gino buena retweeted
I spent 15+ years investigating Russian secret services and organized crime. I know people who served with Putin in the KGB and sat in on his deals with St. Petersburg crime bosses. So let me explain the "diesel deal" the way they would — in gangster slang. Because that's the language Putin actually thinks in.
First, the facts.
Putin just raised Russia's 2027 military budget by 27% to a record 17.1 trillion rubles — about $203 billion. Who budgets that kind of money for a war they're about to end?
The FT reported yesterday that Western intelligence has warned the heads of European defense companies that Russia is plotting to assassinate them.
Since September, Tusk, Macron and the intelligence services of Poland, Czechia, Latvia, Belgium, France and Denmark have all warned that Russian hybrid attacks — including drone and missile strikes — will intensify in the coming months.
None of this looks like a country preparing for peace.
Who actually benefits?
🇺🇸 What the US gets: Every serious analysis I've read says the announced volumes won't move American diesel prices. This is a PR move for Trump before the midterms — a story about prices that will "very, very soon" come down once his friend Vladimir's tankers reach US shores, plus the chance to claim he ended another war (I've lost count). The only US "benefit" is Trump's rating.
🇷🇺 What Russia gets: billions of dollars to keep funding its genocidal war against Ukrainians. Sanctions relief. A demonstration of power to the rest of the world. A deeper rift between the US and its European allies. And a real chance to disrupt US weapons and intelligence flowing to Ukraine.
So what is Putin's actual goal?
Trump's disapproval is at record highs and polls show his party will most likely loose midterm elections. In less than a month his power will be badly weakened. Why would Putin sign a long-term peace deal with a lame duck whose signature will soon be scrutinized at best and annulled at worst?
He wouldn't. And here's where the slang comes in.
In the eyes of Putin and his siloviki, Trump is a baryga — a greedy, unscrupulous businessman who puts profit above law and principle. Gangsters despise barygas, but they love using them. The goal is always to turn a baryga into a lokh — a mark, an outsider who doesn't understand the rules of the underworld and gets played to serve the gang's interests.
By signing the diesel deal, Putin plays two scenarios at once:
A) The deal miraculously helps his lokh keep power — great.
B) The deal changes nothing, the baryga loses the midterms — but by then it has already done its job: inflamed US political tensions and acted as arson inside the American system.
Putin knows that the majority of Americans support Ukraine. He knows that by signing, Trump draws unprecedented criticism, including from his own party. And he knows a baryga won't give up power easily, because he will have to answer for everything he did in office — this deal included. That's classic gangster/secret-service method: tie a man to your organization, make him a partner in your crimes, so he can't walk away.
Pouring more oil — diesel, in this case — onto the most explosive fault lines of American politics, raising the stakes for Trump and pushing him past the point of no return serves Putin far better than a peace deal that could be voided within months.
Remember: Putin's goal in the West is chaos, not peace.
gino buena retweeted
Nada de esto estaría sucediendo si los invasores se hubieran quedado en su casa y no hubieran entrado a la de su vecino. Ucrania tiene derecho a defender lo que es suyo. Lo que pertenece a su pueblo.
gino buena retweeted
🇷🇺 Calling all Russians: time for a little lesson in “Nazism.”
Ukrainian political analyst Borys Tizenhauzen explains to Russians why, in Russia, they constantly talk about Nazism but never give a definition of it.
📹 youtube.com/@tizengauzen?si=…
gino buena retweeted
Bessent: “This horrible conflict between Russia and Ukraine, if sides don’t talk, if we're not engaged, then how can it be solved?”
It can be solved by pressuring Russia to stop its invasion through economic sanctions and by arming Ukraine.
It definitely cannot be solved by trying to talk to Russia when it wants to continue its war and has no reason to stop.
You had 18 months to figure that out.
It's so incredibly disappointing that United States keeps pretending Russia is open to serious negotiations, when all they have ever wanted to negotiate is surrender of Ukraine.
Trump administration knows it very well. What's the point of this theater?
gino buena retweeted
We are dealing with some seriously twisted people.
From a Canadian perspective, I have to say: this is not normal.
Look at what is being put out through official U.S. government channels. One picture was posted by the White House. Another came from the U.S. Department of the Interior press. These aren’t random people on the internet. These are official institutions of the United States government, speaking to the world on behalf of the American state.
And as a Canadian, I find that deeply disturbing. Because the whole world is watching this. Not just Canadians. Not just Americans.
All of us.
People around the world are watching how the United States chooses to use its enormous political power, its influence, and its institutions.
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen another country engage in this kind of openly vindictive rhetoric in quite this way. Not Russia. Not China. Not even North Korea.
For generations, Canadians have looked to the United States as our closest neighbour, our largest trading partner, and one of the world’s most influential democracies. We may disagree with American governments, and Canadians certainly have plenty of opinions about American politics, but there has always been an expectation that, beneath the political battles, there was a certain standard of conduct.
This feels like something different.
There is a difference between defending your country and taking pleasure in humiliating someone. There is a difference between strong rhetoric and rhetoric that appears designed specifically to hurt, provoke, and degrade.
There is a difference between protecting your own country and wanting to tear down another for no reason.
It wasn’t enough to drive in the knife; they had to twist it too.
And from outside the United States, it is difficult to watch this and understand how anyone can consider it appropriate for a government to behave this way. This isn’t about being Canadian versus American. It isn’t about left versus right. It isn’t even about whether you agree with the person being targeted.
It’s about standards.
If a foreign government behaved this way, many of the same people would be outraged. They would call it cruel, undignified, or authoritarian, and rightfully so.
Canada and the United States have had disagreements for generations. We have argued over trade, foreign policy, borders, energy, defence, and countless other issues. But disagreement between neighbours does not require contempt for one another.
In fact, precisely because Canada and the United States are so closely connected, what happens there matters enormously to us.
Anybody who thinks this is acceptable behaviour simply because it is coming from “their side” has lost the plot.
Because governments are supposed to represent more than anger, vengeance, and political tribalism.They are supposed to represent their people.
And I would hope that Americans, regardless of their political beliefs, can still recognize the difference between strength and cruelty.
The whole world is watching.
And what they are seeing is not strength.
It’s something much uglier.
Source: Canadian United
gino buena retweeted
McFAUL: If you look at UN votes, Chinese don't vote with Russians when it comes to Ukraine. They always abstain. There're 6 or 7 countries that vote with Russians. Tragically, United States is one of them now. Think about that. We vote in defense of Putin, while Chinese abstain.
gino buena retweeted
For those who forgot (or choose to forget)
REPORTER: are you considering military force to annex and acquire Canada?
TRUMP: no… ECONOMIC FORCE!
That was JANUARY 7, 2025. Before @MarkJCarney was even a candidate for PM!
How can you hear this and still trust this man, or think he’s negotiating in good faith!?
He wants to cripple Canada in order to annex it
Watch the interview again before you wonder whose fault is it for not reaching a deal.
gino buena retweeted
BREAKING: CNN's fact-checker exposes an AVALANCHE OF LIES from Trump about Canada — and there's a new one almost every day.
Donald Trump doesn't just have policy disagreements with Canada. According to CNN's chief fact-checker Daniel Dale, who happens to be Canadian himself, Trump has built his entire trade war narrative on a foundation of demonstrably false claims — and the lies keep coming.
Just today, Dale documented, Trump falsely claimed Canada's unemployment rate is "10% and rapidly rising." The actual number: 6.4%, and it's been DECLINING for three straight months. Trump also falsely claimed Canada does "95% of its business with the US." The real figure is 72%.
He blamed the entire US-Canada trade deficit on high Canadian agricultural tariffs, despite the fact that roughly 97% of US agricultural exports to Canada are already tariff-free, and the actual deficit stems overwhelmingly from cheap Canadian crude oil imports that benefit American consumers.
And that's just today's batch. Dale's running tally over the past 18 months reads like a highlight reel of fabrication.
Trump has falsely claimed Canada doesn't buy American agricultural products, when it's actually the world's SECOND-LARGEST buyer of them. He's falsely claimed Canadians support becoming America's 51st state, when polling shows overwhelming opposition.
He's falsely claimed Canada is among the world's highest-tariff nations, when World Trade Organization rankings place it near the bottom. He's falsely claimed Canada "essentially doesn't have a military," ignoring that Canadian forces have fought alongside American troops in multiple wars and rank in the upper half of NATO by force size.
He's also falsely inflated the US trade deficit with Canada to "$200 billion" (nowhere close), falsely claimed Canada bans American banks (more than a dozen currently operate there), falsely claimed Canada is "constantly surrounded" by Chinese and Russian ships (fiction), and falsely accused former PM Trudeau of using trade tensions to run for reelection — despite Trudeau, quite obviously, not running.
This isn't policy disagreement. This is a dispute over the nature of reality!
This is a sitting president manufacturing an entire economic conflict with one of America's closest allies using numbers he simply invented, over and over, across nearly two years, with virtually no correction or accountability.
When the facts don't support your trade war, apparently the solution is just to make up new facts. Someone needs to tell Trump that the world doesn’t work like that, and it may as well be CNN’s Daniel Dale.
Please like and share if you’re sick of Trump’s lies!
gino buena retweeted
From Osoyoos BC: As you can see, thick smoke is rolling in from the south & the smell of forest fire is strong. This isn't from a fire in Canada, it's from a big fire in Nespelem, Washington state, but we're not complaining. Know why? Because we understand how fire, wind, & the jetstream work. Hoping our southerly neighbors in Washington stay safe & obey evac orders. Prayers up for those in harm's way.
gino buena retweeted
Canada’s boreal forest — the source of much of the wildfire smoke drifting into the U.S. — isn’t like our managed forests in the lower 48.
It’s the largest intact forest ecosystem on Earth: roughly 1.3 billion acres (about 78 times larger than Alaska’s Tongass, our biggest national forest, and 7 times larger than all 154 U.S. National Forests combined). It stretches in an almost continuous belt from the Yukon to Newfoundland.
Why can’t they just do controlled burns like we do here?
Because most of it is remote, roadless wilderness.
• Less than 9% of Canada’s population lives in the boreal region.
• Less than 1% of the forest itself is developed.
• Vast areas have no roads and are only accessible by aircraft or winter roads.
You can’t send crews in to do prescribed burns across a billion+ acres of inaccessible terrain the way we can in populated areas near roads and communities in the U.S. Wildfire has been nature’s primary management tool in these ecosystems for thousands of years.
Smoke reaching the Northeast isn’t new either. It happened in 1950, 1988, 1995, 2002, 2017, 2021, 2023, 2025, and now 2026. Weather (especially upper-level wind patterns) determines where the smoke goes, not just where the fires are burning.
Blaming Canada’s government for “not controlling” these fires is political theater. The scale and inaccessibility make large-scale suppression or prevention across that wilderness fundamentally different — and in many places, practically impossible — from managing forests near U.S. population centers.
Nature runs that forest. Politicians don’t. Let’s stop pretending otherwise.
gino buena retweeted
WATCH: Here’s video showing the Belgium Team mocking Donald Trump’s stupid dance in the locker-room after defeating Team USA 🇺🇸 to win the World Cup yesterday.
Who loves this? ✋🏽
gino buena retweeted
Well, it was inevitable, and it happened.
Time and again, Russia brings down another Ukrainian apartment building with a missile in the middle of the night, burying entire families beneath the rubble.
Ukraine strikes one of Russia’s largest and most strategically important oil refineries, around 3,000 kilometres from its own borders.
One side deliberately targets civilians. The other targets the infrastructure that fuels the war.
If anyone still struggles to see the difference, they’re choosing not to.
gino buena retweeted
jako Polka, pozwolę sobie nadmienić, że w sytuacji, kiedy mamy największą wojnę w Europie od czasu drugiej wojny światowej - również zaczętej przez ᵣuskich, stoimy u progu zbrojnej konfrontacji z ᵣuskimi, kiedy Stany Zjednoczone przejęli faszyści, kiedy ważą się losy Europy i świata, kiedy Ukraina to jedyne co oddziela polskie dzieci od masowych grobów i daje wam, pachoły, czas przygotować się na wojnę, potencjalnie światową - chwilowo pierdolę Wołyń i każdą inną historyczną zaszłość. mam wyjebane. mam głęboko w dupie kto ma rację i kto kogo mordował i dlaczego 100 lat temu. z resztą pierwsza odpowiedź Polaka na to pytanie brzmi zawsze i bezwzględnie: ᵣuscy.
wyście wszyscy doszczętnie ochujeli. dajcie się ᵣuskim szczuć na naród, któremu zawdzięczacie 5 lat odroczenia wojny na terytorium Polski. siedzicie na dupach i wydaje wam się, że jesteście bezpieczni - nie jesteście. ᵣuscy przetestowali naszą obronę przeciwpowietrzną dronami we wrześniu w zeszłym roku. orzesznik który uderzył we Lwowie potrzebowałby dodatkowe 1.5 minuty żeby przyjebać w centrum Warszawy.
ogarnijcie się, pojeby.
gino buena retweeted
Don't fall for his continual lies. Canada has the receipts.This bridge is jointly owned and jointly operated. As per agreement, Canada collects the tolls until the bridge is paid for.Then both sides collect tolls. This is just political posturing by Trump. Hoekstra is just wrong.
gino buena retweeted
We need to put an end to the false narrative that Russia is "retaliating" when it hits Ukrainian civilians.
Russia is the unprovoked, genocidal aggressor that started this war, and Ukraine is the only side fighting back and executing real retaliation.
Calling a Russian missile strike on a Ukrainian apartment block a retaliation is a grotesque distortion of facts. Russia lied for months to cover up its plans before executing a completely unprovoked invasion.
The numbers tell the real story of who is targeting whom. While Ukraine has 2.5 to 3 times fewer total casualties than Russia, Ukraine has dozens of times more civilian casualties.
Russia opened this dark chapter by targeting civilian infrastructure first. Ukraine is retaliating to survive, while Russia is simply continuing its deliberate campaign to destroy the Ukrainian population
gino buena retweeted
Failing to decisively defeat Russian imperialism in Ukraine means Europe will eventually have to fight Russia within its own borders, a scenario that could unfold much sooner than anyone expects.
Ukraine's magnificent courage has kept the threat at bay, but it has also caused European societies to forget just how dangerous and adaptable Russia remains.
While Russia has burned through a massive amount of its initial military potential, it has actually become a much more dangerous neighbor than it was before the full-scale war. Russia has less to lose than in January 2022.
The regime is more isolated, has mostly decoupled from Western economies, and possesses vast institutional knowledge of modern, drone-centered warfare that far outpaces European capabilities.
Because Russia operates under a ruthless war economy, its factories are delivering drones, missiles, and air defense interceptors at a pace that dwarfs the collective output of the entire EU.
Europeans are living in a state of false security, drastically overestimating their own military readiness while holding completely inadequate stockpiles of interceptors and unmanned platforms.
While the EU must immediately rebuild its domestic defenses to act as a deterrent, the absolute best way to avoid a direct war inside the EU is to break the back of Russian imperialism in Ukraine.
This is a highly realistic goal, but it demands that Europe dramatically accelerate its military aid, starting with immediate and massive funding for Ukrainian drone programs
