EXTRA – Europe, Hot spots and topics worldwide
There are top interesting hot spots and topics in many areas worldwide. I updated an article “Hot spots and topics worldwide, Part 1 Europe”, February 6, and the idea was to continue with the rest of the world … but so exceptionally interesting events took place in Europe that I was “forced” to return back to Europe, once again.
Tucker Carlson – Vladimir Putin, interview
Historically, the “biggest event ever in the media world” was the Putin interview by Tucker Carlson on February 6, in Moscow. The interview was published on February 8 on Carlson’s own website TCN and X-social media (twitter), duration 127 min.
The Interview • Published Feb 8, 2024 • 127 mins
TCN on X (twitter): The Vladimir Putin Interview
The number of viewers of this interview, still growing, have been so far stunningly gigantic, over 180 million worldwide, exceeding 100 million viewers within few hours. Never before, any TV program has ever reached so much viewers than this one making it an unbeatable world record. It is much more than all western mainstream media’s (MSM) viewers together at the same time.
No wonder, competitive MSM editors were professionally jealous on steroids and vented their anger in critical comments. As many international media and political analysts have said “Tucker destroyed legacy media” and regarding his critics “Tucker killed them, all of them”.
This spectacle was, first of all, intended primarily for American audience and in that sense, it succeeded “perfectly”. Super Bowl sport event had 115 million viewers but Tucker has beat that major event by 70 million. “This is a clear marker that American legacy media is in its death throes. Congratulations Tucker. You escaped just in time”, said Larry C Johnson, military and political analyst, who is a veteran of the CIA and the State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism.
The powerful effect of Carlson’s interview is that he succeeded in bringing an important and different perspective to a wider American and Western audience, who regrettably have been up to now badly misinformed by Western mainstream media. The volume of hate speech that has been poured on Tucker Carlson by the western MSM media and politicians is absolutely incredible and unparalleled.
Before the interview, the former Fox News host Carlson was pummeled by the political and media establishment in the US and Europe. Their reaction was hostile and hysterical. Carlson was denounced as a “traitor” and a “useful idiot”. There were calls for him to be arrested on returning to the US and also to be banned from traveling to the European Union. A telling reaction, too, was that after the interview was published, the Western media and politicians tended to ignore the event as if it did not happen.
Some interesting conclusions
One is the malign attempted control of communication, views and narrative by Western states and their MSM.
It should be a journalistic duty to engage with different parties and perspectives. Carlson did that with this interview but the Western establishment unleashed a shocking hate campaign on him, trying to discredit the interview before people even had a chance to view it and make up their own minds. That speaks volumes about the real lack of free speech and independent journalism that the West pretends to uphold.
The huge worldwide interest among ordinary people in what President Putin had to say, shows that there is a keen appreciation for hearing a different perspective, other than Western “forced narrative”. This is especially true regarding the war in Ukraine. It was shocking to see the desperation of the Western establishment to prevent any divergent understanding among the public about the conflict in Ukraine.
Complex historical background and multidimensional framework of Ukraine crisis require a deep and lengthy discussion based on historical facts and elaborated analyses of the situation. Western media and politicians are incapable of providing such communication contrary to their conceited pretensions.
People around the world including in the United States can now start thinking with their own brains different views on Ukraine crisis and make their own conclusions. On hearing the historical context of the conflict in Ukraine, more people will understand the reality of a proxy war instigated by the US and its NATO allies, not for the ostensible defense of Ukrainian democracy (that doesn’t exist) but for the strategic defeat of Russia.
Particularly many American people can now understand what some prominent American scholars like professor John Mearsheimer, diplomats like Jack Matlock, professional military like Douglas McGregor and commentators like professor Jeffrey Sachs, really mean by saying that the conflict in Ukraine has a much greater dimension than the Western propagandistic media would try to force upon. For those who follow the Ukraine conflict outside of the Western media propaganda, what Putin said would have been quite familiar.
Growing numbers of American and European citizens have become wary and critical of the futile war in Ukraine and the relentless allocation of public money to prop up a corrupt regime in Kiev. The powerful effect of Carlson’s interview is that he succeeded in bringing an important perspective to a wider American and Western audience, who have been up to now badly misinformed by Western media.
Carlson deserves immense credit for having the courage and integrity to seek out a perspective that sheds light not just on why there is a bloody conflict in Ukraine but also on the corruption that is endemic in the Western states: the illusions of independent journalism, free speech and democracy. One of the first factual results of this interview is that British people have finally realized, what kind of twisted bastard their ex-PM Boris Johnson really is, when he personally sabotaged the peace chance in Ukraine, in March-April 2022.
I have previously analyzed the peace process regarding Ukraine crisis in my article “European tragedy: peace is lost – the pursuit of peace is untrendy”, January 5, 2024.
An interesting roundtable discussion, about half of this session focuses on Tucker Carlson’s interview.
The INTEL Roundtable, Larry Johnson and Ray McGovern interviewed by Judge Napolitano,
February 9, 2024
Triangle tragedy: Zelensky – Zaluzhny – Syrskyi
The fate of Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief General Valery Zaluzhny has been sealed now and Ukraine’s Leadership Soap Opera has quieted down, at least for a while. Zaluzhny accepted the job Zelensky proposed to him, Ambassador of Ukraine to the UK, and the candidate for Zaluzhny’s replacement is General Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces.
February 8, Zelensky stated that “I appointed Colonel General Syrskyi as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. General Syrskyi and a new management team begin to lead the Armed Forces of Ukraine: brigadier generals Andrei Gnatov, Mikhail Drapaty, Igor Skibyuk and colonels Pavel Palisa and Vadim Sukharevsky.”
General Syrskyi is a controversial person and his merits are contradictory, he commanded first the defense of Artemovsk (Bakhmut) and then the counter-offensive near Artemovsk, as a result of which he successfully lost both battles, losing several tens of thousands of people killed.
What is known about the new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Olesandr (Alexander) Syrskyi, known by the nickname “Bakhmut Butcher”:
- Russian by nationality, born in the village of Novinki in the Vladimir region Russian Federation
- A graduate of the Moscow Combined Arms Command School, he started in the Soviet Army.
- Served as chief of staff of the ATO/JFO group, commanded the unsuccessful defense of Debaltsevo. During the Northern Military District, he commanded the defense group of Kyiv and the autumn offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kharkov region
- Associated with the Office of the President of Ukraine, he became famous in a negative sense in 2023, first for the defense of Bakhmut, when he threw freshly formed mobilized units into battle against the attack aircraft of the Wagner PMC and the Russian Armed Forces, just to fulfill Zelensky’s task – to maintain the “Bakhmut Fort” as a media symbol.
- Known for “meat assaults” on the flanks of Bakhmut during the summer “counterattack”.
To sum up, he is extremely convenient for Zelensky – Syrskyi, as a true servant, will follow all instructions coming from Kyiv and from “Western partners.” For the Ukrainian military, he is an extremely inconvenient figure; Syrskyi is not used to taking losses into account.
It is not the coincidence that Zelensky published replacement of Zaluzhny to Syrskyi on the same date, when Carlson published the interview with Putin. Obviously, it is less important who is formally directing AFU, because all law enforcement agencies of Ukraine have long been under the control of Western masters.
The parents and brother of the new commander-in-chief, Alexander Syrskyi, still live in Russia and his father is a retired colonel of the Russian Armed Forces. Parents, according to the publication, live in Vladimir. Brother Oleg also lives there and works as a security guard. From now on, the Ukrainians have a Muscovite as their commander-in-chief.
What we have been witnessing in Kiev is not just a kinky soap opera but this kind of chaos in political and military leadership makes it very difficult to carry out any kind of coherent, competent military operation. It remains to be seen how, General Syrskyi manages to take the leadership in this challenging situation.
Collapsing AFU (Armed Forces of Ukraine)
With General Syrskyi now in command, we will likely begin to see major counter attacks against the northern flank of the Avdeevka salient. These attacks will primarily come from the Novokalynove and Orcheretny directions with the main objective being the capture of Krasnohorivka (green) or at least disruption of Russian logistics into the northern flank through that settlement. Overall, the prospects of this operation working out with an already exhausted Ukrainian army are not great. Let’s see, what Oleksandr “Butcher” Syrskyi can do.
Due to massive troops losses, AFU is suffering acute shortage of soldiers, therefore a new total mobilization has been taken in use some weeks ago. Commissars executing this order are facing growing resistance among Ukrainians, which obviously is getting more violent in the near future.
Now, bloody protests among Ukrainian population against mobilization are growing and turning more violent.
Riot In The Army | Bloody Protests Against Mobilization | More POWs. Military Summary For 2024.02.12
Starlink (space communication system by Elon Musk) is now also in the hands of the Russian military. That is the reason for the “jamming”, AFU noticed in some areas. Russian Forces got hands on some systems and could so not only infiltrate the network but “overload” the traffic in some areas.
The military situation is getting critical to AFU along the whole frontline, the most critical points at the moment are Avdeevka, Novomikhailovka, Artyomovsk – Chasiv Yar direction and Sinkovka.
SnowStorm | Ukraine Evacuates Chasiv Yar | Avdiivka In A Cauldron. Military Summary For 2024.02.11
SnowStorm | Cracking The Avdiivka Nut | Madness In The Western Ukraine. Military Summary 2024.02.11
NATO’s war fanaticism
NATO Secretery General Jens Stoltenberg has been enthusiastically on the war foot for a year. He has held “war tours” both in Europe and in the US and received some positive feedback from Europe, particularly from Germany and UK and Netherlands.
Florian Philippot, leader of France’s Patriots party, has said in his statement on X-media (Twitter) that “NATO supporters in the media are making increasingly intemperate statements, which go as far as calls for war, after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson that was a real blow to the alliance. Tucker Carlson’s historic interview with Putin is making the entire NATO system infuriated, since it makes people listen to a story that differs from NATO propaganda and which they can’t tolerate! It has made them even more insane and hysterical!”
Mats Nilsson’s comment hits the nail on the head “Nothing speaks more about Ukraine’s sovereignty that the refusal of a foreign state to negotiate on its behalf.”
Former US Marine Corps Officer and UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter and former CIA Analyst Larry Johnson discuss the broader implications of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Will NATO be fully demilitarized? What does this mean for Ukraine’s future and the larger world order? All these answers and more in wide-ranging segment from a late December 2023 livestream which is more relevant than ever.
