Good morning friends. Spring came in full bloom in our part of the world.
Let’s get down to your daily digest:
There is no end in sight to the war in Ukraine. Russian troops have been closing in on Kyiv. A former NYT journalist was killed by Russian soldiers over the weekend.
Apparently Russia has asked China to provide military assistance after it began the invasion, specifically for military equipment, including drones. The US says China will face harsh "consequences" if it aids Russia.
There are daily protests in Russia these days, but the police crackdown is on another level. Check out this video. Both tragic and funny (enable subtitles by pressing CC):
In other news, China is scrambling to address its most severe Covid-19 outbreak in two years. After topping 1,000 for two days in a row, new locally transmitted cases surged to more than 3,100, this time driven by a spike in symptomatic infections, the National Health Commission reported on Sunday. For context, there were 147,000 new Covid cases in Germany on Friday, but China has a zero-Covid policy in place, so it’s a big deal for them.
Stephen Kotkin is a Professor of History at Princeton who has authored the most complete biography of Stalin to date. He gave an interview for the New Yorker on Friday where he discusses the recent events in Ukraine by focusing on the internal dynamics of Russia as factors with higher explanatory power than the actions of the West. If you don’t have time to go through it all, just listen the shortened audio version.
Below some interesting snippets:
Russia is a remarkable civilization: in the arts, music, literature, dance, film. In every sphere, it’s a profound, remarkable place––a whole civilization, more than just a country. At the same time, Russia feels that it has a “special place” in the world, a special mission. It’s Eastern Orthodox, not Western. And it wants to stand out as a great power. Its problem has always been not this sense of self or identity but the fact that its capabilities have never matched its aspirations. It’s always in a struggle to live up to these aspirations, but it can’t, because the West has always been more powerful.
Also this one:
The biggest surprise for Putin, of course, was the West. All the nonsense about how the West is decadent, the West is over, the West is in decline, how it’s a multipolar world and the rise of China, et cetera: all of that turned out to be bunk. The courage of the Ukrainian people and the bravery and smarts of the Ukrainian government, and its President, Zelensky, galvanized the West to remember who it was. And that shocked Putin! That’s the miscalculation.
Unless you are a space aficionado, you probably have not heard of the Polaris Dawn Program. This space program is funded by Jared Isaacman, the CEO of Shift4 , a payment processing solutions company. In Q4 2022, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Polaris Dawn mission to orbit where the Dragon capsule and the Polaris Dawn crew will spend up to five days.
At approximately 500 kilometers above the Earth, the crew will attempt the first-ever commercial extravehicular activity (EVA) with SpaceX-designed EVA spacesuits, upgraded from the current intravehicular (IVA) suit. Building a base on the Moon and a city on Mars will require thousands of spacesuits; the development of this suit and the execution of the EVA will be important steps toward a scalable design for spacesuits on future long-duration missions.
It’s no secret that the bromance between Vladimir Putin and former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder goes a long way. Since they met last week to discuss the situation in Ukraine, let’s talk about their relationship a bit.
In a 2004 interview Schroeder was asked whether Putin was a "flawless democrat," to which he responded: "Yes, I'm convinced that he is." The "flawless democrat" had just won 71% of the vote in Russia's presidential election, taken control of most key state institutions, made it more difficult to set up new political parties and clamped down on the activities of NGOs.
One of Schroeder’s last acts before leaving office in 2005 was authorizing Nord Stream 2, the recently suspended pipeline that aimed at bringing Russian natural gas directly to Germany. After ending his political career, Schroeder took on positions with the Russian-owned gas companies Nord Stream and Rosneft.
In 2014, Schroeder celebrated his 70th birthday in style in St. Petersburg. He greeted his special guest, Putin, with a big hug and described him as an extremely reliable friend. At that time Russia had just annexed Crimea and in the east of Ukraine, a the civil war had just broken out.
In 2016, Schroeder pointed to history for an explanation of the profound relationship. "Both of our families suffered terribly during World War II. I lost my father. Putin's brother died during the German siege of Leningrad," said Schroeder. "And," he continued, Putin had "kept every promise that he has made, as I have, too."
In 2017, the Russian government proposed Schroeder as chairman of the board of directors at Rosneft, the state-owned oil giant which was on the European Union's sanction list for its involvement in the annexation of Crimea.
"It's my life and it's me who decides what to do with it, and not the German press." Schroeder said defiantly in his defense.
And lastly, the usual pics, vids & memes from around the web:
This messed me up.
Interesting chart.
Right in the feels.
Bees do not fly in the dark. Obviously.
Heroes.
This is hilarious.
It’s true.
That was it folks. Wishing you a beautiful week ahead, see you tomorrow.