Concrete Achievements

Tag: russia

  • Links from the week of 12 September 2022

    Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.

  • I’m getting a bit weary of this sort of thing.

    I’m getting a bit weary of this sort of thing. Are there people in the FR, DE etc political systems who think this? Probably. Is that the official position of any of those countries? No. Are they objectively behaving in pro-Putin ways? No. twitter.com/anders_aslund/…

    A few misquotes out of context (as is pointed out in the replies) don’t mean France is pressuring Ukraine to surrender. Slow action from Germany is not great but not a sign that they want Russia to win (listen to scholz’s speech last night).

    And the country that is actually blocking things – Hungary – never gets a mention. It’s all the bad old Western Europeans. (Or, for Brexiteers, the evil EU undermining heroic British leadership).

    Maybe I’m wrong, maybe stuff is happening behind the scenes that we don’t know about. But I would expect that to be sourced better than a few viral misquotes, unsupported by countries’ actual actions.

  • If Hungary result stays as it is, chances of meaningful reform of EU are strongly down.

    If Hungary result stays as it is, chances of meaningful reform of EU are strongly down. Several more years of Orban and PiS blocking action against each other will use up the Scholz-Macron window of opportunity. After it, Macron can’t run again.

    Might even lead to revival of the small-core Rutte model, either within or outside the current Treaty framework, particularly if HU continues down path of being the Russian asset in Council.

    All in all, it’s extremely depressing. I would say “ah well, that’s democracy”, but given what Fidesz have done to electoral system and media, it’s not that.

  • Nick Timothy taking dictation from the Kremlin here.

    Nick Timothy taking dictation from the Kremlin here. I would take it as a great compliment to be banned in Russia and Uzbekistan. twitter.com/birdyword/stat…

    It just makes me angry. Trade obsessives who don’t understand the basics of international trade, people shouting about will of the people

    who parrot the talking points of the journalist-killing, Ukraine-invading, anti-democratic Putin gang; politicians who are so obsessed with

    Parliamentary sovereignty that they want everything to be done by Henry VIII clauses; the level of “does not fucking care” is beyond belief.

    All I hope is that the public humiliation these charlatans deserve comes to them in full measure.

  • Links from the week of 29 September 2014

    Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.

  • Links from the week of 16 May 2011

    Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.