Stephen Mack wrote:
Karen & Lew,
Reposted by Karen:
Hegseth files CRIMINAL probe for ‘$48 BILLION PILFERED by ZELENSKY’ — CIA insider cites whistleblower pic.twitter.com/qyvGHmkLFk
— RT (@RT_com) November 22, 2025
It didn’t start with Zelensky. The per-capita GDP of Ukraine was only 1/3 that of Russia and Poland BEFORE the Maidan Coup. In fact, it was only ½ the per-capita GDP of Belarus. So in other words, the notional Breadbasket of Europe could not even approximate the economic outputs of neighboring European states. That was a huge corruption tax put in place by the Ukrainian Crony-Elites even before the installation of the Zelensky regime.
Russia most probably did, but actually did not have to game the plebiscites for the decoupling of Crimea and the Donbas regions. On top of the harassment the ethnic Russians in Ukraine were experiencing from the Ukro-Nazi cadres, the country itself was / is an economic basket case. The residents in those Eastern regions had that reason alone to seek autonomy.
As I have noted before, Trump’s empty gas-bag promise of ending the conflict in Ukraine in 24 hours is made worse by the fact that during the Trump 1.0 administration, Trump and the Europeans completely ignored the Minsk 2 Accord to end the hostilities that Ukraine had signed in 2015. The perverse irony is that any deal that Ukraine agrees to now will probably be worse for Ukraine than that codified in Minsk 2.
Once again:
If we remain one people under an efficient government. the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.
Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice? President Washington, Farewell Address
