Tootfinder

Trump’s blast toward Russia is a ‘negotiating tactic,’ White House says
“All he’s saying is, look, if Putin doesn’t want peace, let the fighting continue, and we’re going to continue to sell weapons to NATO.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/20

Trump’s blast toward Russia is a ‘negotiating tactic,’ White House says
The president’s escalation in rhetoric is a marker of Trump’s frustration toward Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a senior White House official.

Putin forced to raise taxes again as Ukraine war drains finances – POLITICO
https://www.politico.eu/article/vladimir-putin-raise-taxes-ukraine-war-drain-finance/

Russia, a European friend of Russia, and an American admirer/asset of Russia to hold 'peace summit'.
https://www.politico.eu/article/viktor-orban-vladimir-putin-russia-ukraine-donald-trump-meeting/

‘We are ready’: Orbán hails planned Trump-Putin meeting in Budapest
The U.S. president says he will meet Russia’s leader in Hungary.

Zelenskyy urges Trump to get tougher with Putin, says he's ready to meet in Budapest (Freddie Clayton/NBC News)
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/ukraine/volodymyr-zelenskyy-meet-the-press-interview-vladimir-putin-hamas-rcna238324
http://www.memeorandum.com/251019/p18#a251019p18

Vladimir Putin demanded that Ukraine hand over full control of Donetsk Oblast to Russia as a condition for ending the war during a phone call with Donald Trump this week
After this call, in a shift of rhetoric, Trump indicated he would not supply Ukraine with long range cruise missiles

Putin reemphasized full Donetsk control as key to any deal while signaling possible compromises on Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts in Trump call, WP reports
Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that Ukraine hand over full control of Donetsk Oblast to Russia as a condition for ending the war during a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump this week, The Washington Post reported on Oct. 18, citing two senior U.S. officials.

Great research and sloppy work by the Kremlin 😀
"Where's Putin? How The Kremlin Hides His Location With Three Nearly Identical Offices"
https://www.rferl.org/a/kremlin-trickery-putin-offices-secrecy-investigation/33586451.html

Where's Putin? How The Kremlin Hides His Location With Three Nearly Identical Offices
Russian President Vladimir Putin has three nearly identical offices in different parts of the country and the Kremlin has been dishonest about his location many times in recent years, Systema, RFE/RL’s Russian investigative unit, has discovered.

Trump says he will meet with Putin in Hungary for more talks on ending the war in Ukraine (Megan Lebowitz/NBC News)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-says-will-meet-vladimir-putin-hungary-second-set-talks-rcna238024
http://www.memeorandum.com/251016/p69#a251016p69

Trump gaat Putin opnieuw helpen. De oorlogsmisdadiger wordt NB in een EU-land verwelkomd.
Het enige dissidente EU-land dat hem niet onmiddellijk aan het ICC in Den Haag wil uitleveren.
Het wordt een circus, maar onderhandelingen over vrede gaat het niet opleveren. Wel opnieuw uitstel. Uitstel van de maatregelen tegen Rusland die Trump nooit zal nemen.

LIVE Oorlog Oekraïne | Trump: Ontmoeting met Poetin in Hongarije om 'roemloze oorlog' in Oekraïne te beëindigen
De Amerikaanse president Donald Trump zal binnenkort een nieuwe ontmoeting hebben met zijn Russische ambtgenoot Vladimir Poetin. Trump meldt dat het gesprek zal plaatsvinden in de Hongaarse hoofdstad Boedapest. Volg alle ontwikkelingen over de oorlog in Oekraïne in ons liveblog.

The EU's problem isn't Belgium -- it's Trump (Politico)
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-belgium-donald-trump-vladimir-putin-russia-war-ukraine-friedrich-merz/
http://www.memeorandum.com/251217/p50#a251217p50

I couldn't agree more.
"This summer the bunting came out. It felt cheap and vulgar. We were remembering winning a war, not why it had been fought"
"I heard raw fury at President Trump for appeasing Vladimir Putin, echoing Neville Chamberlain’s yielding to Hitler."
Anthony Seldon

Donald Trump deserved the Nobel prize, says ... Vladimir Putin (Seb Starcevic/Politico)
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-deserved-the-nobel-prize-says-vladimir-putin/
http://www.memeorandum.com/251010/p101#a251010p101

As recently as Thursday, Vladimir Putin told a Kremlin demographic conference that increasing births was “crucial” for Russia.
Putin has launched initiatives to encourage people to have more children -- from free school meals for large families to awarding Soviet-style “hero-mother” medals to women with 10 or more children.
“Many of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had seven, eight, and even more children,” Putin said in 2023.
“Let’s preserve and revive these wonderful…

Russia's population is getting smaller and older. Putin sees that as a national security threat
Russia has grappled with a shrinking and aging population for decades, with President Vladimir Putin viewing it as a threat to national security. Yet despite efforts like cash incentives and family-friendly policies, the number of deaths now outpaces births. Economic uncertainty, restrictions on immigration and the war in Ukraine are making the crisis worse. Desperate to reverse the trend, Russian authorities are also rolling out a wave of restrictive laws, such as banning "child-free propagand…

I reject Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu, Xi Jinping, Alexander Lukashenko, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Daniel Ortega, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Paul Biya, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Nicolšs Maduro, Donald Trump, and countless other authoritarian rulers.

Russian generals say all goals of the war will be achieved.
Russian economists say despite the pressure the economy will outlast Ukraine’s.
Even Russian fan-boy Donald Trump says that Russia is much stronger and Kyiv has no cards left to play in the war.

Hearing only reassurance,
it is little wonder that President Vladimir Putin sees no reason for real concessions on Ukraine.
From the vantage point of the Kremlin, the war is going according to plan.

With an army of yes-men, how Putin’s world turned into an echo chamber
The Russian president has little incentive to compromise in the ongoing peace talks because everyone around him keeps reassuring him that Russia is winning.

Vladimir Putin predicts European 'swine' backing Ukraine will lose power (Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/52c0b594-d299-4473-a35e-9a9235267d92
http://www.memeorandum.com/251217/p94#a251217p94

On the intimate contacts between Putin's 'peace negotiator' Dmitriev and Trump's son-in-law Kushner, since the day after Trump was elected in 2016. Known since the Mueller report.
Goals: joint investments and self-enrichment.
htt…

Al sinds 2016 bouwt de Russische onderhandelaar Kirill Dmitriev aan goede relaties met Trump
Kirill Dmitriev, Vladimir Poetins onderhandelaar, bouwt al vanaf dag één van Donald Trumps eerste presidentschap aan een persoonlijke relatie met diens getrouwen. Jared Kushner, Trumps schoonzoon, lijkt de belangrijkste. Steeds is de vraag: wat valt er economisch te halen?

Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, according to a transcript of the Oct. 14 call published by the Bloomberg news service,
advised Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov that Putin should call Trump to congratulate him for the Gaza peace deal,
say Russia had supported it and that he respects the president as a man of peace.
“From that, it’s going to be a really good call,” Witkoff said according to the transcript.
When asked by Russian state media to comment on Bloomberg’s…

How Witkoff coached Putin's aide on pitching Trump, according to a Bloomberg report
President Donald Trump’s chief interlocutor with the Russian government last month advised a senior aide to Vladimir Putin on how the Russian leader should go about pitching the U.S. president on a Ukraine peace plan. That's according to a transcript of the Oct. 14 call published Tuesday by Bloomberg News. The news agency said it reviewed a recording of the call. It said Trump envoy Steve Witkoff advised Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov that Putin should call the U.S. leader to c…

Witkoff arrives in Moscow for crunch Putin talks (Sascha Roslyakov/Politico)
https://www.politico.eu/article/steve-witkoff-arrives-moscow-vladimir-putin-talks/
http://www.memeorandum.com/251202/p24#a251202p24

Vladimir Putin will expand his war in Ukraine
by attacking another European country,
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has predicted,
and accused Russia of recent drone incursions
that he said were an attempt to test Nato’s defences.
Speaking in Kyiv after his meeting with Donald Trump at the UN in New York,
the Ukrainian president said Russia was preparing for a bigger conflict.
“Putin will not wait to finish his war in Ukraine.
He will open up some other …

Russia praises US security strategy shift heralded by 'strong' Trump (Joe Stanley-Smith/Politico)
https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-us-security-donald-trump-vladimir-putin-moscow-nato/
http://www.memeorandum.com/251207/p54#a251207p54

Momentum is building on both sides of the Atlantic to give Ukraine the approximately $300 billion in Russian state assets frozen by Western countries after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has now endorsed the idea, removing a long-standing obstacle.
But another one remains:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to retaliate by confiscating the remaining Western investment in Russia.

Western countries are no…

Putin is eyeing Western business assets. Here’s how to stop him.
When Fidel Castro tried the same thing in the 1990s, Congress answered with the Libertad Act.

EU tells Trump: You can't pardon Putin for war crimes in Ukraine (Tim Ross/Politico)
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-war-crimes-volodymyr-zelenskyy-ukraine/
http://www.memeorandum.com/251201/p1#a251201p1

Russian President Vladimir Putin is fighting a calibrated conflict against NATO countries far beyond Ukraine’s borders.
This subtle but dangerous war won’t end unless Europe and the United States find better ways to deter Moscow.

Richard Moore, the head of Britain’s MI6 spy agency, said Russian intelligence agencies had gone “a little feral” in their efforts. That was a year ago. And things have only gotten worse since.

There have been 110 Russian-linked incidents
—…

Russia’s feral adventurism against the West is too bellicose to ignore
From sabotage to election meddling, Moscow’s “grey zone” attacks increasingly test NATO’s resolve.

Vladimir Putin boasted this week that Russia has tested a
nuclear-powered super torpedo,
the Poseidon, that was unstoppable and more powerful than a nuclear missile,
the second announcement in a week of Russian trials involving
nuclear-powered weapons systems.

Days earlier, Russia announced the test of a new nuclear-powered cruise missile,
the Burevestnik or Skyfall,
that seemed in particular to irritate Donald Trump.
In the wake of the tests,…

What we know about the Poseidon, Russia’s new super torpedo
Poseidon is part of Russia’s line up of “super weapons” meant to gain military parity with the West and it can supposedly drown coastal cities.

Pope Leo has stressed the importance of Europe’s involvement in US efforts to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, while suggesting that Italy specifically could play the role of mediator.
Russia and the US failed to make progress towards a peace deal for Ukraine during talks on Tuesday, with Vladimir Putin accusing Europe of “preventing the US administration from achieving peace on Ukraine”.

No one but Vladimir Putin did more to get Trump elected in 2016 than James Comey.
Trump is such an ingrate!
https://bsky.app/profile/jonbowzerbauman.bsky.social/post/3lzp477dy622o

Nicolas Guillou cannot shop online.
When he used Expedia to book a hotel in his own country, the reservation was cancelled within hours.
He is “blacklisted by much of the world’s banking system”,
unable to use most bank cards.
Guillou, you see, has been sanctioned by the United States,
putting him on a 15,000-strong list alongside al-Qaida terrorists, drug cartels and Vladimir Putin.
Why?
Because alongside two other judges of the international crimin…