WHAT CAUSED PUTIN TO BACK OFF ON UKRAINE?

On February 1 I posted on WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT UKRAINE? To quote:

There is too much history linked to Ukraine that the thought of their joining the European Union deeply agitates Vladimir Putin.

There all kinds of reason why Putin is focused on Ukraine. Here is one that probably makes the most sense.

The current issue of TIME magazine has a rather lengthy article by Simon Shuster with a sub-theme, GREAT WARS SOMETIMES START OVER SMALL OFFENSES. I can't link you to it because you're not a subscriber. World War I, for example, was triggered when Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated.

The story begins in 2004 when Daria Medvedchuk was born in Ukraine. Her father, Victor, asked a close friend, Vladimir Putin, to christen her in the Orthodox tradition they shared. The families are close, for they holiday together on the Black Sea and conduct business on the side.

About Viktor Medvedchuk:

Previously in 1990 to 1997 was president of the Bar Association of Ukraine. He is a lawyer, not a drinks server.
Went on in 2019 to become chairman of the pro-Russia Ukrainian Choice.
That year led his opposition party to win 37 seats in the Parliament, including his.
On 19February2021 (this was a year ago) Medvedchuk and his wife were accused of treason and attempted looting of national resources, and has since 13 May 2021 been under house arrest, with assets frozen. This is illegal because Ukrainian law allows for a maximum of six months of house arrest.

About Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy:

Is Jewish, with father a noted professor and mother an engineer.
Volodymyr went on to graduate from law school, but became an actor and comedian.
He beat incumbent president Petro Poroshenko in 2019 with 73% of the votes.
A few months later, Zelenskyy received that pressure call from President Donald Trump to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
In November of 2020 he tested positive for COVID-19.

So after Joe Biden became president in 2021, Zelensky got tough on Medvedchuck, placed him under house arrest and blacked out his TV channels. Two days later, just about a year ago, Putin announced the deployment of 3,000 paratroopers to the border with Ukraine for training. More and more came and now there are around 150,000.

Look at this from Putin's point of view. His close Ukrainian friend has pretty much been treated similar to how he has handled his rival, Alexei Navalny. Tried poisoning, and failing that, jailed him. He can't let the U.S. and Zelenskyy get away with what Putin has done. That could well be the crux of the matter.

So what seems to be the happening? Apparently Russia is pulling back and there won't be a war. Why? I suspect Putin got what he wanted. First, in time, restoring Viktor Medvedchuk to the same status he had before Zelenskyy jailed his rival. Second, no doubt now that Russia will sell gas to Germany using the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline, which is valued at $11 billion. Third, Navalny will someday be allowed to leave the country. Ukraine won't be saying much about joining NATO.

Why I like dogs more than cats:

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These a...

WHY YOU SHOULD CONVERT TO A JAPANESE HIGH TECH TOILET

Did you know that Oktoberfest in Germany is mostly in September? The very first day of Oktoberfest 2021 was supposed to be today, September 18, extending into October 3. Well, as in 2020, Oktoberfest was cancelled. So why is it called by that month when it is held mostly in September? The first celebration in 1810 was in October. Did you also know that Oktoberfest is held only in Munich? These days seven million drink more than a liter ( about three typical cans ) of beer each, costing around $11. Except for my wife and I when we followed the crowd to board the S-Bahn to the fairgrounds near Old Town. It was drizzling a bit. We bought a large pretzel outside of a typical barn where beer is served. We did not know that you needed to get this inside the hall. So no one came to serve us beer. After a while we decided to have lunch, and the restaurant we settled on only served wine. Thus, we might have been the ...

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The first half of my life was spent preparing myself for my final 42 years. This was a mostly trying and stressful period involving a less than ideal youth, then struggles to get through school, my first few jobs and accompanying life, ending two months later on a Sunday with Part 15E , so it was a spiritual conclusion to my final transition. I never did count the number of actual postings, but I suspect it was around 25 parts. The ending had to do with golf, the disappearance and re-appearance of an 8-iron cover. That was the final clue to whether the beyond after death would be eternal gloom or Heaven. Today, I provide only one transition, but hint about a final one, for this, after all, is Sunday. I'm 84 years old, so let me summarize what happened during the first phase, from 0-42, and follow with the years 42-84. As this is 2024, that key transition year was 1982. I can't seem to find this photo, but as a one-year old baby, I was fat....

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