Damage Control: Major Blows to EU as von der Leyen's Rotten Regime Teeters
The EU cabal is experiencing some serious setbacks, not to mention blows to the tattered drapes of its credibility.
First there was the fact that Belgium has officially rejected its piracy plans of stealing Russian assets, which came as a major slap in the face of EU apparatchiks.
Two headlines juxtaposed for effect:
Now Belgium is too a ‘Russian asset’, as can be seen by the risibly tired script.
The Belgian prime minister revealed in an interview that Russian ‘threats’ apparently gave him cold feet.
Bart De Wever: “Moscow has let us know that if its assets are seized, Belgium and I will feel the consequences for eternity...”
The full statement is even more interesting—read the bolded parts in particular:
Question: The issue of “frozen” Russian assets is taking up a lot of your time and energy. Is that fair?
The pressure surrounding this issue is incredible. I have a team working day and night on it. It would be a great story: taking money from the wicked guy, Putin, and giving it to the good guy, Ukraine. But stealing frozen assets from another country, its sovereign wealth fund, has never been done before. This is money belonging to the Russian Central Bank. Even during World War II, Germany’s money was not confiscated. During a war, sovereign assets are frozen. And at the end of the war, the losing state must give up all or part of these assets to compensate the victors. But who really believes that Russia will lose in Ukraine? It’s a fairy tale, a total illusion. It is not even desirable for it to lose and for instability to take hold in a country that has nuclear weapons. And who believes that Putin will calmly accept the confiscation of Russian assets? Moscow has let us know that in the event of seizure, Belgium and I, personally, would feel the effects “for eternity.” That seems like a rather long time to me... Russia could also confiscate certain Western assets: Euroclear has 16 billion in Russia. All Belgian factories in Russia could also be seized.
As can be seen, the decision to not play games with Russia’s money rests entirely on the conviction that Russia will definitely win the war, and as such cannot be forced to pay such reparations as the “loser”.
If this weren’t big enough of a thorn for the nefarious EU, this week a major fraud probe shook the EU’s foundations as several high ranking officials were suddenly arrested under von der Leyen’s deteriorating watch, spurring calls for a fourth vote of no confidence for the Queen of Rot herself:
Ursula von der Leyen is facing the starkest challenge to the EU’s accountability in a generation ― with a fraud probe ensnaring two of the biggest names in Brussels and threatening to explode into a full-scale crisis.
An announcement by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office that the EU’s former foreign affairs chief and a senior diplomat currently working in von der Leyen’s Commission had been detained on Tuesday was seized on by her critics, with renewed calls that she face a fourth vote of no confidence.
It seems a kind of elite civil war has erupted within the crumbling walls of the EU, and we are surely in for an entertaining unraveling.
If that weren’t bad enough, the civil war between the EU and the US is likewise scintillating, as a series of new EU
ZeroHedge summarizes as follows:
The leaked transcript of the call between European leaders strategizing about how to protect the Zelensky government and Kiev’s interests was published Thursday by the German magazine Der Spiegel.
Also reportedly on the line engaged in the conversation were German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and of course Zelensky as well.
The key excerpt demonstrates the utter trepidation of the panicking Euro-suits:
Finland’s Stubb seemed to agree with Merz, according to the transcript. “We cannot leave Ukraine and Volodymyr alone with these guys,” he said, apparently referring to Witkoff and Kushner, which attracted agreement from Rutte.
“I agree with Alexander — we must protect Volodymyr [Zelenskyy],” the NATO chief said. NATO declined to comment when reached by POLITICO.
It’s clear the Europeans are desperate to protect Zelensky at all costs from the wiles of the Trump team, with Macron in particular intimating his fears that US “will betray” Ukraine. Unfortunately, this antic troupe is one act short of a circus:
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There have been some interesting tidings on the Russian oil and sanctions front.
The energy and commodities correspondent at Bloomberg writes:
Matryoshka oil trading:
Goldman Sachs says that oil exports from Lukoil and Rosneft are down ~1.1m b/d, but **simultaneosly** exports from other Russian “non-sanctioned companies” are up 1.0m b/d.
“Russian oil trading networks are reorganizing quickly,” the bank says.
Woops.
More:
Russian seaborne oil exports are rising again
Bloomberg awkwardly tries to describe the situation:
Moscow is struggling to supply crude oil under U.S. sanctions: seaborne shipments have increased by one-fifth over three months.
According to the agency, Russia has steadily maintained deliveries at over 3 million bpd, but there are problems with transportation and unloading.
The average travel time for ESPO crude from Kozmino to Chinese ports has increased to 12 days for vessels loaded in November (previously it was no more than 8).
Based on vessel-tracking data, Russia shipped 3.46 million bpd over the four weeks ending November 30, which is about 210,000 barrels more than the week before.
This is the first increase since the U.S. announced sanctions in mid-October against oil giants Rosneft PJSC and Lukoil PJSC, the agency acknowledges.
The average daily volume of shipments for the past week rose to 3.94 million bpd, which is roughly 690,000 bpd more than the previous week.
On average for the month, the gross value of Russian exports remained unchanged at $1.13 billion per week, with higher export volumes offsetting the ninth consecutive decline in average prices.
That’s not to mention the obligatory revision of another much-needed propaganda bit about Russia’s so-called gas crisis:
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On the battlefront, German rag BILD has now admitted that Russian forces have trapped over 1,000 AFU troops in Mirnograd:
Head flack Julian Roepcke whines:
Berlin – A dramatic call for help has come from Myrnohrad, the neighboring town of Pokrovsk, which Russia captured on Monday after 14 months of heavy fighting. Here, more than 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers continue to defend the ruins of the town, which once had a population of 41,000.
But with the capture of Pokrovsk, the situation for the members of a total of five Ukrainian brigades in Myrnohrad has worsened once again. A Ukrainian soldier in the city told BILD:
“To be honest, the situation is critical. Logistics are handled exclusively by drones and ground-based robotic complexes. It’s even difficult to bring in food.”
The article notes the troops are not allowed to leave:
More than 1000 Ukrainian soldiers persevere more in Myrnohrad, are not allowed to leave the almost completely cornered city
The soldier tells BILD:
A cauldron looms
According to the soldier, who wishes to remain anonymous, the activists of the “DeepState” group have presented a realistic picture of the situation. According to them, Russia has virtually completely cut off land-based logistics for Ukrainian soldiers in Myrnohrad.
The fact is: a cauldron looms, from which there may be no escape in just a few days.
It’s all interesting g iven that many pro-UA sources still claim only “a couple hundred” or less Ukrainian troops remain in the city.
A top Ukrainian military channel corroborated the direness of the situation and declared that the agglomerate is in fact fully encircled:
The Russian MOD even published a heavily-edited highlight reel of what is claimed to be such a ‘mass surrender’ of Ukrainian troops as referenced in the above post:
Another top channel writes:
A claimed Ukrainian soldier trapped in Mirnograd’s numb plea to his mother:
Hopefully for him, there is another Azovstal-style mass surrender where the troops get to survive. However, judging by recent videos it seems they will instead remain entombed in the forsaken city forever. Here is a compilation showing how Russia is now razing the trapped AFU in Mirnograd with ODAB thermobaric bombs:
Meanwhile, in Ukraine’s own Rada infamous MP Mariana Bezugla called Pokrovsk-Mirnograd surrounded and even demanded for Syrsky to be dismissed:
Pokrovsk has been surrendered, Mirnograd is surrounded, Syrsky should be dismissed — stated in the Rada
➖”Pokrovsk has already been captured, and Mirnograd is completely surrounded. Russians are approaching Zaporizhzhia and have long been in Konstantinovka,” said deputy Bezuglaya from the tribune in the Rada.
▪️She called for dismissing General Syrsky, reforming the general staff, and an audit in the army.
At this point, the most interesting thing will be to see the political reverberations that take place once Mirnograd and the entire symbolic agglomerate falls for good. It comes at a time that can be deemed a kind of ‘perfect storm’ given the political crisis that has now embroiled Zelensky, what with the NABU purges and Yermak’s recent firing of a few days ago.
It seems the longer the war goes on, the more it becomes clear just how obscenely misguided the West’s projections for both Russia and the war really were.
But the final lesson yet to be learned concerns just how far Russia can and will go in Ukraine, until Ukraine itself is Russia, should the West continue pussyfooting and lollygagging with the disingenuous ‘settlement’ absurdity, wherein Russia’s core, unchanged demands are ignored again and again while the goalposts are shifted minutely only to buy desperate time for some deus ex machina “miracle” to save Ukraine at the eleventh hour. With the latest Brussels blow to the EU’s dreams of piracy, all such miracles, it seems, are becoming quickly exhausted.
So, we’re left with the inevitable and final lesson.