The National Interest report says that the war in Ukraine has turned the tables on the US foreign policy approach to its allies.
Illustration of a US tank emerging from behind the American flag (Rob Dobi)
Washington has a new message to its allies: Relying on American military leadership will have to come with terms and conditions, no more “free rides”, a report by The National Interest revealed on Thursday.
The media outlet said that the earlier discussions have addressed the “free riding” problem in general, especially when it comes to US foreign policy.
In short, free riding refers to American allies earning US military protection and privileges acquired through Washington’s global influence and hegemony, without providing anything – or barely anything – in return.
US international allies, during the cold war era and what came after, were at the center of criticism by Washington for “relying on the United States to spend its national treasure in terms of higher military expenditures to provide them with global security,” the report continued.
“If anything, the message coming from Washington these days is that if the allies want to be able to continue to rely on U.S. military leadership, they are the ones who would have to accept the economic conditions set by the Americans,” the report said.
The conditions, according to the media outlet, are “ending their energy deals with Russia, sanctioning it, and joining the United States in a long and costly economic-technological war with the Chinese.”
US “subsidies” to its allies’ defense budgets have enabled them [allies] to spend less on their military industry and focus more of their revenue on their social and economic needs, “while fiscal tightening forces Americans to cut expenditures on education and health,” according to the news sites.
According to the report, this begs the question:
“Why should America continue bankrolling the defense budgets of countries like Japan, surplus economies whose companies compete with American businesses in the global arena?”
The dominating position of the US in the Middle East, which has been sustained through large military and financial expenses, allowed Washington’s allies that are dependent on foreign energy imports to have freedom of access to the energy resources in the Gulf region, the report noted.
In addition to all the abovementioned points, there is also the current world reality where the US is committed to deploying its nuclear arsenal to defend its NATO and Asian allies in the case that they [allies] come under threats from adversaries with nuclear arms.
“Hence, the Americans are supposedly ready to see New York and San Francisco being nuked in order to save Berlin and Tokyo from annihilation,” said the outlet.
Thus, pressing NATO states to raise their defense budgets and their military and economic contributions to the coalition has become a bipartisan ritual of sorts in Washington “until President Donald Trump’s behavior made it look faux pas,” the report said.
Anti-globalization sentiments in the United States
Americans are expressing unwillingness to “continue supporting the liberal economic order while the allies were breaking free-trade principles,” the media outlet stated.
“But then that was the way the industrial miracles of Germany and Japan had happened, very much at the expense of American economic interests,” it continued.
The cost implications on the United States from the wars it fought in the “Greater Middle East” started to challenge the de facto rhetoric in Washington regarding the US role on the global stage.
According to the report, the US is “supposedly ready” to help out its allies who resort to it and protect their access to energy resources in the Gulf region, “while the allies pay very little in exchange, and even try to force the United States into costlier military interventions in the Middle East, as France did in the case of Libya.”
War in Ukraine; turning point
After the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine and amid growing “Chinese threats to Taiwan,” the report said that – “according to the conventional wisdom” – US allies may have finally realized that “free riding” is not an option anymore when it comes to dealing with the United States.
“They need to start playing a more activist role in the protection of Western interests against the threat of powerful global disruptors” and now have to “contribute to the production of that international public good”.
Allies will have to step up their roles, “since alone the United States will not continue to provide it cost-free,” the report said.
‘American Hegemony Lite’
The media site pointed out Germany’s response to the Ukraine war and Japan’s reaction to growing tension with China as examples that allies are, indeed, making a shift in their role as US allies.
“These developments seemed to have changed the balance of power in Europe and Asia, where America can supposedly now count on its allies to play their roles as its deputies while the United States remains primus inter pares (first among equals), call it American Hegemony Lite,” the site said.
No more free pass for allies practicing protectionism
Toward the beginning of the Cold War, “liberalizing American trade policies while dealing with nations that practiced protectionism made some sense,” the report noted, arguing that some allied economies, such as Germany and Japan, were still in a state of recovery from the destructive outcomes of WWII, thus had to protect their local industries from outside competitors.
“But those who assumed that Trump’s economic nationalist policies would change under the more internationalist President Joe Biden are discovering now that that approach enjoys bipartisan support,” the report stressed.
The news site continued that the decision made by Biden not to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which would have required the US to cut tariffs on some Asian imports, and his administration insisting on providing subsidies to electric-vehicle despite outrage from European allies in particular, who accused the US of practicing unfair protection to US-made products, are signs that Washington has turned upside-down the Cold-War-era deal with the allies.
In its concluding statement, the report said that despite the conventional discussion that it is in the US interests to stop allies from establishing independent military powers, which could make the world a “more dangerous place,” the United States was one of the countries that launched a “series of wars in recent decades that have made the world more dangerous.”
“It was based on the expectations that the United States needed to win the geostrategic commitment of its allies through concessions in the geo-economic area,” the report said.
US allies developing nuclear programs could not have been a bad idea
“In retrospect, if Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and Ukraine had nuclear weapons, the world would have probably been less dangerous today,” the news site claimed.
❗️ The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation (https://t.me/mod_russia_en) held an urgent briefing, (https://t.me/MFARussia/12376) detailing a provocation against the Russian Federation prepared by the USA and NATO with the accusation of using nuclear, biological and chemical weapons
💬 The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation possesses the information related to the preparation of provocations by the United States of America in order to accuse the Russian Armed Forces of using chemical, biological or tactical nuclear weapons.
There are three scenarios to be applied in order to accuse the Russian Federation.
👉 The first one is a ‘staged incident under a false flag’ that is the most probable.
👉 The second one refers to a ‘Maximally covert use of weapons of mass destruction in small volumes’ for neutralising the will power and the capacity to resist within the fulfilment of a particular operational task.
👉 The third and the least probable one is the ‘overt use of weapons of mass destruction at a combat area’.
The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation possesses the information related to the preparation of provocations by the United States of America in order to accuse the Russian Armed Forces of using chemical, biological or tactical nuclear weapons. This plan has already been developed and represents a response to the success of Russia in conducting the special military operation.
▫️Only in March and April senior officials of the Western countries have been making regular provocative ‘warning’ statements. The mass media propagate the points about the possibility of using weapons of mass destructions by Russia.
▫️For example, the National Security Advisor J.Sullivan has commented on Biden’s words that the USA “in kind” to the possible use of weapons of mass destructions by our country. And on February 27 the American permanent representative to the UN Greenfield announced an intention of Russia to use any instruments ‘under a false flag’, including chemical and biological weapons for intimidating the Ukrainian population and the international community.
▫️Against this background, the US State Department considered positively the transfer of up to 400 sets of personal protection equipment, 390 NBC reconnaissance devices and 15 ‘Stryker’ reconnaissance vehicles.
Staged use of WMD is aimed at accusing Russia of using prohibited weapons with the subsequent implementation of the so-called «Syrian scenario», in which the state is subjected to economic and political isolation, as well as exclusion from international organizations, including the UN Security Council.
▫️A possible way forward is to put pressure on the countries loyal to and friendly to the Russian Federation, including India and China, to compel them to impose sanctions on our country.
❗️We would like to recall that the Russian Federation completely destroyed its chemical arsenal on September 27, 2017, which is confirmed by an OPCW certificate. In turn, the United States, with its strong financial, economic and technical potential, is the only country party to the Chemical Weapons Convention that still possesses an impressive arsenal of chemical warfare agents (672.5 tons).
▫️CIA Director Burns’ statement about Russia’s possible use of tactical nuclear weapons is absurd. With the current level of technical equipment of the international nuclear test monitoring system, it is impossible to conceal the use of such weapons. If the CIA director does not understand this, then he is either unprofessional, or he is being misled.
▫️The biological weapons programs in the USSR were completely phased out in 1972. At the same time, the number of U.S. biological laboratories is incomparable to other countries. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Washington controls 336 laboratories in 30 countries, which is of great concern.
To date, the United States is the only state in world history that has used all three types of weapons of mass destruction.
▫️The dropped nuclear bombs during the Second World War on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the use of toxic chemicals in Vietnam and Iraq – all these crimes were not properly assessed by relevant international organizations.
❗️Thus, in an attempt to discredit the special military operation of the Russian troops, the Kiev regime, at the suggestion of the American administration, is able to implement scenarios in the near future that will lead to the death of tens of thousands of Ukrainian citizens and cause an environmental and humanitarian catastrophe.
The various posts on the Mod Telegram channel starts here:
We—I, and my spousal unit, Violeta—pulled into DC after a conventionally miserable flight from Guadalajara in seats apparently designed for dwarves with our feet almost in our pockets and Delta trying to sell us beer at seven dollars a can. I didn’t get it. If you can sell watery brew at seven balloonishly inflating greenbacks a can, why do you need an airline?
The occasion was a visit to a woman with whom I immediately became involved, though with Violeta’s permission. She weighs seven and a half pounds and has a smile that would make a dead man weep. This may have little geopolitical importance, though.
Anyway, the proud father celebrated having produced, or coproduced, a baby who probably deserves a world run by psychiatrically less fascinating adults, by taking about a dozen of us to Fogo da Something, a Brazilian restaurant on Pennsylvania across from the Trump Hotel. This costs $64 a head for all the meat and salad bar you could eat, desserts and drinks extra, so with tip you can crawl out, stuffed and economically depleted, for about $90. Salad bar good, desserts swell, meat tasteless. You can do better for a sixth the price at La Carreta, down the lake from us in Mexico.
The meal was a pre-guillotine experience, especially the restaurant. Or I hope so. The waiter says, “Hi! I’m Bruce and I am going to be your waitperson and do everything I can to make sure you have a wonderful, wonderful dining experience. We are orgasmically delighted to see you and….” When a waiter oozes like that, sure, he’s looking for tips, but I wonder, tips of what?
In Mexico waiters are courteous but you can tell they don’t want to sit in your lap or have a long-term relationship. In New York a waiter says, “What’ll it be?” and you say, “Eggs over medium, bacon on the side, cuppa mud,” and he says, “You got it.” Human. It gets the job done. You couldn’t write a Proust novel about it.
Anyway, the place was big, I’d guess between seventy-five and a hundred people doing the squat-and-gobble, likely disgorging on average a C-note per. This is DC, with the five richest counties in America, Montgomery, Loudoun, Fairfax, that kind of place, a city where the graft never stops, recession proof, where bribes run in freshets. Out there in Flyover Land, in Appalachia and the Rust Belt and the rural Deep South, families think going to Mickey D’s is a treat. And the swarming derelicts in the warm states increase in their medieval Ly diseased hordes.
Guillotine stocks. It’s the way to invest.
Washington is a rerun. In Paris in 1788 , creeping toward the Terror, the aristocracy was, like Washington’s upper crust, wealthy and schooled and cultured and cared not a withered farthing about the peasantry, as neither does Washington. Marie Antoinette didn’t really say, “Let them eat cake,” but they all thought it, and Hillary Antoinette, with her contempt for the Basket of Deplorables, expresses the same sentiment. There will be a price. Maybe anyway.
I spent two weeks in this diseased city wondering, “What are they thinking? The country is disintegrating internally, inflation growing like kudzu on a Georgia roadcut, living standards falling, the schools going to hell, and Washington is worried about…the Ukraine? Things crumble, resources are desperately needed domestically, and Washington buys the B-21, which Aviation Week prices at $640 million a copy of which, by design, you have probably never heard.”
It’s nuts. The racial situation is an intensifying disaster with continent-wide rioting, burning cities, ghetto kids graduating illiterate, desperate white people offing themselves with opioids, the rabble storming the Bastille—wait, this time I think it was the Capitol–but we need to raise prices by tariffs on China and Russia.
One night we went to eat with old friends from an earlier life. Like so many in DC, they were ninety-ninth percentile in intelligence, well educated, and decent people. We pondered, “Thai? Chinese? There’s a new Turkish place that’s supposed to be good.” Again, good people, though living in million-dollar houses, but…but…for much of the country Turkish, in some spiffy joint on Cap Hill or upper Connecticut Ave, would be the adventure of a lifetime. Washington has an ampleness of evil people, the Bidens, Blinkens, Victoria Newlands, Trump at one remove, but so many are just out of touch. There’s a new Turkish place in the city, and when was the last time they dined in Flint?
The media, a salt mine in which I once labored, are an embarrassment, utterly partisan, ranting and howling about Russia. OK, in war it is usual to cut the public off from information and to keep them stirred up with accounts of rape, human shield, “genocide,” chemical war, massacres, torture, a rule of television being to get a woman to cry and fill the frame. In Vietnam the media ran all over the country and actually reported what was happening, which eventually ended the war. This error is not being repeated.
{what bothers me is the apparent lack of curiosity, of doubt of official sources. Contrary to belief in some quarters, reporters are not given orders to adopt a particular point of view, though they know better than to contradict the publication’s line. No scribbler at the Washington Post will discuss racial differences in intelligence. But they are herd animals.}
Violeta, whose cynicism toward government—anybody’s government—would peel paint from a wall, watched a video clip purportedly of a Russian tank crushing a car occupied by Ukrainians. She noticed after research that the Russian tank was black without markings, like Ukrainian tanks, instead of green with markings, like all other Russian tanks. OK, maybe it was an undercover Russian tank. She also noticed in some of the Russian-destruction video, street signs are blurred out. Uh…, why dat? Anyone want to guess?
Why do reporters not pay attention? First, again, they are creatures of the pack. They live in the Beltway Terrarium, talk to each other, read each other, and so know they are right. Don’t their colleagues all say so? Second, they are painfully ignorant of matters military, knowing chiefly the bureaucracies involved in policy, contracting, and so on. This includes those for the WaPo, whom I knew—Gerge Wilson, Molly Moore, etc. As a comparison with the coverage of the Washington media, here is a piece by Scott Ritter, a former American intelligence officer stationed in, among other places, Moscow. It is long but contains the kind of knowledge that not one of the Beltways reporters, squalling, screeching, preening and yodeling has an earthworm’s grasp.
Why did Russia attack? Anyone who can read a map can see that since 1991 the US has been trying, with considerable success, to encircle Russia militarily. Russia has said over and over that it was not going to have American missiles on its border in the Ukraine any more than America would allow Chinese missiles in Tijuana. I encountered no one in DC who had even heard of this, though it has been going on for years. This is journalism?
Yes.
All things end, except those that don’t. On a cold rainy predawn morning we caught an Uber to Reagan National, returning to a country that has just left the Third World to one energetically returning to it. A stewardess aboard read the boilerplate about have a wonderful flight. She didn’t explain just how that laudable goal might be achieved. Remember, cometh the guillotine. Kachunk. Kachunk. Kachun.
قد يبدو الاتهام المتبادل بين موسكو وواشنطن في نيات استخدام السلاح الكيميائيّ مجرد تتمة للحرب الإعلامية الدائرة حول المواجهة بينهما في أوكرانيا، لكن الأميركيين والروس يؤكدون أن اتهاماتهما جدية. ومن الطبيعي القول إن هذه التأكيدات باتهام الآخر لا تحسم الاتهام لأي منهما بقدر ما تؤكد نيّة أحد الطرفين بتأكيد الاتهام تأكيد نيّته بالاستخدام، فمن له مصلحة حقيقية بذلك بينهما؟
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قد تستفيد روسيا نظرياً من دب الذعر من استخدام السلاح الكيميائي في صفوف الأوكرانيين، والرهان على ذلك بضرب الحالة المعنوية للجيش الأوكراني ومناصريه، لكن تجربة الروس مع القيادة الأوكرانية تقول بأن درجة تقدير هذه القيادة للمخاطر على شعبها في اتخاذ قراراتها السياسية والتفاوضية معدومة، وأن حساباتها كلها تنطلق من تلبية الخطة الأميركية في الحرب. وفي هذه الحالة سيكون لتأثير استخدام السلاح الكيميائي منح الأميركيين منصة ما يريدون فعله من هذا الاستخدام.
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في واشنطن يسعون لتوريط موسكو بفعل ذلك، وان لم تفعل فيجب تصنيع فعل يمكن نسبته اليهم. وهذا ليس غريباً على تاريخ الأميركيين، فالحديث عن حياة المدنيين مجرد استهلاك للكلام كما يقول تاريخهم الحربي، تحت شعار الغاية تبرر الوسيلة، وهذا ما قالوه عن قنابلهم النووية على ناغازاكي وهيروشيما اليابانيتين، ولا يزالون يقولونه في تبريره، فموت الآلاف ومئات الآلاف أمر هيّن أمام تحقيق هدف.
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الهدف الأميركي واضح، وهو عدا شيطنة روسيا وإسقاطها أخلاقياً وإنسانياً، وتحريك مؤسسات حقوقيّة وقانونيّة لملاحقتها بجرائم حرب، هو هدف سياسيّ اقتصاديّ كبير بحجم السعي لربح الحرب، ولذلك يجب أخذ التحذيرات الروسية على محمل الجد، فقد بدأت تنشر مقالات وتقارير عما يجب على أميركا فعله اذا تمّ استخدام السلاح الكيميائي، والجواب يكفي للقول إنه كافٍ لتفعلها أميركا.
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يقول الأميركيون إنه اذا حصل وتم استخدام السلاح الكيميائي، فإن ذلك يجب أن يسقط آخر ذرائع ألمانيا ومن يريد مثلها مواصلة استيراد الغاز والنفط من روسيا، وأن حجم الضجة التي سيخلفها العمل سيكون كافياً لمحاصرة أي صوت أوروبي يتهرّب من القطيعة مع روسيا في مجال الطاقة، وأن هذا عند حدوثه سيدفع بسعر الروبل إلى الحضيض قبل أن تتمكّن موسكو من اتخاذ إجراءات بديلة لبيع النفط والغاز، وسيرتب تداعيات على النشاط العسكري الروسي حكماً، وعلى التوازن السياسي لنظام الحكم في موسكو، لكنه بالتوازي سيفتح أبواب أوروبا أمام إمدادات النفط والغاز من مصادر بديلة أهمها الغاز الأميركي بأسعار مضاعفة، ما يعني ضخ مئات مليارات الدولارات شهرياً في شرايين الانكماش الاقتصادي الأميركي من جهة، ويحكم القبضة الأميركية السياسية والاقتصادية على أوروبا من جهة موازية.
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التحضيرات الأميركية لضربة كيميائيّة يمكن اتهام روسيا بتنفيذها على الطاولة.
Russia intervenes in a country which neighbors Russia, thousands of miles away, and the US Americans see that as a threat to the USA. And nevermind that the USA is the country which forced Russia into this war which the Kremlin spent eight years trying to avoid.
How is such a result even possible? Here are a few options:
A majority of US Americans are simply stupid and cannot think
A majority of US Americans are unbelievably ignorant
A majority of US Americans are brainwashed by their media and schools
A majority of US Americans have been trained/conditioned to fear and hate whomever their rulers designate for demonization
A majority of US Americans sincerely believe that the USA ought to be the planet’s cop and no matter where a conflict starts, even when that conflict started by the USA, they believe that it is Uncle Shmuel business to deal with it. In their tiny minds, the USA has a God given right to intervene anywhere and attack anyone.
A majority of US Americans perceive any truly sovereign country as a direct threat to their way of life.
The PYSOP campaign to demonize Russia has been a resounding success.
A mix of all of the above is probably the most accurate cause for such a result.
Next, I bumped into a Foxnews propaganda piece featuring a clown which, apparently, in some very distant past was a US Lt. General in the USA military, his last name is Kellogg. I decided to give it a try and I have to say that I sat absolutely *transfixed* listening to him: according to him, Russia has already suffered a huge defeat at the hands of the Ukronazis and with NATO’s help the Ukraine can, and probably will, win this war.
And both that “general” and the presstitute “interviewing” him delivered that crock of shit with great gravitas and appropriate facial expressions (angled eyebrows, the way the journos try to look very sincere). I was expecting at least one of them to burst out laughing but, no, of course not.
These two simply lack both the brain and the humor to realize how terminally stupid and ridiculous they both sound.
As I have written many times in the past, US generals are much more “corporate CEO in combat fatigues” than real combat officers. By Russian standards this guy would not even be allowed to clean latrines in a construction battalion. A man who says with a straight face that delivering 20 Soviet era aircraft or S-300 to the Ukrainians will make a difference in this war is either a clueless civilian or a deliberate liar prostituting his (putative and now former) officer’s honor for a few bucks.
Does anybody still wonder why “Kabul” happened or why the USA cannot win a war against anybody except Grenada (and that one barely, they had to bring the 82nd to fix the usual SNAFU created by US “special” operation forces)?
As for the German Eurolemmings, they have truly lost any sense of decency or even basic common sense: they are now seriously thinking about sending old Leopard 1 tanks to the Ukraine!
Let me explain something really basic here:
You cannot just send weapons to the Ukraine and have that make a difference. I mean, yes, if you send AKs, bullet and clubs, they might get used. But modern weapon systems require training. They also require maintenance. Then they need to be integrated into the rest of the armed forces. Then your forces need to train and practice a lot to perfect their combat coordination. Then you need a supply/maintenance/repairs network to maintain/repair your systems. Advanced air defense systems require crews with sometimes many years of training. Considering that the reinforcements sent by Kiev to the Donbass even include their Volkssturm, you can imagine how utterly useless the operators of the few weapons systems surviving the trip from Lvov to the Donbass will be. And the interval between the moment this ancient S-300 goes live and the moment a Russian ARM hit it will be counted in minutes at most.
Next, old weapons (ex-Soviet or ex-NATO) are just fat targets. In almost all cases, Russian equivalents are one or even two generations ahead, so why are all the EU sending them? Well, for a couple of reasons, the main one is to get rid of them, since storage or recycling of such systems is rather costly. The next reason is that it makes NATO politicians look “tough” – after all, if Zelenskii wants old tanks, artillery or air defense systems (he ain’t exactly a military genius either!) then, by all means, we give it to him and look like we are doing *something*. By the way, the four S-300 sent by the Slovaks were, apparently, already destroyed in a strike yesterday. And the Slovak taxpayer did not spend a penny on this. How is that not a good deal for Slovakia? Oh sure, this is an act of war, a casus belli, as are ALL but UNSC approved “sanctions”, but the Euroemmings Master Race are so superior in every sense to the accursed Rooskies that, screw that! The only thing which can bring the Eurolemmings back to reality is a Russian strike on such a weapons convoy INSIDE a NATO member country because, as I have already explained, when the Eurolemmings to hide behind Uncle Shmuel’s back, all he will offer them are statements of support, outrage, freshly printed fiat money and the usual mix of threats, fear and hate western politicians always spew about Russia. But the US won’t allow NATO to go to war with Russia over one such strike, especially if the Russians clearly explain what they did and why (I actually expect that quite a few “old-time” western officers will get a good kick out of their newfound NATO “allies” hysterics once that happens).
As I have mentioned in the past, weapons convoys in the western Ukraine (and, possibly, even inside Poland) make for easy and lucrative targets for the Russians. Just mix in enough civilians and, voilà!, sooner or later you will have a “Russian atrocity”, something like “the Russians kill scores of innocent feeling Ukrainian civilians” or “the Russians attacked trucks clearly marked with red crosses” (FYI – the SBU and Azov uses red crosses on its vans and ammo/supply trucks!). This is likely one of the reasons the Russians have, so far, chosen not to attack early on but to wait for solid intelligence and then strike the NATO forces/hardware when it is nicely concentrated somewhere. Still, we know that Azov ALWAYS used civilians (especially those perceived as “not sufficiently patriotic”!) as human shields. By the way, NATO taught them this technique. Anyway, to expect NATO weapon convoys NOT to be protected by human shields would be simply stupid. The Russians simply have to ASSUME that NATO/SBU/Azov will ALWAYS be surrounded by captive civilians.
Which brings us to the issue of false flags. Here are a few headlines about this topic:
Even by British standards, this is the most pre-announced pre-publicized false flag in history, I am amazed I don’t see ads and previews for it on Amazon and Netflix…
I guess, I will just say that if the public opinion is being prepared for a Russian chemical attack (maybe even with the – apparently harmless – “Novichok”) then we know for sure which side is winning and which side is not winning.
Medvechuk, one of the main leaders of the opposition at held in the SBU offices, according to Zelenskii who is very proud of that “capture”
There are also a few other reasons why the Empire of Hate and Lies badly and urgently needs a false flag:
Mariupol has fallen and all the rescue or escape attempts have failed. Yes, there are probably several hundred, possibly around 1000 Nazis still left in the deep and many underground facilities under the industrial complex, but they have become militarily irrelevant so the Russian National Guard forces are taking their sweet time to avoid any unnecessary losses on the Russian side.
Reports of Nazi atrocities are literally all over the place, especially on Telegram. A few of these have leaked into the legacy corporate ziomedia thereby creating the first, still tiny, cracks in the official narrative.
Nobody knows what/who exactly is hidden deep in the bowels of Azovstal, but considering the immense efforts to get “it/him/them” out of there, the inevitable takeover of the underground floors by the Russians will result in some major embarrassment for the Empire, unless the Kremlin decides to show “goodwill” again and mistakenly believe that any such goodwill will be appreciated in the West. IF there is a deal made, it will have to offer the Russians something really substantive and very quickly verifiable since just promises won’t do, not even with the Atlantic Integrationists (who are now busy rebranding themselves as “patriotic Russians”).
There are also lots of reports of atrocities in the Nazi-controlled Ukraine, including public floggings and executions. Again, Telegram is flooded with such reports and footage and the Bucha false flag petered out without providing the needed “distraction” and return to the “correct” narrative. The Ukronazis even reportedly told the Brits that they have no intention of abiding by the Geneva Conventions (what a surprise!).
On the photo above and on the closeup, check out the face and expression of Viktor Medvedchuk, the leader of the Ukrainian opposition. If that is how the SBU OFFICIALLY – the photo is from ‘Ze’ himself – treats a top political figure, just imagine what they have done to the thousands of people they have “disappeared” over 8 years now!
Over the past week or so, the western PSYOPs have begun to lose control of the narrative, which means that they need to seize the initiative and regain control of the narrative. Not exactly a difficult task when dealing with a terminally stupidified public in Zone A.
In the meantime, the Eurolemmings are continuing their acts of highway robbery. European “values” at work, from the Crusades to the modern age 🙂
A few weeks back I wrote that while the immediate objective of the SMO in the Ukraine was to denazify and disarm the Nazi-occupied Ukraine, the real end goal was to chance the European collective security architecture which, itself, is the cornerstone of our entire, worldwide, international order. I called that “denazify the planet” and I am pretty sure that many readers reading these words thought “what’s Andrei smoking?”.
Well, how about we now listen to both Sergei Lavrov and Sergei Karaganov?
Still, for the time being, the big event will be the initiation of the 2nd phase of the war: the elimination of the Ukrainian forces inside the Donbass cauldron. Very few people know how long such an operation would last, it depends on so many things that it makes no sense to try to guess it, but the outcome itself is not in doubt.
Only God, and Satan, know what kind of demented scheme the likes of Nuland or Blinken will come up next.
All we can say is that a rabid dog is cornered, it makes it even more dangerous.
And we have to keep in mind that they REALLY and SINCERELY thought they would (finally!) break the will of the Russian people and that they know this long awaited and oh-so-sweet revenge-victory is slipping away from them – just imagine the rage they must feel. After eight years of endless provocations, insults and “negotiations” the Neocons have FINALLY forced Russia to intervene openly, which was always the dream of the Neocons. But what they did not expect (and neither did anybody else, myself included) was that instead of “just” liberating the LDNR from constant Ukronazi strikes, Putin chose to liberate the entire Ukraine and change the entire collective security architecture of Europe. Even better, Putin has confirmed this openly in his ultimatum and many times since.
You could say that Putin’s message to NATO was short: “We are coming for you”. I think of it as the modern equivalent of the ancient words “хочу на вы идти” (pronounced “khochu na vy idti”) spoken to his enemies by the famous commander of ancient Russia, the Grand Duke of Kiev Svyatoslav Igorevich (955-972) and which can be loosely translated as “my intention is to attack you”.
I don’t believe that NATO has fully understood this or, to the extent they did, they will dismiss it as “bluff” (as if Putin ever bluffed, which is really something Russians very rarely do).
But by the time the 2nd phase is over, this reality will have trickled into the delusional minds of the likes of Borrell or Stoltenberg and you can be sure they will run to their beloved Uncle Shmuel for protection. At which point the Empire of Lies will have exactly two options left:
Admit a total political defeat of NATO in Europe or
Commit suicide and try to attack Russia. And since the US/NATO/EU/etc do not have anywhere near the force levels to take on the Russian military a direct US military intervention, this would be utterly pointless and bring the leaders of the USA to the same choice (to nuke or not to nuke?), except that a really embarrassing military defeat will be added on top of an already really embarrassing political defeat
So, apparently, the Eurolemmings are totally willing to die for the Ukraine, as long as the fighting is done by the Ukrainians themselves.
The same Eurolemmings are also willing to eviscerate their own economies only for the privilege to brown-nose Uncle Shmuel and get a “certificate of democratic credentials” as a reward.
But will US soldiers be willing to die for either the Ukraine or the Eurolemmings? Will the Neocons have enough influence and power to force the US military to execute a civilization-ending order? Or will there appear some personality/group which would do, but this time REALLY DO, what Trump promised and “drain the swamp” and get rid of the likes of Bliken or Nuland?
I very much doubt it. But I can still hope for it.
And then there is China which clearly supports Russia, and which is clearly preparing for a war against the USA. Even their minister of defense said so quite openly. And here are two things the Chinese know for sure:
If the Empire defeats Russia, China will be next, thus China cannot afford a Russian defeat under ANY circumstances (and neither can Russia afford a hypothetical Chinese defeat at the hands of the Empire).
If the US and Russia go at each other in earnest, this will be the perfect time to not only solve the Taiwan issue, but to boot the US out of the Far East just as Iran booted the USA out of the Middle-East. From the Chinese point of view, “just” liberating Taiwan is not enough – the US must be removed from Taiwan, Japan and even the ROK. So yes, China also wants to denazify the planet, they are less blunt about it than the Russians, but it is clear to me that this world denazification plan was agreed to by both Putin and Xi.
The folks at the Pentagon must realize that – at least a sufficient critical mass must do so. Yes, I agree with Andrei Martyanov, the former US generals on TV sound like ignorant infantiles, but I will never believe that all US military commanders are that stupid. I studied in Washington DC from 1986 to 1991 and most of my teachers were active-duty military, and none of them were stupid. I also had a lot of fellow students who were from the US military, in the “lieutenant to major” range, and, again, these were smart men, very well educated and, I believe, honorable men. By now some of them must hold very senior ranks and they could make the difference.
Again, I don’t expect that to happen, but I get to still hope that it will.
I did not study with either General Mattis or General Milley and I know very little about them except this: Mattis seems to be the person who deliberately botched the US missile strike on Syria to avoid a possible Russian reaction leading to war and General Milley called his Chinese counterpart to tell him that the US has no intention of striking at China thereby telling the Chinese that they are NOT in a “use them or lose them” situation, which would have put the entire USA in the very real danger of getting nuked by a desperate China. In both of these cases, these generals appear to have contravened direct orders for the greater good of service to their country and protection of the US population of the imbecilic orders given by imbecilic US Presidents. Mattis was “let go” pretty soon by The Donald while Milley was subjected to a vicious smear campaign.
So if “Biden” (meaning Nuland, Sullivan, Blinken or any other demented psychopath) gives the order to attack Russian forces I still want to believe that there will be a critical mass at the Pentagon to tell the “crazies in the basement” to finally shut up and get back to where they belong: the basement they crawled out of.
Is there enough true and real patriotism left in the USA? Or is patriotism just waving (Chinese made!) US flags, vote for the “lesser evil” from either branch of the Uniparty, and remain an Israeli colony forever?
Click on the image above to appreciate the irony of HIAS aiding Nazis!
If it wasn’t for the US nuclear triad (old, but still formidable and capable!), I truly wouldn’t give a damn, but alas that is a luxury nobody can afford, at least until the USA is finally denazified and disarmed too. But until all of Zone A is absorbed and re-civilized by Zone B, that danger will threaten every human being on the planet (and now even in the southern hemisphere courtesy of the comprador leaders of the US colony in Australia which have decided to paint a big Chinese nuclear crosshairs on their brainless heads!).
Okay, I will end with some major good news: the entire 36th Marine Infantry Brigade in Mariupol has surrendered! That is over 1000 soldiers, including 300 wounded and 90 seriously injured.
Now, careful here, these are NOT the Azov forces hiding in the underground floors of Azovstal. First, they are not Azov but regular Ukrainian military and, second, they were barricaded in the Illich industrial complex, near the Azovstal, but already cut off from Azovstal.
The Ukrainian 36th Naval Infantry Brigade has surrendered
It is important to note that unlike the Azov Nazis, the Naval Infantry forces are NOT considered as Nazis by the Russians and that they will all get full POW protection under the Geneva Convention.
The very best the Azov people can expect is to be identified and arrested on suspicion of war crimes, crimes against humanity and all kinds of atrocities. If some of them are clearly clueless idiots who made some bad choices, they might return home one day after either being found innocent (a minority) or after serving their time in Russian jails.
Those found with tattooed swastikas or those who are already on the FSB wanted list will get harsh sentences in equally harsh high-security prisons.
As for Azov commanders, they have already been told by everybody that they will get no mercy. Which means that they will get interrogated and executed.
[Sidebar: Russia has had a moratorium on the death penalty to appease the Eurolemmings. Now that Russia has quit all EU institutions, you can expect the death penalty to be reinstated under popular pressure. Besides, the LDRN republics DO have the death penalty. As does every single Chechen subunit :-)]
The bottom line is this: while the surrender of the 36th Naval Infantry Brigade is absolutely wonderful news – just think of the saved lives – it is very unlikely to set a precedent to the Azov forces in Mariupol or elsewhere. Worse, I strongly suspect that the two reasons why the 36th Naval Infantry Brigade could surrender were that:
They were cut off (by the Russian National Guard units) from the Azov forces in Azovstal
They were considered an elite unit that the Nazis of Azov could not simply and safely massacre
In the Donbass, the situation is, reportedly, much worse: the ratio of Nazi to normal soldier seems to be close to 1:10 which means that the Nazis can act as “barrage forces” and shoot anybody refusing to advance or trying to retreat – a technique which the West loves to blame on Stalin, but which was invented by the Nazis on the Eastern Front. They can also act as “political commissars”, a category invented by Leon Trotsky himself to force former officers of the imperial Russian military to obey orders given by these commissars or face execution. And those who will say that 1:10 is a great ratio for the Ukrainians to dispose of their “Nazi commissars” miss the point as any such conspiracy will be detected long before it materializes.
Yet again, I am not expecting this to happen, but I will keep hoping with all my heart that a huge massacre (because that is exactly what this is shaping up to be) can still be avoided. I really hope that the Russian PSYOPs are doing all they can to reach out to the Ukrainian soldiers in the Donbass cauldron and that the RU+LDNR forces will do everything short of taking serious losses to spare the lives of the 60-70 thousand or so Ukrainians who are now waiting to be obliterated by heavy Russian strikes.
One of my favorite Russian poets, Maksimilian Voloshin, wrote a poem entitled “Civil War” which I love and which I will share with you, in Russian and in a somewhat corrected machine translation:
Одни восстали из подполий, Из ссылок, фабрик, рудников, Отравленные темной волей И горьким дымом городовДругие из рядов военных, Дворянских разоренных гнезд, Где проводили на погост Отцов и братьев убиенных.В одних доселе не потух Хмель незапамятных пожаров, И жив степной, разгульный дух И Разиных, и Кудеяров.В других – лишенных всех корней – Тлетворный дух столицы Невской: Толстой и Чехов, Достоевский – Надрыв и смута наших дней.Одни возносят на плакатах Свой бред о буржуазном зле, О светлых пролетариатах, Мещанском рае на земле…В других весь цвет, вся гниль империй, Все золото, весь тлен идей, Блеск всех великих фетишей И всех научных суеверий.Одни идут освобождать Москву и вновь сковать Россию, Другие, разнуздав стихию, Хотят весь мир пересоздать.В тех и в других война вдохнула Гнев, жадность, мрачный хмель разгула,А вслед героям и вождям Крадется хищник стаей жадной, Чтоб мощь России неоглядной Размыкать и продать врагам:Сгноить ее пшеницы груды, Ее бесчестить небеса, Пожрать богатства, сжечь леса И высосать моря и руды.И не смолкает грохот битв По всем просторам южной степи Средь золотых великолепий Конями вытоптанных жнитв.И там и здесь между рядами Звучит один и тот же глас: «Кто не за нас – тот против нас. Нет безразличных: правда с нами».А я стою один меж них В ревущем пламени и дыме И всеми силами своими Молюсь за тех и за других.
Some have risen from the underground, From exiles, factories, mines, Poisoned by the dark will And the bitter smoke of cities.Others from the ranks of the military, Nobles from now ruined nests, Where they would accompany to the graveyard The fathers and brothers of those murdered.In some the flame of ancient fires has not been snuffed out yet And in the steppes, rebellious spirit of Razins and Kudeyars remains aliveIn others – devoid of all roots – The corrupting spirit of the capital on the Neva: Tolstoy and Chekhov, Dostoevsky – The anguish and turmoil of our days.Some are posting slogans about Their nonsense and bourgeois evil, About the bright proletarians, A petty-bourgeois paradise on earth…In others, all the color, all the rot of empires, All the gold, all the decay of ideas, The brilliance of all the great fetishes And all scientific superstitions.Some go to liberate Moscow and unite Russia again, Others, unleashing the elements, They want to recreate the whole world.In both, the war breathed in Anger, greed, the dark intoxication of rioting,And following the heroes and leaders A stalking a greedy pack of predators crawls near To betray and sell out Russia’s boundless power to her enemies:Rot her wheat piles, Her dishonor skies, Devour riches, burn forests And suck up dry her seas and springs.And the roar of battles does not cease Across all the expanses of the southern steppe Amidst the golden splendors Horses are trampling upon the harvests.And there and here between the rows The same voice sounds: “Whoever is not for us is against us. There are no indifferent ones: the truth is with us.”And I stand alone between them In the roaring flames and smoke And with all my strength I pray for both of them.
These verses were written in November of 1919 and they refer to the Russian Civil war.
Today, the situation is radically different in too many ways to list, but on a spiritual level, I think that this is again yet another Russian civil war. I have exactly ZERO sympathy or, even less so, empathy for the Ukrainian Nazis, but when I see the young faces of Ukrainian POWs I can’t help it – I see *my* people. Yes, confused, mistaken, misguided, possibly stupid and even deeply sinful. And I would not hesitate for 1 second to fight them with more than a keyboard. But as long as they don’t embrace the Ukronazi/Baderista/Azov/SBU/NATO/EU/US ideology I will always see them as my people and I will never rejoice in their suffering or demise.
Finally, when Voloshin wrote “I pray for both sides” it was not a political statement. It was a recognition of our common humanity. Even if the core of the Ukronazi/Baderista/Azov/SBU/NATO/EU/US ideology and even IDENTITY is to deny us, Russians, that common humanity (other than in vapid words, of course).
To the demons in Washington DC we need to oppose our saints, both living and long dead.
Our most formidable weapon is not a nuke or any “Tsar-Bomba” but our modest prayer ropes.
Let’s use that most formidable weapon of ours which only we have (there is no real hesychasm in the West, and there has not been for many centuries now),
And strictly in that sense, I do the same, I also pray for our people on both sides.
The big news today is that those evil Russkies have fired a Tochka-U missile with a cluster warhead at the city of Kramatorsk, killing scores of innocent civilians. The “entire civilized world” is disgusted and immediately announced even MORE sanctions, MORE condemnation and MORE anti-Russian virtue signalling.
Minor problem: Russia does not have Tochka-U missiles, which are 30 year old Soviet missiles which have been far surpassed by modern Russian missiles (of which Russia has plenty enough). How do we know that it was Tochka-U which was used?
Because of the tail section which separates from the warhеard during the flight. Here it is:
No Russian tactical missile in service with such a tail section, and only the Ukrainian Tochka-U have.
Tochka-U tail and control surfaces
How much of a problem is that for the Empire of Hate and Lies?
Very minor, really. Remember that their PSYOPS are directed at two kind of people:
Those with low intelligence
Those who don’t care about the truth
Russia did not have the old-model Buk which allegedly shot down MH-17 either, which did not stop the Empire of Hate and Lies to instantly blame the shooting down on Russia. And Russia has long liquidated her chemical weapons stores, unlike the US or the UK, by the way.
But who cares about that when hating Russia and Russians is all which really matters?
In fact, this is straight out of the western PSYOPs book:
Execute a false flag, then
INSTANTLY blame Russia and lean on all your colonies to do the same in the name of western “solidarity”
Thereby make absolutely certain that no real investigation can take place or, if it does, it will be so far down the road that nobody will care.
So we have a major false flag in Bucha, and now we have that Tochka-U in Kramatorsk. What will come next?
God only knows, but the goal is to associate “Russians” with “atrocities” in what is left of the mind of the eagerly scatophaging serfs in Zone A.
In the meantime, inside Russia a scandal is brewing with the latest statements of Dmitry Peskov who said a lot of very dumb things in his latest interviews. Frankly, the day Putin fires Peskov I will personally feel an immense sense of relief. During peacetimes having folks like Medinski and Peskov is painful enough, but during war times folks with their mindset are a real DANGER for Russia as they are directly injecting fear, uncertainty and doubt in the mind the the Russian public. The only good news, but it is very good, is that more and more Russians are getting really upset with these characters: they support Putin and the military operation, and they are really getting fed up with the Atlantic Integrationists and their way to patronize 5th columnists (which is what Peskov did).
I very much hope for the day when the likes of Peskov and Medinski are given their retirement package and are replaced by a completely different kind of person.
[Sidebar: I wonder if those who emphatically denied even the existence of Atlantic Integrationists will how have the honestly to admit that they were wrong. Probably not :-)]
Now let’s take a look at the recent vote to suspend Russian from the UN Human Rights Council:
First, notice that neither Hungary nor Serbia had the courage and decency to abstain (nevermind oppose).
Second, while this map does not accurately reflect how the actual people in these countries feel about this war, this map does a superb job showing us the list of pure comprador colonial ruling classes. So here is the score for our planet: the Empire, while already dead, still rules, by momentum, over 151 governments and only 24 countries have what it takes to openly oppose the voting directives from the Empire of Hate and Lies. The 58 countries which, like Pilate, have washed their hands from this vote are particularly pathetic, just like those who did not have the courage to even show up for the vote.
As for those who “voted green”, I wish I could send them each a small bag with 30 silvers coins inside.
Radovka posted an interesting map showing how the world is split:
Legend: from L to R: pro Ukraine, sympathetic to the Ukraine, neutral, sympathetic to Russia, pro Russian
And here is a sanctions map I came across recently:
Of course, this is just a still-shot of an evolving situation. But the real value of these maps is that it shows three different groups:
The real modern Nazis (CA+US+EU+AUS+NZ+JP).
The comprador regimes who vote “correctly” but many of which do not want to put their money where their mouth is and who also want to get good and services from Russia (I think of them has countries which huge stomachs but tiny balls).
The 25 countries which dared to defy the Empire of Hate and Lies and openly voted “no”.
Since the beginning of this war, the Russians have suffered many casualties trying hard NOT to harm civilians or the civilian infrastructure. The Ukronazis did the polar opposite: not only have they kidnapped thousands of people who have been “disappeared”, they have openly attacked civilians in the LDNR and since the SMO they have unleashed their hatred against almost every town they had to evacuate (to make the local “separs” pay and to blame it all on “Russian atrocities”.
And the West noticed absolutely *nothing*.
At least officially. In reality, of course, this is directly the result of the kind of “instruction” the Ukronazis have received from their Anglo masters.
Here is the ugly truth nobody wants to openly admit: the West wants to genocide Russia and the West is ALREADY genociding the people of the Ukraine. If the Empire of Hate and Lies has its way, this war will last as long as possible, include as many horrible atrocities as possible and a total destruction of the civilian infrastructure of the Ukraine.
As for Russia and the Russian people, there is only one thing I have not heard from our wonderful western neighbors yet: the screams “crucify them! crucify them! crucify them!”. Of course, that is not how the modern Crusaders express their feelings, they just want to “cancel Russia” – different words, same meaning.
If all this sounds demonic, it is because it is. Literally. And Russia history is filled with such genocidal invasions, and today, in conclusion, rather that use words I want to use a few paintings by the Russian artist Il’ia Glazunov. I don’t want to “explain” them, just look at them and you will maybe understand the Russian people and their history a little better than before, at least that is my hope.
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“Lviv, Ukraine (CNN) The lifeless bodies of at least 20 civilian men line a single street in the town of Bucha near the Ukrainian capital. Some lie face down on the pavement while others are collapsed on their backs, mouths open in a tragic testament to the horrors of Russian occupation.
The hands of one man are tied behind his back with a piece of white cloth. Another man lies alone, tangled up in a bicycle by a grassy bank. A third man lies in the middle of the road, near the charred remains of a burned-out car.
The shocking images of the carnage in Bucha were captured by Agence France-Presse on Saturday, the same day Ukraine declared the town liberated from Russian troops. Accounts of alleged Russian atrocities are emerging as its forces retreat from areas near Kyiv following a failed bid to encircle the capital.
The town of Bucha has endured five weeks of near-constant firefights. Now officials and human rights groups are blaming the civilian deaths on the departed Russian forces.
“Corpses of executed people still line the Yabluska street in Bucha. Their hands are tied behind their backs with white ‘civilian’ rags, they were shot in the back of their heads. So you can imagine what kind of lawlessness they perpetrated here,” Bucha mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk told Reuters on Saturday.”
***
In contrast, the following report points to a false flag, which is yet to be verified.
At this stage the matter requires further investigation as to what actually happened.
***
Civilians were shot in Bucha, Ukraine, as reported by the Kiev government on April 3, 2022. The Russian army had withdrawn from the village on March 30. On March 31, the mayor of Bucha had reported joyfully and good-humoredly about the Russians‘ withdrawal in a video. There was no talk of deaths yet. They came later.
Many of those killed wore white armbands, like those apparently worn by the Russian soldiers who occupied the site as a distinguishing mark.
It is speculated that many of those killed were people who had put on a white armband in solidarity with these Russian soldiers. Some of the people may also have been specifically branded as “traitors“ with an armband during the massacre, which was apparently perpetrated by Ukrainian units.
The murdered people were then abused on April 3 as part of a false flag operation by attributing their deaths to the Russians who had previously occupied this place. That the massacre was carried out only after the Russians had left, by Kiev-Ukrainian units, is shown by the already mentioned video with the mayor, who was in a good mood one day after the Russian withdrawal and had no dead to mourn in his place.
The fact that “traitors“ in Ukraine are going down the tubes, unfortunately, was already known a month ago by the BILD journalist Julian Röpcke, a great supporter of the Kiev government as well as a friend of the Azov battalion, from Ukraine. The propaganda with the dead themselves is reminiscent of the approach in the Syrian war.
Translation of Bild’s Journalist’s Statement:
“Phew … what can I say … Ukrainians do gruesome things with captured Russian soldiers & traitors. But I won’t post that here. It’s fundamentally wrong, but it happens and anyone who criticizes it should ask themselves what they would do in such a situation.“
Russian troops had already left by that time (compare also the March 31 video of the mayor mentioned above).
There are no civilian corpses in this video.
One would expect the (alleged) Russian atrocities announced on April 3 to be shown or addressed there.
*
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I decided to do an unscheduled update because we’re in the midst of a falseflag, which many have predicted. It’s already being called the new ‘Sbrenica Massacre’ in the western media with all the usual fully coordinated text-book Media-Intelligence-Military-Corporate-Industrial-Complex scripted execution where every attendant arm is firing on all cylinders to project the new narrative in order to predictably call for large-scale escalation. The official wiki entry has already been penned of course with the usual unresearched speculation and propaganda presented as fact.
So the inevitable, major false flag turns out to be "The New Srebenica" in Bucha.
Bucha-Butcher-Butchery-Boucher-Boucherie.
Works on 2 top Western languages. Peddled by a Murdoch rag. Will be in synch on ALL Western front pages tomorrow. https://t.co/wTntx0rB5I
Meanwhile the media arm of the cabal is already in full swing on a war footing calling for NATO intervention:
MSNBC this morning is a full-fledged editorial for direct US/NATO intervention. The outright pro-war advocacy has reached another gear pic.twitter.com/KYLcxYcUEv
Expectedly, most MSM’s frontpages, including that of FOXNEWS, is covered with this new ‘atrocity’.
This video is a must-see that neatly presents the currently known evidence being passed around in the resistance sphere into one convenient presentation which appears to prove that the Ukrainian army in fact executed Russian sympathizers with white armbands in Bucha and tried to pass them off as Russian genocide. Of course this is only part of the picture, as there are many other bodies discovered beyond the ones shown in the video, particularly in the ‘mass grave’ currently being shown all over twitter that shows civilians covered in dirt, dug up from the ground. But the above video very strongly points the finger in the Ukrainian direction.
And after all, hasn’t it been Russia that has repeatedly been proven right in every single such high profile atrocity/accusation so far? For instance when the Russian POW torture video came out, it was Ukraine that cried “fake” until days later all western ‘authorities’ were forced to admit it was real. When the ‘maternity hospital’ falseflag in Mariupol occurred, Kiev supporters blamed Russia and once again Russia was the one proven right and vindicated when the pregnant girl at the center of it herself released an interview completely refuting Ukr lies, and stating that not only did Ukr soldiers turn the hospital into a barracks but stole the precious food from pregnant women and then shelled the hospital themselves. And much earlier, when Ukr claimed Russia bombed an ‘innocent’ civilian mall, yet the very next moment the Russian MOD released detailed videos showing precisely how Ukrop forces positioned mobile artillery in the parking garage of the said ‘mall’. When Ukrops claimed Russia tried to blow up the Zaporizhzhia plant, yet security footage showed that as a Russian security force arrived, it was fired upon by an RPG from Ukrop positions in one of the administrative buildings of the plant. Or when the famed American journalist was killed in Irpin right outside Kiev a month ago, and all Ukr supporters shouted Russia, but the entire incident was quickly swept under the rug when the journalist’s own friend/companion in an interview stated they were fired upon by Ukrop troops at a Ukrop checkpoint miles away from the nearest Russian forces. So the track record shows over and over that these incidents are invariably revealed as Ukrainian lies and this new provocation is clearly another in a long line.
Now let’s look at a few updates from the economic front while we’re at it. Europe is suffering badly.
And western media is forced to admit that Russia is actually making a killing with current skyrocketing oil/gas prices and the redeemed Ruble. They’re now saying that if things continue the way they’re going, Russia will reap an EXTRA $321 billion economic profit this year compared to last year.
Western economists expect Russia to earn around $320bn equivalent this year, around 35% higher than last year.
— The Sirius Report (@thesiriusreport) April 2, 2022
Meanwhile Germany’s inflation is reaching historic levels.
Meanwhile Russia announces that the Ruble payment scheme may soon be extended for other valuable commodities which could cripple Europe and the U.S. Particularly, as some have opined, if Russia switches to pricing commodities it has a large global monopoly on in Rubles, it will be a huge shock and gamechanger; things like wheat, palladium and other precious metals, etc.
Already 3 countries so far have accepted paying Rubles for gas including Slovakia.
As for the important situation in the ‘civil aviation’ field, which is one of the few areas the west truly was able to arguably hurt Russia, there are new big developments:
“On March 31, a twice adjourned meeting with the President of the Russian Federation took place. Dry squeeze solutions: – foreign aircraft will not be given to lessors – they will fly in Russia and cover the domestic flight network – all of them were forcibly transferred to the Russian registry (currently – approx. 800 liners) – and reinsured by Russian insurers – a solution for spare parts and maintenance has been found, but it is not publicly announced – in the long term, a bet was made on our own aircraft production – MS-21 is shifted by 1-2 years “to the right” (due to additional import substitution) – Rostec promises up to 500 aircraft of “large” models by 2030. – in the medium term, mass production of the Tu-214 and Il-96-400 will begin, this is already in 2022-23. – the “air cashback” program was launched (i.e. compensation of part of the cost of air tickets on domestic flights. Financing will be allocated in the amount of 100 billion rubles)
So in short, 800 airliners worth billions were officially transferred to the Russian registry (i.e. seized), they have been fully re-insured by Russian insurance companies. The big problem everyone spoke of was how would Russia obtain spare parts as western countries would block any spare parts delivery and experts estimated this would result in these planes only being usable for weeks. Some hypothesized India or China would help in this regard but the announcement here states that a solution was found, but they won’t disclose what it is.
In short, it sounds like Russia is on top of this problem and will not allow it to become a major weak point or source of defeat by the sanctions.
Also, another big point many have discussed and questioned why Russia has not allowed volunteers from RF to go to Ukraine to fill the much needed ranks. Well now it appears Russia has finally opened up enlistment to volunteers according to this report from Telegram.
“⚡Russian volunteers go to Ukraine – sending every three days
Russian military registration and enlistment offices began recruiting volunteers with their subsequent dispatch to Ukraine to participate in a special operation. This was announced by the war correspondent of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Alexander Sladkov.
According to the military correspondent, only sergeants are recruited to participate in the special operation (the rest of those who wish, I think, can be clarified there)
The service will be formalized by a contract, the allowance will be 205 thousand rubles a month.
Three million rubles will be paid to the injured for the injury.
The family of the deceased volunteer will receive 8 million rubles from the federal government and five million rubles from the governor of the region. In addition, the children of the deceased soldier will receive an apartment (this provision still applies to residents of the Moscow region).
Volunteers go to Ukraine every three days, the military commander said.
Recall that Oleg Tsarev, who was on the territory of Ukraine from its first days, was the first to speak about the need to attract volunteers to participate in the special operation. On March 24, he said that the military department of the Russian Federation brought the corresponding order to the military registration and enlistment offices.”
Ukraine attempts to desperately bribe Russian servicemen into defecting with their equipment by offering up to $1 million dollars for helicopters, tanks, planes turned over to Ukr authorities, which would presumably be paid for by the U.S. taxpayer I’m sure.
At the same time, particularly in light of the Bucha falseflag, new calls for genocide against Russians are made widely in Ukraine, and ‘pre-genocidal’ language is used openly on social media such as the example here https://twitter.com/olgatokariuk/status/1510341599468863492
The Ukrainian journalist here seems to clearly imply a sort of ‘final solution’ for the ‘Russian society’.
Elsewhere a mayor of Dnipro has also called for Russian citizens to be killed all over the world, wherever they are.
Some quick situational updates on the ground. Some new gains in Mariupol today:
You can see the areas in darker red have been advanced into.
There are good gains in Donbass for both the LPR near Rubizhnoe and DPR who advanced past Verkhnotoretske into Novabakhmutivka. There are several videos of dead Ukrainian servicemen on this advance that I don’t need to post. I will only post ‘gruesome’ videos if there is a very specific significance rather than to merely ‘boast’ about dead enemies.
With that said, there IS a gruesome video from the DPR advance into Marinka, because it is further evidence of Ukr warcrimes which reinforce what the Ukrops are doing against Russian POWs.
The video shows DPR troops who, upon advancing further into Marinka, found deceased DPR POWs with obvious signs of torture and abuse. They are bound and some have bullet holes shot through their hands in exactly the way Russian POWs were shot in the knees, legs, and groins. Others appear to have other gruesome injuries that do not appear natural and are more likely the sign of some sort of abuse/torture. But of course you won’t see this on MSM.
In other news, about the 40th Turkish Bayraktar TB2 has been shot down. These Turkish toys no longer pose any problem to Russian forces, and every time a new batch is delivered to Ukraine they are summarily shot down. This heap of scrap is from the 3rd or 4th such batch.
And by the way when they DO use them, they no longer are able to use them in strike roles at all because it would require (due to their missile’s range) for them to get too close to Russian radars. Instead they have exclusively utilized TB2’s as long distance surveillance. In clear weather, the very good optics of the TB2 (manufactured by Canadian WESCAM) allows it to see 40-60km down the country and can be used for correcting artillery, and in fact was used in such a way on the Kherson airfield strike, where Ukie forces blew up a ton of their own helicopters which Russia captured from them, and then celebrated that ‘Russian helis were destroyed’.
By the way for those that don’t know, an interesting tidbit is that the company responsible for these drones, Bayraktar, is married into the Erdogan family. Many don’t know that Erdogan’s daughter is in fact married to Bayraktar’s head Selcuk Bayraktar. Yes, Erdogan’s own daughter is literally named Sumeyye Erdogan Bayraktar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sümeyye_Erdoğan
“Sümeyye Erdoğan Bayraktar (born 22 August 1985[2]) is the youngest of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan‘s four children.”
And the Erdogan family thus reaps a major windfall from Bayraktar sales all over the world $$$$ and has a huge interest in this brand.
Speaking of drones, here’s a chart showing the NATO surveillance flightpaths during the course of the entire conflict so far.
As can be seen NATO is at all times manically circling on every possible inch of border that they’re legally allowed to approach, gathering data to beam to Ukrainian command to assist them in every way possible against Russia.
Most people don’t realize that NATO has integrated fully with Ukraine in such a way and it explains many of the exploits that Ukraine is able to achieve, not only in precision striking on Russian troops but the exceptional awareness of Russian radar coverage areas in order to bypass them such as in the Mariupol evac incident or the Belgorod oil facility strike.
New Zealand even said they would utilize their raw processing power and time zone difference to help Ukraine so that their analysts can be working during the day, feeding info to Ukraine at night, etc.
A wider view:
In last news for now, Russia has struck a giant oil refinery called Kremenchug that is owned by Kolomoisky, the puppet master of Zelensky. This is a major refinery, possibly the biggest, which I’ve read supplies upwards of 30% of Ukrainian oil. There were arguments days ago on social media, with some opining that Russia still refused to strike this facility due to its economic importance. But after Belgorod was hit, Russia apparently took its gloves off and immediately hit this facility the next day. Though I think only one section with storage tanks was struck, the refinery is a gigantic complex and most of it was spared (for now). So I’m not sure how much of it they took offline apart from millions of gallons of oil in storage tanks.
Then this morning a large refinery in Odessa was also struck, with apparently one foreign journalist already detained and ‘banned’ from Ukraine for 10 years for showing clear footage of the attack. As I mentioned last time, the Ukr authorities are now very serious with their new law prohibiting the dissemination of any Russian attack videos on Ukrainian infrastructure/military etc.
And this is why we’ll likely never see the aftermath of the other strike that occurred, a large Iskander hit on a barracks in Kharkov that was said to house hundreds of new mercenary recruits. Russian MOD says at least 100+ of them were killed and published the drone-view strike video.
I’ll leave you with a couple videos:
We’ve seen tons of videos of DPR fighting so here’s a video of LPR frontlines in Rubizhnoe to give a taste of how the Lugansk fighters do it: https://www.bitchute.com/video/KvWx32nrEjLh
And, an actual illustration of Russian vs. Ukrainian de-mining techniques currently being used:
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Today, the dangers of military escalation are beyond description.
What is now happening in Ukraine has serious geopolitical implications. It could lead us into a World War III scenario.
It is important that a peace process be initiated with a view to preventing escalation.
Global Research condemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A Bilateral Peace Agreement is required.
The defenders of Ukraine are bravely resisting Russian aggression, shaming the rest of the world and the UN Security Council for its failure to protect them. It is an encouraging sign that the Russians and Ukrainians are holding talks in Belarus that may lead to a ceasefire. All efforts must be made to bring an end to this war before the Russian war machine kills thousands more of Ukraine’s defenders and civilians, and forces hundreds of thousands more to flee.
But there is a more insidious reality at work beneath the surface of this classic morality play, and that is the role of the United States and NATO in setting the stage for this crisis.
President Biden has called the Russian invasion “unprovoked,” but that is far from the truth. In the four days leading up to the invasion, ceasefire monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) documented a dangerous increase in ceasefire violations in Eastern Ukraine, with 5,667 violations and 4,093 explosions.
Most were inside the de facto borders of the Donetsk (DPR) and Luhansk (LPR) People’s Republics, consistent with incoming shell-fire by Ukraine government forces. With nearly 700 OSCE ceasefire monitors on the ground, it is not credible that these were all “false flag” incidents staged by separatist forces, as U.S. and British officials claimed.
Whether the shell-fire was just another escalation in the long-running civil war or the opening salvos of a new government offensive, it was certainly a provocation. But the Russian invasion has far exceeded any proportionate action to defend the DPR and LPR from those attacks, making it disproportionate and illegal.
In the larger context though, Ukraine has become an unwitting victim and proxy in the resurgent U.S. Cold War against Russia and China, in which the United States has surrounded both countries with military forces and offensive weapons, withdrawn from a whole series of arms control treaties, and refused to negotiate resolutions to rational security concerns raised by Russia.
In December 2021, after a summit between Presidents Biden and Putin, Russia submitted a draft proposal for a new mutual security treaty between Russia and NATO, with 9 articles to be negotiated. They represented a reasonable basis for a serious exchange. The most pertinent to the crisis in Ukraine was simply to agree that NATO would not accept Ukraine as a new member, which is not on the table in the foreseeable future in any case. But the Biden administration brushed off Russia’s entire proposal as a nonstarter, not even a basis for negotiations.
So why was negotiating a mutual security treaty so unacceptable that Biden was ready to risk thousands of Ukrainian lives, although not a single American life, rather than attempt to find common ground? What does that say about the relative value that Biden and his colleagues place on American versus Ukrainian lives? And what is this strange position that the United States occupies in today’s world that permits an American president to risk so many Ukrainian lives without asking Americans to share their pain and sacrifice?
The breakdown in U.S. relations with Russia and the failure of Biden’s inflexible brinkmanship precipitated this war, and yet Biden’s policy “externalizes” all the pain and suffering so that Americans can, as another wartime president once said, “go about their business” and keep shopping. America’s European allies, who must now house hundreds of thousands of refugees and face spiraling energy prices, should be wary of falling in line behind this kind of “leadership” before they, too, end up on the front line.
At the end of the Cold War, the Warsaw Pact, NATO’s Eastern European counterpart, was dissolved, and NATO should have been as well, since it had achieved the purpose it was built to serve. Instead, NATO has lived on as a dangerous, out-of-control military alliance dedicated mainly to expanding its sphere of operations and justifying its own existence. It has expanded from 16 countries in 1991 to a total of 30 countries today, incorporating most of Eastern Europe, at the same time as it has committed aggression, bombings of civilians and other war crimes.
In 1999, NATO launched an illegal war to militarily carve out an independent Kosovo from the remnants of Yugoslavia. NATO airstrikes during the Kosovo War killed hundreds of civilians, and its leading ally in the war, Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, is now on trial at The Hague for the appalling war crimes he committed under the cover of NATO bombing, including cold-blooded murders of hundreds of prisoners to sell their internal organs on the international transplant market.
Far from the North Atlantic, NATO joined the United States in its 20-year war in Afghanistan, and then attacked and destroyed Libya in 2011, leaving behind a failed state, a continuing refugee crisis and violence and chaos across the region.
In 1991, as part of a Soviet agreement to accept the reunification of East and West Germany, Western leaders assured their Soviet counterparts that they would not expand NATO any closer to Russia than the border of a united Germany. U.S. Secretary of State James Baker promised that NATO would not advance “one inch” beyond the German border. The West’s broken promises are spelled out for all to see in 30 declassified documents published on the National Security Archive website.
After expanding across Eastern Europe and waging wars in Afghanistan and Libya, NATO has predictably come full circle to once again view Russia as its principal enemy. U.S. nuclear weapons are now based in five NATO countries in Europe: Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Turkey, while France and the U.K. already have their own nuclear arsenals. U.S. “missile defense” systems, which could be converted to fire offensive nuclear missiles, are based in Poland and Romania, including at a base in Poland only 100 miles from the Russian border.
Another Russian request in its December proposal was for the United States to simply rejoin the 1988 INF Treaty(Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty), under which both sides agreed not to deploy short- or intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe. Trump withdrew from the treaty in 2019 on the advice of his National Security Adviser, John Bolton, who also has the scalps of the 1972 ABM Treaty, the 2015 JCPOA with Iran and the 1994 Agreed Framework with North Korea dangling from his gun-belt.
None of this can justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but the world should take Russia seriously when it says that its conditions for ending the war and returning to diplomacy are Ukrainian neutrality and disarmament. While no country can be expected to completely disarm in today’s armed-to-the-teeth world, neutrality could be a serious long-term option for Ukraine.
There are many successful precedents, like Switzerland, Austria, Ireland, Finland and Costa Rica. Or take the case of Vietnam. It has a common border and serious maritime disputes with China, but Vietnam has resisted U.S. efforts to embroil it in its Cold War with China, and remains committed to its long-standing “Four Nos” policy: no military alliances; no affiliation with one country against another; no foreign military bases; and no threats or uses of force.
The world must do whatever it takes to obtain a ceasefire in Ukraine and make it stick. Maybe UN Secretary General Guterres or a UN special representative could act as a mediator, possibly with a peacekeeping role for the UN. This will not be easy – one of the still unlearned lessons of other wars is that it is easier to prevent war through serious diplomacy and a genuine commitment to peace than to end a war once it has started.
If and when there is a ceasefire, all parties must be prepared to start afresh to negotiate lasting diplomatic solutions that will allow all the people of Donbas, Ukraine, Russia, the United States and other NATO members to live in peace. Security is not a zero-sum game, and no country or group of countries can achieve lasting security by undermining the security of others.
The United States and Russia must also finally assume the responsibility that comes with stockpiling over 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons, and agree on a plan to start dismantling them, in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the new UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
We sincerely hope that Russia will end its illegal, brutal invasion of Ukraine long before it commits a fraction of the massive killing and destruction that the United States and its allies have committed in our illegal wars.
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Rather than produce fake evidence to the U.N. Security Council, as Colin Powell had, Antony Blinken just produced nothing at all, though the U.S. has intelligence it can show, writes Scott Ritter.
U.S. envoy Adlai Stevenson II presents aerial photos of Russian missiles in Cuba to the U.N. Security Council in the presence of USSR ambassador Valerian Zorin, Oct.25, 1962. (U.S. Government/Public Domain)
While U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken tried to distance himself from the ghosts of U.N. Security Council meetings past – namely the disastrous Feb. 5, 2003 performance of his predecessor Colin Powell peddling manufactured intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq — the world once again bore witness last week to a U.S. secretary of state presenting a supposedly intelligence-based case about a looming armed conflict.
“I am here today,” Blinken said, trying to remove himself from Powell, “not to start a war, but to prevent one.”
But like Powell, Blinken produced no evidence at all to the U.N. to back up his assertion that Russia is “preparing to launch an attack against Ukraine in the coming days,” even though he could have. Rather than produce fake evidence, as Powell had, he just produced nothing at all.
Blinken only had words, blithely accusing Russia of seeking “to manufacture a pretext” for an invasion of Ukraine, whether by fabricating a terrorist bombing inside Russia; (a jab at Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been accused of false-flag attacks of Moscow apartment buildings to generate support for the Second Chechen War in 1999); the discovery of a mass grave; staging a drone strike against civilians or the use of chemical weapons.
After such a “false flag,” Russian would call for a military response “to defend Russian citizens or ethnic Russians in Ukraine” and would then invade Ukraine, Blinken said.
In the past, when the U.S. took to the floor of the U.N. Security Council to hurl accusations of malfeasance at Russia, American diplomats would present incontrovertible intelligence to back up its claims.
This was done in October 1962, when Adlai Stevenson showed the world U-2 photographs proving the Russians had deployed missiles in Cuba. Again, in September 1983, Jeane Kirkpatrick played audio tapes of intercepted communications which proved Russian military aircraft shot down Korean Airlines flight 007.
Blinken brought no such proof. His was just a verbal assurance that this was not a repeat of Colin Powell’s performance. This time, the U.S. should just be trusted to tell the truth.
What the US Can Produce
Blinken is likely telling the truth that unlike Powell, the U.S. this time does have evidence. There’s little doubt U.S. reconnaissance has accurately recorded the Russian military buildup in question, down to the last tank and truck. There may also be a plethora of “chatter” (a colloquialism for intercepted conversations) which could be interpreted to mean anything an analyst wants it to mean.
But the bottom line is the bulk of Blinken’s intelligence is likely drawn from speculation about how the Russians could proceed from the positions their military currently occupies if they were, in fact, to invade.
This same analysis fuels similar apocalyptic proclamations from U.S. President Joe Biden, who says he’s now convinced Putin has decided to invade, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, echoed by a compliant mainstream American media as absolute fact.
The U.S., together with its NATO and European allies, have embraced a narrative which, to quote former U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, has Russian President Vladimir Putin about to embark on “a risky, irrational, unprovoked, preemptive invasion of Ukraine,” even though the Russian government has bent over backwards to assure the U.S. and the world it has no such intention.
Now, only a fool would take the Russians at face value. “Trust, but verify” isn’t an age-old Russian aphorism for nothing. The fact is Blinken et. al. are simply getting what they paid for. The Biden administration has a history of manufacturing perception for domestic political purpose, most recently in Afghanistan, where Biden told the Afghan president to assure the world that everything was ok, “even if it is not true.”
Much of the current intelligence used by Biden, Blinken, and company comes from Pentagon assessments of probable courses of action that might be taken by Russia should an invasion be conducted from positions currently maintained by Russian forces. What we haven’t seen, however, is any supporting intelligence regarding intent or viability.
The Biden administration has bought into seeing a Putin-centric universe where everything transpires based upon the whim of the Russian president. However, hard intelligence available to U.S. military analysts would show whether the buildup of Russian troops is related to military exercises announced by the Russian government well in advance – or an invasion.
Any military professional worth his or her salt knows that anytime a major exercise or operation takes place, there is an extremely detailed logistics support plan, referred to as a time-phased force and deployment list, or TPFDL, which tracks the movement of troops, equipment, and material (including ammunition and fuel) so that everything is in place and ready to go at the appointed time.
A TPFDL for a major military exercise is very different from a TPFDL supporting a major military operation. Exercises are finite events — they have a hard start and stop. Military operations, however, are open-ended affairs, and any affiliated TPFDL must consider the need to sustain the operation.
Any intelligence analyst knows the difference between an exercise-oriented TPFDL and one employed to sustain a war. For example, the TPFDL used to support U.S. military exercises in the Middle East is fundamentally different from that which was used to initiate and sustain Operation Desert Storm.
The Russian military operates in a similar fashion. The logistical support plan being implemented in support of the current military deployment near Ukraine is a knowable fact. So, too, would be any massive deviation from previously established patterns of behavior observed in a prior military exercise.
Like any exercise, aspects of Russia’s war-fighting plan would be made functional. For instance, Russia may well have moved combat medical support capability to the forward area to better train the involved forces. But in an exercise, this would be a limited-scope exercise of that capability, not the full-scale mobilization necessary for war.
The Pentagon knows this. The decision to turn assessments of possible theoretical courses of action available to the Russian military based upon inference into de facto statements of current intent is a deliberate one, without producing evidence for it, is done for purely political reasons. That’s what happened with the manufactured events for Powell’s 2003 Security Council performance.
Managing Public Opinion
Blinken at the Security Council on Thursday. (UN Photo/Mark Garten)
Biden and Blinken are playing a silly game. Confronted with the reality that the U.S. and NATO lack the ability to deter Russia from mobilizing a sizable military force in the vicinity of the Russian-Ukraine border, either through the deployment of military power or the threat of “massive” economic sanctions, the Biden administration is seeking to manage public opinion by creating the perception of an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine, without coming up with evidence to prove that such a threat exists at the moment.
Eventually this subterfuge will be exposed, but even then, the Biden administration will seek to take credit for playing some sort of Vulcan mind game on Vladimir Putin, confronting him with assertions of his nefarious plans, thereby compelling him to back down in confusion. This is childish thinking and, in the end, is purely self-delusional.
Russia has said it will withdraw its forces from their current forward positions and return them to their respective permanent bases once the military exercises are finished; this is most likely what will happen (there is the possibility that Russia and Belarus are contemplating a permanent deployment of elements of the First Guards Tank Army to Belarus.)
This doesn’t mean Russia will not invade Ukraine at some point, but there’s no evidence it will do so now. Even Ukrainian intelligence came to that conclusion after studying U.S. satellite images of the Russian troop formations.
What Biden and Blinken fail to understand is that Russia is in total control of the narrative and timeline of the current crisis.
Blinken already gave Russia a major concession, declaring on behalf of Ukraine (an act which underscores the reality of the U.S.-Ukraine relationship) that Kiev is prepared to act now on implementation of the Minsk Agreements through the Normandy Format. Though there is much to doubt about its sincerity, such a statement was unthinkable a month ago. Advantage Russia.
But the Minsk Agreement, while important, is peripheral to Russia’s strategic objectives for legally binding security guarantees regarding NATO expansion as set forth in a pair of draft treaties turned over to the U.S. and NATO in December.
Russia’s Response
Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. (UN Photo/Cia Pak)
The U.S. and NATO provided written responses last month which failed to address Russia’s core concerns. On the same day Blinken addressed the Security Council, the Russian Foreign Ministry provided a written reply to the U.S. response. In short, the Russians reiterated the seriousness they attached to their demands for security guarantees, noted that the U.S. continues to ignore these, and that if this situation remains the same, Russia will have no choice but to use “military-technical means” to resolve the crisis.
Russia is not bluffing. This does not mean that Russia is going to invade Ukraine tomorrow, this week, or even next month — far from it. The confusion caused by the U.S. Chicken Little routine is generating far too much political capital for Russia, emphasizing as it does U.S. and NATO impotence and incompetence. Moreover, Russia does not appear to have properly prepared itself for a war with Ukraine, especially given the fact that any such conflict would bring with it a protracted political confrontation with the U.S. and its European allies.
Russia will continue to reiterate its demands regarding security guarantees in order to exhaust all possible diplomatic channels for resolving the Ukraine crisis. But Russia will also continue to up the ante.
Putin is scheduled to deliver his annual Message to the Federal Assembly sometime early this year. This address is used by the president to lay out his priorities in terms of Russia’s main directions of development. Normally a venue to discuss major economic questions, Putin is said to be meeting with his ministers to prepare a very different presentation, one that prepares the Russian people and government for the real possibility of war.
Putin will have two major issues to consider. The first is a resolution passed on Tuesday by the Russian Parliament to declare the breakaway provinces of Lugansk and Donetsk independent of Ukraine. The second is the reality of the impact western sanctions will have on the Russian economy, and what measures the Russian government has planned to deal with these consequences.
This will be a major speech which, while most likely stopping short of an outright declaration of war, will finally put political intent behind the notion of military action. While Putin most likely will offer the U.S. and NATO a diplomatic offramp, the bottom line is that unless Russia is given the security guarantees it is demanding, war might be inevitable.
Biden and Blinken will once again cry “wolf.” But it won’t matter; the die will have already been cast, and everyone involved will have to deal with the consequences of human folly.
Scott Ritter is a former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control treaties, in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm, and in Iraq overseeing the disarmament of WMD.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
And by the way when they DO use them, they no longer are able to use them in strike roles at all because it would require (due to their missile’s range) for them to get too close to Russian radars. Instead they have exclusively utilized TB2’s as long distance surveillance. In clear weather, the very good optics of the TB2 (manufactured by Canadian WESCAM) allows it to see 40-60km down the country and can be used for correcting artillery, and in fact was used in such a way on the Kherson airfield strike, where Ukie forces blew up a ton of their own helicopters which Russia captured from them, and then celebrated that ‘Russian helis were destroyed’.
As can be seen NATO is at all times manically circling on every possible inch of border that they’re legally allowed to approach, gathering data to beam to Ukrainian command to assist them in every way possible against Russia.
In last news for now, Russia has struck a giant oil refinery called Kremenchug that is owned by Kolomoisky, the puppet master of Zelensky. This is a major refinery, possibly the biggest, which I’ve read supplies upwards of 30% of Ukrainian oil. There were arguments days ago on social media, with some opining that Russia still refused to strike this facility due to its economic importance. But after Belgorod was hit, Russia apparently took its gloves off and immediately hit this facility the next day. Though I think only one section with storage tanks was struck, the refinery is a gigantic complex and most of it was spared (for now). So I’m not sure how much of it they took offline apart from millions of gallons of oil in storage tanks.
UPROOTED PALESTINIANS: SALAM ALQUDS ALAYKUM 