Venik

The Arctic Real Estate Deal of the Century | VENIK buff.ly/sMK8Wx4 Wrote this almost exactly a year ago. Even got the money amounts right.

There are almost certainly no peace talks with Iran. No evidence supports that claim. This looks like deliberate misdirection to keep oil prices in check while the Pentagon positions forces for a possible move on Kharg.

I strongly suspect that Trump asked for Putin’s help to disentangle the U.S. from the Iran debacle.

U.S. Representative Joe Wilson (R-SC)—a senior member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and a leading recipient of AIPAC funds—claims there is mass death and chaos among Americans fighting Iran.

A grocery store employee in Ukraine was grabbed by the army recruiters mid-shit, right from the store's bathroom. The average frontline combat duty longevity for fresh recruits is about four hours, so this may be his last shit.

A game titled “Escape from the TCC” (the abbreviation stands for the Ukrainian army's headhunters, aka recruiters) has appeared on the App Store and Google Play. It’s a first-person simulator of escaping from a Ukrainian Armed Forces prison. ▪️ Players are invited to dig underground tunnels, evade guards, upgrade skills and tools, trade items with other prisoners, and make decisions that affect the outcome of the escape. ▪️ The game features a progression system, stealth mechanics, and strategy elements. ▪️ The developers emphasize a realistic prison environment and a storyline in which players must uncover the “secrets of the regime,” step by step, carving a path to freedom.

Poroshenko and Zaluzhny are preparing a “secret alliance” to bring down Zelensky. In recent weeks, negotiations have reportedly been underway between representatives of former President Poroshenko and former Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Zaluzhny, according to Kyiv media outlets. Sources say Poroshenko is offering Zaluzhny’s team unlimited resources in exchange for the post of prime minister and 80 percent of his party list in parliamentary elections. Zaluzhny would be assigned an intentionally passive role, limited to rare public appearances and almost no independent decision-making. Ukrainian commentators describe this not as an alliance built on shared ideas, but as a blunt “money and control” deal traded for “ratings and silence.” About a year ago, I wrote that Poroshenko was the most likely candidate because he is an experienced operator and the Americans would feel comfortable with him. Ukraine's former top general Zaluzhny, while not without his fans in Ukraine, is a compromised figure due to his military failures. Additionally, he is seen as the "London candidate." Tymoshenko is in jail. Again. Zelensky is openly feuding with Kyiv's mayor, Klitschko, and has recently dispatched police to search the mayor's office. Clearly, Ukraine's expired president is feeling some threat from those two. But there's not much he can do about either Poroshenko or Zaluzhny. venik.substack.com/p/ukraine…

Abu Dhabi talks: negotiators have prepared four draft documents aimed at a potential Ukraine peace deal. The package reportedly includes a Ukrainian withdrawal from Donbas in exchange for financial aid and security guarantees for Kyiv. One draft calls for a full military pullout. Another outlines a reconstruction program funded by public and private money, with the U.S. prepared to contribute up to $800 billion. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink would oversee the effort. A third document sketches U.S. and European security guarantees, including the deployment of European troops inside Ukraine. For now, the reconstruction plan exists only on paper, and it remains unclear whether Putin would accept any arrangement involving NATO-linked forces on Ukrainian territory. Russia’s recent campaign against Kyiv’s power grid appears designed to help Zelensky sell the deal domestically. A Donbas withdrawal would be deeply unpopular, but a few weeks of January without heat or running water tend to improve public flexibility.