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On the occasion of the second anniversary of the war in Ukraine and in response to the death of imprisoned opposition politician Alexei Navalny, EU representatives agreed on the thirteenth package of sanctions against Russia.
The list of people, companies or institutions that are to be directly or indirectly involved in supporting the aggressor has been extended by 200 more. In addition to the Russian entities, four Chinese companies and one Indian company are now on the list, according to the Czech Press Agency. The reason for this is that they are said to be helping the Kremlin to circumvent previously adopted measures preventing the purchase of military technology. These are companies producing so-called dual-use products, in particular drones.
The US is also preparing a major new package of sanctions. One day, we may learn whether such measures have worked (in the case of Iran, they have not), but from time to time, the hard reality comes knocking on the door of the enthusiastic politicians who approve them, in the form of reports about how Russian companies have found a back door and how Western companies are trading with them briskly and without scruples. Apparently they follow the famous economist Milton Friedman's motto: The business of business is the business.
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It is an occasion for great celebration, especially in the Far East, to remember the dead and pay respect to relatives who are no longer with us. Although it is often called Chinese New Year, it is celebrated with several days of holidays in South Korea, for example. Families set up small altars in their homes for their deceased fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers and offer them various delicacies and liquors. Then they also symbolically bond with them. In order to allow the souls of the deceased to reach such a feast without any problem, the doors of the dwellings are left open, with temple shrines also having special holes in the ceilings. The souls then return to the afterlife through this route.
There are many legends surrounding the lunar year. Perhaps the most famous is the story of the Nian, an underwater animal with pointed teeth and horns. It was on New Year's Eve that this monster would appear on Earth and harass the villagers. They always hid in fear, until one day a wise old man came to the village and chased the monster away with red flags that he hung in the doors of the houses. He gave the people red clothes and set off many noisy fireworks. Hence the tradition of fireworks, which chase away all the bad and bring only the good into the coming year. Red is, among other things, the symbol of money in China, for example, and banknotes are symbolically presented in envelopes of this colour for the New Year. They are meant to bring abundance and well-being throughout the year. The confectionery - mooncakes - are also meant to help. People also don't wash or cut their hair on the first few days because the Chinese character for hair is the first letter of the word prosperity.
And what does the Wooden Dragon bring us?
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On 14 February, a debate with students took place at the University of Economics in Prague. I registered to attend and received a confirmation of registration. To my surprise, I was not on the list? Fortunately, the young organizers did not call the police on me as they did on 7 November in Vienna, where I wanted to listen to a lecture by Foreign Minister Lipavsky. The students were reasonable, waited to see if anyone would come and registered me again. I did, but there was only room for me in the last row. It was, of course, unlikely that I would take part in the discussion. It was confirmed. I attach the audio recording of the whole of the EP President's speech.
I did not speak to President Metsola until afterwards, without any problems at all. I gave her my letter, which has been received and will be received by ambassadors of many countries. It concerns the security of the Schengen area and the future of Europe. Naturally, I cannot publish it yet. I am publishing below the two questions that I was unable to ask in the debate and have passed on to her personally:
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Prime Minister Fiala and the government have been talking about an energy crisis in the country since the beginning of 2022. There was and is no energy crisis. All the talk about electricity was to cover up the huge speculation on the commodity derivatives exchange.
Today, there is clear data on electricity production in the country in recent years, on exports and on trading, but not in electricity, but in commodity derivatives. The electricity price increase was a scam and a scam instigated by the Czech Government and their "friends" who smelled a huge opportunity after the collapse of Bohemia Energy. But trading, trading in commodity derivatives is more like Russian roulette than the job of an exchange engineer in a block watch.
Information on open positions worth up to 557 billion crowns. That is, about how CEZ's trading got out of control and it was necessary to quickly find money somewhere for possible damages. Also, remember those wannabe experts who spent all of 2022 and 23 telling everyone that electricity had to be sold through the stock exchange? Oops, I guess they're liars or misinformers, since CEZ actually sells the vast majority of its generation in the country, directly to customers or distributors.
The increase in electricity prices for customers in the Czech Republic was blamed on the fall of Bohemia Energy and the war in Ukraine. It is a tragedy that the Czech Government and the supervisory authorities allowed this to happen. In addition, they have lied to us for a long time and systematically about the energy crisis and how they are fighting (hard) what they have caused.
Technically, from the point of view of the engineers, there was no reason for the price of electricity in the Czech Republic. The termination of service by Bohemia Energy was an opportunity for other traders to easily gain new customers, perhaps with some price premium. What happened, however, was a battle of "Grab what you can, the cash register is open".
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Director Daniel Rother asks Navalny what is his message to his supporters in case he is killed?
"If that happened, it means that we are unusually strong at the moment, since they decided to kill me. We must use that strength. Don't give up, remember that we are a huge force that the bad guys are oppressing just because we fail to realize how strong we really are. The inaction of good people is all it takes to defeat evil. That is why we cannot remain inactive."
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Russia's brutal ruler Putin is liquidating his opponents in ways worse than Hitler. What does the West want more! Will it respond again with innumerable, toothless statements, or will it finally act in a way that will affect Russia perceptibly, not only for the sake of the West, but also for the sake of the people of Russia and Ukraine? This is a clear declaration of implacable war on the West, where Russia is not afraid of it because of its previous toothlessness. Human beasts respect only brute force. Respect for the principles of freedom and democracy does not threaten Russia at all ! JŠ
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