#Opinion by Maria Zakharova

💬 A few bloggers have reported today that official Chanel brand stores abroad are refusing to sell their products to Russian nationals.

Allegedly, Chanel customers must sign a form saying that they will not take the items sold by the brand to the Russian Federation, as per some internal document of the boutique chain.

Seems like those running the legacy of the “great Coco” have found a way to join the Russophobic “cancel Russia” campaign.

Weird, right? What’s the link between Russia’s anti-Nazi operation and the French fashion house?

But the link is there. We just opened a closet to find some well-preserved 80-year-old skeletons.

During World War II, Coco Chanel herself was a collaborator and a Third Reich agent. She is widely known to have had connections to the occupation authorities in France. Baron Hans Guenther Freiherr von Dincklage, an attaché of the German government in charge of the Nazi propaganda in Paris, was among her dearest friends.

Coco Chanel, also known as informer F-7124 as per Abwehr records, supported the German masters of Paris so much that she took part in the attempts to organise secret negotiations between the Reich and the United Kingdom. One should say that the Germans valued Coco and had her live in a luxurious apartment at the Ritz hotel, while ordinary Parisians struggled to make ends meet under the German occupation, while the country’s economy was under enormous strain.

Moreover, the fashion designer accepted the help of the Nazis to reach her business goals. Before the war, she sold her Chanel No. 5 production facility to Jewish manufacturers. Then, she engaged the Germans to try and reclaim the rights to the perfume sale profits.

After France was liberated, she was called to answer for all of that. The fashion house does not advertise it but Coco was arrested at the end of the war. She was later released as a favour to Churchill (and here is London again) and was banned from France after the occupation was over, for years, residing in the “neutral” Switzerland.

The brand’s management has always emphasised that the Chanel house traditions are as strong as ever. Well, no doubt about that now. Investigative reporter Hal Vaughan wrote about the founder of the fashion house: “The Nazis were in power, and Chanel gravitated to power.”

The brand was never bothered by such things as concentration camps, mass killings and war crimes perpetrated by the SS and Gestapo divisions.

We are a very patient and forgiving country. We have forgiven everyone for everything, turned the page and cleared the way for the future.

But if the way turns out to be a ring road, we will break the vicious circle.

And the Chanel house can get back to square one and support Nazism, just like its founder did. But now everyone will know.

#Chanel #NaziChanel #TruthAboutChanel

#Opinion by Maria Zakharova:

💬 Speaking at the Davos World Economic Forum, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said: “And if we notice that our world is becoming multipolar, then that has to spur us on: to even more multilateralism! To even more international cooperation! In this multipolar world, very different countries and regions are demanding greater political participation in line with their growing economic and demographic influence”.

☝️ This is blatant plagiarism. Worse, it shows a failure to understand trivial truths.

Back in 1996 when Yevgeny Primakov was Foreign Minister, our foreign service proceeded from the assumption that the world was becoming multipolar in contrast to the bipolarity of the Cold War era. Mr Primakov’s view of our foreign policy goals was enshrined in the Foreign Policy Concept of 2000, and has been the foundation of how we have built international relations.

❗️ EACH YEAR, for over 15 years, Sergey Lavrov as Foreign Minister has spoken about a multipolar and polycentric world.

👉 QUOTES BY YEAR 👈

If it has taken Berlin up until now to realize this, we can only offer our condolences. Still, better late than never.

☝️ Perhaps, the situation in and around Ukraine will one day be as clear to Olaf Scholz as the issue of multipolarity.

#Opinion by Maria Zakharova:

💬 How many times do we have to explain who is responsible for the unfolding tragedy in the vegetable oil and grain markets? Still, the talking (not thinking) heads in Europe go through the same song and dance every day. Josep Borrell on Twitter once again blamed the global food crisis on “Russian missiles.” Who on earth writes this nonsense for him?

Once again. In lay terms. The sanctions against the Russian Federation have dealt a serious blow to the global economy, which had only just begun to gradually recover from the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The sanctions disrupted existing production, supply and logistics chains, and the payments system for our companies. We have a product – grain – while buyers have the money and the desire to buy it. But sanctions are preventing this from happening in a very simple way, both physically (transporting grain) and financially (paying for it).

This situation has harmed everyone. Disrupted supplies and payments have led to a global food shortage, contributed to a further increase in prices, and threatened global food security. No transactions mean decreased activity, and that combined with growing demand makes prices go up.

And yet, despite the objective transport and logistics difficulties, we remain global market participants in good standing. We fulfill and will continue to fulfill our obligations under international contracts regarding the export of grain, fertiliser, energy commodities and other critical products.

Unlike Europe, we are concerned about the unfolding food crisis. Western experts – and even more so the leaders of developing countries – understand the importance of Russian supplies of socially significant goods, including food, for the socioeconomic development of the countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.

This is a flagrant Western hypocrisy.

Russia – out of humanitarian considerations – wants to ensure that Ukraine can provide itself with grain, including for planting. And what is the West doing? It is taking Ukrainian grain away by the truckload, leaving the Ukrainian population to struggle with the coming shortage. The West's actions undermine food security not only in Africa, but in Ukraine as well.

It seems that the vaunted expertise and intellectual capacity of our colleagues in Europe and America are now being used in the service of propaganda. Nothing too fancy, but they are expanding colossal energy to indoctrinate their population and convince them that the Russians are to blame. No other issues are discussed anymore, not even the economy or infrastructure. Indeed, why solve problems with food, electricity prices, their own inflation or other issues, including cybersecurity, space exploration safety, etc., when every problem can be blamed on the Russians?

🔗 https://is.gd/RNA8Id

#Opinion by Maria #Zakharova:

💬 The US Department of State’s reaction to Darya Dugina’s assassination and the evidence of Ukraine’s involvement provided by Russia discredit the United States’ human rights protection efforts.

Washington has no moral right (or, needless to say, any legal grounds) to judge the human rights situation in remote parts of the world since the murder of a journalist does not even receive a comment from this perspective, apparently so important to US officials. They simply ignored the fact that the incident involved a public figure.

https://t.me/MariaVladimirovnaZakharova/3529

#Opinion by Maria #Zakharova:

💬 On February 7, 2022, Joe Biden said that Nord Stream would be done for if Russia invades Ukraine: “If Russia invades, that means tanks or troops crossing the ... border of Ukraine again, then there will be ... no longer a Nord Stream 2. We, we will bring an end to it. <…> I promise you, we'll be able to do it.”

US President Joe Biden must answer whether the United States acted on its threat on September 25 and 26, 2022, when an incident occurred on three branches of Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, preliminarily qualified as pipeline ruptures, possibly as a result of explosions.

The statement of intent was backed with a pledge. One must take responsibility for one’s words. Failing to understand the meaning of what one is saying does not release one from liability. Europe must know the truth.

Our partners at SEVMOB ✶ SEVASTOPOL (@SevMob), @DoppelFod, present:

THE BIG GRAIN SWINDLE
Or a black mark in the Black Sea.

#OPINION #GRAIN

1/2

I took part of the title of this article out of respect for the Sex Pistols band, and the book The Great Rock'n'roll Swindle, written by their manager, is an integral part of all punk rock history. So, the name immediately came to mind as my ship anchored just south of Bozcaada Island, awaiting passage through the Dardanelles, the first of the two Turkish straits that open up the Black Sea to the shipping. The second strait is the Bosphorus. The two are 130 nautical miles apart and are separated by the Sea of Marmara. This article is an analysis of the data I have from a carrier at sea on a Liberian-flagged merchant vessel.

My ship is sailing to Ukraine on its not-very-best of days, to say the least, for corn. All the Russian crew are disembarked, only Ukrainians and Filipinos remain on board. I am a Crimean citizen my hometown is Sevastopol. That means that for the Ukrainian authorities I am a separatist, a turncoat and an enemy. I am going ashore in the second strait, in the Bosphorus. But that is better than the uncertainty caused by the harsh reality of lawlessness that has been operating in Ukraine long before the events of February 24. After February 24, for ordinary Russian seafarers in Ukrainian ports it became even worse. Harsh interviewing, fact-checking on social media, offers of cooperation/recruitment, removal from the vessel under various pretexts contrary to international conventions followed by an exchange (remember the Svir ship crew), torture, extortion, etc. Erdogan, hold my beer, I'm packing a suitcase.

What can I say, when the Ukrainian citizens, the crew members themselves, had their jaws dropped when the note came with the details of the next voyage, together with the port of loading Yuzhny (now called Pivdenny port, renamed recently so as not to associate anything with the Russian language), which is located just north of Odessa. Jaws dropped, because Ukrainian seafarers themselves understand that they also will be interviewed and fact-checked, that uncomfortable questions await them, that anything can happen in the port, and that representatives of various departments can come on board. The provocative bravado with which they sang the Ukrainian anthem, with a glass in their hand, faded away, out of the chat. They and their ship are on their way to Ukraine and they are not laughing.

So we dropped anchor near the entrance to the Dardanelles. Just so you understand, this happens very rarely. It used to be possible to take a pilot across the strait immediately upon arrival or to pass the strait without a pilot at all. But it all comes down to the three operating Ukrainian grain ports in the Black Sea: the port of Yuzhny, Odessa and Chernomorsk (formerly Illyichevsk). The grain deal, which was formalised recently between Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and the EU, is conditional upon the creation of a special corridor, the HSTC (High Seas Transit Corridor) in Ukrainian territorial waters, which in turn is part of the MHC (Maritime Humanitarian Corridor) in the Black Sea, in force for the duration of the deal itself. What this mean is: a two-mile-wide corridor has been created, and vessels traveling to and from Ukrainian ports are lined up in a caravan to which no warships of either party are allowed within ten miles of each other. The coordinating body for all this is also the JCC (Joint Coordination Centre). The grain treaty itself has a deadline of November 22 this year. If in the beginning everything was working like clockwork and more than two hundred bulk carriers have already fulfilled their voyage obligations to deliver Ukrainian grain crops to various countries, now the deal is in jeopardy and here's why.

(continued in the next post)

Our partners at SEVMOB ✶ SEVASTOPOL (@SevMob), @DoppelFod, present:

THE BIG GRAIN SWINDLE
Or a black mark on the Black Sea.

#OPINION #GRAIN

Part 2/2

Some of Ukraine's infrastructure has been subjected to chaotic shelling that cannot be predicted (except military warehouses or military installations, which are to be attacked for sure - here is an exclusive video from Odessa port that we published in late September on adekVatny channel, filmed by Filipino sailors, who made it available to us). Vessels that are docked in Ukrainian ports depend on the loading of grain cargo on the conveyor belts. Usually, a full loading of a vessel - from 38,000 to 55,000 tons of grain - takes a day or a little more in such ports as Yuzhny.

The onshore structure of the port itself depends on electricity, and there is none. Yes, a grain deal vessel has been stuck in Yuzhny for more than five days, waiting to continue cargo operations in a half-defeated port with its shore supply system disrupted. Apparently the TPP didn't come far. Such disruptions are not uncommon now and it places the whole grain deal in a very delicate balance. And this is by no means a violation of the grain treaty by Russia, not at all. Obviously, the momentary desire of Ukraine and the Western intelligence services to shit on the bridge is much higher than the needs of ordinary people in developing countries to receive food.

What's the bottom line? The Dardanelles and Bosphorus anchorages are overflowing with bulkers waiting to pass through the corridor. The EU is paying. Ukrainian ports are failing to cope with power, if not all of them, then some of the three, already anticipating new difficulties. The EU is paying again. Recently Erdogan has raised the price for passage through the straits with compulsory pilotage for treaty vessels (for ships sailing to Russian ports and ports of other countries in the Black Sea, pilotage in the Dardanelles is optional). EU pays. Charterers and ship owners panic, they lose money from the delays. The EU pays. In the end is the EU who is paying for all the complications that have occurred since the eighth of October. The death knell on the grain treaty with the complication of its extension is there. The likelihood of an extension exists, but it is slim. Ukraine and the EU lose, Russia and Turkey (especially), gain.

This is a black mark already sent to all those who blow up bridges in the Black Sea.

— fodeve, writing for @SevMob

P.S.: Here is my poem, written under the impression of the bridge bombing on the same day, the eighth of October (English translation / my proofreading )

Source: @SevMob / https://t.me/sevmob/516

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Our partners at SEVMOB ✶ SEVASTOPOL (@SevMob), @DoppelFod, present:

THE GRAIN SHOW must not go on

#OPINION #GRAIN

It's finally come together for me, thanks to Rybar.

The Ajalyk substation in the Odessa region: it feeds, among others, the port Yuzhny, which I wrote about here. It was hit on 22 October. Power was soon restored with volumes supplied from Romania.

Here is a high-resolution map of strikes on Ukraine's power hubs, which confirms this. While Russia is hitting the infrastructure, all three of Ukraine's major grain ports are stranded and will not be able to operate as usual.

We are still anchored in the Dardanelles—there are many ships with us. In the Marmara Sea, more than a hundred vessels are waiting, just the same as us for passage through the Bosphorus and onwards, some of them have to go through the grain corridor in the Black Sea. There is a lot of traffic.

The grain deal will end on 22 November. NATO has requested a continuation of the banquet but the UN Secretariat has still not responded to Russia's request on the movement of grain to the consumer. Vasily Nebenzya hinted that in order for the deal to be extended at all, it is time to drop the shark sanctions against our own vessels in the Euro-ports, about our own grain exports. That is to say, to set the West such an impossible bar that they will not jump over without giving up their position by a little more than half.

That's what I'm explaining now, the slowdown of the entire grain shipping corridor. Ships are waiting. Ukrainian port infrastructure is in agony. The deal will not be extended unless sanctions are lifted. Geraniums fly into targets. Cargo is stuck in Ukraine.

Are you following Grandmaster's hand?

The black mark operation in the Black Sea continues. The grain show must not go on.

Source: @SevMob / https://t.me/sevmob/693

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#Opinion by Maria Zakharova

💬 Children who were sent to Europe after their evacuation from Ukraine regularly faced various types of marginalisation, and even sexual exploitation and sex trafficking.

I have already written that relevant statements were made by EU officials, in particular, in Sweden, Director-General of the National Board of Health and Welfare Olivia Wigzell had to warn all refugees that they needed to register with the National Agency for Migrants. She specifically emphasised why children should do this: “so as not to become a victim of exploitation.”

Authorities in Stockholm are aware of at least several hundred children and teenagers who have arrived in the country unaccompanied by their parents. A year ago, no one could say how many children and adults came to Scandinavia illegally and without registration. In general, the situation has not improved.

A similar situation can be observed in France, one of the most popular countries among Ukrainian refugees. I have also talked about this: Prefect Joseph Zimet complained to Le Monde that he had no idea where to accommodate 100,000 Ukrainians, of whom, at most, 3,000 work. In the same interview, he admitted that half of the refugees were simply lost, that is, the French authorities had no idea where they were, what they did and how they earned a living. After passing border control, they simply... disappeared.

All these problems forced some countries, in particular Estonia, to close their borders to refugees at some point after the start of the exodus.

Meanwhile, in Germany, which has received more than a million Ukrainians according to official data, juvenile services are actively removing children from refugee families, and the courts are depriving parents of their rights. Moreover, the intervention of guardianship authorities, as a rule, happens following a tip-off from the families with whom Ukrainians have been staying: for example, the parents raising their voices can be reason enough for taking away the child.

Considering the catastrophic problems that thousands of underage Ukrainians in EU countries constantly face, which are not being addressed but are only getting worse every day, the Euro-Atlanticists’ imaginary concern about the fate of children Russia has evacuated from the war zone looks hypocritical and especially cynical.

#Opinion by Maria Zakharova

💬 Transgender Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, former spokesperson for the territorial defence forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, made a show of her/he/they in a new prank from the famous duo Vovan and Lexus:

Few chosen quotes:

⁃ Russians are not Europeans... They descended from the Mongols, they come from a group of people who want to be slaves;

⁃ The Western world must understand that “Europe ends with Ukraine,” which defends European values in the same way it did “hundreds and thousands of years ago, when the Mongols came”;

⁃ Ukraine has a “terrible problem” with most of the foreign fighters, because they only know how to fight, have come for money and are drug users;

⁃ Ashton-Cirillo admitted that, although (s)he defends foreign mercenaries publicly, (s)he knows that many of them hold “extreme right-wing views” and that there are Nazi groups;

⁃ About 5,000 LGBT soldiers serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.


Given the American-Ukrainian infiltrator’s “deep” knowledge of history, we have a few clarifying questions to ask:

1. From whom are the Ukrainians descended then?

2. When did that happen, exactly, if “thousands of years ago” they were already fighting Mongol men and women for European values?

3. Who actually formulated THE "European values" – Greeks or Romans, Christians or pagans, Huguenots or Catholics, Louis XVI or Georges Danton, Catherine de Medici or Henry VIII, Princess Diana or Elizabeth II? What exactly are those?

4. Are the Mongols – who are definitely descended from the Mongols – even aware that they "want to be slaves"?

5. What about Bulgaria, China, the South Caucasus, Western and Central Asia, etc., whose territories were part of the Mongol Empire at one time or another? Furthermore, during their western campaign, the Mongol-Tatar troops reached the German principalities, in particular, the Austrian duchy, the Balkans and Poland, and Lithuania (Grand Duchy of Lithuania). Did the people there – or do their descendants – “want to be slaves” as well?

#Opinion

✍️ Dmitry Trenin, a research professor at the HSE & a lead research fellow at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, member of the Russian International Affairs Council.

A massive transformation is taking place in Russia, & the West is blind to it

Read in full

• Non-material values are coming back. Patriotism, reviled & derided in the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse, is re-emerging in force.

• Russian popular culture is shedding – slowly, perhaps, but steadily – the habit of imitating what’s hot in the West. Instead, the traditions of Russian literature, including poetry, film, music are being revived and developed. A spike in domestic tourism has opened to ordinary Russians the treasures of their own country – until recently neglected.

• Russian political culture is returning to its fundamentals. Unlike that of the West, but somewhat similar to the East – it is based on the model of a family. There is order, & there is a hierarchy; rights are balanced by responsibilities; the state is not a necessary evil but the principal public good and the top societal value. Politics, in the Western sense of a constant, often no-holds-barred competition, is viewed as self-serving & destructive; instead, those who are entrusted with being at the helm of the state are expected to arbitrate, to ensure harmony of various interests, etc.

• The view of the West as Russia’s hereditary adversary has again gained prominence – <...> as a function of the West’s own policies, from providing Ukraine with weapons that kill Russian soldiers & civilians, to sanctions which in many ways are indiscriminate, to attempts to cancel Russian culture or to bar Russians from world sports.

• The current confrontation with the West makes it imperative that some kind of a new ideological concept finally emerges, in which sovereignty & patriotism, law & justice take a central role. Western propaganda pejoratively refers to it as “Putinism” but, for most Russians, it may be simply described as “Russia’s way.”