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the painter and one of his models who shaped the destiny of odessa…...

Above: Lawrence's portrait of Armand-Emmanuel de Vignerot du Plessis, duc de Richelieu (cropped).

Sir Thomas Lawrence PRA FRS (13 April 1769 – 7 January 1830) was a leading English portrait painter and the fourth president of the Royal Academy. Lawrence was a child prodigy. He was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper at the Bear Hotel in the Market Square. At the age of ten, having moved to Bath, he was supporting his family with his pastel portraits.

 

At eighteen he went to London and soon established his reputation as a portrait painter in oils, receiving his first royal commission, a portrait of Queen Charlotte, in 1790. He stayed at the top of his profession until his death, aged 60, in 1830.

Self-taught, he was a brilliant draughtsman and known for his gift of capturing a likeness, as well as his virtuoso handling of paint. He became an associate of the Royal Academy in 1791, a full member in 1794, and president in 1820. In 1810 he acquired the generous patronage of the Prince Regent, was sent abroad to paint portraits of allied leaders for the Waterloo chamber at Windsor Castle, and is particularly remembered as the Romanticportraitist of the Regency. Lawrence's love affairs were not happy (his tortuous relationships with Sally and Maria Siddons became the subject of several books) and, in spite of his success, he spent most of life deep in debt. He never married. At his death, Lawrence was the most fashionable portrait painter in Europe. His reputation waned during Victorian times, but has since been partially restored.

 

So, what is Armand-Emmanuel de Vignerot du Plessis, duc de Richelieu and HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH UKRAINE, IN THE ODESSA OBLAST THAT WAS THEN "LITTLE RUSSIA"?....

 

It's a long story... We don't know if the Duc was impotent or homosexual though this may have nothing to do with the price of fish....:

 

......

 

After a short stay in Austria, however, Richelieu joined the counter-revolutionary émigré army of Louis XVI's cousin, the Prince de Condé, which was headquartered in the German frontier town of Coblenz. Later, after Condé's forces had suffered several defeats, Catherine the Great offered positions in her army to the officers serving under Condé. Richelieu accepted.

In the Russian army, he achieved the rank of Major General but later resigned his commission after what he considered an unwarranted reprimand by Catherine's successor, Czar Paul I. His prospects brightened, however, after Paul was murdered in 1801. The new Russian emperor, Czar Alexander I, was one of his friends. The erasure of Richelieu's name from the list of prohibited émigrés who could not legally return to France, which Richelieu on his own had previously been unable to secure from Napoleon Bonaparte, was accorded on the request of Alexander's new imperial government, and in 1803 Alexander appointed [Armand-Emmanuel de Vignerot du Plessis, duc de Richelieu] Governor of Odessa. Two years later, he became Governor-General of a large swathe of land recently conquered from the Ottoman Empire and called New Russia, which included the territories of Chersonese, Ekaterinoslav and the Crimea. He commanded a division in the Turkish War of 1806–1807, and was engaged in frequent expeditions to the Caucasus.[2] Richelieu played a role during Ottoman plague epidemic which hit Odessa in the autumn 1812.[5][6] Dismissive of any attempt to forge a compromise between quarantine requirements and free trade, Prince Kuriakin (the Saint Petersburg-based High Commissioner for Sanitation) countermanded Richelieu's orders.[7] In the eleven years of his administration, Odessa greatly increased in size and importance, eventually becoming the third largest city in the empire by population. The grateful Odessites erected a bronze monument to him in 1828. These are the famous Odessa Steps, crowned by a statue of Richelieu.

 

READ MORE OF Armand-Emmanuel de Vignerot du Plessis, duc de Richelieu'a somewhat busy but forgotten "extraordinary" life in helping shape history that still reverberate today in Odessa:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armand-Emmanuel_de_Vignerot_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu

 

 Note the "Turkish plague" of pandemic proportions....

 

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the master of odessa…..

In the portrait of Armand-Emmanuel de Vignerot du Plessis, duc de Richelieu, Sir Thomas Lawrence gave him an extraordinary long neck... Study the work carefully. Is this a real "long neck, is this a mistake or an interpretation to give an "impression" of a tall handsome young man, reminiscent of Buckingham... My personal opinion — as a portrait painter — is that Sir Thomas Lawrence DELIBERATELY "lowered the shoulders". My instincts tell me that on either sides of the shoulders, the background was extended with slightly different "patches" of colours.... I have done the same trick before. It gives a stronger regal stance to the subject...

 

In the statue that show the duc as a "Roman Emperor", the neck is not as long though... 

 

Here is the full portrait:

 

 

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musk's mug......

The Ukrainian port city of Odessa has apparently decided that Elon Musk’s face no longer has a place on billboards picturing international celebrities who have supported Kiev amid its conflict with Moscow. The move comes after the Tesla CEO tweeted a Russia-Ukraine peace plan.

“The advertising department is removing the photo of Elon Musk from the billboards with which we expressed our gratitude to those who backed Ukraine,” Odessa’s administration wrote on Telegram.

It also published a video showing a worker gluing a large piece of blue paper over the billionaire’s face.

Some media outlets claimed the move would not only see Musk’s image removed, but whole billboards that also feature the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch, Emilia Clarke and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Musk had a falling out with Ukrainian officials and social media users in early October after he proposed a peace plan to settle the conflict between Kiev and Moscow. According to him, Russia should “redo elections of annexed regions under UN supervision,” while Ukraine would commit to neutrality and drop its claim to Crimea.

 

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky reacted to the idea by launching a poll on Twitter, asking followers“which Elon Musk” they “like more” – the one “who supports Ukraine” or the one “who supports Russia.”Kiev’s outgoing ambassador to Germany Andrey Melnik went much further, telling the US billionaire to “f**k off.”

A few days after that, the Ukrainian military reportedly began experiencing problems with its Starlink communications system. Musk’s SpaceX company had donated $80 million worth of Starlink terminals to Kiev at the beginning of the conflict, with Kiev’s troops relying heavily on the system for communications.

The news prompted speculation that it could have been the tech entrepreneur’s revenge for the rejection of his peace proposal. But Musk dismissed those rumors as “bad reporting.”

 

READ MORE:

https://www.rt.com/news/564543-musk-portrait-odessa-ukraine/

 

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THE HOLLYWOOD "STARS" WHO SUPPORT "UKRAINE" OF COURSE DON'T REALISE THEY SUPPORT A NAZI NASTY LITTLE MAN, DICK-PIANO PLAYING ZELENSKY WHO BELIEVES HE IS A JEW, THUS MASTER OF THE WORLD.... HE IS JUST A SHIT-HEAD..... ELON MUSK IS CORRECT AND OFFERS THE "PUTIN SOLUTION" USING THE UNITED NATIONS.... OF COURSE UNINTELLIGENT ZELENSKY HAS ENOUGH BRAINS LEFT IN THE EMPTY SPACE BETWEEN THE EARS TO KNOW THE RESULT, WHICH WOULD BE THE SAME AS WHAT HAS ALREADY HAPPENED: THE DONBASS REGIONS/REPUBLICS WANT TO JOIN RUSSIA.... SOON IT WILL BE ODESSA'S TURN. READ FROM TOP....

I MUST SAY I EXPECTED BETTER FROM Benedict Cumberbatch, THE OTHERS "STARS" CAN GO TO HELL....

 

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russia has no need to lie.........

Ukraine’s navy told AFP the attack on port infrastructure killed five people and left an unspecified number of wounded.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who was holding talks with Zelensky said, “We heard the sound of sirens and explosions that took place near us.”

“We did not have time to get to a shelter. It is a very intense experience,” Mitsotakis said through a translator in Odesa.

Ukraine stepped up its own attacks behind Russian lines with the apparent killing of a Russian election official with a car bomb and a drone assault on a metals plant.

Russia and Ukraine have increased aerial attacks as Moscow’s troops advance on the front lines and Kyiv faces a shortage of manpower and weapons.

Spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk confirmed the Odesa strike came as the Greek delegation was visiting the port with Zelensky.

Russian forces “don’t care whether (targets) are military or civilians, whoever they are, whether they are international guests, these people don’t care,” Zelensky said.

According to the White House spokeswoman in Washington, “it appears that (the rocket) landed near the convoy.”

But the Russian defence ministry claimed a strike on a “hangar in a commercial port area of Odesa in which crewless cutters were being prepared for combat use by the Ukrainian armed forces”.

The hit came just days after 12 people, including five children, were killed when a Russian drone hit an apartment block in the same Black Sea city, one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in weeks.

With the White House struggling to end Republican stonewalling on new US aid packages to Ukraine, a spokesperson for President Joe Biden’s National Security Council said the Odesa attack showed the “urgent need” for sending weapons.

“This strike is yet another reminder of how Russia is continuing to attack Ukraine recklessly every single day.”

 

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20240306-ukraine-s-odesa-rocked-by-deadly-blast-during-visit-by-zelensky-and-greek-pm

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MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Russian military attacked a hangar in the port district of Odessa, where preparations were underway for the combat use of Ukrainian unmanned boats, the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) said on Wednesday.
"At 11:40 Moscow time [8:40 GMT], the Russian armed forces launched a high-precision missile attack on a hangar in the industrial port district of Odessa, where preparations were underway for the combat use of unmanned boats of Ukraine's Armed Forces. The target of the strike has been achieved. The facility was hit," the ministry said in a statement.
⚡️At 11:40 Moscow time, the Russian army launched a high-precision missile strike on a hangar in the industrial port area of Odessa, where preparations were being made for the combat use of unmanned boats of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the Russian Ministry of Defense said.

The…

— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) March 6, 2024
Earlier, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Ukraine lost nearly 166,000 troops, 800 tanks, including more than half of the Leopard tanks delivered to it, 123 aircraft and 2,400 pieces of military equipment during its counteroffensive last year.

 

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240306/russian-precision-strike-on-odessa-eliminates-ukrainian-sea-drones---mod-1117168605.html

 

GUS IS MYSTIFIED THAT UKRAINE ONLY MANAGED TO RENAME THE RUSSIAN CITY OF ODESSA AS ODESA..... WHY NOT BANDERATOWN OR SUCH?....

 

MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

 

 

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

THESE WILL ALSO INCLUDE ODESSA, KHERSON AND KHARKIV.....

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

 

EASY.

 

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

 

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too late?

‘Odessa will fall’, Musk warns UkraineKiev should pursue a “negotiated settlement” with Moscow before it loses all access to the Black Sea, the billionaire has argued  

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has reiterated his belief that Ukraine’s position is weakening with each passing day of hostilities, warning that the “real question” is how much territory Kiev will lose and how many lives it will waste before sitting for talks with Moscow.

The entrepreneur claimed in a poston his platform X on Saturday that “any fool could have predicted” that Ukraine’s much-touted counteroffensive last year would fail, adding that even if Kiev had followed his recommendation to “entrench and apply all resources to defense,” it would be “tough to hold land that doesn’t have strong natural barriers.”

“It was a tragic waste of life for Ukraine to attack a larger army that had defense in depth, minefields and stronger artillery when Ukraine lacked armor or air superiority!,” Musk wrote.

READ MORE: Musk clarifies position on Ukraine funding

The Ukrainian army has seen over 444,000 military casualties during the course of the ongoing conflict, including more than 166,000 during last year’s counteroffensive, according to last month’s estimates from the Russian Defense Ministry. However, President Vladimir Zelensky claimed in February that only 31,000 of his country's troops had been killed since February 24, 2022.

The billionaire went on to argue that “the longer the war goes on, the more territory Russia will gain until they hit the Dnepr, which is tough to overcome.”

However, if the war lasts long enough, Odessa will fall too… Whether Ukraine loses all access to the Black Sea or not is, in my view, the real remaining question. I recommend a negotiated settlement before that happens.

Elon Musk has shifted his position on Ukraine several times since the conflict began in early 2022. He initially supplied Kiev with free Starlink internet terminals and access to the satellite-based network, but declined to activate the service near Crimea for fear that Ukraine would use it to guide drone attacks on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. If this had happened, he explained last year, SpaceX would have been “complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”

Musk has also used his X account to speak extensively about the trajectory of the conflict. More than a year ago, he proposed that Kiev abandon its claim to Crimea, declare neutrality, and allow the four new Russian regions (Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye), to hold new referenda on joining the Russian Federation. This proposal is similar to the terms offered by Russia to Kiev and the Western powers before the conflict began, except Moscow initially called only for autonomy in Donetsk and Lugansk.

Moscow has stressed that it remains open to meaningful talks with Kiev and has blamed the lack of a diplomatic breakthrough on the Ukrainian authorities, who refuse to accept the “reality on the ground.” 

Ukraine must take into account the fact that its borders have changed drastically since 2022, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday, commenting on Zelensky’s suggestion that a return to 1991 borders was no longer a precondition for negotiations.

  https://www.rt.com/news/595173-musk-odessa-ukraine-warning/   

MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

 

 

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

THESE WILL ALSO INCLUDE ODESSA, KHERSON AND KHARKIV.....

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

 

EASY.

 

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

 

READ FROM TOP

 

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it's time for being earnest..... 

odessa....

by Andrea Marcigliano

 

A specter comes up more and more often in the speeches of Western politicians: the conquest of kyiv by the Russians. The Russians first conquer kyiv. From there they spread throughout Ukraine. Then they pounce like predators on the Baltic countries and other NATO members.

I was talking about politicians… and their court of dwarves and ballerinas – to quote the old Formica – of journalists, analysts, armchair geopoliticians…

Except, with very rare exceptions, the military. They know well that such a hypothesis, or such a specter, is totally absurd.

But this is not because Russia does not have the necessary strength. If it wanted to, it could reach kyiv and beyond, also taking into account the obvious collapse of the Ukrainian army.

As for the Baltic countries, which are making noise and threatening to send troops to the front, it could occupy all three of them in the space of a week. By resting on the seventh day.

But the absurdity of this theorem is entirely political.

Moscow never aimed to occupy kyiv and all of Ukraine. It has no interest in putting a poor and devastated country under its control, which would only be a financial burden. Not to mention the risks of persistent turbulence.

Its first objective was to retake Donbass. After Crimea. An objective already, for the most part, achieved.

Next, make Ukraine a neutral country. Not controlled by Washington as it was after the Maidan Square revolution. On this point, Victoria Nuland could tell us a lot of things.

And that is still far from being the case.

Because NATO is clearly ready to massacre all the Ukrainians in order not to give in. And the puppet Zelensky knows very well that in the event of peace talks, his head would be first on the chopping block. Metaphorically… and not only.

Hence the current impasse. Because Moscow has indeed won militarily. But it cannot achieve its political objective.

At this point, Russia can only set its sights on Odessa.

The city overlooking the Black Sea was not among the initial targets of the special operation.

Although 40% of the population is Russian – and, despite kyiv's policies, 89% of residents generally speak Russian – Odessa is a cosmopolitan city, long coveted by Romania, and populated by many different ethnic and linguistic groups.

A city in many respects Italian, since it was the Genoese merchants who gave it its urban form at the end of the 18th century.

A free port. Today in sharp decline, partly due to the nationalist and centralizing policies of kyiv.

The Kremlin had no particular interest in the Black Sea city.

But in this situation, Odessa has become the new preferred target.

Inevitably, because the capture of Odessa would close all maritime access to Ukraine. And Russia would completely control the trade. In particular the export of cereals. The Ukrainian economy largely depends on it.

It would also make access to the Black Sea extremely difficult for NATO ships. Which, also taking into account Ankara's current position, could only count on the secure support of Bulgarian and Romanian ports. None of them compare to Odessa.

A great strategic success.

Beyond the chatter, what we can expect in the next three months is a Russian offensive towards the Black Sea. A risk of which NATO military commands are certainly aware. Conscious… but powerless. Because the chancelleries of the so-called collective West continue to look elsewhere. Probably blinded by the fears of the Lithuanians, Estonians, Poles…

 

source: Electro Magazine via Euro-Synergies

 

MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

 

 

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

THESE WILL ALSO INCLUDE ODESSA, KHERSON AND KHARKIV.....

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

TRANSNISTRIA WILL BE PART OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION.

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

 

EASY.

 

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

 

READ FROM TOP

 

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