Each day I read articles about Estonia buying US missiles with which to target Russia, Ukraine getting US targeting intelligence for Russian refineries, Friedrich Merz saying Germany is not at war with Russia, but is also not at peace.

While waiting for my meal in Pskov Oblast I was enjoying my beer, enjoying the charming ambience of the restaurant, which as is very common in Russia was playing English language, mostly American, music. This song came on and I kind of „couldn’t believe it“. I found myself looking at the speakers with a quizzical expression on my face, so an attentive server came over and looked at me inquiringly to see what was wrong. „Chris Isaak,“ I said. „Yes,“ she answered, „Wicked Game“ (in English). She waited, to see what the problem was. „San Francisco,“ I explained. „Chris Isaak is from San Francisco. I am from San Francisco. I am sitting in a restaurant in Russia and listening to a musician from San Francisco.“ She continued to look at me, trying to figure out what the problem was, then decided there was no problem, we both nodded, and she disappeared behind the bar. A short while later she reappeared with a delicious liqueur which she told me was compliments of the management.

When I read that Americans, Brits, Germans, – unable to locate major Russian cities on a map – call for attacking these cities with missiles, I think of various Russians I’ve met, men and women who take for granted that they listen to American music and are friendly and kind to American tourists.

AfD the highest nationally that I’ve seen, BSW the lowest since entering the Bundestag.

Friedrich Merz:

Ich will’s mal mit einem Satz sagen, der vielleicht auf den ersten Blick ein bisschen schockierend ist, aber ich mein ihn genau, wie ich ihn sage: Wir sind nicht im Krieg, aber wir sind auch nicht mehr im Frieden.

Cat Stevens, who unlike Friedrich Merz is unable to get a US visa:

[W]hile Eastern Europe was acquired by the Soviets as a buffer zone, in the long term it proved to be a gate. lt did not shield the USSR from Western influences; it ushered them into the tent.

In matters of economic and social reform, the satellites led, and the Soviet Union followed—albeit usually with a delay, and only after an intervening period of repression and retrenchment. Hungary, following 1956, became an example of a socialist economy that could deliver a relatively high standard of living. Czechoslovakia, during the brief flowering of the Prague Spring, showed that socialist leadership could conceivably coexist with a free press and a multiparty system. Polish Solidarity, although anti-Communist, paradoxically showed what a real worker-led social movement looked like.

—Jacob Mikanowski, Goodbye Eastern Europe, (Great Britain: Oneworld Publications Ltd, 2023), 287-288.

I was rather surprised to see this on my X feed yesterday, and can only imagine it is a result of this:

Galloway and several of the people he regularly retweets, including two people who identify as Irish journalists, seem to have a pronounced anti-German mindset which has them seeing the 2025 world in terms of Britain fighting The Nazis™. This approach is also, quite clearly, beyond question.

Lenin in Pskov is relaxed. He stands at ease, right hand on his hip, his gaze attentive, with a slight smile on his lips. He looks out over Pskov and likes what he sees. He’s not beckoning – there’s no need to beckon, comrade, if you are in Pskov you will like what you see as well.

Lenin in Tver seems rather stern, even grim-faced. He appears to be striding forward, and is definitely not beckoning. He’s got something in his right hand that he seems to be swinging down. It’s a determined, rather than welcoming stance.

Branko Milanović:

Those who attack majorities that vote wrongly seem to speak, when it comes to international organizations, in tongues that come from an entirely different era. They call for international solidarity, inter-country cooperation etc. at the time when the world is being divided into political, economic and military blocs. It is a fantasy that under the current conditions which are likely to prevail for at least several decades there will be anything but the very minimal ability to do things internationally whether it be fighting climate change, epidemics, or coordinating monetary policies, rescheduling of debts, trade rules. All of it basically has to go out of the agenda and would be dealt with either bilaterally or from position of force by whoever is in that position. So the presumption that there is some general interest shared by all citizens of the world is entirely inapplicable in today’s times. When one hears some such speakers, one feels that they have been stuck in the 1990s (when such illusions could at least have been entertained) and to not have observed that the world has since changed.