[guest post by Dana]

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An unspeakable horror:

The Ukrainian Ombudswoman for Human Rights has said that the Russian government is crafting legislation to allow Russians to adopt Ukrainian children forcibly taken to Russia by military forces.

She has also stated that, so far, over 121,000 children have been “deported” by the Russian government.

In a statement on Facebook, Lyudmila Denisova said that the Russian Federation is changing legislation to allow “the accelerated procedure of adoption of children from Donbas.”

She added that Ukrainian officials have no information on the children that are allegedly being processed for adoption by Russians.

“Now the Russians, firing rockets and tanks at the homes of Ukrainian citizens, kill parents and kidnap our children in the occupied territories of East and South Ukraine,” she said.

This is fucking vile. And yet, Europe has seen something like this happen before:

Alodia Witaszek’s biological parents were still alive when she was kidnapped as a girl. In autumn of 1943, both she and her little sister were sent to a youth custody camp in Litzmannstadt, which is today Lodz, to become “Germanized.” The sisters were no longer allowed to speak Polish in the camp.

Countless Polish children experienced the same fate: The organized child robbery was part of the Nazi racial policy to turn “racially valuable” children from the annexed parts of western Poland into Germans. The youth welfare offices reported the children whose appearance they considered “Aryan.” Representatives of the health authorities conducted medical examinations of them, filtered out the children with “good blood,” who were then sent to a children’s home where they were forced to learn German and their names were Germanized.

Afterwards, the SS-initiated association Lebensborn took responsibility of them, handing over younger children to SS families for adoption, and sending older ones to “German home schools.” Over time, the children became increasingly robbed of their memories and their identity as they became Germanized.

In light of Putin’s despicable actions, there can be no doubt that President Biden was absolutely right when he said that “Putin has got to go”. This:

No free-world leader should hesitate to state plainly that the world would be a far better place if Mr. Putin were no longer in charge in Russia, and one way to help make that come about is to say it. Making it clear that Russia will be a pariah until Mr. Putin is gone is the best way to shake his support among elites, military commanders and ordinary Russians.

…

So who in Washington is calling the shots on Ukraine? If the Biden administration wants Ukraine to win, someone in the White House should say it and do what is necessary to make it possible. If the US is offering deals to Mr. Putin or pressuring Ukraine to accept anything less than sovereignty over 100% of its territory, we should know. Tactical ambiguity can be useful, but a lack of strategic and moral unity and consistency leads to catastrophe.

Mr. Putin’s Russia is a bankrupt gas station run by a mafia that prefers to spend its time and money in London and New York. Offering any carrots to these war criminals would set the stage for a return to the appeasement and corruption that brought us to this deadly phase. It would also shake the foundation of collective defense in the region. As Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks told me last week, “We are afraid not of Russian tanks, but of Western weakness.”

It’s impossible to imagine the terror and tears of 121,000 children wrenched from their homes and the arms of their parents. It’s equally impossible to imagine the panic, shock, and rage of the surviving parents of those 121,000 children.

–Dana

It’s a technical and selective default, but a direct result of sanctions, and a default nonetheless:

Russia has defaulted on its foreign debt because it offered bondholders payments in rubles, not dollars, credit ratings agency S&P has said.

Russia attempted to pay in rubles for two dollar-denominated bonds that matured on April 4, S&P said in a note on Friday. The agency said this amounted to a “selective default” because investors are unlikely to be able to convert the rubles into “dollars equivalent to the originally due amounts.”

According to S&P, a selective default is declared when an entity has defaulted on a specific obligation but not its entire debt.

Meanwhile, people are screaming from their windows in Shanghai due to economic deprivation after a severe COVID lockdown.

What the?? This video taken yesterday in Shanghai, China, by the father of a close friend of mine. She verified its authenticity: People screaming out of their windows after a week of total lockdown, no leaving your apartment for any reason. pic.twitter.com/iHGOO8D8Cz

— Patrick Madrid ✌🏼 (@patrickmadrid) April 9, 2022

These totalitarian countries are not doing well.

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