Russia-Ukraine thoughts: Week 1

I have written longform pieces on the Russia-Ukraine war, about the NATO expansion broken promises and related issues, the Minsk Agreements, the potential endgame, and a first roundup of dishonesty about the issues.

In light of that piece, especially, and along the lines of my weekly COVID roundup, though hopefully for a lot shorter time, I'm going to post a weekly roundup of Ukraine-Russia voices of sanity pieces worth reading.

Here's one noting that Ukraine's elites, its oligarchs, by plundering it even more than Russia's oligarchs did to that country, drove the national backs to the wall.

People who have done much reading about Ukraine know about the Azov Battalion. People who have read more know about other groups like C14. Without denying their continued existence under Zelensky, is it possible that they were more toothless than fierce, and that Putin's propaganda war helped revitalize them? Thoughts on that here.

Yeah, Bernie Sanders may have opposed NATO expansion, but how firmly? Ted Galen Carpenter notes Bernie's always been softer on interventionism when a Dem's in the White House. In line with that, I noted in the 2016 Dem debates that he refused to call the 2009 Obama-Clinton coup in Honduras a coup.

A reminder to take some pieces there with a grain of salt, but Antiwar is worth at least an occasional look.

Unherd, from which my first two links come, also deserves a look, but warning: If you sign up, it's a PITA to unsign, and warning No. 2, it can be as uneven as Antiwar. For example? Using this war to condemn Biden's alleged (NOT actual) "net zero" policies, and no, not linking.

Remember that post-Cold War dividend we were promised, if you're nearly my age or older? Well, here's a friendly reminder that the Big Promiser himself, the Slickster, was arguably the Big Waster of that dividend.

NBC can call any and every statement about biolabs in Ukraine "disinformation" even as it uncritically passes on US disinformation claiming Russia plans biological warfare.

Late addition: Shock me that at Texas Monthly, Forrest Wilder can strawman (and deny that any genocide has happened in Ukraine, ignoring Odessa 2014 among others) while apparently going for laughs about someone portrayed as basically RT America's youngest broadcaster. The fact that Blevins has conspiracy theory ties doesn't make everything she says about the conflict 100 percent wrong.