EU Pushes For More Sanctions Which Will Come Back To Bite It

On February 22, two days before Russian troops entered the Ukraine, the U.S. and the EU put reams of sanctions onto Russia. They also confiscated some $300 billion of Russia’s reserves that were invested in the ‘west’. The sanctions had been negotiated between the EU and the U.S. and prepared for over several months.

EU Pushes For More Sanctions Which Will Come Back To Bite It

Finnish ATMs Stopped Accepting UnionPay Cards to Harm Russians

In Finland, on October 3, the Nosto ATM network, the only one in the country that worked with the Chinese payment system, stopped accepting UnionPay cards, as RIA Novosti reported with reference to Risto Lepo, a representative of Nokas CMS, which owns ATMs. He explained the decision by the increased demand for cash from the Russians.

Finnish ATMs Stopped Accepting UnionPay Cards to Harm Russians

Serbian Analyst: How war in Ukraine resembles past conflict in Yugoslavia

Interview by Adriel Kasonta, Asia Times, 9/24/22

Dragana Trifković is the general director of the Center for Geostrategic Studies in Belgrade, Serbia.

On September 8, a session was held in the UN Security Council on the topic of arms delivery to Ukraine by the West.

In the introductory part of the session, Trifković spoke about the weapons that were delivered to the battlefield during the war in Yugoslavia, comparing it to the current situation in Ukraine.

In the following interview, Trifković elaborates on that point for Asia Times.

Serbian Analyst: How war in Ukraine resembles past conflict in Yugoslavia

Czech people take to the streets in record numbers against Nato’s war in Ukraine

Czech people take to the streets in record numbers against Nato’s war in Ukraine

On Saturday 3 September, as many as 160,000 protesters (more than double the 70,000 admitted by imperialist media) came out onto the streets in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. Their demands were simple: end Czech involvement in the war in Ukraine and restore trade with the Russian Federation to resolve the soaring cost of living.

The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia was one of the few voices from the left that mobilised for the protest, with the party’s former vice-chair and current presidential candidate Josef Skála speaking from its platform and attempting to bring some much-needed socialist understanding to this broad popular movement.

Needless to say, the corporate media has vacillated between ignoring the demonstrators entirely and trying to dismiss them as extremists and ‘Kremlin agents’. The Guardian ran an article characterising the protest as a “coalescence of far-right and extreme left elements”, playing on the threadbare ‘red-brown alliance’ trope so beloved of western anticommunists.

Seemingly inspired by the Czech example, protests appear to have spread to Austria and Italy. These have been reported by Iran’s Press TV but largely ignored by western imperialist media.

Why Ukraine referendum is a big deal

The referendum on September 23-27 in the Donbass and southern Kherson and Zaporozhye regions of Ukraine on their accession to Russian Federation is, prima facie, an exercise of the right of self-determination by the native population who reject the western-backed regime change in Kiev in 2014 and the ascendancy of extreme nationalist forces with neo-Nazi leanings in the power structure.

Why Ukraine referendum is a big deal

Belgium PM: “Next 5-10 Winters Will Be Difficult” As Energy Crisis Persists

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo might have spilled the beans about the duration of Europe’s energy crisis. He told reporters Monday, “the next 5 to 10 winters will be difficult.” “The development of the situation is very difficult throughout Europe,” De Croo told Belgium broadcaster VRT.

Belgium PM: “Next 5-10 Winters Will Be Difficult” As Energy Crisis Persists