by John Helmer, Moscow 
  @bears_with

In this new podcast Nima Alkhorshid takes the record of the Riyadh talks between Russia and the US to the next stage. 

What has the Russian side just learned of US capabilities, intentions, plans from the performances Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, and Steven Witkoff, representative of US money interests and the Trump family? 

As the debriefing debate continues in Moscow, what military, political and business tests will the Russians decide on next? What will Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov tell Russia’s allies in Johannesburg this week? What explanation will he give for President Vladimir Putin continuing to hold back on the battlefield? 

If delay and protraction in negotiation is the Russian tactic for driving President Donald Trump to impatience and then distraction, exploiting the faction fighting and lack of coordination in his administration, what confidence-building measures will State, Pentagon, CIA, and the White House propose to reciprocate what Putin has already demonstrated? 

Listen to the hour-long discussion here.   

• Trump on keeping US troops in Europe:
  “Question: President Trump, as part of a peace deal with Putin, would you be willing to consider removing all American troops from Europe? Donald Trump: Well, nobody’s asked me to do that. So, I don’t think we’d have to do that. I wouldn’t want to do that. But that question has never really come up. Yeah, please.”
  
  “Question: Sir, do you support stationing European peacekeeping troops in Ukraine as part of this peace deal? Donald Trump:  If they want to do that, that’s great. I’m all for it. If they want to do that, I think that’d be fine. I mean, I know France has mentioned it, others have mentioned it. UK has mentioned it. But yeah — well, if we have a peace deal, I think having troops over there from the standpoint of Europe. We won’t have to put any over there because we’re very far away. Donald Trump: But having troops over there would be fine, I would not object to it at all. We’re talking about this now peace, we have either a ceasefire or peace itself, and we’re looking to do both, would start off with the ceasefire and if they want to do that. I know France was willing to do that and I thought that was a beautiful gesture.”   

Source: https://www.reddit.com/ (2022)

This map of 2024 fails to disclose secret nuclear warhead missile facilities in Poland, Romania, and Greece, and USAF nuclear bomb storages in the UK. . Source: https://cdn.statcdn.com

• Map illustrating the Ukrainian drone attack on the Kropotkin oil terminal and pumping station for Kazakh oil on February 18. Although Kiev officials described the attack as aimed at Russian oil supplies, in fact the target is Kazakh oil intended for export through the port of Novorossiysk.

• Volume and value of Ukrainian rare earth minerals. Trump has sent his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to negotiate for these in Kiev.   National Security Advisor Waltz reckons the US should obtain these in order, he says, to recoup the cost of the Ukrainian war effort.   However,  the US Geological Survey (USGS) has assessed these reserves as so small, it doesn’t count them  in the latest report.

Treasury Secretary Bessent presents Vladimir Zelensky with the Truimp minerals takeover agreement on February 12.

RARE EARTH MINERALS, MINE PRODUCTION AND MINEABLE RESERVES BY COUNTRY, JANUARY 2025

Source: USGS 

by Editor - Wednesday, February 19th, 2025