California governor rejects parole for Manson follower Leslie Van Houten

By Edward Era Barbacena

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday blocked parole for Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten, reversing a panel’s recommendation that she be freed after spending a half-century in prison.

Van Houten, 72, “currently poses an unreasonable danger to society if released from prison at this time,” Newsom said in his parole review. It was the fifth time that a California governor has rejected her release.

Her attorney, Rich Pfeiffer, disputed that view and said the decision will be appealed in court. He accused Newsom of rejecting parole because he is worried about “his political future” and noted that Van Houten has a spotless prison disciplinary record.

“We’re not fighting (over) Leslie being a good person. She’s proven that through her actions for half a century,” he said.

Van Houten is serving a life sentence for helping Manson and others kill Los Angeles grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, in August 1969. Van Houten was 19 when she and other cult members fatally stabbed the LaBiancas and smeared the couple’s blood on the walls.

The day before, other Manson followers, not including Van Houten, killed pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others.

In his rejection letter, Newsom noted that Van Housen had undergone therapy, earned educational degrees and taken self-help classes in prison and had shown “increased maturity and rehabilitation.”

But Van Houten also has “gaps in insight” that continue to make her a danger to society, Newsom said.

Van Houten has had 21 parole hearings since 1982. Most parole boards denied her bid for freedom. But five panels have recommended her release since 2016, saying she had expressed remorse and was no longer a threat to public safety.

Newsom rejected a recommendation made last November.

He previously reversed parole recommendations in 2019 and 2020. In February, the California Supreme Court refused to hear Van Houten’s appeal of the 2020 rejection.

Previous Gov. Jerry Brown rejected Van Houten’s parole in 2016 and 2018.

Manson died in 2017 of natural causes at a California hospital while serving a life sentence.

 

Frederick Newhall

California man Frederick Newhall who kidnapped 26 children, buried them alive is recommended for parole

Survivors of the kidnapping say they are still fearful

By Edward Era Barbacena

A California WHITE  man who kidnapped 26 children on a school bus in 1976 was recommended for parole. 

Frederick Newhall Woods was one of three gunmen who hijacked a school bus with 26 kids and their bus driver in Chowchilla, California, in 1976. The men transferred the driver and children to vans and drove them 12 hours before they were buried alive in an underground truck trailer.

It is considered the biggest kidnapping in U.S. history. 

Woods had attempted to earn parole 17 times since his conviction, and was granted a recommendation by a panel of two commissioners during his 18th attempt this year. The full parole board, the board's legal division and Gov. Gavin Newsom still need to approve the recommendation. 

Woods and the two other kidnappers, James and Richard Schoenfeld, had wanted $5 million in ransom during the kidnapping. The driver and some older children, however, managed to escape by digging out of the trailer while their captors slept. 

26 children and a driver who were kidnapped and
burried alive in 1976

The children and driver did not suffer from life-threatening injuries but reported psychological harm following the incident. 

"I'm 50 years old, and I can have an anxiety attack over getting in the car with my husband," survivor Jennifer Brown Hyde told Fox News senior correspondent and "Nightmare in Chowchilla" host Claudia Cowan earlier this year. 

Fred Woods, James Schoenfeld, Richard Schoenfeld pictured in
custody (ALAMEDA COUNTY D.A.'S OFFICE)

Woods and the two other men were arrested about two weeks later and sentenced to life without parole. An appeals court later overturned the decision and made the men eligible for parole. 

Richard Schoenfeld was paroled in 2012 and James Schoenfeld in 2015. 

Woods read an apology for the mass kidnappings Friday. 

"I've had empathy for the victims which I didn't have then," he said, according to CBS News. "I've had a character change since then."

"I was 24 years old," he added. "Now I fully understand the terror and trauma I caused. I fully take responsibility for this heinous act."

WATCH VIDEO: Teen falls to death from Florida amusement park ride

 

Teen falls to death from Florida amusement park ride

By Edward Era Barbacena

   

ORLANDO — A 14-year-old boy fell to his death late at night from a free-fall amusement park ride that is taller than the Statue of Liberty along a busy street in the heart of Orlando’s tourist district.

Sheriff’s officials and emergency crews responded to a call late Thursday at Icon Park, which is located in the city’s tourist district along International Drive. The boy fell from the Orlando Free Fall ride, which opened late last year.

Orange County Sheriff John Mina on Friday identified the teen as Tyre Sampson, who was visiting central Florida from Missouri with a friend’s family. Detectives investigating the death will look into whether it was intentional or accidental, the sheriff said.

“It appears to be just a terrible tragedy,” Mina said. “We will see moving forward what that results in.”

Sampson was taken to a hospital, where he died, sheriff’s officials said. No additional details about the teen or the incident were immediately released.

 

 

Terrifying moment an off-duty female police officer shoots dead an attempted robber who leapt out of a car and charged at her while she was walking alone in Brazil

By Edward Barbacena

The Military Police agent, whose name has not been released, was walking by herself Sunday shortly before midnight in Butanta, a district in the city of Sao Paulo, when she encountered a heavy-set suspect.

A surveillance camera captured the moment Francisco Gonsalves dos Santos Junior, 40, parked his car on the dimly-lit street and rushed out of his vehicle as the officer crosses the street

Oksana Baulina 

 

Russian field reporter killed in Kyiv shelling is fifth journalist to die in Russian-Ukraine conflict

Oksana Baulina was killed with another civilian while reporting for the independent Russian news website the Insider

By Edward Era Barbacena

Kyiv:  A Russian field reporter has perished after coming under Russian shelling while she was filming a destruction at a shopping centre in Kyiv, becoming as the fifth journalist to a month since Moscow’s invasion on 24 February.

Oksana Baulina, who previously also worked for the Russian opposition leader Alexander Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, was killed alongside another civilian on Wednesday while reporting for the independent Russian news website the Insider.

Two other team.members were injured in the midst of the  attack which took place in the Podolsky district of Kyiv, the outlet reported.

“The Insider expresses its deepest condolences to Oksana’s family and friends,” it said.

The publication added: “We will continue to cover the war in Ukraine, including such Russian war crimes as indiscriminate shelling of residential areas which result in the deaths of civilians and journalists.”

Baulina, 42, began her career working for lifestyle magazines including Time Out Moscow and In Style, but after a decade she shifted to more political work, becoming a producer for Alexander Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation.

She was briefly jailed when Russian police stormed the group’s headquarters where she was coordinating a live broadcast from a national rally.

Baulina left Russia after authorities declared the Anti-Corruption Foundation an “extremist organization” in 2021 but she continued to report for the Insider and Coda Story.

After Russia invaded Ukraine over a month ago, Baulina filed several reports from Kyiv and Lviv in western Ukraine for the Insider.

Sergiy Tomilenko, head of the Ukranian journalists’ union, confirmed the death in a statement on Facebook, saying that Baulina was reporting on the aftermath of a shelling when she was hit by fresh fire.

Alexey Kovalev, the investigations editor at the Latvian-based Russian news website Meduza, paid tribute to Baulina’s “phenomenal sense of moral clarity”.

“Oksana ditched a successful career in glossy magazines (I first met her at Time Out Moscow in 2006 where she edited the fashion section) to become an opposition activist, human rights campaigner and then full time reporter. Arrested several times, her org declared ‘extremist’,” he tweeted.

Anastasia Karimova, a program director at Foundation for Democratic Development in Washington, tweeted: “The Russian army has killed one of Russia’s best people.”

Vladimir Milov, who worked with her at Navalny’s group, vowed to avenge her.

“I will never forget her and to all those who are responsible for her death I promise that they won’t get away with (only) a trial and a verdict,” Milov said on Twitter.

“What an unbelievable horror,” wrote Lyubov Sobol, another prominent member of Navalny’s team.

At least four other reporters have been killed during the conflict: Brent Renaud, an American film-maker, Evgeny Sakun, a cameraman with Kyiv Live TV, Irish cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and Ukrainian producer Oleksandra Kuvshynova. Television news crews have described being shot at even when they have identified themselves as journalists, prompting speculation that they were targeted on purpose.

A cameraman for a local television station in the besieged southern city of Mariupol was reported to have been killed earlier on Wednesday.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte

 

Philippine President Duterte puts displacement on Russian-Ukrainian conflict for oil price hike

By Edward Era Barbacena

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte reminisced on Tuesday about days in his youth when the country endured gasoline rationing, suggested he may impose such a policy due to skyrocketing prices and low demand he blamed on the “stupid war” between Russia and Ukraine.

Duterte also blamed the Russia-Ukraine war for “inflation everywhere” and urged the two countries to end the conflict while insisting the Philippines should remain neutral.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin announced a full-scale military assault on Ukraine in late February, allegedly a campaign to “de-Nazify” the country by toppling the democratically elected government of President Volodymyr Zelensky. The campaign followed eight years of war that began with Russia invading and colonizing Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and aiding separatist proxy groups in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

Zelensky has refused Moscow’s demands to end the attack – including the full removal of all weapons from Ukrainian territory – and denied accusations of being a “neo-Nazi,” observing that his family fought the Nazis in World War II and that he is Jewish and lost family in the Holocaust.

The Philippines is a close ally of the United States, sharing a military treaty responsibility with Washington. America has backed Ukraine in the war through weapons supplies, but Manila has not followed. Duterte referred to Putin as a “personal friend” on Tuesday and expressed concern for Putin himself amid the war.

“There is inflation everywhere because there is a conflict. And you spend more than what you can really afford would spell (a higher) inflation for everybody,” Duterte said in a pre-recorded televised speech, according to the Philippine Star. “We have to watch the global market factors and I hope that this war, I said I called it a ‘stupid war,’ they should stop it.”

“They (Ukraine and Russia) are fighting, it has affected everything, the supply of oil, it would be difficult if the demand is high and the supply (is limited),” Duterte claimed. “For those oil-producing countries, if they do not increase the output of their oil, there (would) be a crisis again … because they imposed sanctions on Russia.”

Much of the West, including America, has imposed sanctions on the Russian oil industry.

Duterte went on to recommend more citizens use public transportation to reduce gasoline consumption and warned that he might resort to rationing fuel.

“So there was a time when all people were given coupons to buy gasoline, and it was limited … We might reach that situation. I hope it will not reduce the oil (supply) because there is war,” Duterte said.

In other remarks this week, Duterte lamented the personal toll Putin’s invasion of Ukraine may be taking on the Russian strongman.

“With regard to Russia, I’m hurting, Putin is my friend. He’s a personal friend,” Duterte said during an event to inaugurate a new government facility that did not have any overt relationship to the Ukraine war. Putin reportedly added that he was “pained” by what Putin is going through. He also insisted the Philippines should not take sides because both the American and Russian militaries keep a presence close to the Philippines, suggesting they may attack.

“Let us not intervene for now because Russia and America have several assets in the sea. They are just there. There are about more than 800 submarines roaming around, including (in) our country,” Duterte asserted.

The Philippine Department of Energy documents that the majority of its imported crude oil comes from the Middle East. Most of its imported refined petroleum comes from China, South Korea, and Taiwan. Duterte did not elaborate on his remarks regarding how Ukraine is affecting the country’s oil supply and does not note that neither Russia nor Ukraine appears at the top of the lists of gasoline importers to the Philippines. The absence of a major supplier on the global market, however, would force importing countries to compete to purchase fewer resources, driving prices up for all suppliers.

On Monday, Philippine Energy Undersecretary Gerardo Erquiza similarly equated the war to rising gas prices in the country during a public briefing but added worsening coronavirus spread in China and an earthquake in Japan to factors contributing to the situation.

“The pandemic worsened in China which resulted in new lockdowns. So economic activity weakened in China. There was an earthquake in Japan, the 2 refineries there are now running,” Erquiza explained in Filipino, according to a translation by ABS-CBN. “Things were OK last week, but now we were told nothing much has happened, so we do not know how this will affect oil prices this coming week.”

The Philippines has experienced surging gasoline prices all month, hitting a year-long national high on March 8. Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said at the time that global oil prices, which are directly affected by the availability of Russian oil, could surge as high as $200 a barrel, affecting prices at home.

“The retail prices of fuel will depend on how far the prices will go up in the world market. Currently, the average retail price is at P70 [$1.34] per liter [about $5.07 a gallon],” Cusi said. “If the world price hits $200 per barrel, it may result in an average retail fuel price of P100 [$1.91] per liter [about $7.23 a gallon]. Hopefully, it will not reach that point for us.”

“We are not saying that will happen immediately. If everybody is getting from the same source, the price will really increase. We, on the other hand, are looking at how far we can (cope), but we don’t know how long,” Cusi warned.

 

Boris Romanchenko

WWII Holocaust survivor Boris Romanchenko killed in Ukraine's Kharkiv during Russian bombing of the city.

The multi-storey apartment building where Romanchenko lived was shelled and caught on fire

By Edward Era Barbaceba

Reuters: He survived the Nazi Buchenwald concentration camp during World War II. He survived the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp in the same war. And the Bergen-Belsen camp.

Last week, Boris Romanchenko, a 96-year-old Holocaust survivor, was killed when shelling hit his ordinary flat in the war-ravaged Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

"It is with horror that we report the violent death of Boris Romanchenko in the war in Ukraine," the memorial for the Buchenwald said on Monday in a statement.

The multi-storey apartment building where Romanchenko lived was shelled and caught on fire," said the statement.

Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, has been under heavy fire from Russian artillery throughout the invasion, which Russian President Vladimir Putin calls a "special military operation" necessary to disarm and "denazify" its neighbour.

"Please think about how many things he has come through," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said late on Monday.

"But [he] was killed by a Russian strike, which hit an ordinary Kharkiv multi-storey building. With each day of this war, it becomes more obvious what denazification means to them."

Romanchenko was born on Jan. 20, 1926, in Bondari, near the city of Sumy according to the statement from the Buchenwald memorial.

He was deported to Dortmund in 1942, where he had to do forced mining labour. After an unsuccessful escape attempt, he was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1943, where more than 53,000 people were killed during World War II.

He was then sent to Peenemünde on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom, where he worked as a forced labourer on the V2 rocket programme, the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp and the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, the statement said.

"The horrific death of Boris Romanchenko shows how threatening the war in Ukraine is for the concentration camp survivors," the memorial said in the statement.

"We mourn the loss of a close friend."

According to the memorial, Romanchenko had served for many years as the vice president of the Buchenwald-Dora International Committee, devoting himself to documenting the Nazi crimes.

Both Ukraine's foreign and defence ministries condemned the death.

"Putin managed to 'accomplish' what even Hitler couldn't," Ukraine's Defence Ministry said on its Twitter account.

 

Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin - the first man in space

Conference axes name of first man in space Yuri Gagarin because he was Russian

The Russian achievements that made history are now being deleted because of the invasion of Ukraine while this mess was ignited by the Western NATO

By Edward Era Barbacena

Yur outta here!

A space conference held in honor of famed Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin has been renamed because he was Russian.

In a now-deleted announcement, the non-profit Space Foundation said that “in light of current world events,” they would be changing “Yuri’s Night” to “A Celebration of Space: Discover What’s Next” at its Space Symposium conference, Futurism reported.

“The focus of this fundraising event remains the same — to celebrate human achievements in space while inspiring the next generation to reach for the stars,” read the former update.

In 1961, Gagarin, a Soviet Union pilot, became the first person to enter space, signaling a major escalation of the US-Soviet Cold War space race. He was followed that same year by American Alan Shepard.

Gagarin’s cancellation can be added to a long list of Russian or Russian-associated things that have been censured as a result of the Russian-Ukraine war. The International Cat Federation has banned Russian-bred felines from participation, New York City’s Metropolitan Opera has parted ways with their Russian star soprano and sales have plummeted at the Russian Tea Room.

 

United States threatens China with retaliation if it provides military aid to Russia

By Edward Era Barbacena

The US government threatened China with retaliation for supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine, just hours after the meeting between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping .

"We are concerned that they are considering directly supporting Russia with military equipment that would be used in Ukraine. President Biden will speak to President Xi tomorrow, telling him clearly that China will bear responsibility for any act aimed at supporting Russian aggression ." and we will not hesitate to impose a cost on it ," US diplomat Antony Blinken said on Thursday.

" We view with concern that China intends to give Russia direct military assistance ," he added.

This is the clearest warning issued by the United States to China since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine and it comes just hours before a talk between the two presidents, scheduled for Friday.

The US government threatened China with retaliation for supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine, just hours after the meeting between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping .

"We are concerned that they are considering directly supporting Russia with military equipment that would be used in Ukraine. President Biden will speak to President Xi tomorrow, telling him clearly that China will bear responsibility for any act aimed at supporting Russian aggression ." and we will not hesitate to impose a cost on it ," US diplomat Antony Blinken said on Thursday.

" We view with concern that China intends to give Russia direct military assistance ," he added.

This is the clearest warning issued by the United States to China since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine and it comes just hours before a talk between the two presidents, scheduled for Friday.

 

Fox News Cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski Killed While Covering Ukraine-Russia War

Cameraman was reporting near Kyiv alongside foreign-affairs correspondent Benjamin Hall when their vehicle was struck by fire

By Edward Era Barbacena

Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski was killed on assignment covering the war in Ukraine, network chief Suzanne Scott told employees Tuesday.

Mr. Zakrzewski was reporting near Kyiv alongside foreign-affairs correspondent Benjamin Hall when their vehicle was struck by fire, Ms. Scott said in a note to staff.

Based in London, Mr. Zakrzewski was a war photographer who had covered several major conflicts for Fox News, including in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, the network said.

“His talents were vast and there wasn’t a role that he didn’t jump in to help with in the field—from photographer to engineer to editor to producer—and he did it all under immense pressure with tremendous skill,” Ms. Scott said in her note.

Last year, Mr. Zakrzewski was recognized internally at the network with an “Unsung Hero” award for helping to get Afghan freelance associates and their families out of the country.

Mr. Hall is hospitalized in Ukraine. He joined the network in 2015 and has reported from the front lines in Syria and Iraq, according to his author page on Fox News’s website.

Mr. Zakrzewski was the second journalist working for U.S.media to be killed covering the war in recent days. On Sunday, Brent Renaud, a journalist who was on assignment for Time Studios, was shot and killed near the front line of the war. Andrey Nebitov, a police official in the Kyiv region, blamed the killing on Russian troops and said two other correspondents were injured.

Before he was injured earlier this week, Mr. Hall told Fox News viewers that Mr. Renaud’s death was a reminder that the violence in Ukraine affects everyone in harm’s way.

“It’s not about the journalists,” Mr. Hall said. “A reminder of the dangers that are faced by the civilians. This war is indiscriminate. Children, pregnant women, elderly. All in the cross hairs of Putin’s forces right now.”

Fox News parent Fox Corp. and Wall Street Journal parent News Corp share common ownership.

 

Florida man busted after masturbating inside a Miami Beach Starbucks

Blake Reign, 27, was allegedly seen pleasuring himself at Starbucks in Miami Beach, Florida on March 11.

By NY Post

A self-proclaimed homeless male model was arrested for masturbating in front of people in a Starbucks in Miami Beach on Friday, according to reports.

Blake Reign, 27, was allegedly seen by several witnesses pleasuring himself at the Starbucks on Collins Avenue and 29th Street around 9:30 a.m. Friday.

Witness Alyssa DiMaria said she was in the shop when she used her phone to record him.

“What are you [expletive] doing? Get the [expletive] out! It’s disgusting!” she yells at him in the video, obtained by Local10 News.

Reign, wearing a white shirt, underpants and white socks, clearly unbothered, does the gross deed in front of an American flag in the coffee shop — while looking around at patrons. 

DiMaria said he did it for about 10 minutes before officers finally arrived. At that point, Reign took off running, according to the arrest report.

Reign allegedly refused to comply with cops’ orders, and they shot him with a dart-firing stun gun. That’s when he got to yanking again — this time pulling the darts out of his body and running off again.

In the bizarre chase, police shot Reign roughly eight times before he was finally subdued. Police used “closed fist distraction blows” and kicked him in the lower back area as well, according to the arrest report. 

One of the officers was injured after he fell during the foot chase.

Miami Fire Rescue personnel took Reign to Mount Sinai Medical Center. He is charged with lewd and lascivious behavior, disorderly conduct in an establishment, and resisting an officer without violence. His bond has been set at $700. 

Records show Reign was at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on Sunday, Local10 reported.

 

39-year-old Brendan Dowling, was arrested near the station
while attempting to flee the station. 

Man sliced a face of an Asian man in NYC subway

The incident was completely unprovoked and being investigated as a hate crime

By Edward Era Barbacena

The unnamed victim, 41, was allegedly riding a northbound J train on Sunday at around 8:30 a.m. when a stranger sliced his face. They were reportedly approaching the Delancey Street/Essex Street station on the Lower East Side. 

Despite his injury, the victim was able to alert the officers in the area. The suspect, identified as 39-year-old Brendan Dowling, was arrested near the station while attempting to flee the station. 

Dowling, who was previously arrested in December for stolen property possession, was charged with assault. He was also charged with tampering with physical evidence since he reportedly tried to dispose of his blade while fleeing.

The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force, which has been made aware of the attack, has launched an investigation into the attack to determine whether it was racially motivated.

Further details about the condition of the victim have yet to be disclosed.

 

Sharon Cuneta has deleted her Instagram post calling out Salvador Panelo for using her hit song at a campaign event. 

By Edward Era Barbacena

Sharon Cuneta has deleted her Instagram post calling out Salvador Panelo for using her hit song at a campaign event. 

The actress-singer’s rant against the senatorial candidate has been taken down on the platform a day after it was posted online. 

Aside from reposts of Leni Robredo and Kiko Pangilinan’s campaign-related photos, one of Sharon’s Instagram posts on Saturday, included a photo that read: “From now on, good vibes only”, along with ponk heart emojis. 

Sharon also captioned the said post, with smiling and heart emojis. 

The Megastar on Thursday took to social media to air her dismay over Panelo singing her 1986 hit song Sana’y Wala ng Wakas during vice presidential bet Sara Duterte-Carpio’s campaign sortie in Quezon City. 

“Cannot be.Di dapat sinisira ang isang classic,” wrote Sharon as reply to her daughter Frankie Pangilinan’s retweet of the video of Panelo singing the song.

“Basta TAYO ANG AT MAY ORIG!Oh please WE HAVE NOT ALLOWED YOU TO USE OUR SONG! Please stop. Nakakaawa naman ang kanta namin at nakakahiya naman sa amin,” added Sharon. 

Sharon also aired her sentiments on Instagram, saying that she only allows the song to be used for Leni-Kiko tandem. 

“LOL. Utang na loob baka bumangon si Willy nakakahiya naman sa amin! Kinilabutan ako. In a bad way. Lol,” wrote Sharon as she referred to the song’s composer late Willy Cruz. 

Panelo meanwhile clarified in a statement on Friday that he sang the song in honor of his late son who had down syndrome. 

The former chief presidential legal counsel also stressed that he got the permission of the track’s copyright owner Viva record to sing the song.

 

Communist sympathizers for Leni

By Edward Era Barbacena 

They confirmed Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson's disclosures last week that the communists' legal fronts have infiltrated Robredo's campaign organization.

Lacson also claimed that his intelligence sources reported that the communists asked their mass base to join the recent rallies of the Robredo-Kiko Pangilinan group, unexpectedly swelling their ranks. A top government official of Cavite told me: "All our leaders reported that many of those that joined the Gen[eneral] Trias rally were from the CPP network in Southern Luzon."

Rather stupidly, a statement by CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena, posted on the insurgency's website, cpp.ph, which was intended to deny the allegations of Lacson — whom he called "Duterte's attack dog" — was all praises for Robredo; in effect, confirming its support for the vice president:

They confirmed Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson's disclosures last week that the communists' legal fronts have infiltrated Robredo's campaign organization.

Lacson also claimed that his intelligence sources reported that the communists asked their mass base to join the recent rallies of the Robredo-Kiko Pangilinan group, unexpectedly swelling their ranks. A top government official of Cavite told me: "All our leaders reported that many of those that joined the Gen[eneral] Trias rally were from the CPP network in Southern Luzon."

Rather stupidly, a statement by CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena, posted on the insurgency's website, cpp.ph, which was intended to deny the allegations of Lacson — whom he called "Duterte's attack dog" — was all praises for Robredo; in effect, confirming its support for the vice president:

The CPP is also demanding that the Robredo camp issue a formal statement that it commits to opening peace talks with the communists, immediately when it assumes power.

The CPP actually had made an earlier statement that is only a bit short of calling Robredo the ideal president for the county, which therefore it is supporting. The March 7 editorial of the party newspaper Ang Bayan declared: "As the election campaign heats up, large rallies supporting Leni Robredo are gaining ground across the country, bringing together the people's anger against the Duterte regime's fascism, corruption and treachery." 

Indeed, rallies have been the forte of the communists, having done that for over 40 years and the CPP statement is its message to Robredo, that they have much to contribute to her tack now of portraying that more and more Filipinos are supporting her.

Another communist forte — getting a tiny group of cadres in an organization to issue a statement purportedly by the entire organization, when most of the "signatories" were simply going along with the manifesto and had not really studied it — has recently marked Robredo's campaign, such as "Economists for Leni," "Pisay Students and Alumni for Leni," "Ateneo students for Leni" that one wit made fun of it by posting on Facebook a photo of Robredo posters in a cemetery, with the caption "Mga Bangkay para kay Leni." I doubt though if the Pinks post on Facebook: "Mga Komunista para kay Leni."

However, I don't think the communist support for Robredo will boost her votes. The two party-lists most identified with the communists — Bayan Muna and Anakpawis — got only 606,566 and 367,376 votes in the 2016 elections, and not all of these organizations' supporters are likely to vote Robredo, if they themselves are fans of Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. The communist support would likely backfire against Robredo, with most Filipinos knowing the bloody track record of the communist insurgency in the country.

Robredo has actually behind her a most unholy alliance: a faction of the Catholic Church; the atheist and violent Communist Party; the communists' No. 1 enemy as declared in its constitution and program of action, US imperialism; and a section of the business class.

A faction of the Catholic Church since the 1970s had been infiltrated heavily by communists in the guise of crusaders of Latin American style "liberation theology" (the prime proponent having been Edicio de la Torre, now a harmless NGO official) and therefore have been hardcore anti-Marcos activists. They see Duterte as the ideological heir of Marcos, with the son, of course, a resurrection of the father.

The US is dead set on preventing a Marcos presidency at this time, primarily because it desperately needs the Philippines to be its puppet and pawn to counter China's rise as a superpower in the region, a role President Rodrigo Duterte deftly rejected. The communists by dogma are virulently anti-Marcos, toward the father and the son.

A section of the business elite prefer a malleable president — as Benigno Aquino 3rd was — rather than a strong-willed president who knows exactly where he will lead the Philippines. There is a growing suspicion that the Indonesian-owned First Pacific Group run by Manuel Pangilinan is supporting Robredo, as its longtime director Albert del Rosario is openly supporting her and since she was officially declared the presidential candidate by that press conference outfit 1Sambayanan that he was a convenor of. News coverage of the Philippine Star, owned by that conglomerate, has also become distinctly pro-Robredo in recent months.

I don't think Robredo's unholy alliance would make a dent on Marcos Jr.'s formidable lead 56 days to the election on May 9. The most reliable pollster in the country, Laylo and Associates, found that based on a huge 3,000 respondents, 63 percent will vote for Marcos compared to Robredo's 17 percent. That Robredo is disliked by Filipinos is validated in some way by the Social Weather Stations' poll undertaken on December 12 to 16, which found that 40 percent of Filipinos were dissatisfied with Robredo's performance as vice president, a sharp increase from her 27 percent in September.

Not a few communist activists don't really like the new roles they've been given as campaigners for Robredo. "From Reds, we're told to be Pinks. I hate that," one said.

I dare Robredo to deny these columns' allegations, by simply issuing a statement, along the following lines:

"The Communist Party and its New People's Army for more than 50 years now have been trying to topple through violence our democratic system, killing over 50,000 of our men in uniform and helpless civilians. Their existence is one of the causes of the country's poverty, since the lawlessness they have created in areas they have operated cannot create conditions of peace and security necessary for government delivery of services to its citizens and for businesses to operate. I reject any form of cooperation with the communists in my campaign to win the presidency."

 

Bongbong Marcos maintains big lead among presidential bets in Feb. 2022 Pulse Asia poll

By Edward Era Barbacena

Former senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr. maintained his big lead among fellow presidential bets in pre-election polls, scoring 60% for the second consecutive Pulse Asia survey released on Monday.

The poll, conducted from February 18 to 23, showed Vice President Leni Robredo a far second with 15%, followed by Manila Mayor Isko Moreno with 10%.

Senator Manny Pacquiao settled for fourth place with 8%, followed by Senator Panfilo Lacson with 2%.

The rest of the presidential candidates namely Faisal Mangondato, Leody de Guzman, Jose Montemayor, Jr., Ernesto Abella and Norberto Gonzales scored 0.4% or less.

There were 4% of respondents who are undecided.

Marcos' high rating is anchored on his 68% and 66% scores in Mindanao and the National Capital Region (NCR), respectively.

Marcos, son of the late Ferdinand Marcos, has Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte as a running mate.

Marcos also scored 58% in Balance Luzon and 53% in Visayas.

Marcos' 60% rating, however, is unchanged compared to the Pulse Asia poll conducted last January 19 to 24 and released last February 13.

 

Award winning American journalist Brent Renaud was allegedly killed by Russian Soldiers in Irpin, Ukraine

By Edward Era Barbacena

American journalist and documentary filmmaker Brent Renaud has been killed in Irpin, Ukraine, according to the chief of police of Kyiv.

Renaud, whose New York Times press pass and American passport were posted on social media, was a legendary filmmaker, covering some of the world’s worst human tragedies. The New York Times said in a statement that he was not on assignment for them and that their press pass with his name and photo was old.

CBS News said Monday that it had confirmed Renaud was killed by Russian forces.

“A 51-year-old world-renowned media correspondent was shot in Irpen today,” local police chief Andriy Nebytov posted on Facebook. “Another journalist is injured. Now they are trying to remove the victim from the war zone. Of course, the profession of a journalist is a risk, but U.S. citizen Brent Renaud paid his life for trying to highlight the aggressor’s ingenuity, cruelty and ruthlessness.”

Juan Arredondo, who was traveling with Renaud during the attack and hospitalized for his injuries, told a journalist that the two had tried crossing a bridge in Irpin to film refugees leaving when they were attacked by Russian forces at a checkpoint.

“We got into a car—somebody offered to take us to the other bridge, and we crossed the checkpoint and they [started] shooting at us,” Arredondo said. “So the driver turned around, and they kept shooting.”

He said he saw Renaud get shot in the neck.

The journalist’s death comes after days of fierce street battles in Irpin, a suburb about three miles outside Kyiv, which led to the deaths of multiple civilians. It was in Irpin where the slain bodies of a family of three—including a small child—were photographed by The New York Times, becoming a symbol for the world of the horror caused by Putin’s war.

Brent and his brother Craig, working under the moniker Renaud Brothers, have won several awards for their documentary work, including a Peabody and two Columbia DuPont awards.

The brothers have reported from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as natural disasters like the Haiti earthquake. He and his brother have also covered political extremism in Egypt, Libya, and across Africa.

One of the Renaud brothers’ recent productions is Meth Storm, about the drug crisis in Arkansas, where they grew up. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Brent explained why they were drawn to the topic.

“There’s so much judgement and analysis on people who use drugs in our culture and on social media and cable news. Our work was the reaction to that notion,” he said. “We were trying to embed ourselves in places where most people couldn’t go and allow those characters to reveal themselves to us and show context and empathy for their stories.”

Renaud had taken risks from the very start of his career to bring the public stories from war zones.

He told Filmmaker magazine in 2013 that when he was just out of college he financed a trip to Cambodia and got an interview with a top general of two rival prime ministers.

“On the first day filming I found myself on the wrong side of town with the wrong players, and nearly got killed when the car I was riding in busted through a military checkpoint, drawing fire on the car from the soldiers,” he said. “On another occasion I jumped on a motorbike with a translator and rode into the jungle for an interview with a villager I had managed to set up. What I failed to realize was that the subject I was to interview lived in a village still controlled by the Khmer Rouge, the brutal communist rebels who were responsible for killing one third of the entire population of the country in the 1970’s.

“Things got bad enough that it required a heavily armed military—fortunately orchestrated by the general I had made friends with at the beginning of the trip.”

He told the magazine that he and his brother had been in Cairo covering a crackdown of the Muslim Brotherhood.

“Just pulling out video cameras on the streets there to document the demonstrations was impossible to do safely,” he said. “Twice we were attacked by thugs who did not want the brutal tactics of the military witnessed by the international media.”

 

Filipino politician and presidential hopeful Leni Robredo's net satisfaction rating dwindles  in 4Q 2021 SWS survey

By Edward Era Barbacena

Filipino politician and presidential hopeful Leni Robredo’s net satisfaction rating dropped by 23 points in December 2021, based on the 4th quarter 2021 Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey results.

The SWS survey conducted among 1,4,40 respondents from Dec. 12 to 16, 2021, showed that from a “good” rating of +24 in September 2021, Robredo’s net satisfaction rating fell to “neutral” at +1 (41 percent satisfied minus 40 percent dissatisfied with her performance).

The initial findings were first presented at the annual SWS Survey Review on Feb. 7, 2022, but the full survey results were released on Friday, March 11, 2022.

SWS explained that the 23-point decline in the overall net satisfaction rating of Robredo was due to decreases in all areas, especially in Mindanao.

Robredo’s net satisfaction rating fell from neutral (+1) to poor (-16) in Metro Manila, from good (+47) to moderate (+27) in the Visayas, and from moderate (+20) to poor (-27) in Mindanao.

Meanwhile, it stayed moderate in Balance Luzon, although down from +24 in September to +10 in December.

Urban net satisfaction fell from moderate to poor, down from +13 in September to -13 in December. Rural net satisfaction fell from good to moderate, down from +34 in September to +14 in December.

SWS also noted that Robredo’s net satisfaction rating fell from moderate (+17) to neutral (-4) among men and from good (+32) to neutral (+6) among women.

Likewise, it went down from moderate to neutral levels among the 18-54-year-olds, down from +16 to +26 range in September to -5 to +2 range in December.

It also fell from good to neutral among those 55 years old and above, down from +32 in September to +6 in December.

“By education, Vice-President Robredo’s net satisfaction rating fell from good to neutral among non-elementary graduates, down from +42 in September to +5 (correctly rounded) in December. It also fell from good to neutral among elementary graduates, down from +36 in September to +4 (correctly rounded) in December,” SWS said.

“It fell from moderate to neutral among junior high school graduates, down from +15 in September to -1 in December. It also fell from moderate to neutral among college graduates, down from +20 in September to +1 in December,” it added.

Sotto receives ‘very good’ +52 net satisfaction rating

The SWS survey found Senate President Vicente Sotto III’s net satisfaction rating rising from good to very good–from +46 in September 2021 to +52 (65 percent satisfied, 14 percent dissatisfied) in December 2021.

 

Pro-communist militant group - the Anakpawis claimed that 12 volunteers supporting Robredo were arrested in Cavite.

But there are no video to prove such allegation since majority of people carry mobile phones nowadays. Such incident can be easily filmed.

By Edward Era Barbacena

CNN - Pro-communist militant - the Anakpawis Party-list said at least 12 of its volunteers who were campaigning for Leni Robredo and Sen. Kiko Pangilinan in Cavite were arrested on Thursday

Communist votaries Anakpawis Party-list said at least 12 of its volunteers who were campaigning for Vice President Leni Robredo and Sen. Kiko Pangilinan in Cavite were arrested on Thursday

Anakpawis Party-list said at least 12 of its volunteers who were campaigning for Vice President Leni Robredo and Sen. Kiko Pangilinan in Cavite were arrested on Thursday.

Cavite chairperson of the pro-communist militant group Aries Soledad said the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Bacoor conducted a raid wherein they cuffed and pinned down ten volunteers to be submitted to a drug test. Two others were arrested in Silang, Soledad added.

The group also claimed police harmed the volunteers but there are videos to prove it.  Nowadays most of the people carry wireless phones and it is easy to film such allegation if it was true.

"Inaresto sila at pinosasan sila na wala lamang warrant of arrest," Soledad said.

[Translation: They were arrested and cuffed even without a warrant.]

Police staff sergeant Bryan dela Peña from PNP Bacoor confirmed to CNN Philippines that seven people were arrested in a buy-bust operation with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Brgy. Bagong Silangan, Talaba 7.

Police did not say if the arrested individuals were from Anakpawis, but it was in the same address where the party-list group said the raid took place.

CNN Philippines is reaching out to PDEA in Cavite for more details.

Anakpawis said the arrests took place after Cavite Rep. Boying Remulla accused those attending Robredo's campaign rallies of being paid communist rebels. Sen. Ping Lacson also expressed concern over the allegation.

In response, Robredo's team in Cavite denied that supporters were paid to attend the events. It also accused the politicians of red-tagging.

 

Presidential candidate Sen. Panfilo Lacson insisted Thursday that Leni Robredo's campaign rally in Cavite last week was infiltrated by communists,

By Edward Era Barbacena

CNN- Presidential candidate Sen. Panfilo Lacson insisted Thursday that Vice President Leni Robredo's campaign rally in Cavite last week was infiltrated by communists, citing intelligence information that he had received.

Lacson said that the information was corroborated by the statement of self-proclaimed former communist party member and supposed surrenderer Jeffrey "Ka Eric" Celiz.

The senator added that he is still verifying reports that supposed communists front organization members were also present during Robredo's sorties in Iloilo and Bulacan.

"Hindi lang sa Cavite nainfiltrate. Possible din na, bina-validate din ito, sa ibang lugar: Iloilo, Cavite, and Bulacan. Kasi worrisome talaga ito. Kasi ang intention naman is not to red tag," Lacson said in a press conference.

[Translation: It's not just in Cavite. It is also possible, though we are still validating, that the infiltration also happened in Iloilo and Bulacan. This is worrisome. And our intention is not to redtag.]

But the Partido Reporma standard bearer said he is not sure if the vice president is aware of the alleged "alliance" with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New Peoples Army-National Democratic Front of the Philippines (CPP-NPA-NDFP) through its supposed front organizations.

Lacson mentioned the urban poor group Kadamay as among the alleged communist-front organizations.

"Kung alam, mas masama 'yun doon sa hindi alam. Kung hindi alam, that's bad enough. Pero kung alam mo, conscious ka na may alliance na nangyayari. Anong mangyayari in case they win the election? Coalition 'yan. Baka lumakas na naman ang CPP NPA," Lacson said.

[Translation: If she doesn't know, that's bad enough. It's worse if she knows that there's an alliance (with the communists). What will happen in case they win? It's a coalition. The CPP-NPA may regain its strength.]

But Robredo's ally, senatorial candidate Sonny Trillanes denied Lacson's allegations saying that Lacson's intel is wrong.

Trillanes, who is a former soldier, said in a tweet there are no communists in Robredo's campaign team.

"Sir, your intel sources are wrong, and that Ka Eric you cited is a fraud. I am inside the campaign team of VP Leni at wala akong nakikitang komunista doon [and I haven''t seen a communist there]. Hindi papayag si VP nyan at kami rin [We will not allow it]. Her military advisers could attest to this too," the former senator said.

Robredo's spokesperson Barry Gutierrez also tweeted: "Over the course of this campaign, we have seen more than our fair share of attacks and fake news against VP Leni. But this blatant and persistent red-tagging, masked as "concern" is a new low."

"Let us not be be intimidated. Call out the lies," he added.

 

Bongbong, Sara sustain lead in March 2022 Manila Bulletin-Tangere survey

By Edward Era Barbacena

Former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. still emerged as the top pick among presidential candidates in the latest Manila Bulletin-Tangere survey on the 2022 elections released on Wednesday, March 9.

The survey, conducted from March 1 to 4, 2022, showed Marcos sustaining his lead with 48.75 percent of respondents nationwide choosing him as the next President of the Philippines.

In second place was Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso who received 22.67 percent of the voter preference, while in third place was Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo who was the favored candidate of 17.29 percent of respondents.

Among the presidential bets, Robredo registered the “biggest” increase of 2.5 percent from the survey conducted in February 2022. But still not enough to outcast Marcos

This was attributed to the increased support from the Visayas, Southern Luzon, and Bicol region.

Meanwhile, Marcos’ rating fell by almost 3 percentage points compared to the February survey.

Senators Panfilo “Ping” Lacson and Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao occupied the third and fourth spots with 5.75 percent and 3.96 percent of the voter preference, respectively.

Other presidential candidates received less than 1 percent of the voter preference.

Labor rights activist Leody De Guzman got 0.54 percent, former Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales received 0.29 percent, and former presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella got 0.25 percent.

Meanwhile, 0.50 percent of the respondents did not name their candidate or named others not on the list.

Sara still top choice for VP

Marcos’ running mate Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio also remained the top pick in the March 2022 Manila Bulletin-Tangere survey with 56.63 percent of the voter preference.

Coming in second was Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III with 16.08 percent, while in the third spot was physician Willie Ong with 14.17 percent.

In fourth place was Senator Francis Pangilinan with 9.79 percent, while Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza clinched the fifth spot with 1.25 percent.

Other candidates received less than 1 percent of the voter preference.

Meanwhile, 1.38 percent did not give an answer or named others not on the list.

Moreno, Sotto top second-choice for president, VP

During the same survey period, the respondents were asked to name their second choice for president in case their first choice does not continue his or her candidacy.

Moreno was the top pick (32.67 percent), followed by Lacson (19.63 percent), Marcos (16.38 percent), Pacquiao (13.13 percent), and Robredo (5.58 percent).

Gonzales was the second choice of 2 percent of respondents, while De Guzman had 1.88 percent of the voter preference and Abella with 1.25 percent.

Meanwhile, Sotto was the top second-choice for vice president with 36.46 percent of the voter preference.

He was followed by Ong (29.92 percent), Duterte-Carpio (13.5 percent), Pangilinan (6.17 percent), and Atienza (4.83 percent).

Manila Bulletin-Tangere’s survey has a margin of error of +/-1.94 percent with a confidence level of 95 percent.

A total of 2,400 adult Filipinos (12 percent in Metro Manila, 20 percent in the Visayas, 23 percent in Mindanao, 23 percent in Northern and Central Luzon, 22 percent in Southern Luzon and Bicol Region) participated in the survey using the Tangere mobile app.

 

Ukrainian mom killed by Russians with her two kids identified

Tatiana Perebeinis and her family didn’t flee Irpin sooner because she was caring for her ailing mother.

By Edward Era Barbacens

The Ukrainian mother killed alongside her two children in a Kyiv suburb on Sunday has been identified as Tatiana Perebeinis — an IT worker who didn’t flee sooner because she was caring for her ailing mother.

Perebeinis, 43, her two children Alise, 9, and Nikita, 18, and a man they were traveling with were killed when Russian forces indiscriminately fired at them as they were fleeing Irpin.

The image of the family lying dead on the pavement caught the world’s attention, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to hunt down and kill “every bastard” responsible for their deaths.

The image of the family lying dead on the pavement caught the world’s attention, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to hunt down and kill “every bastard” responsible for their deaths.

Andriy Dubcha, a Ukrainian journalist who first published the devastating footage of the shelling that killed the family, said Monday that Perebeinis was from Donetsk and fled to Irpin in 2014 when war broke out in the Eastern region.

“Thought Irpin was a safe place. But the Russian army found them here too,” he wrote on Facebook. 

Dubcha identified the man who died alongside them as Anatoly, a 28-year-old from Lugansk, but his exact relationship to the family remains unknown.

Tatiana Perebeinis and her family didn’t flee
Irpin sooner because she was caring for her
ailing mother.

The mom and her two kids are survived by her husband, who was still in Donetsk when they died and is trying to make his way to Kyiv to bury his family, he added.

Sergey Perebeinis, who has been identified in media reports as the surviving husband, posted pictures of his family on Facebook, writing, “He took them all. Tanya couldn’t make it. What is this all me for? What’s next? I’m on my way…I must see you one last time. Forgive me, I didn’t cover you.” 

The heartbroken husband also posted about the family’s two small dogs he has been trying to track down, saying one was found in a local clinic with an amputated leg. He later posted about one of his dogs dying, saying, “Unfortunately, my good friend flew to them now.”

Mikita Mikado, an investor in the startup SE Ranking where Perebeinis worked, posted the image of Perebeinis and her children on Facebook Sunday and confirmed her death. 

“Unfortunately, her family could not leave Irpen earlier because of her sick mother,” he wrote in a post commemorating his co-worker and urging his followers to donate to recovery efforts in Ukraine.

“We are devastated to say that yesterday our dear colleague and friend Tatiana Perebeinis, the chief accountant of SE Ranking, was killed together with her two kids by russian mortar artillery,” SE Ranking wrote on Facebook Monday.

Alise Perebeinis along with her brother and mother
were killed by a Russian bombing as they were attempting flee on March 6, 2022.

According to sources, Russian forces fired on the
family despite talks of allowing civilians to
evacuate before fighting intensified.

“There are no words to describe our grief or to mend our pain. But for us, it is crucial to not let Tania and her kids Alise and Nikita remain just statistics. Her family became the victim of the unprovoked fire on civilians, which under any law is a crime against humanity,” it continued.

“The Russian army are criminals, and they should be stopped. Our hearts are broken. Our prayers are for all Ukrainians, who are fighting for their right to exist.”

“We will punish everyone who committed atrocities in this war. On our land. We will find every bastard. Which shot at our cities, our people. Which bombed our land. Which launched rockets. Which gave the order and pressed ‘start,’” he continued. “There will be no quiet place on this Earth for you. Except for the grave.”

 

Vladimir Putin

Putin says Western sanctions are almost a declaration of WAR and anyone imposing no-fly zone on Ukraine would be considered to have entered the conflict 

By Edward Era Barbacena

The Kremlin today threatened Britain with 'tough retaliatory measures' as President Vladimir Putin said devastating Western sanctions against Russia are verging on a declaration of war, and warned that any country imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine would be considered to have entered the on-going conflict.

The threats came as Moscow's brutal assault on Ukraine saw a mass civilian evacuation from Mariupol derailed when Russian forces ignored a promised ceasefire and continued shelling the southern city.

Britain's Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Saturday evening that Russia's proposed ceasefire was likely an attempt to regroup its forces for a new onslaught, while also an attempt to deflect international condemnation.

'By accusing Ukraine of breaking the agreement, Russia is likely seeking to shift responsibility for current and future civilian casualties in the city,' the British defence ministry said in an intelligence update. 

Russia's defence ministry accused Ukrainian 'nationalists' of preventing civilians from leaving, RIA news agency reported. But Mariupol's city council said Russia was not observing the ceasefire.

A defiant Putin today called the West's economic, diplomatic and cultural boycott of the country tantamount to a declaration of war and warned that his regime would consider any third-party declaration of a no-fly zone as 'participation in the armed conflict'.

In an astonishing display of sabre-rattling, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned London: 'Russia will not forget Britain's desire to co-operate with ultra-nationalist forces in Ukraine and the supply of British weapons to the Kiev regime'. 

She added: 'The sanctions hysteria in which London plays one of the leading, if not the main, roles, leaves us no choice but to take proportionately tough retaliatory measures. London has made a final choice of open confrontation with Russia. 

'Such a development convinces us once more that Russophobia and the aim to undermine the Russian state are integral elements of Britain's foreign policy.' 

In a dramatic escalation of tensions between Russia and the West last week, Putin announced that Moscow was putting its nuclear deterrence on 'alert'.

Speaking to a group of female pilots at an Aeroflot training centre near Moscow, the Russian despot reiterated that his war aims are the 'demilitarisation' and 'de-Nazification' of Ukraine and its neutrality – dismissed as baseless pretexts by Kyiv and her partners including Washington and London.

'These sanctions that are being imposed are akin to a declaration of war, but thank God it has not come to that', Putin jibed.

Talking about the prospect of a NATO state enforcing a no-fly zone over Ukraine, the Russian warmonger continued: 'That very second, we will view them as participants of the military conflict, and it would not matter what members they are.'

Ukraine's president Volodymr Zelensky last night railed against the West over its refusal to impose a no-fly zone over his country – an action which would compel third parties such as Britain and the United States to shoot down Russian aircraft that flew in Ukrainian airspace, and turn the war in Ukraine into a full-scale global war.

But as the United States and other NATO members send weapons for Kyiv and more than 1million refugees spill through the continent, the conflict is already drawing in countries far beyond Ukraine's borders.

In a bitter and emotional speech late on Friday, Zelensky warned that 'all the people who die from this day forward will also die because of you'.

The comic-turned-wartime leader said NATO 'has given the green light to the bombing of Ukrainian cities and villages', adding that 'the history of Europe will remember this forever'. In a separate video message to anti-war protesters in several European cities, he said: 'If we fall, you will fall'.

Ukrainian officials on Saturday blamed Russian shelling for breaching a ceasefire arranged in two cities in the country's south to evacuate more than 200,000 civilians. 

 

City of Kharkiv after the Russian air strike

How the United States and its allies  Sowed the Seeds of War in Ukraine

Putin invaded Ukraine. But an alliance of bad actors, the U.S. foreign policy establishment, and NGOs paved the road that made the present crisis inevitable.

By Edward Era Barbacena

President Vladimir Putin is playing Russian roulette with the world. The invasion he launched on Feb. 24 has brought us closer to nuclear war than anything since the Cuban missile crisis. 

However, other culprits in the United States and Europe share his guilt. But they have so far managed to avoid notice and blame.

There would be no victory in stopping Russia without confronting what these groups and individuals have done. War does not begin in a vacuum, and this one has been a long time coming. Putin invaded Ukraine, but these liberal interventionists paved the road that made the present crisis inevitable.

First, it’s important to understand why Russia views Ukraine’s suing for NATO membership as an existential threat even though the alliance has integrated plenty of Warsaw Pact states and ex-Soviet republics since the fall of the Berlin Wall. As political scientist John Mearsheimer put it, Russia “swallowed” NATO’s major admissions of Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, and the Baltic states between 1999 and 2004.

But a line was drawn at Georgia and Ukraine.

“Russian leaders have told their Western counterparts on many occasions that they consider NATO expansion into Georgia and Ukraine unacceptable, along with any effort to turn those countries against Russia,” Mearsheimer wrote in Foreign Affairs. “Imagine the outrage in Washington if China built an impressive military alliance and tried to include Canada and Mexico in it.” Essentially, it’s Russia’s Monroe Doctrine.

Putin would make this clear again four years after NATO integrated Romania and the Baltics. 

“No Russian leader could stand idly by in the face of steps toward NATO membership for Ukraine. That would be a hostile act toward Russia,” Putin warned then Undersecretary for Political Affairs William Burns, now director of the CIA, just before NATO’s 2008 Bucharest Summit. Nevertheless, George W. Bush’s administration supported integrating both Georgia and Ukraine into the alliance at the summit, while France and Germany remained adamantly opposed for fear of poking the Russian bear.

A compromise was reached. The alliance did not formally extend invitations to the two, but it did affirm, provocatively, and largely at the insistence of the Bush administration, “that these countries will become members of NATO.”

Putin called the summit’s statement a “direct threat” to Russian security. Then deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko said that “Georgia’s and Ukraine’s membership in the alliance is a huge strategic mistake which would have most serious consequences for pan-European security.” Even Robert Gates, who served as secretary of defense in the administrations of Bush II and Barack Obama, confessed in his memoir that “trying to bring Georgia and Ukraine into NATO was truly overreaching . . . that was an especially monumental provocation

The Bucharest summit concluded on April 4, 2008. Four months later, Putin demonstrated his seriousness to the West.

On August 1, 2008, the Russo-Georgian War began. In short, wrote Ted Galen Carpenter, a defense and foreign policy analyst at the Cato Institute, “Moscow exploited a foolish provocation by Georgia’s pro‐​western government to launch a military offensive that brought Russian troops to the outskirts of the capital.” In the end, “Russia permanently detached two secessionist‐​minded Georgian regions and put them under effective Russian control.”

Russia successfully checked the ambitions of President Mikheil Saakashvili, who had been committed to gaining membership in NATO and the European Union for Georgia. But neither NATO, the EU, nor the United States would relent in their drive eastward.

In the wake of unrest fomented in Ukraine by the West in 2014, Putin launched the Russo-Ukrainian War, resulting in the annexation of Crimea. Along with the intervention in Georgia, this event is used today as concrete evidence of Russia’s dreams of global domination. “Putin’s behavior proves that it was wise to expand NATO eastward,” many would say. However, as Mearsheimer explained in a lecture at the University of Chicago, “there is no evidence that we thought Putin was aggressive before the crisis.” There is “no evidence that we were talking about expanding NATO because we had to contain the Russians.”

“Because again, NATO expansion was driven by 21st century men and women—they believe balance of power politics is dead.”

By contrast, Mearsheimer added, “Putin is a 19th century man” who views the world through the lens of balance of power politics. “In the case of Europe, we were thinking like 21st century men and women and we thought we could just drive right up to his doorstep, and it wouldn’t matter.” His evidence that the foreign policy establishment did not consider Russia aggressive or bent on creating Greater Russia until recently is that “Obama and virtually all of Washington was caught with their pants down when this crisis broke out after February 22, because they did not see it coming.”

But they should have, considering that they toppled Ukraine’s democratically elected government that year. It was the work of an alliance between internal actors, the United States, and NGOs like the Clinton Foundation.