And while everyone was distracted with the political theater between Trump and Zelensky, this happened:

Trump administration approves major nearly $3 billion arms sale to Israel

Bypassing a normal congressional review...

https://apnews.com/article/israel-arms-sale-gaza-bombs-3dcb519c65978c7598e42b3742547e9b

Did the Russian SIM card and bank account bureaucracy dance:

Just got my Russian SIM and bank account. Thought I would go through the steps.

Have google authenticator on your phone, you will need it. And learn to count from zero to nine in Russian. That will also be needed. Have international roaming and data on your phone.

Get your passport translated and apostilled. Get your registration card from your hotel. Get a Russian email address ( mail.ru works ). Download the Gosuslugi app, but don't mess with it.

Go to a Multifunction Center, use Yandex translator and your phone mike if needed, and get your SNILS number. They will need your passport translation, registration card, and a printed and legible copy of your new email address.

You will get a sheet of paper with your name and SNILS # ( make certain the name matches the one in Cyrillic on your visa ), and you will get one email from gosuslugi.

Open it, screenshot it, and send the screenshot to Yandex translate. It should tell you to hit the button, and put in the last three digits of your passport number. Do this. ( If you don't speak good Russian, screenshot EVERYTHING and send it to Yandex Translate ).

Then you wait for the gosuslugi emails to arrive. Could happen in a few minutes, could take 10 days.

When your account is active, go into the app, put in your email address, and set a password. Then get out. Don't explore, you only get a few grace logins before it demands a phone number for SMS verifications. This is bad.

If you get caught by this, choose the middle option and set up google authenticator verification so you don't get locked out.

Once your gosuslugi account is active, go to a bank ( Cberbank works ), and do your biometrics ID. Use Yandex Translate if needed. Bring your passport translation, your hotel registration, and the paper with your shiny new SNILS number.

The facial recognition software they use to scan your face is awful and retarded, it will take several minutes for them to get a usable face shot. Be patient.

Then you will need to read three lines of numbers into a mike in Russian. Simple, no brain samples or blood needed.

Then you can get your SIM card, using the gosuslugi app to prove you have done this.

Or just get a phone SIM at Cberbank while you are there, they offer cellphone service.

Once you have a working Russian phone number, you can then open a bank account.

This bureaucracy dance was brought to you by Ukrainian scammers, who made all this insanity necessary.

"Anyone who borrows money to build a house is just collecting stones for his own tomb." (Sirach 21:8)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Sirach+21%3A8&version=GNT

Almost every evening in the season of Advent, during our evening family prayers, my family and I usually sing all the verses of the hymn, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel". The lyrics are from the 6th-9th centuries, when the western church was still Orthodox.