He didn’t even wait for the details. Solely on the basis of Donald Trump’s accelerated August 8th deadline, Vladimir Putin made his decision: sanctions are no longer a threat.

Well, who didn’t know that . . . other than Trump, that is?

So, basically, the Kremlin’s response is “yob vas, Donnie.” (Use your imaginations, or Google Translate, for that one.)

Although couched in slightly more diplomatic terms, that is essentially the message delivered to reporters yesterday by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov:

“We have been living under a huge number of sanctions for quite a long time, our economy operates under a huge number of restrictions. Therefore, of course, we have already developed a certain immunity in this regard, and we continue to note all statements that come from President Trump, from other international representatives on this matter.” [Gleb Stolyarov, Dmitry Anntonov, Mark Trevelyan and Andrew Osborn, Reuters, July 30, 2025.]

And Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, calling the threat of additional sanctions “routine,” wondered why the West hadn’t yet caught on to the fact that they don’t work:

“We see that the West simply cannot let go of the issue of sanctions. It seems as if they are constantly stuck in a rut. Apparently, there are no other options left — they have been exhausted. We are responding and taking measures to counteract all of this or even turn it to our own advantage.” [Id.]

Well, there’s another “up yours” to the U.S., to Ukraine, and to all of the European allies who thought they could strangle Russia’s economy. Not that the sanctions haven’t created any problems for them . . . they certainly have. But Putin has his own allies; and with substantial support from China, India, North Korea, Iran, and who-knows-who-else, Russia is surviving, as she always has, through just one more Time of Troubles.

Of course, Putin brought this particular headache onto himself when he invaded Ukraine, believing that it would take just days or weeks to overwhelm the smaller, weaker country. But he has adapted, and is determined to continue on his chosen course until he has won, no matter the cost.

So what options are left to the West? As Putin knows full well, no one wants World War III.

My heart is with the good people of my ancestral home of Ukraine; but my head is losing hope. It’s time for a miracle, and while we wait for it, all I can offer is a fervent . . .

Slava Ukraine!

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/31/25

We all do it now and then: start for the laundry room to get the towels from the dryer and pass the kitchen, where we realize we’ve forgotten to empty the clean dishes from the dishwasher. So we stop to take care of that, and remember that we need to defrost the meat for tonight’s dinner, and while rummaging through the freezer for the lamb chops, we spot the half-empty carton of Haagen-Dazs. So we take that out — solely in order to free up some space in the freezer, of course — and polish it off while perusing the catalogs that arrived in yesterday’s mail, which reminds us that we haven’t fetched today’s mail yet. So we head outdoors to the mailbox, noticing along the way that the hedges are in dire need of trimming. But the hedge trimmers are on loan to the neighbor three houses down, and it’s best to retrieve them now while we’re thinking about it and before she leaves to pick up her kids from school, so off we go . . .

You know how this ends, don’t you? A cup of tea and a chat with the neighbor, and suddenly it’s time to start prepping the vegetables for dinner. Heading back home, it hits you that you’ve left the hedge trimmers behind, the mail is still in the mailbox, the hedges are never going to be trimmed, the lamb chops never made it out of the freezer, the dishwasher hasn’t been emptied, and the towels are languishing in the dryer.

“Oh, crap!”

And all of the foregoing is to point out the circuitous route by which I came up with the actual topic for this post.

While researching my earlier article about China’s proposed school in Russian-occupied Luhansk, Ukraine, which some suspect will really be a cover for Chinese intelligence agents, I was reminded of the famous Cold War-era university in Moscow — then known as Patrice Lumumba University (PLU) and now renamed People’s Friendship University — which was widely also believed to be a school for spies.

Oh, not the sort of schools that every country operates to train its intelligence officers, like the FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia, or the KGB’s Academy of Foreign Intelligence. No, PLU was special.

To begin with, it was — and, from all accounts, still is — a legitimate university. But back in the day, it was also a magnet for students from a number of underdeveloped African nations in which Russia had . . . for lack of a better word . . . a paternalistic interest.

Thinking about PLU and its questionable history, I was next reminded of a wonderful Russian gentleman I had the pleasure of knowing back in the late 1980s and early ‘90s: Professor Viktor Mozolin, who had been a professor of law at PLU years before I met him through the International Law Institute (ILI) in Washington. As I sat reminiscing about the lovely evening when Viktor and his wife Valya hosted me at their apartment in Moscow on one of my visits there, I decided to see what the PLU website had to say about him, and . . .

Nothing. It had been too many years, I suppose. But my search did bring up a rather odd list of 69 names of what I presume to be their most notable alumni. Not surprisingly, 65 of them were completely unfamiliar. But the other four jumped out at me — three because they’re famous, and one because he isn’t . . . although I did know him personally.

And now you’re dying to know who they are . . . right?

*. *. *

First is Anna Chapman (real name Anna Kushchenko), whose Wikipedia listing shows her occupations as “Entrepreneur, television host, and agent of the Russian Federation.” And it is in that last capacity that she became well-known in June 2010 when she was arrested in the United States for spying on behalf of Russia.

The daughter of a Russian diplomat and reported KGB official, she was included in a major spy swap in July of the same year, whereupon she returned home, became a popular TV personality, a fashion model, and head of a government youth council. Probably not the best role model for young girls; but it helps to know the right people to get you into the job.

*. *. *

The other surprise name was that of Alexei Navalny, who needs no introduction. The most widely known and revered of all of Putin’s opposition leaders, Navalny was murdered while in a Russian prison camp in February of 2024. His name and his work live on through his Anti-Corruption Foundation, now headed by his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, and a number of his former colleagues. I knew he was a lawyer, but would not have expected him to choose PLU for his education . . . though perhaps he didn’t have a choice.

*. *. *

Now comes the fun part. I knew this man had attended PLU (how I knew will be explained later), but was shocked to see him listed, not by his real name — Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez — but by his infamous adopted moniker: Carlos the Jackal.

The real Carlos:

You’ve probably heard of him: a notorious Soviet-trained terrorist in the 1970s and ‘80s, he is the son of a Venezuelan Marxist lawyer who enrolled him in PLU when he was refused admittance to the Sorbonne in France. (I’ll never understand how he made the mental leap from Paris to Moscow, but that’s what his bio says.) His persona and his name have appeared in countless books, movies and TV shows, adding immeasurably to his notoriety. Small comfort, though, as he has been in a French prison since his capture in 1994, serving three consecutive life sentences without possibility of parole.

*. *. *

And last, as well as the least famous, is Yuri Shvets. He is the only one of the four with whom I am — or was — personally acquainted . . . a fact which does me no credit whatsoever. And he’s also the one of whom you are least likely to have heard.

But as this article has already become much longer than intended, and I must in any event hurry off to a doctor’s appointment (just routine), I’m going to have to leave you hanging until tomorrow for the rest (and best) of the story.

I think you’ll find it worth the wait.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/31/25

This was overnight in Kyiv, Ukraine. At least six dead, dozens injured. Let the pictures speak for themselves.

Enough said.

Brendochka

7/31/25

In yet another indication of the burgeoning relationship between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping, word has spread in Russian state media of a plan by Chinese activists to open a private school for Chinese citizens . . . in Russian-occupied Luhansk, Ukraine.

According to a story first released by Russian state outlets and repeated by pro-Kremlin Telegram channels, the school will admit 300 Chinese students, teaching them the Russian language in preparation for eventual enrollment in Russian universities.

It is officially being touted by the Kremlin as a step toward “economic normalization” in Ukraine, reflecting “changes in the geopolitical situation in the world.” [Olha Katsan and Donbas.Realities, RFE/RL, July 27, 2025.]

In other words, justifying Russia’s current, illegal occupation of 20% of Ukrainian territory.

But Ukrainian political analyst Kostyantyn Batozskiy says:

“Consider this: Would Chinese families really risk sending their teenage children into an active war zone for education? This is not about education. It’s about optics, influence, and control. . . . Like their endless talk of rebuilding the ruined Donetsk airport or restoring the town. of Shyrokyne — none of it materializes. It’s about keeping occupied populations distracted with grandiose promises.” [Id.]

But beyond mere distraction, there is concern that other forces may be behind the proposed school. Artur Kharytonov, president of the Liberal Democratic League of Ukraine and an expert on East and Southeast Asia, cautions:

“In China’s totalitarian system, nothing of this scale happens without top-level approval.” [Id.]

Referencing Xi’s recognition of Russian elections and expressions of respect for Russia’s constitution, as well as China’s proven involvement in trade and investment activities in Ukraine, Kharytonov continued:

“Crimean wine makes its debut at Chinese trade fairs. Stolen Ukrainian grain and metals from occupied Donetsk appear on Chinese platforms, such as AliExpress, China’s online retailer. This is reality, not speculation.” [Id.]

And Yuriy Poita, head of the Asia-Pacific Section at the New Geopolitics Research Network, takes it a step further, saying that he believes the “school” may not be for teenagers at all:

“It’s more plausible that this is a facility to train Chinese engineers, technicians, or workers involved in joint Russian-Chinese projects in occupied territories. Complex equipment requires skilled personnel. You can’t deploy these systems without on-site Chinese experts. Language training for local workers — and vice versa — could easily be packaged as ‘education.’” [Id.]

In view of the existing evidence of Chinese technology and materiel being provided in support of Russia’s war in Ukraine, this makes perfect sense.

And as political analyst Batozskiy said:

“They [the Russians] desperately want to show the world that Ukraine’s occupied region is a de facto part of Russia, attracting foreign citizens for work and study.” [Id.]

Even more concerning, Batozskiy added:

“Chinese specialists brought into Luhansk might be linked to the People’s Liberation Army or Chinese intelligence services. Proximity to the frontlines gives them unparalleled access to battlefield data and Ukrainian infrastructure.” [Id.]

Bingo!

Just days ago, two Chinese men — a 24-year-old student and his father — were reported to have been arrested by Ukrainian intelligence for attempting to obtain classified information about the Neptune missile program. [RFE/RL, July 25, 2025.] And there were earlier reports of North Korean officers entering the Russian-occupied region of Donetsk disguised as students, revealed when several were killed and others captured by Ukrainian forces. [RFE/RL, July 27, 2025, op.cit.]

But what do the pragmatic Chinese gain from such an arrangement? According to Kharytonov:

“China ideologically supports Russia’s war. It will buy anything from these territories — grain, metals, whatever — because it’s cheap and politically useful. . . . Nothing in China happens by accident. Even a modest presence — engineers, trainers, or ‘students’ — could serve multiple purposes: economic, political, and military.” [Id.]

*. *. *

Despite their sometimes competing separate interests, Russia and China are natural allies, bound by a shared political ideology and a mutual goal of displacing Western economic dominance with their own “new world order.” Nothing — not even the seemingly smallest of clues — can be overlooked in dealing with this pair.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/31/25

That was in the 1920s through 1945, when Adolf Hitler established an organization for the indoctrination of German children into his Nazi party.

In Lenin’s and Stalin’s Soviet Union, it was known as the Komsomol, or Communist Youth League.

Today, in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, it’s called “patriotic profiling” . . . but by any name, what it really is, is mind control.

In addition to the new school year’s curriculum designed to instill in children a more chauvinistic attitude toward their government, “neuroprofiling” tests are being conducted by the state-run Russian Patriot Center (RPC) on some 10,000 children and teens across the country, in order to boost patriotism and direct them into appropriate adult roles according to the test results.

Independent educators are critical of the program, calling it “pseudoscience”and “manipulation,” and saying that it echoes both communism and fascism. One such educator, Dima Zicer, said:

“It is yet another attempt by the authorities to control people and influence their decisions.” [Andrei Soshnikov, Svetlana Osipova, Valery Panyushkin, and Systema, RFE/RL, July 30, 2025.]

From the program, which runs into August and includes 12-to-18-year-olds, 50 participants “with a pronounced positive profile” are to be selected to participate in a five-day seminar in Sevastopol, in Russian-occupied Crimea (Ukraine).

The website for the program says that it is intended to identify “leaders and/or anti-leaders (participants prone to destructive behavior)” . . . and that those who “defame the ideas of patriotism” will be immediately removed from the event. [Id.]

On its Telegram channel, RPC described the aim of the program as the “transformation of approaches to education, career guidance, and the patriotic upbringing of young people.” [Id.]

No mention was made of what was ahead for the children — either the “leaders” or the “anti-leaders” — at the conclusion of the program. But there is no question in my mind that those deemed to “defame the ideas of patriotism” can, at the very least, look forward to spending the rest of their lives on a Kremlin watch-list.

One company that sells “neuroprofiling” tests is called Persona. In a presentation, the company stated that its conclusions about the participants are based on “various subconscious cognitive perceptions of visual symbols.” And the head of Persona, Vladimir Kozlov, posted on RPC’s Telegram channel:

“We are convinced that patriotism begins with understanding one’s role in the future of the country. Our company’s neuroprofiling technologies help teenagers find this role — accurately, consciously, and with motivation.” [Id.]

Simply stated, it is mind control.

And it is alive and thriving in Russia today.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/30/25

The silence has been deafening, from both sides.

Yesterday morning (GMT), while still in Scotland, Donald Trump issued what, for him, was a stern warning to Vladimir Putin that Moscow had only “about 10 or 12 days from today” to enter into serious ceasefire negotiations with Ukraine, or suffer the consequences.

But Trump didn’t specify what those consequences would be, other than additional “very severe tariffs.” And he has yet to follow through with a more detailed ultimatum, other than a confirmation of August 8th as the new deadline date. [Rachel Hagan and Jaroslav Lukiv, BBC, July 29, 2025.]

Maybe he’s just jet-lagged, or still exhausted from riding around his new Scottish golf course in Golf Cart One.

Trump’s comments followed his meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday, and represented a major turn-around from his earlier offer to Putin of 50 days to respond. After hearing such an announcement, one would naturally have expected a quick reaction from the Kremlin, perhaps accusing Trump of going back on his word.

But all we’ve heard from Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov thus far was that they had “taken note” of Trump’s comments, and that:

“Putin is waiting. To know what to say next, he needs to understand exactly how Trump plans to behave.” [Ray Furlong and Current Time, RFE/RL, July 29, 2025.]

Smart.

These two — Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin — have been racing headlong at one another for years. But since Trump’s return to the White House in January, they’ve been playing chicken like a couple of teenage hot-rodders from a 1950s movie.

But even in real life, when two idiots drive head-first into each other, the worst that can happen is that two lives and two vehicles will be destroyed.

When the idiots are Trump and Putin, and neither of them is willing to be the first to swerve, the results could be cataclysmic.

Putin is correct in waiting for particulars from Trump; as things stand now (midnight EDT), he has nothing concrete to respond to. But once he has that information, he needs to quit playing games and begin acting like the world leader he claims to be.

This is not a game, and it’s not a Hollywood movie. But these two are treating Ukraine as though it were the grand prize for the winner of a teenagers’ jalopy race . . . and it has to stop.

Someone needs to swerve. Unfortunately, the odds are that once again it will be the wrong one.

But let’s see what the rest of the day brings.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/30/25

Forget the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate; this is one of those inexplicable, seemingly miraculous moments in history when all of the planets are aligned, the gods on Mount Olympus are in unanimous agreement, and everyone is in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.

Think about it: CBS desperately needs a hit show to fill its late-night time slot. (We all know why, don’t we?)

And, with the Kremlin threatening to do to YouTube what Paramount just did to Stephen Colbert, Vladimir Putin may need to find a new spot for his favorite Canadian purveyor of propaganda, Arend Feenstra.

Well, I have the obvious solution for everyone’s problems. How’s this for an opening worthy of Saturday Night Live:

“And now, from historic Nizhny Novgorod, it’s . . . Farming Those Faraway Fecund Fields With the Feenstra Family.”

All right, the lead-in may need a bit of work, but you get the idea. We’ll still be losing Colbert’s incomparable, dry humor; but in place of political satire, we’ll be gaining Arend Feenstra’s ability to talk forever about the most fascinating aspects of building a successful working farm from a barren field in the middle of Nowhere, Russia, with your own two hands (and those of your wife, eight children, and a slew of Russian neighbors and experts who occasionally appear out of nowhere).

In the past year and a half, I have already learned so much from Arend about plowing, planting, harvesting, construction, fencing, post-hole digging, waterproofing, machine repair, crop rotation, milking, egg incubation, sheep breeding, protecting poultry from marauding foxes when you’re not allowed to own firearms (sadly, learned the hard way), bartering in a foreign language, and how to tell the difference between a milk cow and a future hunk of pot roast . . . not to mention the administrative nightmare of doing business in rural Russia.

I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason, even though we may not understand that reason for a very long time, if ever. And I now comprehend why the fates arranged for me to stumble across the Feenstras and follow the story of their abandonment of life in free and happy Canada in order to take their chances in the historically autocratic land of Tsarism, Communism, and Putinism.

And that reason is to give Arend Feenstra, and all the little Feenstras, the big break they deserve: worldwide fame and fortune. They’re naturals on camera; they’ve worked hard; and they’ve earned recognition. So in May, when Stephen Colbert says his last good night from the glitzy studios of CBS-TV, his replacements will be ready to step in with the premier of “Farming With the Feenstras.”

As their agent, I’ll only charge the standard 15 percent . . . in U.S. Dollars or Euros, not Rubles, please.

So that’s what we have to look forward to in the spring. Insomniacs of the world . . . rejoice!

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/29/25

It’s still Monday evening, and I’ve just sat down to write this, the first of my literary masterpieces for tomorrow’s blog posts. Since I’m operating on a total of 2-1/2 hours of sleep since yesterday noon — that’s 33 hours ago and counting — I’m not entirely conscious of what I’m doing or saying.

Sunday night was one of those nights — restless legs, aching back, nagging bladder. I had gone to bed around 2:30 a.m., and after six hours of staring into the dark, I decided I couldn’t stand counting another revolution of the ceiling fan. So I got up around 8:30, came into the den, and began writing. Somewhere in the early afternoon, I did doze off for a couple of hours, but that’s about it.

How I managed to string together more than three coherent words is a total mystery. In fact, I only realized a couple of hours ago that I’ve actually issued five posts on a variety of subjects since midnight (some 21 hours ago) — a new record for me. And I have no idea where all that productivity came from. Maybe I should pull more all-nighters.

Unfortunately, though, that left me with nothing of great interest upon which to expound for Tuesday . . . until I saw Rex Huppke’s Facebook page with a link to his USA Today article detailing some of Donald Trump’s verbal garbage from his four-day Scottish boondoggle. And reading that, I was thrilled and relieved to have confirmation that I make more sense on 2-1/2 hours of sleep than Trump does on an average day.

I would never presume to try to enlarge upon Mr. Huppke’s writing; he is a master of wit, wisdom, and hyperbole. But he included direct quotes from Trump’s little rosebud lips that are too good not to repeat . . . so good, in fact, that they need no commentary from me.

So, without further ado, I give you bits and pieces of The Gospel According to Saint Trump (compliments of Rex Huppke, USA Today, July 28, 2025):

Upon arriving in Scotland, July 25th: “This immigration is killing Europe. And the other thing, stop the windmills killing the beauty of your countries.”

Monologue delivered to EC President Ursula von der Leyen, July 27th: “And the other thing I say to Europe, we will not allow a windmill to be built in the United States, they’re killing us. They’re killing the beauty of our scenery, our valleys, our beautiful plains. And I’m not talking about airplanes, I’m talking about beautiful plains, beautiful areas of the United States, and you look up and you see windmills all over the place, it’s a horrible thing. It’s the most expensive form of energy; it’s no good. They’re made in China, almost all of them. When they start to rust and rot in eight years, you can’t really turn them off, you can’t bury them, they won’t let you. But the propellers, the props, because they’re a certain type of fiber that doesn’t go well with the land, that’s what they say. The environmentalists say you can’t bury them because the fiber doesn’t go well with the land; in other words, if you bury it, it will harm our soil. The whole thing is a con job.”

Same day, different diatribe, also to Ursula von der Leyen: “That whole place is a mess. The Gaza Strip, you know, was given many years ago, said that they could have peace. That didn’t work out too well. When Israel gave that up, whoever was the prime minister at the time, who I know, who it was, but it was not exactly a very clever thing to do. Because that was given so that they finally have peace, but it’s actually made the situation worse. But we’ll see what happens. I think Iran is acting up. We have a lot of people acting, we have Venezuela acting up in a different way. They continue to send people that we rebuff to our border. They continue to send drugs into our country, Venezuela. They’ve been very nasty.”

*. *. *

Honestly, you can’t make this s**t up. And as I read it, one thought came to my mind . . . which, of course, Mr. Huppke said first, and better. So I’ll just quote his closing sentence, and hope he doesn’t mind . . . because, once again, he nails it:

“Had Joe Biden said something like that when he was president, Republicans would have either impeached him or ordered him locked in a room at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.” [Id.]

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/29/25

Or so says the candidate for next year’s Senate midterm election from the great state of “Georiga,” Republican Mike Collins, as he rolls out his MAGA agenda:

But it’s understandable: he’s just following in Trump’s footsteps. You may recall that he once created a whole new African country: “Nambia.”

We already have MAGA and MAHA; I propose we add MAIA:

MAKE AMERICA ILLITERATE AGAIN!

We’re already halfway there.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/28/25

It’s too bad Donald Trump isn’t the least bit interested in history . . . or in anything factual, for that matter. Because even he might appreciate the irony of two items that popped up in today’s column of “This Day In History” at History.com.

July 28, 1868. 14th Amendment adopted. Yes, folks . . . on this date, 157 years ago, the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was officially adopted following its ratification by the required three-quarters of U.S. States. And in case you’ve been out of school long enough to have forgotten the details, this is what is enshrined in Section 1 of that Amendment:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” [Constitution of the United States, constitution.congress.gov.] [Bold emphasis is mine.]

And lest anyone try to convince you that the restrictions refer only to the individual State governments, and not to the Federal government, you might remind them that the first sentence applies to everyone — even the President — and that it cannot be circumvented without passage of another amendment by a two-thirds vote of both Houses of Congress.

Now, about those unconstitutional ICE raids and deportations . . .

*. *. *

And how about this one:

July 28, 2016. Hillary Clinton accepts Democratic nomination for president. It’s been nine years, and Trump is still blaming then-President Barack Obama for trying to fix that election in Clinton’s favor — even now accusing him, with the gleeful assistance of head cheerleader and renowned mean girl Tulsi Gabbard, of “treasonous conspiracy.” [Emily Brooks and Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill, July 28, 2025.]

But Trump conveniently ignores at least two facts:

First, even his Republican cohorts in Congress realize that the current phase of his ongoing, jealousy-driven witch hunt against Obama will never stand up in a court of law, since it is no more than an attempted distraction from Trump’s own problems with the Jeffrey Epstein debacle; and

Second, Trump himself, backed by a Supreme Court ruling in 2024, has covered his own substantial a** by seeing to it that former presidents retain immunity from criminal prosecution even after leaving office for actions within the scope of their executive power. Or is he now going to claim that that only applies to Republican presidents?

And finally, one more reminder and a word of advice to the hypocrite-in-chief:

You won that 2016 election. Let it go.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/28/25