1. Is there a scandal brewing with the German President (Steinmeier)?
Well....not exactly a scandal, but a problem.
There was talk two weeks ago that Germany's Steinmeier would go and visit Kiev. It's not that he can do much....but just show support, have pictures taken, and take a list of things that Ukraine needed.
Ukraine's President (Zelenskyy) said 'no', and has repeated the 'no' on several occasions. Most of the German politicians are invited...Steinmeier is NOT invited. Why? This goes to a long standing problem for about a dozen-odd bigwigs within the SPD Party, and the topic of Ostpolitik.
Ostpolitik? This was a phrase/policy created in the 1960s by SPD's Willy Brandt, and it was supposed to be a 'path' or doorway for friendly relations with the USSR to exist. What it typically meant was a lot of friendly meetings (over and over), with pictures taken, and hyped views by journalists that the evil USSR could be reformed.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall....Ostpolitik continued, but in a modified form. The sense now was that the evil Russia/questionable Putin....could be reformed.
Certain SPD folks play a key role, and Steinmeier is a major player in this political action.
Some will say that 'useful idiot' philosophy fell into play here....that various SPD folks were just plain stupid in their belief.
The problem is.....Steinmeier can't really discuss this no-invite situation because it brings up the Ostpolitik gimmick and how it failed miserably.
2. Russian flagship on the Black Sea....heavily damaged? All that is clear on this....some explosive on the ship blew up. The ship isn't sinking but it's not going to be operational for months (if they do go and repair it).
3. Serious questions exist over the radiation levels in Chernobyl. They'd like to test things and get some assessments. But there's this problem. The central server which would process all this information....isn't there. Yes, it was one of those things that the Conscripts of Russia took.
N-TV covered a good bit of this story.
But they added this one segment to the story.....talking over the 133 'samples' of radioactivity which were locked up and secure....but now are 'gone'. War souvenirs? More than likely, but they point out.....each one of these present a remarkable danger to whoever took them.
Getting this server problem fixed? This might take weeks.
4. In central Ukraine, in the city of Knipro.....Ukrainian soldiers have retaken the area. What they say (BS-factor I put on this is '2') is that they have around 1,500 dead Russians laying in the morgues around the city. They've invited the mothers of the Russians to come and pick up their sons.
It's a pretty crappy mess, and obviously...Putin's people don't care. If they get involved.....it's probably to just take possession and dig one deep massive pit....to dump the bodies all into the same hole.
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