China soliciting support for Russia

As the West condemns Russia, President Vladimir Putin has vocal supporters in China, where the ruling Communist Party tells its people they are fellow targets of US-led harassment. “If Russia is destroyed, we will be next. 

This is for sure,” said Wang Yongchun, a retiree in Beijing. “The United States wants to dominate the world.”

Such comments reflect the stance of a ruling party that is the closest thing Putin has to a major ally. The war should stop but the United States is to blame.

President Xi Jinping’s government has tried to distance itself from Russia’s offensive but avoided criticizing Moscow. The government has offered to act as mediator and denounced trade and financial sanctions against Russia.

Ruling party control of all Chinese media and intensive internet censorship make it hard to gauge public opinion. But what the party allows online and requires media to publish make clear what it wants the public to think.

Media outlets were told last week to post only pro-Russian content and to censor anti-Russian or pro-Western views, according to a copy of instructions posted on the social media account of the newspaper Beijing News. The post was later deleted.

Online and in social media, expressions of sympathy for Ukraine and support for Russia appear but not criticism of Moscow.

“When a war begins, is it not the children of ordinary people who serve as cannon fodder”, said a post signed Da Ke Ming Yi on the Weibo social media platform. “Those who died were the children of ordinary people.”

A letter signed by five professors from prominent universities that criticized Russia for attacking a weaker neighbor appeared briefly on social media before being deleted.

“We stand against unjust wars,” said the academics from schools including Tsinghua University in Beijing, alma mater of many ruling party leaders.

Comments posted by nationalists criticized the professors for failing to stick to the ruling party’s official position of neutrality.

The ruling party has spent decades using school textbooks and the entirely state-controlled media to nurture a sense of nationalist grievance. It accuses the United States of trying to block China’s rise to its rightful position of global leadership.

State media repeat Beijing’s position that the United States and its European allies are to blame for the Ukraine war because they failed to respond to Russian concerns that its democratic neighbor should be barred from joining NATO, the Western military alliance.

That echoes Chinese complaints that Washington and its allies are interfering in its domestic affairs and issues of national sovereignty, including its claim over Taiwan, territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and in Xinjiang, the far-western region where China has been accused of detaining over a million Uyghurs.

Russia’s attack, as a historical event, “is not a good one,” but “people think the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is because the United States stirred up trouble,” said Zheng Bowen, a 38-year old engineer.

The state-run newspaper Capital News exhorted the public to line up with the ruling party: “The nation’s attitude is our attitude.”

“China has always upheld a fair and responsible attitude, calling on all parties to exercise restraint and ease the situation, and return to dialogue and negotiation,” it said.

However, the newspaper appeared to support Putin’s demand that Ukraine become a neutral buffer between Russia and Europe and give up the possibility of NATO membership.

“Ultimately, Ukraine should be a bridge between East and West, rather than a frontier of confrontation between major powers,” the Capital News said.

Comments online have called for China to support Russia by purchasing its exports of oil, gas and other goods.

“Let the Russian Embassy sell their goods on livestream. Let’s show them China’s buying power,” said a comment signed Bao Zou Guang Xiao Pang on Weibo. It received 42,000 likes.

A separate comment advocating that China maintain normal trade with Russia, an implicit rejection of sanctions, received nearly 80,000 likes.

Social media platforms have urged users to act responsibly and say they have removed thousands of postings about the attack on Ukraine.

Douyin, a short-video service operated by the Chinese owner of TikTok, said it deleted more than 3,500 videos and 12,100 comments due to “vulgar, war belittling, sensationalist and unfriendly comments.”

The popular WeChat message service also complained about “vulgar posts” that it said have a “negative impact on cyberspace.”

It said some users “took the opportunity to publish bad information about international current affairs,” including comments belittling the war such as crass jokes about “gaining course credits by going to Ukraine and fighting in the war” and asking “Ukrainian beauties to come to China,” the platform said.

WeChat’s post was later shared by a unit of China’s internet watchdog, the Cyberspace Administration of China.

Weibo said it removed more than 4,000 posts that were vulgar and ridiculed war. It said more than 10,000 accounts were closed.

“Peaceful environments do not come easily,” the company said in a social media post. It called on users to “maintain an objective and rational attitude” and take part in discussion “in a reasonable manner.”

Fire breaks out at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine

Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was on fire early Friday local time following a Russian attack, according to Ukrainian officials. If it blows up, it will be 10 times larger than Chornobyl! 

"Russian army is firing from all sides upon Zaporizhzhia NPP, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a post on Twitter. "Fire has already broke out. Russians must immediately cease the fire, allow firefighters, establish a security zone."

Mayor Dmytro Orlov of the nearby town of Energodar said that Russian and local Ukrainian forces have engaged in fierce fighting, resulting in casualties, according to Reuters.

“As a result of continuous enemy shelling of buildings and units of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is on fire,” Orlov said, according to Reuters. He added that the situation poses a threat to world security.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in post on Twitter that it was aware of the reported attack on the plant.

IAEA is aware of reports of shelling at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), in contact with Ukrainian authorities about situation, the agency tweeted.

Ukrainian authorities wrote a letter hours earlier to Rafael Mariano Grossi, the Director Deneral of the IAEA, sounding the alarm that Russian tanks had broken through ‘the block-post’ into Enerhodar.

“The battle is going on in the town of Enerhodar and on the road to the ZNPP (Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant) site,” the letter read, describing the situation as critical, according to the agency.

This comes after Ukrainian officials warned days earlier that Russian troops had increased their military presence near the plant and pointed a multiple rocket launcher at it. Ukraine's ministry of internal affairs said the country's military was headed to the region to defend the plant.

“The armed forces, national guard and civilian militia will do anything to prevent a catastrophe, we are ready to destroy the enemy. But we have to be ready for anything,” Vadim Denisenko, advisor to the minister of internal affairs, said at the time.

Russian forces previously took control of the Chernobyl nuclear site last Thursday, less than 24 hours after the invasion of Ukraine began.

Fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops around the still-operating Ukrainian nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhya — Europe’s largest — led to stark warnings from the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, ABC reported.

Any damage to the facilities, either from the fighting or from interruption of normal operations “could have severe consequences, aggravating human suffering and causing environmental harm,” Rafael Grossi, Director of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, told ABC.

“There is nothing normal,” Grossi added, “about the circumstances under which the professionals at Ukraine's four nuclear power plants are managing to keep the reactors that produce half of Ukraine's electricity working."

Ukrainian officials have asked for a 30-kilometer (18-mile) safety zone around nuclear plants.

Today we’ll look at another rising risk from the fighting — this time in Africa. Then we’ll turn to the passage of a pivotal piece of legislation that could allow victims of water contamination at a Marine Corps base have their day in court.

 

Will crippling Russian economy stop Putin?

A week since Russian forces invaded Ukraine; President Vladimir Putin's economy is feeling the effects of global condemnation. Matthew Boesler reports in Bloomberg Businessweek today, the world has weaponized finance to punish Russia, slapping it with sanctions and limiting its access to capital and currency.

That leaves the country facing what Bloomberg Economics calls “four intersecting crises”, which they predict will unite to tip Russia into a deep recession and cool growth elsewhere.

Crisis 1: A bank run provoked by concern over the safety of deposits

Crisis 2: A credit crunch as lenders retrenches amid losses

Crisis 3: A freefalling ruble amid the freezing of reserves, diminished trade and a rush to safety

Crisis 4: A debt default as assets held abroad are frozen and Russia retaliates

 Just how much pain there will be is hard to say, but this chart shows the implications of each shock:

“Historical comparisons illustrate the difficulty of making a precise estimate of the impact on Russia’s economy,” said Bloomberg economists Scott Johnson, Jamie Rush and Tom Orlik. “What’s clear is that it will be big.”

Capital Economics reckons Russia’s gross domestic product will slide to become the 14th-largest economy from 11th.

The National Institute for Economic and Social Research of UK estimates the conflict could knock US$1 trillion off the value of the world economy and add 3% to global inflation. 

There will also likely be new chapters especially given it's hard to tell how long the conflict will last. Foreign governments may ultimately impose curbs on energy exports and Russia may slow the supplies itself. China could become a backdoor source of money. Moscow also has US$150 billion of external debt due in the next 12 months, which it may choose not to pay.

As for the rest of the world, Bloomberg Economics says Eastern Europe will be especially hurt, while US$120 oil will pose a material hit to growth in the euro-area. Central banks will face even more complicated choices.

For now though, the people of Russia appear more resigned than panicked, as this story from Moscow shows.

Many Russians, who have seen numerous bank runs over the last three decades, are for now approaching the descending hardship with fatalism. 

“As strange as it sounds, in general there’s no panic at stores or ATMs,” said Elmira, who works in education in Ufa in the Urals region. She declined to give her last name.

“There’s clearly no easy solution, but I wasn’t about to run and buy up EUR or US$ or get something just to spend money,” she said.

 

Western Hypocrisy over Ukraine

Over the past week, the truth has crept out over how Western governments and Western media view the conflict in Ukraine, a country they abandoned, in comparison to the wars waged by the West in particular against West Asian countries. 

It’s very unfortunate, that the crisis in Ukraine has reached the stage of a full-scale military escalation; but the crocodile tears by western leaders and the hypocrisy of the media and authorities will not end this conflict. Ukraine itself has even been abandoned by its allies, in particular the United States and Great Britain.

When people talk about the West, they should be more accurate in saying the hypocrisy that is mostly emerging from the Anglo-sphere or the “five eyes”.

When it comes to the mainstream media, many have criticized the racist attitude of pundits and reporters on mostly American and British platforms who voiced their alarm at a conflict occurring in Ukraine because of its proximity to the West and that Ukrainian refugees are white. 

CBS’s correspondent in Kyiv, Charlie D'Agata, reported, "This isn't a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan that has seen conflict raging for decades ... this is a relatively civilized, relatively European ... city where you wouldn't expect that or hope that (war) to happen”.

Many on social media denounced D'Agata for implying a conflict in a civilized European country means a conflict in an uncivilized West Asian country refers to inferior people. 

“With all due respect,” the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan was an invasion launched by the United States and when it comes to civilization. And are countries such as Iraq uncivilized? 

Iraqis were preaching to the world about science and algebra at a time when those in the West were painting their faces the color blue and living in the forest. 

According to the UN Refugee Agency Chief, Filippo Grandi, around half a million Ukrainians have unfortunately left their homes and crossed into neighboring countries.

But journalist Daniel Hannan writing for the top British conservative newspaper, Telegraph, was shocked because they seem so like us. That is what makes it so shocking. Ukraine is a European country, he says.

Of course, it is shocking that a conflict should occur in Europe for Daniel Hannan who may have forgotten that World War One and World War Two broke out in Europe. 

NBS reporter Hallie Cobiella did not hold back saying “To put it bluntly, these are not refugees from Syria, these are refugees from Ukraine, they are Christians, they are white, they’re very similar to us”. 

She certainly put it bluntly: if you’re Syrian and neither white nor Christian, then you don’t really matter in this world. 

A commentator on the BBC took it up a notch saying “It’s very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed”. What made these remarks even worse is that the BBC presenter failed to challenge the comments. 

Another news anchor Peter Dobbie said what is compelling from looking at Ukrainian refugees is the way they are dressed. He said, “These are prosperous, middle-class people. These are not obviously refugees trying to get away from the Middle East...or North Africa. They look like any European family that you'd live next door to."

Refugees are refugees no matter how they dress and how they look and where they live. The racist bigotry and racism during a conflict is quite shameful. 

But the idea that a conflict inside civilized Europe is so alarming because wars only happen in countries that are uncivilized is such disturbing double standards and hypocritical analyses because all the wars outside Europe, the vast majority of which in West Asia and Africa occurred as a result of Western imperialism, plots, and military adventurism, not by the people themselves. 

British media has also been glorifying Ukrainians fighting Russians, effectively taking sides in a way that they would not dare to cover in other conflicts. For example, the Palestinians resisting Israeli regime forces would not receive such coverage. 

Britain’s Sky News showed a clip of how people are making bombs explaining in detail how to make the devices as effective as possible. If those people making explosive devices were Palestinians they would be branded as terrorists. There are many examples of this hypocrisy over the past few days but the list is too long to cover. 

The fake news propaganda machine in the Anglo-sphere has been working overdrive on mainstream media as well as social media. 

So much so that it’s repeating the same mistakes. One of which is the reported killing again of CNN journalist Bernie Gores, who was reportedly executed by the Taliban in Afghanistan and also now the first American to die in Ukraine. Poor old Bernie, the man is still alive. 

In the UK, the same critics who accused Brexit architect Nigel Farage of wanting to deport Polish people are now calling for the deportation of Russians from Britain. 

The Anglo-sphere claims or tries to preach to others on how the world should distance-sports from politics.

But there have been calls for Russians who own shares in British football team Chelsea for example to be deprived of their ownership and deported. 

This is while Saudi Arabia, which has been pounding Yemen for seven years and killing half a million Yemenis, including 80,000 children, owns two football clubs in Britain. 

The United Arab Emirates which is a partner in the Saudi-led coalition owns Manchester City football club, arguably the richest team in England. The club held an event against the bombing in Ukraine.

The European Union is also at fault as Israel which has illegally occupied the Palestinian Territories and committed countless war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinians for more than half a century is allowed into UEFA but Russia has suddenly been kicked out. 

Nobody has even mentioned the British football club Manchester United, by the way, owned by Americans, despite Washington waging countless wars, invasions, and occupation of other countries. 

The EU claims to be an advocate for freedom of speech has banned Russian media, which means their people will only get a limited narrative of the unfolding events. 

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss announced that she would absolutely support people who want to travel to Ukraine and fight, even though that is illegal in Britain. 

This is while the British government has jailed people who went to fight and defend the elderly, women, and children against the barbaric Daesh terrorist takfiri group in Iraq and Syria. And those that were detained by British authorities are still currently serving time in prison. 

Can you imagine if somebody went to fight for the Palestinians against the Israeli regime, is Liz Truss going to absolutely support them? 

Waving Palestinian flags has been banned at British football stadiums because you shouldn’t mix politics with sports, remember. This is while over the past few days, Ukrainian flags are being handed out at football stadiums. 

The most disturbing aspect about all this is that the West is also pumping more lethal weapons to Ukraine which will only prolong the conflict. Instead of coming up with peace initiatives to resolve the crisis, it appears the west wants the fighting to continue.

Russian hackers may try to block West's access to SWIFT

Ex-IDF Unit 8200 Chief and Team 8 Co-founder Nadav Zafrir, say that in a worst case scenario, Russian hackers may try to block the West from extracting natural gas and from access to the SWIFT banking system in response to sanctions against it.

Referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the spin-off conflict with the West in a speech at the cybertech conference in Tel Aviv, Zafrir said, “We don’t know how this is going to unfold. We do know that the Russians probably have, excluding the West, the best cyber capabilities, defensive, but also offensive.”

“Russia may to say to itself, if you are sanctioning our economy, maybe “we, the Russians, can make sure you cannot extract your gas either. If we cannot use SWIFT, we can take you off your SWIFT system as well.”

Earlier, former Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD) Director Yigal Unna called Russian cyberattacks on Ukraine frightening.

Unna said, “As we see what is happen now in central Europe, it is more than disturbing, it is frightening. Cyber war is happening as we speak. We haven’t seen the worst yet.”

Describing Russian cyberattacks, he said “We are seeing ‘wipers’ (cyberattacks on websites), attacks against civilians, civilian entities and critical infrastructure, all the things we build and defend as nations.”

He warned that due to war clouds and the fog of war… we still do not see all of the consequences of Russian cyberattacks.

Next, Unna said that the rise in ransomware attacks, the amount of extortion money being demanded by hackers and the rise in the number of victims who are paying the ransoms is disturbing.

He cautioned that Israel is behind many countries in terms of formal legislation and regulation in the cyber sphere (though in the past INCD officials have said that Israel has achieved a lot through informal moves.)

Unna complimented, “All six agencies dealing with cyber security, including his agency, the IDF’s multiple units, the Mossad and the Shin Bet on “working together to win.”

In addition, he said, “Whatever worked yesterday won’t work today or tomorrow.”

He spoke disparagingly of cybersecurity corporate officers who ignored warnings on Thursday of impending cyber-attacks, saying they would deal with it after the weekend,

The attack may come before the weekend, exclaimed Unna, adding if your CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) works only ‘working hours’, well it is 24/7.”

He also took to task the slow pace at which companies deal with public government or company warnings of vulnerabilities on software, saying that the good guys take around 14-21 days to fix publicized cyber gaps, whereas the bad guys need only around nine days to exploit the gap.

“That is five to 12 days too long,” he said.

Also at the conference, President Isaac Herzog complimented Israeli cyber companies for protecting millions around the world from cyber-attacks.

Herzog said that Israel needed to move at the same fast pace as malicious actors in always improving its cyber defenses and resilience.

Also, at the conference, CybergymIEC announced new moves to enhance its connectivity with the Israel Electric Company which will also increase the company’s ability to market and sell its proprietary cyber technology globally.

Chinese purchase of Iranian oil rises to record level

According to a Reuters report, Chinese purchases of Iranian oil have risen to record levels in recent months, exceeding a 2017 peak when the trade was not subject to US sanctions, tanker tracking data shows.

Chinese imports exceeded 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) for January 2022, according to estimates of three tanker trackers, surpassing the 623,000 bpd peak recorded by Chinese customs in 2017 before former US President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions in 2018 on Iranian oil exports.

One tracker estimated imports amounted to 780,000 bpd in November-December 2022 at an average.

The ramping up of the purchases by the world's top oil importer comes amid talks between Tehran and world powers to revive a 2015 nuclear deal that will lift US sanctions on Iranian oil exports. The talks have intensified in recent weeks.

A return of Iranian oil will ease tight global supplies and cool crude prices that have touched US$100/barrel following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Iran is expected to have a strong comeback to the global oil market in case the nuclear deal is revived and the US sanctions on the country are lifted, Bloomberg reported.

According to the report, considering the capacity of Iran’s offshore oil storages, the Islamic Republic will be able to inject millions of barrels of oil into the market as soon as the sanctions are lifted, without the need for boosting the current level of production.

Asian countries including South Korea are likely to be among the first in line to ship in Iranian cargoes.

Bloomberg puts the estimation of the crude oil stored at Iranian stationary tankers at 65 to 80 million barrels, citing the data intelligence firm Kpler.

About four-fifths of the stored crude is condensate, super-light oil that’s a by-product of natural gas extraction. The overall Iranian volume is higher if crude that’s already in transit is included, the report said

 

Britain to ban Russian linked ships from its ports

Britain said on Tuesday it had passed a law that would ban all ships that have any connection to Russia from entering its ports. Britain had said on Monday that it wanted all ports to refuse entry to ships that were Russian flagged, registered or controlled while it drew up new legislation.

"We've just become the first nation to pass a law involving a total ban of all ships with any Russian connection whatsoever from entering British ports," Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Twitter.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on Tuesday for more international sanctions against Russia after what he said was a "barbaric" attack on the city of Kharkiv.

"Barbaric Russian missile strikes on the central Freedom Square and residential districts of Kharkiv. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is unable to break Ukraine down. He commits more war crimes out of fury, murders innocent civilians," Kuleba said on social media.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky officially applied on Monday to join the European Union, with the application being on its way to Brussels for processing, Ukrainian President's Office deputy head Andrij Sybiha wrote on Facebook.

In response, the heads of state for eight different EU member states – Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic – pushed for vastly expediting Ukraine's admission into the bloc. 

"We call on EU member states to consolidate highest political support to Ukraine and enable the EU institutions to conduct steps to immediately grant Ukraine an EU candidate country status and open the process of negotiations," the leaders wrote, as noted on the official website of the Lithuanian president.

This follows Slovakian Prime Minister Eduard Heger telling Politico that Ukraine should have a "special track" towards EU membership.

“They fight for themselves, they fight for us — they fight for freedom,” Heger said told Politico. “We have to realize that they are protecting our system, our values and we have to be together with them. So there is no time to hesitate on this.”

Overall, support for Ukraine is strong in the EU, as noted in a recent op-ed in The Jerusalem Post by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell.

"This is a matter of life and death," Borrell noted. "I am preparing an emergency package to support the Ukrainian armed forces in their fight."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leye told Euronews Sunday that Ukraine is "one of us and we want them in the European Union."

Several European nations have already sent considerable funds and munitions towards Ukraine, as well as levying sanctions against Moscow, as have their allies abroad such as the US.

As the war enters its sixth day, around 350,000 people have entered Poland from Ukraine since Russia invaded the country, a Polish deputy interior minister said on Tuesday.

"Over the last 24 hours 100,000 people crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border," Maciej Wasik told public broadcaster Polskie Radio 1. "In total, since Thursday, there have already been 350,000 refugees."

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Tuesday morning that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had offered his country more support in the form of sanctions and weapons.

"In our call, Secretary Blinken affirmed that the US support for Ukraine remains unfaltering," Kuleba said on Twitter. "I underscored that Ukraine craves for peace, but as long as we are under Russia's assault we need more sanctions and weapons. The US Secretary of State assured me of both. We coordinated further steps."

The prospects of a diplomatic resolution to the Ukraine crisis are slim at the moment, Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said on Tuesday.

Asked on LBC Radio whether Russian billionaire businessman Roman Abramovich, who has accepted a Ukrainian request to help negotiate an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, could be key to the solution, Raab responded: "Who knows?"