re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict.

Honestly, if that’s all that happened, we’re lucky.
Im genuinely worried the Russians are going to walk away with major star secrets that could lead to nuclear war at this point.

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Do you think Putin answers to Sechin?

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No, they are the Siamese twins of the Russian mafia. Their titles don't matter, they see each other as equals. They only want to maintain control.

The main thing to understand about both of them is the underlying psychopathy. Just like Stalin, once they perceive any threat, they kill people. If the target person is a higher-up in a mafia clan they will have them arrested and jailed long term, but killing is their preferred solution. This way any ambitious competitor never gets a chance to become a threat.

As we said before, the way to avoid such a fate is to keep a very low profile. Wear beige and sit in the back row. This is where expertise at politics comes into value. And we're not talking about getting elected to the Duma but navigating the multiple snakepits of the FSB, GUR and other security services. A clever person has to put themselves in a position of strength without attracting attention and then wait for their opportunity.

This was the exact playsheet of Putin and Sechin. In the early days Putin never attracted attention to himself. Hell, in the 1990's he even looked like a complete whimp. Who would suspect he was a psychopath tied at the hip with a former GRU residentura in Mozambique? They had both been out of the country for much of the 1980's and were thus not 'connected'. But they had one solution for all problems - get to the other guy first. And with Sechin's instincts, they were always first.

Putin and Sechin will certainly continue to stick together as they have for the last 30+ years. But we know that there are a few clever persons within the Russian power structure that have positioned themselves with strength and are just waiting for the right opportunity to strike. With the way the war is going, these opportunities are getting closer and closer. Thus the high profile oligarch stripping and many more less known recent arrests. Putin and Sechin know these people exist and are hunting. But it takes a lot of money to find these targets and with another refinery going up every other day now, the pressure is on.

Should be fun.

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Good news:

- No big deal over heads of Ukraine

- Summit cut short, no celebratory luncheon as planned

- Trump publicly contradicting Putin, “no deal”

- not even economic, energy, Arctic or nuclear arms deals, Russia failing to grab such distraction agenda

- no American sanction relief for Russia

- no Russian deal over NATO

Bad news:

- no new major American sanctions on Russia as previously promised

- public humiliation of the United States by Russian war criminal

— Main takeaway: Russia playing for time, delaying

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LINK

Volodymyr Zelenskyy
@ZelenskyyUa

We had a long and substantive conversation with
@POTUS
. We started with one-on-one talks before inviting European leaders to join us. This call lasted for more than an hour and a half, including about an hour of our bilateral conversation with President Trump.

Ukraine reaffirms its readiness to work with maximum effort to achieve peace. President Trump informed about his meeting with the Russian leader and the main points of their discussion. It is important that America’s strength has an impact on the development of the situation.

We support President Trump’s proposal for a trilateral meeting between Ukraine, the USA, and Russia. Ukraine emphasizes that key issues can be discussed at the level of leaders, and a trilateral format is suitable for this.

On Monday, I will meet with President Trump in Washington, D.C., to discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war. I am grateful for the invitation.

It is important that Europeans are involved at every stage to ensure reliable security guarantees together with America. We also discussed positive signals from the American side regarding participation in guaranteeing Ukraine’s security. We continue to coordinate our positions with all partners. I thank everyone who is helping.

Anton Gerashchenko
@Gerashchenko_en
·
1h
Main points from the statement by European leaders following the meeting of President Trump and Putin:

Ukraine must have ironclad security guarantees;

No limitations should be placed on Ukraine’s armed forces or on its cooperation with third countries;

Russia cannot have a veto against Ukraine‘s pathway to EU and NATO;

Our support to Ukraine will continue.

Full text of the statement:

Statement by President Macron, Prime Minister Meloni, Chancellor Merz, Prime Minister Starmer, President Stubb, Prime Minister Tusk, President Costa, President von der Leyen

Early this morning, President Trump debriefed us and President Zelenskyy following his meeting with the Russian President in Alaska on 15 August 2025.
Leaders welcomed President Trump’s efforts to stop the killing in Ukraine, end Russia’s war of aggression, and achieve just and lasting peace.
As President Trump said ‘there’s no deal until there’s a deal’. As envisioned by President Trump, the next step must now be further talks including President Zelenskyy, whom he will meet soon.
We are also ready to work with President Trump and President Zelenskyy towards a trilateral summit with European support.
We are clear that Ukraine must have ironclad security guarantees to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity. We welcome President Trump’s statement that the US is prepared to give security guarantees. The Coalition of the Willing is ready to play an active role. No limitations should be placed on Ukraine’s armed forces or on its cooperation with third countries. Russia cannot have a veto against Ukraine‘s pathway to EU and NATO.
It will be up to Ukraine to make decisions on its territory. International borders must not be changed by force.
Our support to Ukraine will continue. We are determined to do more to keep Ukraine strong in order to achieve an end to the fighting and a just and lasting peace.
As long as the killing in Ukraine continues, we stand ready to uphold the pressure on Russia. We will continue to strengthen sanctions and wider economic measures to put pressure on Russia’s war economy until there is a just and lasting peace.
Ukraine can count on our unwavering solidarity as we work towards a peace that safeguards Ukraine’s and Europe’s vital security interests.

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This whole thing is an embarrassment. It’s been an incredible victory for Putin. I thought we’d hit the bottom with a pants shitting dementia patient in the White House.

Perhaps the worst post on this site. Congratulations

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Not well thought out, but not close to your dumb take yesterday.

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As long as the US isn’t involved that’s fine with me. Let Russia fight Ukraine for the next decade who cares

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Discounts on Russian oil exceeded $ 12 per barrel after Trump’s threats against India

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Russian oilmen are increasing discounts on Urals oil after Donald Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs for India and threatened to raise them to 50% for energy cooperation with the Kremlin.

As of August 14, the discount of Urals in the port of Primorsk on the Baltic Sea to the North Sea Brent reached $12.16 per barrel, Interfax reports, citing data from Argus.

At the end of July, the discount was $11.96 per barrel on FOB terms. In Indian ports (taking into account the cost of transportation), Urals discounts increased from $2.04 to $2.61 per barrel.

For China, which buys the Far Eastern grade ESPO, discounts in the port of Kozmino rose from $3.75 to $4.81 per barrel compared to the Dubai brand.

After increasing the discounts, Indian refineries, which buy about 2 million barrels of Urals daily, began to look closely with the Russian class, the import of which was suspended due to Trump’s duties.

[Indian State owned] Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum have [once] again begun to send requests to merchant firms to buy Urals, three sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.

Discounts for India will lead to a decrease in [Russian] federal budget revenues, warns Natalia Milchakova, a leading analyst at Freedom Finance Global: taking into account the current price of Brent (about $66 per barrel), the Russian Urals variety is [currently] trading at $54-55 [per bbl] against $60 on average for July.

As a result, oil and gas revenues at the end of the year may fall below 8 trillion rubles, Milchakov does not exclude. Initially, the Ministry of Finance planned to collect 10.9 trillion rubles, but in the summer sharply lowered the plan - to 8.3 trillion.

In January-July, commodity tax revenues to the treasury decreased by 18%, and in the last three months they have fallen at a rate of about 30% year-on-year. For 7 months in the [2025] budget, according to the Ministry of Finance, there was a deficit of 4.9 trillion rubles - 4.4 times more than in the same period a year ago.

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As noted before, the privately held refineries in India are 49% owned by Rosneft, our friend Igor Sechin's company. So when he demands an additional discount on his own country's Urals crude - to make the total discount over 21% now - he is stealing money from the Russian tax rolls. This is the classic and predictable Russian mafia looting. Even though Russia's military desperately needs every penny now, stealing comes first with Putin and Sechin. Psychopaths don't change their spots, no matter how bad it gets.

Of interest is the seller of the Urals here, the one getting stuck for the discounts. I think we can be assured it is not Rosneft, so who? Lukoil, Gazprom Neft, Bashneft...? Whoever it is, they will know how to keep their complaints firmly to themselves.

Meanwhile, TACO's scary 25% sanctions are just another bluff and the Indians are going back to business as usual with no fear of the giant pussy in the White House.

LINK

Reliance isn't owned by Russians it has a Butyl Rubber plant downstream in a JV with Sibur of Russia. over half its stock is owned by one Indian family. It the largest refinery complex in the world where two major refineries are side by side.with 1.2 million BPD capacity. It's a monster

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The melt from these extremist leftist lunatics is glorious and it's just going to get better. Cope, LeeB and the newest leftist nut Leopold are going to go postal.

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They refuse to acknowledge the administrations and people who caused this entire mess in Ukraine. Then turn around and hate on Trump for trying to stop the bloodshed.

Total fricking retards. Typical leftists