When we recently published several "long-reads" we were not sure, that our subscribers would find time to read them. We were wrong - many people have read the article and asked a lot of questions in our chat, which we tried to answer within the limits of our competency. We believe, that another very relevant "long-read" is appropriate, especially given a number of newly arrived subscribers from India. So be prepared for "The story of how Indian Ukraine lost its East" by social scientist and journalist Dmitrii Kosirev, who was reading lections in Indian Universities. ⬇️

The story of how Indian Ukraine lost its East
Dmitrii Kosirev for RIA

It was in Delhi. Fifteen years ago, I gave a lecture at the Nehru University and ran into a problem - Indian students were tired of understanding the disputes between Russia and Ukraine, then only verbal. And why on earth would they know all the intricacies of the problem, especially historical ones: some kind of Ukraine, something far away, somewhere in the depths of this Europe of yours ...
And then I said one simple phrase: "You see, Ukraine is our Pakistan." Here the people perked up, instantly understood everything and began to ask questions.

So: even today Ukraine remains "our Pakistan", only it is Pakistan in 1971, when there was a war. A terrible war, India, the USA and the USSR also participated in the conflict. I don’t have round dates that for some reason must serve as a starting point for such conversations for you - 1971 does not rhyme with 2022, and in July 1971 that war was in a suspended stage before a real explosion. But even without any dates, today is the time to remember that story, because the coincidences here would reach the point of ridiculousness if it were not about military operations.

So, the first coincidence: the ideologists of the territories that broke away from India in 1947 (with the active participation of the British leaving the former colony) built the concept of this nation that had never existed before from scratch on a simple idea: "Pakistan is not India." That is, at first the idea was that this is a Muslim India, unlike Hindu, but there was a problem in the form of millions and millions of Muslims in India, today there are more of them than in Pakistan. The ideologists were left with a rejection of everything Indian in general, further complicated by the territorial problem - Kashmir - and others.

And here's your second coincidence. Pakistan was then divided into East and West (the territory of India lay between them). And they weren't on the best of terms with each other. In particular, because a real, broad Pakistani had to speak the official language - Urdu, native to part of the population of western Pakistan. In the East lived ["vatniki" / "quilted jackets" - that's how "true Ukrainians" call Russian speaking population] - second-class people who spoke Bengali. And this, by the way, was the language of Rabindranath Tagore and other world-famous geniuses. By the way, there were demonstrations about the language in East Pakistan at that time, which were shot.
Naturally, people there were at least not very happy with the nagging from Westerners with constant underfunding and began to create their own political parties and structures, first generally defending the interests of the region, and then raising the question of the independence of such, of their own state.
(continuation ⬇️)

(continued from ⬆️)
Coincidence three: and then, in the spring of 1971, West Pakistan organized a punitive action in East Pakistan (it was called not "friendship trains" [like Ukrainian nationalists travelling to Odessa to suppress Russian population], but Operation "Searchlight"). It is believed that up to ten thousand died, and then the account went to hundreds of thousands of civilians. Ten million refugees have fled to neighbouring India, not to mention the 30 million displaced inside the eastern part of the country.
Here there is a slight difference. "Separatist structures", that is, the government of the rebels in the East, was formed not on its own territory, but on the other side of the border, in Indian Calcutta. But really, what's the difference. But now the difference will be big: India, which helped the Bengal brothers with all its might, did not wait eight years, but attacked Pakistan in December 1971 both in the east and in the west. The fighting lasted two weeks - until the capitulation of the punitive army in the eastern part. From which, fortunately, the Westerners did not demand suicide in the form of a continuation of hostilities.
In general, the Indians are, of course, peaceful, but if you make them angry, they will hit you so that you won’t get up.
And the fourth coincidence is quite remarkable. The main ally of Pakistan (that is, in fact, its Western elite) was the United States. The main allies of East Pakistan were India and the USSR. Our [Soviet] fleet then blocked the American ships in the Indian Ocean - and so they stood against each other. And just the other day I met a man who carried Soviet weapons for East Pakistan on those same ships.
How did that story end? East Pakistan is no more, since that very 1971 it has become the Republic of Bangladesh.

Here, of course, there are no direct parallels with the East and South of present-day Ukraine. Bengalis did not queue for Indian passports in the same way as residents of Kherson, Zaporozhye and other territories queue for the Russian ones. The Bengal political structures, supported by India and the USSR, decided in advance that their goal was their own statehood. Well, any nation decides for itself how and within what boundaries to live.
By the way, there is another, earlier historical precedent of the universally recognized right of the people to own their land and decide its fate. This is the Suez conflict of 1956, at first also a war, but then the London conference, at which the question was decided, by what right do the Egyptians want to nationalize the Suez Canal, which was built with the money of the colonial masters? At the Suez Conference, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR Dmitry Shepilov stated our position: the canal was built by the hands of the Egyptians on Egyptian soil, therefore it should belong to them. And so it happened. This was a good international precedent for the situation when Crimea actually unanimously decided that not only would its inhabitants continue to live in Russia (of course, with Russian passports), but their land with other property on it would also go there.
By the way, as a result of that story, British Prime Minister Anthony Eden resigned, and the country finally ceased to be considered a superpower. Coincidence with 2022? I don't think so.
History teaches a lot, including calmness in the midst of hysterical hate campaigns. Do they tell you that "it's impossible" and "it never happened"? Actually, it was. And will be.

translated by #TransFormator
#India

The destruction of HIMARS, according to RIA Novosti.

The consequences of a strike from the HIMARS MLRS on Alchevsk (Luhansk Peoples Republick). Target - civilian infrastructure, the buss station. The Ukrainian nationalists are ready to spend crazy resources to kill the civilian population.

A full package of this MLRS costs under one million dollars, and they are ready to pay so much, to harm people as much as possible.

Though, to pay for them will future generations of Ukraine, if there will be one.
#TransFormator

As "Russkaya Vesna" reported, yesterday's attack by the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the American HIMARS MLRS on Alchevsk claimed two human lives. "Russian Spring" managed to find out who these people were.

The dead were members of the "Food for Life" charity fund, which throughout the war years free of charge and regularly feeds those most in need with hot food.

The Fund worked on both sides of the line of demarcation, not depriving the attention of both Kramatorsk and Slaviansk who remained below the poverty line during the war. But the main attention, of course, was focused on the residents of the frontline areas of Donetsk, Gorlovka, suburbs of Donetsk like Aleksandrovka and Staromikhaylovka.

The founders and leaders of Food for Life are Hare Krishnas, which is why the food was vegetarian: cereals, vegetables, bread that they baked themselves. But the numerous volunteers who helped in transporting, distributing, cooking, purchasing and delivering food were often ordinary people of different faiths or even agnostics.

It is reported that when the rockets hit the building in Alchevsk, the volunteers had just returned from and were unloading food. Kirill Gubarev found himself under the rubble, as was another volunteer Maxim Verovsky. Both unfortunately died. Another volunteer was injured and is in the hospital.

⚡️Russian Defence Ministry report on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine

📑 More

#MoD #Russia #Ukraine
@mod_russia_en

Ukrainian POW are involved in public/community work in Donbass, like cleaning rubble and painting (in Russian national colours).

One of the most burning issues of concern to many people is the reasons for the continued shelling of Donetsk.

The special military operation began five months ago, but shelling is still ongoing. It would seem that the key to the problem must be the liberation of Avdiivka.

But the operation to liberate the settlement has yet to begin. Neither will it solve the problem in the current situation.

The video explains why.

Street-art in Russia:
"Russians like their missiles too". 💤🛠🚀

A nice one from "The American Conservative": people eventually start to understand that the official Western mass-media narrative has very little to do with the reality.

Americans have played a leading role in what is shaping up as a Second Cold War.

All the nations once part of Moscow’s Warsaw Pact — East Germany, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria — are now members of a US-led NATO — directed against Russia.

Three former republics of the USSR — Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania — are now also members of NATO, a military alliance formed to corral and contain the nation to which they had belonged during the Cold War.

Lithuania, with 2 percent of Russia’s population, has just declared a partial blockade of goods moving across its territory to Kaliningrad, Russia’s enclave on the Baltic Sea.

To Putin’s protest, Vilnius has reminded Moscow that Lithuania is a member of NATO.

It is a dictum of geostrategic politics that a great power ought never cede to a lesser power the ability to draw it into a great war.

A G-7 proposal for a cap on the price of already discounted Russian oil, for instance, might end up only further increasing the demand for Urals crude. “The Biden administration is caught in a bit of a bind,” Chow said. “On the one hand, it wants countries like India to reduce their Russian oil imports. But on the other hand, it knows that stopping all Russian oil from entering the market will only drive gasoline prices in the United States up even more.”

Meanwhile, India has shown no interest in pulling out of its investments in Russian energy—finding suitors willing to buy those shares won’t be easy even if New Delhi were to try getting rid of them, Seshasayee pointed out. Oil and gas fields typically have lifespans of a few decades, so it can make sense to wait out conflicts or tensions, he said, citing the example of Chevron’s investments in Venezuela despite U.S. sanctions against the Nicolás Maduro regime.

“You can afford to play the long game,” Seshasayee said. “That’s what I would expect India to do in Russia.”
#India

I know, you are already tired from Joe Biden's gaffes. However, is it selfishness or selflessness of the American soldiers he is talking about? 😅💤

Another big Russian gun (many of them) working near Slaviansk. I like, how he starts it all "by the book".

Well, I know, "long-read" is nor a recommended for Telegram genre. However, that is a must-read!
About dramatizations as a method of Western policy
Article by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov
It is currently only in Russian, so working to bring it to you 🛠💤

It took some time, using automatic translator does not make it instantaneous, as many nuances could be lost, and some apparent mistakes may happen, so, eventually, have to get through it all "by hand", but it certainly worth it!
Here I will add the translation as .pdf documents.
Translated @TrFormer
https://t.me/TrFormer

About dramatizations as a method of Western policy
July 18, 2022, 00:01

Article by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov

Today, the Russian Armed Forces and the militias of the DPR and LPR are confidently solving tasks within the framework of a special military operation (SMO), seeking to end the blatant discrimination and genocide of Russians and eliminate the direct threats to the security of the Russian Federation created over the years by the United States and its satellites on the territory of Ukraine. Losing on the battlefield, the Ukrainian regime and its Western patrons do not disdain to stage bloody dramatizations to demonize our country in international public opinion. Already there were Bucha, Mariupol, Kramatorsk, Kremenchug. The Russian Ministry of Defence regularly warns about the preparation of new staged incidents with facts in hand.

Provocative dramatizations performed by the West and its minions have a recognizable style. And they did not begin in Ukraine, but much earlier.

1999, the Serbian region of Kosovo and Metohija, the village of Racak. A group of OSCE inspectors arrive at the site of the discovery of several dozen corpses dressed as civilians. The head of the mission immediately announces an act of genocide without any investigation, although it is not within the mandate of an international official to draw such conclusions. NATO immediately begins armed aggression against Yugoslavia, deliberately destroying the television centre, bridges, passenger trains and other civilian objects. Subsequently, it turns out for certain that the killed were not civilians, but militants of the gangs of the Kosovo Liberation Army, dressed in civilian clothes. However, the staging has already worked as a pretext for the first ever since the 1975 signing of the Helsinki Final Act on the illegal use of force against an OSCE participating State. It is significant that the head of the OSCE mission, whose statement served as a trigger for the start of the bombing, was P. Walker, a US citizen. The main result of the aggression is the forcible separation of Kosovo from Serbia and the creation there of the largest American military base in the Balkans, Bondsteel.

2003 - the infamous performance of Secretary of State Colin Powell at the UN Security Council with a test tube of some white powder, which he announced to the whole world as anthrax spores, allegedly produced in Iraq. And again, the staging worked: the Anglo-Saxons and others like them bombed Iraq, which still cannot fully restore its statehood. The fake was quickly exposed: everyone admitted that there were no biological weapons or other WMD in Iraq. Subsequently, one of the masterminds of the aggression, British Prime Minister T. Blair admitted the forgery, saying something like: "Well, you made a mistake, who doesn't." K. Powell himself later justified himself by the fact that he was "set up by the special services." One way or another, another staged provocation served as a pretext for the implementation of plans for the destruction of a sovereign country.

2011, Libya. There was a specific dramaturgy here. Things did not come to direct lies, as in Kosovo and Iraq, but NATO grossly distorted the UN Security Council resolution. This resolution established a no-fly zone regime over Libya in order to "land" M. Gaddafi's combat aircraft. They didn't fly. However, NATO began to simply bomb the Libyan army units that fought against the terrorists. M. Gaddafi was brutally killed, there was nothing left of Libya - they are still trying to piece it together, and the process is again led by the US representative, appointed by the personal decision of the UN Secretary General without any consultations with the Security Council. As part of this process, inter-Libyan agreements on elections were staged by Western colleagues more than once, which ended in nothing. Libya remains a territory hosted by illegal armed groups. Most of them work closely with the West. ⬇️