, complete collapse all the way to Kiev. Make ukie a puppet of the Russia. Saves us money, dems lose, Russia releases more shit on the dems
- Status