#russia oil

[livemintvideos]

Russia's crude oil export to India surged to a new record in December 2022. Moscow has remained the top oil supplier of India for consecutive months. According to data from energy cargo tracker Vortexa, India imported crude oil from Russia 1 million barrels per day for the first time in December. Russia supplied 1.19 million bpd of crude oil to India in December alone. As per Vortexa report, it was the higher than 909,403 bpd of crude oil India imported from Russia in November and 935,556 bpd in October 2022. In this video, let's take a look at some of the causes that led to the increase in imports that we have seen.

[vintage-russia]

"In the forest for mushrooms" (1927)

Sergey Vinogradov (1869–1938)

[lionofchaeronea]

Dusk, Mikhail Guzhavin, 1927

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Viktor Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov (Russian, 1848-1926) The joy of the righteous in the Lord, 'The threshold of heaven,' Details, ca.1885-96

[collodibottiglia]

Dmitry Kochanovich - Epiphany

[7pleiades7]

Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna (1857),(detail), by Franz Xaver Winterhalter (German, 1805–1873), oil on canvas, 120 × 95 cm, The State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

[justacynicalromantic]

In early 2014, Ukraine was a neutral country, with a pro-Russian president, and with 70% of Ukraine's population against NATO membership. Yet Russia bluntly violated Ukraine's neutrality and annexed Crimea, then launched a covert invasion of Ukraine in the east.

Petro Poroshenko won the presidential election later in 2014 having promised a settlement with Russia, keeping a special status of the Russian language in Ukraine. He was initially sceptical regarding NATO accession, underlined Ukraine must rely on its own strength to provide security.

Did Putin meet Poroshenko halfway? Not at all. The regular Russian army entered the Ukrainian territory in mid-2014 to fight the Ukrainian troops, which led to the Minsk-1 agreement signed in September 2014.

Further text - down under the cut, or you can follow the Twitter link to the original post:

Few weeks later, Ukraine's parliament adopted a law that would guarantee the then Russia-controlled part of Donetsk and Luhansk regions additional economic, financial and cultural powers.

How did Putin react? Russia staged sham local elections in the occupied Donbas, and then sent the regular army again to Ukraine in early 2015, which led to the Minsk-2 agreement signed in February 2015.

Zelensky was even more sceptical regarding NATO accession. Asked about NATO, he once famously said he never pays anyone a visit if he has not been invited. He won the presidential election promising to compromise with Russia - to stop shooting, sit down with Putin and talk.

Did Putin meet Zelensky halfway? Not at all. He actually raised the stakes by issuing the Russian passports on the occupied territories of Ukraine even before Zelensky assumed the office, putting him in a difficult political position since the start.

Zelensky was ready to drop Ukraine's NATO bid in an exchange for the Russian troops withdrawing from Ukraine. The talks were held already before 2022. What did Putin do? He launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In the first weeks of the invasion, Zelensky was yet again ready to drop Ukraine's NATO bid. But he wanted to obtain international security guarantees. What did Putin do? He demanded that Russia must be consulted before any aid would be given to Ukraine in the event of aggression.

To sum up, Ukraine has consistently tried to reach a deal with Russia over the last decade, and was open to giving up on its NATO bid in exchange for the withdrawal of the Russian troops from Ukraine. Russia never reciprocated, never showed a good will, kept raising the stakes.

Both Poroshenko and Zelensky were initially sceptical regarding Ukraine's accession to NATO. Both wanted to get a deal with Putin. And Putin himself pushed both of them to seek NATO membership out of no other viable alternatives.

Up till now, Putin has shown absolutely no willingness to compromise with Ukraine. His war aims remain maximalist - subjugating Ukraine and changing its regime. He seeks Ukraine's partition, and will turn what is left of Ukraine into Russian protectorate.

Russia's imperial self-conception is that of Russian elites at large, and not just Vladimir Putin. The Russian leadership simply cannot reconcile with the existence of a sovereign Ukrainian statehood.

Therefore any sustainable Ukrainian-Russian compromise is currently not possible unless the Russian cost-benefit calculus changes. Only credible risk to the stability of the Russian regime would impact this calculus. The easiest way goes through defeating Russia in Ukraine.

[uhhgoodd]

Portrait of Kornei Chukovsky by Il'ya Repin (1910)

[henk-heijmans]

Young female Kamchatka brown bear playing with an oil drum, Kronotsky Nature Reserve, Kamchatka, Russia, 2011 - by Igor Shpilenok (1960), Russian

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

Pentagon confirms ‘around 2,000’ U.S. troops deployed in Syria

Washington quietly doubled the official number of troops present inside Syria at an unspecified point before the fall of Damascus.

The U.S. illegally deployed troops in Syria in November 2015 to allegedly “prevent the return of ISIS.” This came just two months after Russia accepted the request of Damascus to provide air support to the Syrian army, Iranian special forces, and Hezbollah in their fight against ISIS forces who threatened to overrun the Syrian capital.

In the chaos that ensued, Washington and allied Kurdish militias seized control of Syria’s resource-rich northeast, where the U.S. army remains to this day and regularly loots Syrian resources. Hundreds of U.S. troops are also present in the massive Al-Tanf base near the tri-border area connecting Syria, Iraq, and Jordan.

In 2019, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump detailed why Washington intends to uphold the occupation of northeast Syria, saying, “We want to bring our soldiers home. But we did leave soldiers because we’re keeping the oil .… I like oil. We’re keeping the oil.”

[vintage-russia]

"In the park" (1903)

Viktor Stemberg (1863-1921)

[crowleyaj]

thinking about how I went on eurovision tumblr in 2018, saw a lot of people outraged about israel not only winning and hosting the next one but also about being allowed to participate in the first place, went "wait what did they do" and proceeded to find out and start learning. meanwhile people now will watch footage and read news of actual genocide that no one committing it is denying and will still repeat israeli propaganda how it's all about defending from hamas and absolutely refuse to make any effort to learn anything. horrible

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (Russian, 1817-1900) Jesus Walks on Water, 1888

[thelittleukrainianwell-armedgirl]

How Russia continues to deliver oil directly to the EU despite sanctions | UP. Investigation

"In the third year of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the sham nature of the civilised world's sanctions is becoming quite obvious. This is as obvious as the fact that if the sanctions policy of our Western partners stood on principles, Russia's economy would not have survived three years of war. Especially a war of such intensity involving so many missiles and other means worth billions of dollars. In fact, such economic levers were used to deter Russia's military aggression.

It is also clear that Russia is a petrol station country, and the lion's share of its budget is provided by money from the “black gold”. This means that it is oil that ensures Russia's ability to continue its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Russia's military budget for 2024 was about US$112 billion and will be increased in 2025. According to Bloomberg, spending on national defence and internal security will increase by almost a third to US$142 billion.

Such a disappointing state of affairs for the civilised world is explained by the fact that despite all the restrictions and bans written on paper, millions of tonnes of Russian oil continue to flow directly to the European Union.

According to the Financial Times, in the first year of the full-scale invasion, the EU paid Russia about €140 billion for oil and gas, which is more than the EU provided to Ukraine in aid in two years. About 80 of this 140 billion is oil.

How is this possible? See our new Ukrainska Pravda investigation".

[7pleiades7]

Morpheus and Iris (1811) by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin (French, 1774–1833), oil on canvas, 251 x 178 cm, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg