INTRODUCTION: Yesterday’s press conference by Strelkov is, I believe, a historical moment because it marks the move of Strelkov from the Novorussian military struggle into the much larger, and far more dangerous struggle, the struggle for the political future of Russia. This in itself is no necessarily unexpected, but the way he did it was a surprise, at least for me. But before I zoom out to the bigger picture,
This morning a reader brought to my attention a very interesting post by Vladimir Suchan entitled “The Minsk “Ceasefire” Protocol and Russian Diplomacy’s Masterful “Sabotage” which I recommend that you read in its entirety. Suchan quotes a short note of mine where I said the following: “Knowing the degree to which Russian diplomats are normally maniacally fastidious and pedantic with words, I can only conclude that they have deliberately sabotaged
There are so many rumors and opinions about the latest ceasefire for Novorussia agreed between the Novorussian leaders and the Junta reps that I have decided to make a small survey of the issues in the format of a Q&A/FAQ. I will write up a real analysis next week. I also will use this opportunity to explain a few thing about what my own personal position is. So here goes:Q:
An important disclaimer, caveat and clarification First, I will begin by a clear disclaimer which I ask you all to please carefully read and then keep in mind: I personally am not advocating any option for the final status of Novorussia. That is for the people of Novorussia to decide and any option that they will chose I will support. Furthermore, at this point in time I am not even
In my previous post, I mentioned that western leaders are going through a clear phase of self-delusion and panic. I want to add a short comment about the self-delusion part.I am amazed, absolutely amazed, at the fact that EU politicians, and the MSM which serves them, are still seriously discussing the adoption of even more sanctions against Russia when it is absolutely, totally and undeniably obvious that:a) there is no
A lot of people are wondering what the deal is with the so-called “cauldrons” in which the Ukie forces seem to get surrounded over and over again. Are the Ukie generals simply stupid, or what is the deal? I will try to explain.Remember that that Ukie forces are typically “heavy”. They have lots of tanks, lots of artillery, lost of ammo, lots of soldiers, etc. At least initially. They are
Guys, I came home late after a pretty crazy day and I can’t write a proper SITREP, if only because of the still very confused situation in the eastern Ukraine. Still, I want to share a couple of short pointers with you.The “destroyed Russian armor column”: Poroshenko vs Carl SaganI cannot prove a negative. But then, I am not the one making the claim. The Ukies and a few British
Dear friends,I just took a short break from my life in “meatspace” to comment upon the great news of the day: Russia is introducing a full 12 months embargo on the import of beef, pork, fruits and vegetables, poultry, fish, cheese, milk and dairy products from the European Union, the United States, Australia, Canada and the Kingdom of Norway. Russia is also introducing an airspace ban against European and US
First, a disclaimer: I am not a pilot nor an air traffic controller, and I never served with air defense units. I did spend some time with an airforce, but my role was one of electronic intercept analysis. So what follows are just the musings of an uninformed amateur. Caveat emptor.What I will try to do here is present a possible scenario which takes into account the basic facts established
Introduction I have been putting off writing about this topic for a very long while. In fact, I wrote several articles trying to explain the self-evident truism that the US/NATO/EU does not have a military option in the Ukrainian war. First, in an article entitled Remembering the Important Lessons of the Cold War I tried to explain that the reason the Cold War did not turn into a hot, shooting,
For a couple of days now, I have posted various items showing the large number of casualties amongst the Ukie forces fighting against Novorussia, and I have observed with some amusement how many of you have expressed doubts about the veracity of these figures. Today Nora drew my attention to a short video of a Ukie army recruiting officer being confronted by a crowd of civilians, mostly women, mostly mothers.
Intro and caveat I think that any analysis of the events surrounding the downing of MH17 should begin with the following admission: no matter what, the AngloZionists will blame Russia. Just like 9/11, there is no way, no amount of evidence, which would affect the unanimous chorus of Imperial doubleplusgoodthinkers in their conclusion that obviously it could only have been “the Russians”. So don’t expect to come across The Proof
I think that the unexpected fall of Slaviansk hit us all very hard. We were used to think of it as a new Stalingrad, as a Donbass version of Bint Jbeil, and the sudden withdrawal of Strelkov’s forces was a surprise for us all. And I really mean us all, including the Ukies (who had predicted that Strelkov would fight to the last bullet there). And that is exactly what
Military analysis: So today Slaviansk has finally fallen to the Nazis. Those of us with a military background all understood that this was pretty much inevitable and, obviously, so did the leaders of the Novorussian resistance. The fact that it took so long for the entire Ukie army to take that small town really says a lot about the amazing courage of its defenders and/or about the no less amazing
The murder of Anatolii Klian I just watched a sickening and immensely sad report on Russian TV about the death of the Anatolii Klian, a 68 old cameraman for Channel One: you can see this report here and you can also read the RT article about his death, including videos, here. Of course, this is only one death of one man, whereas the tragedy which is taking place before our
On at least three occasions I tried to dispel the notion that the US/NATO could attack Russia or Russian forces in the Ukraine (see here, here and here). I tried to show that geography, over-reach and politics made a conventional attack impossible and I tried to show that a nuclear attack, whether tactical or strategic, could not succeed. There is a new theory which is apparently going around now which
It is no secret that the junta in Kiev hates the Russian media. This is hardly surprising considering that with a few extraordinarily rare exceptions, the western press corps walks in lockstep with Psaki’s narrative about this war. So Russian journalists have been beating up, kidnapped, searched, detained, tortured and, of course, murdered. And just in case anybody would still hold on to the belief that this policy is the
First, I have to explain the title: “A scorecard for US war on Russia”: what we are witnessing today is beyond any doubt a US war on Russia, except that it that is is neither quite “cold” nor “hot”: it’s tepid, lukewarm. Not for the people dying of course, but by it’s choice of methods. It is not a Cold War because people are dying, because tanks, artillery and airpower
Ok. Today I am going to address the nuclear threat canard one last time. After that, I will just ignore this topic which, frankly, is a waste of time. Here are two comments which were recently posted on the blog: “Security experts in the U.S. do not agree that Russia has a credible nuclear deterrent. The story is that the Russian nuclear force is in disrepair and that the U.S.
It is always tricky to try to get a sense of what is happening in a country by parsings its media as there is often a big disconnect between what the talking heads say and what most of the people really feel. And yet, this can a useful exercise in the following circumstances:A) The media is pretty tightly controlled by the regime in power at which point is can be
