2/20/2023

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            You are sneaky! Slipping out of DC at 4AM on Sunday only to turn up in Kyiv today. According to your public calendar you are still in DC. The G says that your people notified VVP’s crew “for deconfliction purposes.” I’m glad that they didn’t attack you.

            I admire your courage in pulling off a visit that is “unprecedented in modern times” as the first time a US president had visited “the capital of the country at war where the United States military does not control the critical infrastructure”. Were you on pins & needles during the 10-hour train trip?

            In your conversations in Europe this week, please recall that WINTA & listen to our allies who are encouraging Ukraine to begin negotiating a peace deal & potentially giving up territory to Russia. Remind everyone in NATO that some in Congress are experiencing war fatigue & are starting to wonder if the $$ is going where it is supposed to. Corruption does not disappear in a year & many folk in Ukraine have figured out how to milk the coffers. All that $$ coming into the country must be very tempting for them.

            Whatever you do, PLEASE DO NOT GIVE THEM THE F-16s they are asking for. Doing so will prolong the war.

            Please thank the EU for sanctioning more Burmese entities. A total of 93 people & 18 agencies, companies or organizations have now been targeted. I hope this pressure makes a difference.

            BYBS,

            RCA

PS – Did you know VVP has conscripted disproportionately large # of Russia’s ethnic minorities which Oksana Zabuzhko suggests is “a form of ethnic purge of potentially mutinous regions?” She notes “latent imperialistic solidarity” &”resource looting.” Her analysis could be targeted at Burma & many other places in the world. Would love to hear your thoughts on it.