Posted on 09/23/2022 12:03:17 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
It’s Election Day in parts of Ukraine — but only because Russia imposed it. Vladimir Putin ordered referenda on annexation held in the parts of the Donbas that Russia still controls — and some areas it no longer does — in order to justify the seizure of those areas. That seizure will allow Putin to claim that any further Ukrainian advances in those areas are an invasion of Russia, which will unlock his ability to order full mobilization … and potentially other options.
We’ll get to the full-mobilization issue in a moment, but let’s stick to the referenda first. Ukrainian authorities are pleading with those behind enemy lines to refuse to vote and expose the process as the sham it is. Cooperation, warned the mayor of Melitopol, is collaboration:
The Ukrainian-elected mayor of the city of Melitopol is urging those in Russian-occupied areas of the country not to partake in the so-called “referendums” being held by Russian authorities.
“We call on the residents of the occupied territories not to participate in the pseudo-referendum in any way,” Ivan Fedorov wrote via Telegram.
“Participation in it is to support the bloody plan to escalate the war against Ukraine, to voluntarily become part of a closed totalitarian society, to assume part of the responsibility for war crimes, to agree to the mobilization of men aged 16-55 to replenish the cannon fodder of the Russian Army, to commit a criminal offense.”
“Don’t open the door to agitators. Do not go to the polling stations. Completely ignore the entire election process. Stay as far as possible from Russian military and enemy equipment. Our heroic armed forces of Ukraine will definitely liberate all occupied territories from racism,” Federov said, adding, “most importantly, participation in a pseudo-referendum is the worst betrayal.”
On the other hand, Ukrainians trapped in Russian occupation may not have much choice in the matter. Good Morning America reports that Russian armed forces plan to go door-to-door and force residents to vote at gunpoint. That certainly blurs the line between collaboration and duress, but it also makes an even bigger mockery of the referenda results on the same basis. “Vote da or we kill you” is one hell of a campaign slogan, after all:
BREAKING NEWS: There is panic in Russia after Vladimir Putin orders new mobilization. ABC News' @TSoufiBurridge has more from Kharkiv, Ukraine. https://t.co/eoKvQ4n65a pic.twitter.com/EpNPLXwfXz
— Good Morning America (@GMA) September 23, 2022
Not that anyone outside of Russia and their stooges in the Donbas takes this seriously as a matter of law anyway. UN Secretary-General António Guterres called it a “violation of the UN Charter and international law.” The US and the EU nations have rejected it, as has Ukraine itself:
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink referred to the referendums, as well as increased military mobilization, as “signs of weakness, of Russian failure,” echoing many opinions that Russia is acting out under pressure in response to Ukrainian advances.
“The United States will never recognize Russia’s claim to purportedly annexed Ukrainian territory, and we will continue to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” Brink tweeted Tuesday. …
“There is global consensus and international law,” Mykhailo Podolyak, the adviser to the head of the office of the president posted on Twitter. “It is unambiguous: Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea are Ukraine. Any attempts to repaint flags are a fiction that will not change anything for us nor for our partners.”
The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that any referendum in Russian-occupied territories will not have any legal consequences.
“No matter how much the Russian Federation holds illegal votes in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, the result will be the same: all Ukrainian territories will be freed from Russian occupation, and the Russian leadership will be brought to the strictest responsibility for organized terror, war crimes and crimes against humanity on Ukrainian soil,” the statement said.
None of that matters to Putin, who isn’t seeking international recognition in the first place. He’s looking for an excuse to justify a wider mobilization and more spending on this lost cause in a desperate attempt to salvage some gain from what is right now looking like a total loss. He has to get his populace fired up for the fight, and the only way to do that now is to paint the heretofore tiny “Nazi clique” into a force that could do what Napoleon and Hitler could not — conquer Russia proper.
It’s not working, as the video above from GMA and this one from the Daily Mail shows. Russians do not want to go to the Ukrainian front, and Russian forces are impressing anti-war protesters into service instead:
The referenda could create another foreign-relations headache for Putin other than in the West, however. China has already cooled on its “friendship” with Russia over the brutality and failures in Ukraine, as has India. Both of those countries have active disputes over claimed territories over which they claim sovereignty: Taiwan for China, Kashmir for India. Cheering on referenda to determine national sovereignty could backfire for both nations, which might explain the very chilly reception Putin got from Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping earlier this month.
Even with that aside, the domestic gambit clearly isn’t working. ISW focused on that aspect in its daily briefing last night:
The Kremlin’s heavy-handed approach to partial mobilization may successfully meet the Kremlin’s internal quota of mobilized personnel but is unlikely to generate effective soldiers and is prompting significant domestic backlash for little gain. Russian authorities are forcibly recruiting Russian citizens to fight in Ukraine on flimsy pretexts, violating the Kremlin’s promise to recruit only those with military experience. Russian authorities are also demonstrably mobilizing personnel (such as protesters) who will enter the war in Ukraine with abysmal morale. The Kremlin’s heavy-handed approach to partial mobilization will likely exacerbate domestic resentment of a measure that would have been unpopular even if implemented without the harsh approaches observed in the last 24 hours.
The Kremlin is openly not adhering to its promised conditions for partial mobilization just 24 hours after its September 21 declaration. Russian officials previously claimed that partial mobilization will only impact 300,000 men and only those with previous military experience.[1] Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated on September 22 that the practice of administering mobilization notices to detained protesters does not contradict the September 21 mobilization law. Peskov’s threat contravenes the Kremlin’s claim that it will abstain from mobilizing men outside of composed reservist lists.
They also raise the possibility that the mobilization served as a distraction for a prisoner swap that milbloggers opposed:
The Kremlin likely attempted to downplay a prisoner swap with Ukraine that is deeply unpopular among Russian nationalists and milbloggers by undertaking the swap the same day Putin announced partial mobilization. The Kremlin exchanged 215 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs), including captured foreign nationals and Azov Battalion leaders, for at least 55 Russian POWs and political prisoners, including Putin’s personal friend, Ukrainian billionaire Viktor Medvechuk, on September 21.[14] The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed on September 22 that Russian and DNR and LNR POWs were in “mortal danger” in Ukrainian custody.[15] Far-right Russian milbloggers criticized the exchange and asked if the Kremlin had given up on the ”de-Nazification” of Ukraine, one of the stated goals of the Russian invasion.[16] Kremlin propagandists had heavily publicized the capture and planned prosecution of Azov personnel, accusing them of being Ukrainian Nazis. Other milbloggers criticized the Kremlin for enabling what they called Ukrainian information operations and ”allowing Kyiv to manipulate the mood in Russia.”[17] Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov described the exchange as ”incomprehensible,” implied that Chechen forces tortured Azov prisoners in captivity, and implied that Russian forces who capture ”Nazis” should kill them rather than take them as POWs if they will be traded back to Ukraine.[18] Torturing or killing POWs is a war crime and violates the Geneva Conventions.
Peachy.
All of this does help us to appreciate our own elections and our ability to engage in a political system in which self-governance remains the rule rather than the exception. It’s not perfect, but it’s light-years away from what others experience … especially in the Donbas these days.
A Russian mercenary wearing the symbol of the notorious Wagner military group stands guard outside a polling station in occupied Ukraine
Election officials carrying a clear ballot box (left) are let into an apartment block in occupied Ukraine accompanied by armed Russian cops (right)
>>>> “LOL, pervert Scott Ritter?” <<<<
Just like “pervert Matt Gaetz,” right?
When the Deep State Globo Homo Empire REALLY considers you to be a threat, this is their hole-card. You are a child-molesting kiddie-porn pervert. [Even though the FBI took everybody off their child pornography distribution cases to put them onto J-6 “White Supremacy” hunts]
Ask ace reporter Sharyl Attkisson. [Fast and Furious and Benghazi, etc. She was fired from CBS for doing actual investigative journalism.] Not only did the FBI/NSA/CIA plant “top secret” files in her computer, they tried to plant “kiddie porn” files in her husband’s computer.
She literally woke up to what was going on because her main computer tower, for work reasons, was in her bedroom near her bed, and for no reason, it would go into “max overdrive download whirr mode” at 3 am, for a half hour or more. For no reason she could think of. This is all in her book “Stonewalled.”
[If her work computer had been in an office in another room, she would not have been tipped off by its hard drive waking up and going into “turbine helicopter mode.” And she’d probably have been arrested for possessing T/S material. And her husband arrested for kiddie porn. Their family destroyed—by the deep state NSA/FBI/CIA/whoever.]
So Atkisson took her computer to “white hat” ex-fed-agent computer experts. The FBI/NSA/CIA/whoever had planted T/S files in her computer hard drive, to be “found” later after an FBI raid. [Think: Mar A Lago. Your FBI/NSA/CIA. Your tax dollars at work.]
Thank you, Tlozo-Soros-Globo-Homo-Puppet (witting or unwitting) for reminding me to mention how the deep state reacts when it feels a REAL threat from a minion who wanders off the reservation and goes off script.
Like USMC officer and U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who did not go along with the false “Iraq WMD” narrative, used to get us into the Iraq War. For this “offense,” they tried to frame Ritter as a child molester. [Hey, wounded / maimed Iraq vets, and family survivors? What do you think about the “Iraq WMDs” false narrative, the “big lie” that was used to send you to “Operation Iraqi Freedom?”]
This is the same exact “child molester” play they they tried more recently with Matt Gaetz. And attempted to do with Sharyl Attkisson’s husband. Attempting to download kiddie porn files onto his covertly federally hacked computer. To take out his wife because she would have been in his media firestorm “blast radius.”
Folks, this is the level of PURE EVIL of the Globo Homo Empire deep state enemy we are up against. Including both paid trolls and useful idiots.
Which are you, tlozo? A paid troll, or a useful idiot?
Vote no or go to jail.
Only way to win is not to vote.
Just like “pervert Matt Gaetz,” right?
Was Matt Gaetz found guilty? Twice? Like your hero Ritter?
I always love the 'Soros-Globo-Homo-Puppet 'from idiots who reference a convicted pervert Scott Ritter.
Ukraine Threatens 5-Year Prison Sentence For Anyone Voting In “Sham Referendums”
Starting last
month Ukrainian lawmakers began seeking to implement severe consequences for those participating in Russia-sponsored referendums in occupied territories of Ukraine. For example, a law is being pushed through parliament which criminalizes obtaining a Russian passport in temporarily occupied territories, Ukrainian sources reported last week, according to Yahoo News.
Proposed possible punishments have included losing Ukrainian citizenship, or even lengthy jail sentences. But other officials have argued for a more compromising approach given the necessity of survival in occupied areas. But now the Ukrainian government has reiterated its willingness to impose steep penalties for even participating in any Kremlin-sponsored vote to join the Russian Federation.
Russian President Putin’s Wednesday morning address announcing partial mobilization also affirmed plans to move forward with referendums in the LPR, DPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.
Ukraine has responded by warning its citizens that any official who promotes or organizes the voting faces a “prison term of five to ten years” – as well as possible asset seizure by the state, and being barred from employment in select positions for up to 15 years.
...
Why do neocons here not support neither Putin nor Zelensky as Putin won’t attack a NATO member?
Why do they like Zel being toed to the hip of Bidem, Soros, Klaus, WEF, Pelosi, Schiff, Nuland, etc?
Why do they want to protect their borders?
Why aren’t they true conservatives?
Regardless of the result of the referendum, it will have absolutely no credibility.
Sharyl Atkisson’s husband would be a “convicted kiddie porn distributor” and she would have been convicted of illegally possessing T/S material if she had not heard her computer, near her bed, repeatedly going into helicopter mode at 3 am.
A standard KGB cold war tactic (without a doubt used on Moscow-visiting Bill Clinton, then a Rhodes Scholar) was to set up a male Western high-value tourist with a super hot girl who looks 25. He meets her at the bar, but it’s all a set up. This was “KGB-101.”
Of course, the male mark’s Hotel Inturist room was wired for film and sound. At the right moment, the “Moscow Militia” (looking like police in uniforms, but actually KGB) would burst in, along with the “worried father” of the “underage girl.”
Next step is the proffer: “Normally this means ten years in a Moscow prison, but perhaps we can work something out.” This was step one in a blackmail process. It was KGB 101. if you don’t know this, you were born last week, or you are a retard.
No doubt this is what our own FBI/KGB did with Matt Gaetz, without success, and with Ritter, sticking some BS on him. Congressman Gaetz comes from a VERY wealthy family, and they could fight back and succeed. No doubt his legal expenses were/are in the millions. An ordinary Joe without deep pockets or connections might be forced into a corner to avoid an almost certain 50 years in a penitentiary, even on false charges.
But against rich or poor, it’s the exact same KGB tactic. Exactly the same.
Ask Matt Gaetz or Sharyl Attkisson, or her husband. This is what they do.
Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, also banned opposition political parties, just like the democraps are trying to do here in America.
You support that.
The term ‘neocon’ is used by the childishly ignorant.
‘Neo’ means ‘new’.
How does being new make something a bad thing?
It is just a term uneducated people use because it makes them feel like they are modern, hip, or in-the-know, but they are the opposite. In other words, it is used by liberals.
How is that Kosovo referendum holding up, that perfect referendum held under the barrels of thousands of NATO troops, tanks, and jet bombers?
That beautiful, pure, wonderful, holy referendum that carved Kosovo out of Serbia?
Does the Kosovo Referendum have credibility, or absolutely no credibility?
I guess it depends upon who is “guarding” the election with their troops, tanks, and bombers.
See 23 and 28.
Right, you don't see the hypocrisy of Russia, overseeing elections in Donbas, about whether or not to join Russia? Seriously?
We are supposed to listen to the insight of Ritter when he doesn't have the wisdom or control to keep his pants on, repeatedly, around 15 year old girls? How about finding someone to quote who's not a pervert.
They also did this to rather famous basketball play I happen to know. He was catfished but then framed using planted materials.
There’s a disturbance in the New World Order.
But it's exactly the same FBI/KGB tactic. And it sure helps a lot if your family has a few million $ lying around to pay for a legal defense/counter attack (like Matt Gaetz.)
But you, mere stooge minion that you are, you would just as fast be here saying that Sharyl Attkisson was a "convicted felon" for having "illegal T/S files" on her computer. And you would say that her husband was a "convicted child porn distributor."
>>For the record, (after a Stasi stooge like you reports me), I do NOT have child porn on my computer, I do NOT have T/S material on my computer, I do NOT have a fast-acting terminal disease, and I am NOT suicidal.<<
[I know this post is directed to "Tlozo," but it's really directed to the boys and girsl down in the fusion centers.]
37
” How about finding someone to quote who’s not a pervert.”
Well, that wouldn’t be any liberal or democrat, that’s for sure.
The majority in all these regions are ethnic Russians and couldn't be happy to leave Ukraine, especially those in Donetsk and Lugansk that have been persecuted and killed for for years by Ukrainian nationalists and neo-Nazis.
This one-sided propaganda is absurd and isn't going to fly in the age of social media.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.