Year: 2022

The USSR’s promotion of national identities left it doomed from the very get-go
Exactly 100 years ago, on December 30, 1922, the largest country in world history was created. At the First All-Union Congress of Soviets, representatives of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) and Belarusian SSR, and the Transcaucasian Federation all signed  Declaration and Treaty on the Formation of the USSR.
The huge country left an ambiguous legacy, and most of the Bolsheviks’ promises were never fulfilled.

FTX founder and accused crypto-crook Sam Bankman-Fried met with senior White House officials on at least four occasions in the months leading up to his firm’s massive implosion, Bloomberg reports.
On Sept. 8, SBF met with senior Biden adviser Steve Ricchetti in a previously unreported encounter, White House officials familiar with the matter said. The meeting was “the latest in a handful of sessions,” according to the report.

Bankman-Fried had at least three others previously disclosed in White House visitor logs.

  Bodhgaya, Bihar, India – His Holiness the Dalai Lama has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to tell him how sorry he was to have learned of the passing away of his dear mother. “I offer you my condolences,” he wrote. “I am currently staying in Bodh Gaya and I will pray for her….
The post His Holiness the Dalai Lama Offers Condolences to PM Narendra Modi appeared first on Central Tibetan Administration.

The Capitol police would have carried out a bloodbath if the mostly white Jan 6 protesters were black, according to House sergeant at arms William Walker.
From NBC News, “Jan. 6 response would have been ‘vastly different’ if rioters were Black, House sergeant at arms told investigators”:

The House sergeant at arms, who was the head of the D.C. National Guard during the attack on the Capitol, told the Jan. 6 committee that the law enforcement response would have looked much different had the rioters been Black Americans.
“I’m African American. Child of the sixties.

The National Wealth Fund, which accumulates revenue from the country’s energy exports, has been growing this year
Russia’s Finance Ministry intends to replenish the National Wealth Fund (NWF) in Chinese yuan starting from next year as part of its budget rule, the head of the ministry, Anton Siluanov, has revealed.
The fund, which accumulates revenue from oil exports, is part of Russia’s federal budget assets. It was created to support the national pension system, and the funds can also be used to cover budget deficits in times of crisis. The assets of the fund amounted to $186.