Ukraine now fighting in Russia.

You'd have compare it to pre war sales

Yup, from what I read they have a shadow oil fleet anyway, so just use front companies to do their bidding for them thus evading sanctions - stuff based on Dubai etc

Wasn't that more due to the outright boycott near the end? Not quite the same as sanctions really

The political right - not just here but throughout the western world - is  becoming a hotbed of conspiracy theorising. We see it constantly across the pond. We saw it in the explanations for the Truss disaster. And there are some real loons out there. We have one in work who is guarded about what he says to whom, but who has a shared interest with me in WW2. so talks to me a lot. And because i tend to just laugh off outrageous comments from colleagues he has opened up about other beliefs. And it turns out that he believes Hitler had the right idea re so-called "useless mouths." Wokery is supposedly an international liberal plot to destroy western civilisation, there is a secret global plan to undermine the white races by letting loads of immigrants swamp them. That the establishment of detention centres for those saying the wrong thing on FB is just around the corner. That the rioters were legitimate protesters expressing reasonable grievances who were infiltrated by the deep state with agents acting as agents provocateurs and lefties infiltrating them and casing trouble to make them look bad. That freedom of speech is being destroyed. And he keeps kind of hinting at a belief in some kind of imminent uprising by the oppressed people and that this means Starmer will not be in power for long. He thinks Starmer is just a puppet and others with some kind of illiberal liberal agenda who are opposed to white Anglo-Saxons and seeking to destroy them are pulling his strings. There is supposed to be some form of global conspiracy involving the global elites, the liberal wokerati, Islamic extremists, Israel and the Jews, communists and socialists, and global finance to destroy the white races and white culture. Climate scientists are supposedly  in on it too.

Seriously, getting Islamic extremists, Jews and Israel all plotting together not to mention communists and socialists in cahoots with global finance, would surely take a miracle worker of  superhuman proportions. But alas, no matter how obvious that is to rational minds, those locked in a conspiracy theory mindset seem to be capable of imagining the most unlikely of alliances and conspiracies as real.

His interest in WW2 is genuine and he is just about the only person I have ever met whose knowledge on the subject is as great as mine and perhaps greater. He often tells me about stuff I never knew about which turns out to be factual. I find such discussions genuinely interesting. But the extremist right wing shit less so though I don't want to  put him off both because I don't relish uncomfortable situations in the workplace and see value in having an insight into the thinking of a far right extremist from the horse's mouth. So I tend to laugh off what can be laughed off, agree with him when I feel I have to, in order to earn his trust. I see value in knowing how such people think. He is a goldmine of information as to what makes them tick.

meanwhile , as mentioned on a regular basis in scotland about Groupthink of the modern liberal left , you and those like you time and again display all the symptoms... 


Illusion of invulnerability – Creates excessive optimism that encourages taking extreme risks.

Collective rationalization – Members discount warnings and do not reconsider their assumptions.

Belief in inherent morality – Members believe in the rightness of their cause and therefore ignore the ethical or moral consequences of their decisions.

Stereotyped views of other groups – Negative views of “enemy” make effective responses to conflict seem unnecessary.

Direct pressure on dissenters – Members are under pressure not to express arguments against any of the group’s views.

Self-censorship – Doubts and deviations from the perceived group consensus are not expressed.

Illusion of unanimity – The majority view and judgments are assumed to be unanimous.

Self-appointed ‘mindguards’ – Members protect the group and the leader from information that is problematic or contradictory to the group’s cohesiveness, view, and/or decisions.

Reports of Ukrainian expansion into the Belgorod Oblast came through last night.

This really is getting serious.
I like what I'm seeing.
Hopefully the pressure will build and occupying forces in Donbas will have to withdraw.

Anyway, Ukraine have made bigger incursions into Belgorod and are advancing through there too now