Heading towards World War III?

China urged Russia to delay the invasion of Ukraine until the conclusion of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, it was revealed Wednesday.

Senior Chinese officials made the request in early February after Washington informed Beijing of the Russian troop buildup in the hopes that Communist leaders would pressure their ally to stand down, a source confirmed to Reuters.

Russia started the war with Ukraine four days after the Olympics ended, and Russian President Vladimir Putin escalated his military advance and rhetoric in the hours after the closing ceremony.

nypost.com/2022/03/02/china-asked-russia-to-delay-ukraine-war-until-after-olympics

Zelensky is really fighting for money but the press will not report the truth. There are vast gas fields under Crimea and he deliberately cemented off the canal to deprive Crimea of water. In the provinces demanding separatism since 2014, he has denied them any right to democracy because that region is also rich in oil. Look at the money and you just may see why Zelensky is putting his entire country at risk to benefit their oil companies so he can compete with Russia and hopes to provide the natural gas to Europe cutting off Russia. This is the same plot that saw Obama wanting to invade Syria to put through the Qatar pipeline to also cut off Russia from supplying energy to Europe.

www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/war/ukraine-reality

"Shortly before the [Russian] occupation, agreements were signed in the United States on the distribution of products, on the exploitation of the Scythian section of the Black Sea shelf, which is located near the Crimean Peninsula, outside the city of Sevastopol. This project could have started in 2017 and would be very successful and very correct from the perspective that Ukraine would increase its own natural gas production," Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Anton Korynevych said at the All-Ukrainian Forum "Ukraine 30. Public Utility Bill" on February 15, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

Korynevych stressed that, according to various data, out of all natural gas available in Ukraine, about half of its deposits are on the continental shelf of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Due to the occupation, Ukraine cannot exploit these resources, which has a negative impact on the energy security of both our country and Europe as a whole, the official stated.

www.ukrinform.net/rubric-economy/3191411-ukraine-loses-half-of-its-natural-gas-deposits-due-to-occupation-of-crimea.html

Ukraine has a century-long history of oil and gas production and possesses substantial conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon reserves, estimated at 9 billion tonnes of oil equivalent (Btoe). Natural gas reserves are estimated at 5.4 trillion cubic metres (tcm), with proven reserves of 1.1 tcm of natural gas, more than 400 million tonnes (Mt) of gas condensate and 850 Mt of oil reserves. The loss of jurisdiction over Crimea, whose significant offshore gas resources are no longer accessible to Ukraine, means natural gas reserve estimates must be revised downwards.

Hydrocarbon resources in Ukraine are concentrated in three regions: the Carpathian region in the west; the Dnieper-Donetsk region in the east; and the Black Sea-Sea of Azov region in the south. The Dnieper-Donetsk region accounts for 80% of proven reserves and approximately 90% of gas production, and the Carpathian region has 13% of proven reserves and 6% of production. The remaining 6% of proven reserves are in the southern region, where production is conducted both onshore and offshore on the shallow shelves of the Black and Azov seas. The aggregate production in this region is 5% of Ukraine’s total oil and gas production.

www.iea.org/reports/ukraine-energy-profile/energy-security

Joe Biden’s son Hunter has been the gift that keeps on giving, with his public struggles with addiction, scandalous private life and tangled business life.

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Donald Trump tried to make issue out of Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine, Russia and China, which included high paid consultancies and gifts, and allegations that, as vice-president, Joe Biden had shaped American foreign policy in Ukraine to benefit his son.

For Trump, it backfired, when efforts to uncover information about the Bidens and Ukraine helped to trigger his first impeachment. Then came the surfacing of Hunter Biden’s missing laptop, with its library of decadent pictures and business email chains, mysteriously left at a Wilmington repair shop, which found its way to Republican political operatives including Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon, plus the rightwing press and the FBI.

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But the larger question – beyond whether Hunter Biden correctly met tax obligations during a period in which, by his own telling, he was being paid $50,000 a month by Ukrainian firm Burisma – are Biden’s financial ties to foreign figures and businesses while his father served as Barack Obama’s No 2.

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Under US statutes, all persons acting politically or quasi-politically on behalf of foreign entities in the US must properly disclose their activities.

In addition to Hunter Biden’s ties to Ukraine through the gas company Burisma, he has sat on the boards of BHR Partners, a private investment fund backed by a number of Chinese state entities; a hedge fund, Paradigm; a consultancy, Seneca Global Advisors; and the fundraising firm Rosemont Seneca.

Republicans, including the senior Iowa senator Chuck Grassley, have called on the justice department to evaluate whether Hunter or Joe Biden’s brother James Biden should have registered as foreign agents over their business arrangements with the Chinese government-backed energy company CEFC.

In 2018, Business Insider reported that Hunter Biden sought an annual $2m retainer to aid in the recovery of Libyan assets frozen by the Obama administration during Muammar Gaddafi’s rule. The list of accusations goes on.

According to Jonathan Turley, a legal scholar at the George Washington University Law School, “influence-peddling is a virtual spectator sport in the nation’s capital – a protected corruption”.

Turley said: “It’s how powerful ruling elites make much of their money, and Congress has never seriously tried to crack down on it. The children and spouses of powerful leaders continue to receive windfall payments from companies and foreign interests, but we’ve never quite seen the likes of Hunter Biden’s enterprises. His contracts go beyond anything we’ve seen before.”

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/27/hunter-biden-joe-biden-president-business-dealings

In late 2013 and into 2014, mass protests erupted in Kyiv, Ukraine, demanding
integration into western economies and an end to systemic corruption that had plagued the
country. At least 82 people were killed during the protests, which culminated on Feb. 21 when
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych abdicated by fleeing the country. Less than two months
later, over the span of only 28 days, significant events involving the Bidens unfolded.

On April 16, 2014, Vice President Biden met with his son’s business partner, Devon
Archer, at the White House. Five days later, Vice President Biden visited Ukraine, and he soon
after was described in the press as the “public face of the administration’s handling of Ukraine.”
The day after his visit, on April 22, Archer joined the board of Burisma. Six days later, on April
28, British officials seized $23 million from the London bank accounts of Burisma’s owner,
Mykola Zlochevsky. Fourteen days later, on May 12, Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma,
and over the course of the next several years, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer were paid
millions of dollars from a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch for their participation on the board.

The 2014 protests in Kyiv came to be known as the Revolution of Dignity — a revolution
against corruption in Ukraine. Following that revolution, Ukrainian political figures were
desperate for U.S. support. Zlochevsky would have made sure relevant Ukrainian officials were
well aware of Hunter’s appointment to Burisma’s board as leverage. Hunter Biden’s position on
the board created an immediate potential conflict of interest that would prove to be problematic
for both U.S. and Ukrainian officials and would affect the implementation of Ukraine policy.

The Chairmen’s investigation into potential conflicts of interest began in August 2019,
with Chairman Grassley’s letter to the Department of Treasury regarding potential conflicts of
interest with respect to Obama administration policy relating to the Henniges transaction.1
During the Obama administration, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States
(CFIUS) approved a transaction that gave control over Henniges, an American maker of antivibration technologies with military applications, to a Chinese government-owned aviation
company and a China-based investment firm with established ties to the Chinese government.
One of the companies involved in the Henniges transaction was a billion-dollar private
investment fund called Bohai Harvest RST (BHR). BHR was formed in November 2013 by a
merger between the Chinese-government-linked firm Bohai Capital and a company named
Rosemont Seneca Partners. Rosemont Seneca was formed in 2009 by Hunter Biden, the son of
then-Vice President Joe Biden, by Chris Heinz, the stepson of former Secretary of State John
Kerry, and others.2

Access to relevant documents and testimony has been persistently hampered by criminal
investigations, impeachment proceedings, COVID-19, and several instances of obstructive
behavior. Accordingly, this investigation has taken longer than it should have. The Chairmen’s
efforts have always been driven by our belief that the public has the right to know about
wrongdoing and conflicts of interest occurring within government, and especially those conflicts
brought about by the actions of governmental officials. This is a good-government oversight
investigation that relies on documents and testimony from U.S. agencies and officials, not a
Russian disinformation campaign, as our Democratic colleagues have falsely stated.

What the Chairmen discovered during the course of this investigation is that the Obama
administration knew that Hunter Biden’s position on Burisma’s board was problematic and did
interfere in the efficient execution of policy with respect to Ukraine. Moreover, this
investigation has illustrated the extent to which officials within the Obama administration
ignored the glaring warning signs when the vice president’s son joined the board of a company
owned by a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch. And, as will be discussed in later sections, Hunter Biden
was not the only Biden who cashed in on Joe Biden’s vice presidency.

This report not only details examples of extensive and complex financial transactions
involving the Bidens, it also describes the quandary other U.S. governmental officials faced as
they attempted to guide and support Ukraine’s anticorruption efforts. The Committees will
continue to evaluate the information and evidence as it becomes available.

www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Ukraine%20Report_FINAL.pdf

Iran's supreme leader blamed the U.S. for creating the conditions for Russia's war on Ukraine, blasting Washington's "mafia regime" that he said benefits from creating crises around the world.

"By interfering in Ukraine's internal affairs, creating color revolutions and toppling one government, and putting another in power, the U.S. dragged Ukraine into this situation," Ayatollah Khamenei said in a televised address on Tuesday. "The U.S. regime is a mafia regime. Political, economic, and all sorts of mafias control their country and bring presidents into power. They create crises in the world to maximize their profits."

asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Iran-s-supreme-leader-blames-U.S.-mafia-regime-for-Ukraine-war

The BBC is temporarily suspending its journalists' work in Russia, in response to a new law which threatens to jail anyone Russia deems to have spread "fake" news on the armed forces.

BBC Director-General Tim Davie said the legislation "appears to criminalise the process of independent journalism".

The Kremlin objects to the conflict being called a war, instead calling it a "special military operation".

BBC News in Russian will still be produced from outside the country.

Access to BBC websites had already been restricted in Russia. News outlets Deutsche Welle, Meduza and Radio Liberty also had their services limited, Russia's state-owned news agency RIA said.

Later on Friday, Canada's public broadcaster and Bloomberg News said they too had temporarily halted reporting from Russia, and news channel CNN said it would stop broadcasting in the country.

www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60617365

Russian forces continue to push deeper into Ukraine. Thousands seek shelter, while others volunteer to fight. We're on the ground in Kyiv as events unfold.

The Ukraine conflict has been 'westsplained' enough. On Gravitas Plus, Palki Sharma tells you how Western arrogance & NATO's expansionism are also to blame, how their actions precipitated the crisis in Ukraine.

Fox News host gives his take on the Russia-Ukraine war and Vice President Kamala Harris possibly visiting Europe on 'Tucker Carlson

Ukraine's president has attacked Nato leaders in a fiery speech over their refusal to implement a no-fly zone around the country.

Speaking from Kyiv, Volodymyr Zelensky said the West's reluctance to intervene has given Russia "a green light" to continue bombarding towns and villages.

Nato has argued that a no-fly zone will result in confrontation with Moscow.

But Mr Zelensky said he disagrees that direct action could "provoke Russia's direct aggression against Nato".

In angry comments, he said the argument reflects the "self-hypnosis of those who are weak, under-confident inside" and that Western reservations indicated that "not everyone considers the struggle for freedom to be Europe's number one goal".

"All the people who will die starting from this day will also die because of you. Because of your weakness, because of your disunity," a furious Mr Zelensky added.

www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60629175

Ukraine’s membership is not on The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)’s agenda, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Friday.

“I also made it clear in Moscow and in my visit that this option [Ukraine’s membership of NATO] is not on the table and will not take place,” he said during an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF.

“I said publicly that we all know that Ukraine’s NATO membership is not on the alliance’s agenda today,” he added. “That was understood by the American president, that [was] also understood by the French president.”

Scholz said he shares Russian President Vladimir Putin’s security concern and clarified to Putin that Ukraine will not be allowed to join NATO.

“The Russians were worried about the control issue of their security. [Putin was worried] that NATO has a military setup and rockets in Ukraine targeting Russian territory. That is why we tried to make it clear that this will not occur,” he elaborated.

www.theepochtimes.com/ukraines-nato-membership-will-not-take-place-german-chancellor_4317515.html