Life often seems like one long never ending Asch conformity experiment: even when there is overwhelming evidence that something is “A”, the media, and those zombified by it, confidently state “non-A”. That this kind of doublethink is also applied to the conflict in the Ukraine should surprise nobody, but it is still important to “call a stone and stone” and to give a clear and unambiguous characterization of what has
I have recently come into contact with “Juan” who currently resides near the conflict area in the Ukraine. I don’t personally know Juan but I am confident that he/she is a person with a military background and a first-hand knowledge of the Russian military, including elite units. In our email exchanges we soon established that while I was “one of ‘them’ who was buried under 15 kilometers of concrete, rock
To the small number of obnoxious monomaniacs amongst you who are totally obsessed with WWII, Hitler and Jews: this blog is *NOT* a historic blog about these topics. Is that so hard to understand? Today I had to trash something in the range of 20-25 comments all about race, Jews, Hitler, etc. This has got to stop and you are clearly not understanding it the nice way. This is a
Something really weird has just happened in the Ukraine. Everybody agrees that an attack took place on a checkpoint of the Ukrainian national guard near the city of Volnovakha (see map). 35 soldiers were wounded, 15 died (other figures quote 8 confirmed dead and an unknown number of evacuated bodies of attackers who got killed; one source says “13-20 fatalities”). The surviving soldiers say that out of 53 men, only
I am getting a lot of emails warning me that a massive assault seems imminent in the Slaviansk – Kramatorsk – Krasnyi Liman area. The local commander, Strelkov, has posted a warning about this and RT is also echoing the same concern. I am also getting warnings from contacts in the Ukraine. The Ukies are not too keen in fighting at night so I expect that attack to begin tomorrow
It’s not really news, but it still amazes me: for two days in a row no Jen Psaki, speaking for the regime in Washington, has declared that the USA has doubts about the real affiliation of the Russian journalists working for the Russian new outlet LifeNews. Even though the professional record of these journalist is in the public domain and very well know (they have worked for many years including
I think that we can all agree that the situation in the Ukraine is one of total chaos. Renat Akhmetov, the local oligarch-mobster, had declared that his companies will go on a “warning strike” for 3 hours per day because Akhmetov was angered that the authorities of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) had taken over the control of the railways which resulted in losses for his company. One of the
(Huge thanks to “CG” who found this text here. The Saker) “Citizens of Donetsk People`s Republic, I address you with a quest. It`s the quest to protect your Motherland, your homes, your families, your people. I have to ask you to do the thing which by all human standards is not required to ask. As it was always an honor in Russia to protect your Motherland and your freedom. This
Dear friends,I have to leave the house for most of the day, but I want to tell you the following before I do so.1) I am desperately looking for a full English translation of the statement made by Igor Strelkov about the lack of men volunteering for combat duties in the Donetsk region. He made it either on Sunday or on Saturday. It’s about 10 min long when read in
Today I will begin by looking at how the Ukrainian conflict is covered in the international media thanks to this blog’s network of 55 correspondents and translators in the following regions: Europe, North America, South America, Middle-East, Russia/CIS, Indian Subcontinent, Far East Asia, Oceania and Africa. Below I am reproducing some reports I selected form those which our correspondents sent me. This is our first try at that, so we
I want to express my gratitude to Israel Shamir who kindly sent me this excellent analysis for publication on my blog. I hope that in the future he will allow me to publish more of his articles.The Saker——-The Ukraine in Turmoil by Israel Shamir It is not much fun to be in Kiev these days. The revolutionary excitement is over, and hopes for new faces, the end of corruption and
I really admire Sergei Lavrov for many things, but listening to this (otherwise interesting) interview, I marvel at his patience with this constantly interrupting “yapping-dog-style” Bloomberg journalist. I just could not have had that kind of patience. I would have smashed my fist in the face of this arrogant jerk ten minutes into the interview. Good thing I am just a blogger and not a diplomat I guess :-) Anyway,
I just wanted to mention here a topic which is not often discussed in the western press but which does pop-up with some regularity in the Russian press. Let’s set aside the current events and ask ourselves the following question:Sooner or later there will be some kind of state in what used to be the Ukraine until 2014. The Crimea is gone forever to Russia, that is certain. A “People’s
Short news highlights: Popular governor of Lugansk, Valerii Bolotov, shot by sniper, lost lots of blood but is in no danger. 7 Ukie soldiers killed by the resistance, one APC destroyed Lugansk and Donetsk are negotiating a unification The Donetsk Republic is creating its own military EU gives 1 billion to Banderastan Hungarians want a Hungarian autonomous region in southwestern Ukraine Gazprom switches to pre-payment Ukies refuse to pay to
Dear friends, I am sorry to say that I am sick yet again, this time with some Florida food poisoning. In fact, I am writing this in bed on my tablet. I have a few requests to submit to you: 1) Sobcors: please stop using the sobcor email list as a discussion list. Please ONLY use it to contact your REGION’S sobcors to get in touch and/or coordinate work.2) Please,
The exact results of the referendum in the Donbass are still unknown, but the following three facts are undeniable:1) Participation was extremely high.2) The yes vote won by a landslide.3) The neo-Nazi junta tried hard, but failed to disrupt the vote.We also know that the validity of this referendum will be rejected by a crushing majority of UN members. Ditto for the regime in power who has already denounced it
Dear friends,Since some of you were worried, I just wanted to let you know that all is well except for my usual problem of being one person doing too many things. The situation in the Ukraine is too fluid to say much right now anyway. I expect to write up an evaluation of the results of the referendum by tomorrow morning.For the rest of today I will try to catch
If anything the past 24 hours have proved, once again, that the US and NATO are opposed to any form of negotiations, confidence-building measures or any other type of negotiations with the Donbass and with Russia. Even though Putin tried really hard to sound accommodating and available for a negotiated solution, the US/NATO policy is clearly to provoke and confront Russia and its allies in every imaginable way. The same
I have to admit that today’s move by Putin caught me completely off-guard. My first impression was that by asking the folks in the Donbass to postpone the referendum, Putin was basically tossing aside a valuable bargaining chip. Even more disturbing was his apparent backing for the upcoming May 25th presidential election.Let me also say, however, that the notion of Putin “caving in” never even crossed my mind if only
From the reports coming out of the eastern Ukraine it appears that a real, coordinated, attack has been launched on Slaviansk. The attackers use the following tactic: a group of men in plainclothes (Right Sector? Foreign mercenaries? SBU?) attack a checkpoint pinning down the defenders. The checkpoint is then surrounded on both sides by armored personnel carriers and heavily armed infantry. Mi-24 helicopters approach from the air and a heavy
