Dear friends,
This is a conversation between one of the foremost Russian experts on the Ukraine, Rostislav Ishchenko, and one of the best know Russian military experts, Igor Korotchenko. Both of them have Ukrainian last names and Ishchenko actually worked for several Ukrainian presidents. These two guys really know what is going on and both of them enjoy a superb access to Russian decision-makers. In this conversation they discuss the Ukrainian crisis, the war in Syria and other national security issues in great detail and from many aspects. This is why I asked Eugenia to subtitle this video even though it is a very long one (1 hour and 20 minutes). An immense THANK YOU to Eugenia for taking on such a huge task (even though she has a demanding job and a family!). The fact that such long, but detailed and extremely interesting conversations are translated by volunteers of the Saker Community greatly contributes to make our blogs something unique.
Enjoy this most interesting discussion and please let us know what you think.
Kind regards,
The Saker
Video translated and subtitled by Eugenia
OT – but does anyone have a link to a complete transcript of FM Lavrov’s press conference of January 26?
There’s an article over at RI with a snippet, and supposedly there’s a complete transcript , in English, (about 40 pages) at the http://www.mid.ru site but I can’t find it given that the site’s in Russian. Thanks for your indulgence.
i found it.
OT indeed, but it’s a wonderful article** by Gilbert Doctorow at Russia Insider. The full transcript of Lavrov’s comments is even more amazing, a signature guidepost to this year.
You can click on “EN” at the top of the page to get the English version of the Foreign Ministry’s website, then it’s a little easier to find. Here’s the link:
Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions at a news conference on Russia’s diplomacy performance in 2015, Moscow, January 26, 2016
**Russia’s Had Enough: No More ‘Business as Usual’ With US – Gilbert Doctorow
Thanks.
Cross-reading the transcript, I noted that a number of questions were shortened significantly. This is maybe similar with some responses by foreign minister Lavrov.
Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions at a news conference on Russia’s diplomacy performance in 2015, Moscow, January 26, 2016
http://www.mid.ru/posledniye_dobavlnenniye/-/asset_publisher/MCZ7HQuMdqBY/content/id/2032328?p_p_id=101_INSTANCE_MCZ7HQuMdqBY&_101_INSTANCE_MCZ7HQuMdqBY_languageId=en_GB
Another version of Lavrov’s speech:
Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions at a news conference on Russia’s diplomacy performance in 2015, Moscow, January 26, 2016
http://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/-/asset_publisher/cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/2032328
At the top middle right click on “EN” and the page will reload into English.
http://www.mid.ru/en/posledniye_dobavlnenniye/-/asset_publisher/MCZ7HQuMdqBY/content/id/2032328
To commenters and commentators of The Saker:
I have noticed that you have made frequent use of abbreviations, such as OT (Off Topic? On Topic?), MIC (Man in Charge? Military Industrial Complex? Made in China? Microphone?), POTUS (People of the United States? President of the United States), etc.
Geopolitical and military analysis is fascinating! Maybe I should know all of this kind of jargon used by analysts; but, I don’t and I doubt that everybody who reads The Saker knowns them. So far, I have not been intimidated. Most of the time, I just proceed with my reading, ignoring these abbreviations; but, they seem to be getting worse – and it is quite discouraging…
As a researcher and a writer in a different field, I also learned a specific jargon. But, early on I also learned that jargon is a dangerous tool, used by some ‘experts’ – usually the younger ones – to alienate people, to show off (we all know this, right?). To communicate better with lay people, it is vital to avoid the use of jargon. For The Saker to reach a large audience, this is also true, IMHO – and for those who do not know the meaning of this acronym, I am trying to say ‘In My Honest Opinion’; not ‘In My Humble Opinion’ nor ‘In My Hesitating Opinion’ nor ‘In My Holy Opinion’ nor ‘In My Hellish Opinion’ nor anything else…).
For this reason, I would like to suggest to all writers, journalists, commenters and commentators who are trying to communicate with the rest of us to make less use of these acronyms or use them in contexts that help the readers in clarifying their meaning. If not, I think that most of the resolute lay people will end up wasting precious reading time consulting the ‘acronymfinder.com’…
POTUS=Propagandists of the United States. Lol.
Excellent point, Rita Lama, and one I entirely agree with. Unfortunately, the lure of acronyms (and other devices) as markers of inner-circle-hood or hip-dom appears to be just too irresistible to many, even at the expense of mere, humdrum communication.
Another thing I find somewhat disconcerting is when the commentary below a blog post immediately goes off-topic (usually acknowledged as “OT”, with implied apology). To my mind it’s a mite disrespectful to the writer and the host of the blog, and to even to the reader, no matter how interesting the digression may be to some, as though the commenter hasn’t even bothered reading the piece. It seems less problematic once the post starts to age, the comments naturally start to wander off-topic and he blog post ages.
Both of these comments (by Rita & Bruce) are excellent. If I was blog king I would incorporate them both into the rules. I would also prohibit non-informational or non-analyzing/reasoning comments like “good job” or “I agree”. The very slight increase in bandwidth caused by the abandonment of acronyms and abbreviations would be offset many times over by the elimination of useless comments.
FWIW, I would support the banning of folks posting under ‘Anonymous’
Very good observation and I agree with the idea that it creates a division between readers/listeners who are “in the know” and the other ones who are not (therefore, making them look inferior). I know from school times, that the rule of using acronyms is to put it first time in brackets after the full set of words defining it. Or you place it in a list of acronyms. That’s called being polite with your readers.
Another observation is that anglo-saxon world, in particular, has extended the usage of acronyms beyond ridiculous, sometimes. First time when I saw this acronym many years ago (written without the necessary dots: “asap”, or with upper letters) I believed it was a word, I spent several days trying to understand what it means. I was baffled because the context sentence was “… to be returned asap …”. Finally I learned it was coming from “as soon as possible”.
And finally, thanks for finally revealing what P.O.T.U.S. means. Since I became so sick/disgusted in the last few years to “decipher” the magic behind some of these acronyms, used even in official papers, I never bothered anymore to search. I literally associated that with the word “pot” (sometimes thinking about one filled with B.S. (I guess most of you know this acronym)).
Saying all that, the acronyms are useful to avoid long sentences. In general they should be used to describe institutions, scientific expressions … but not common words forming part a sentence.
Who speaks ill of a TLA? (Three Letter Acronym).
All professions use them either for convenience amongst those that know them intimately and/or as a means to confuse the ‘others’ and belong to an elite group. You are one of us if you can SIA (speak in acronyms).
A glossary of frequent terms like MIC plus all the ME terrorist groups and a brief descriptor about them would be nice.
Dear Eugenia, I hope upon hope that The Saker and the mods will allow a short shout out to you (and all other volunteers) who pitch in to provide us readers with such a sterling quality and variety of information with which to attempt to understand this often disappointing and confusing world we live in.
THANK YOU!
Seconded.
I look forward to sitting down and watching this.
Thanks again for taking the time to translate.
The US will probably continue to arm militants in Syria, keeping Putin busy, at least until 2016 presidential elections. With a more willing puppet than Obama to follow neocon agenda (any GOP, or Hillary), Washington may then open a new front in the Russian borders. Western media focused on the recent win of Alexander Lukashenko, while insist to call him ‘last dictator of Europe’. It is not accidental that Lukashenko opposed Western-backed “shock therapy” during the post-Soviet transition. The one that under IMF mafia destroyed Russian economy in the late 90s. Maybe the various US think tanks design another ‘color revolution’ in Belarus this time, as the game in Ukraine appears to be lost for now.
@ nmb Here’s a new article about “Base Wars” in Syria, that is not that impressed with the Empire/neocon US faction and it latest moves in Syria, trying to occupy a bit of Northeast Syria, with a reported Russian counter-move, 50 miles west reportedly already in preparation:
First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2016/01/30/syrias-base-wars/
“Satellite imagery appearing to show the US expanding a formerly disused air strip in Kurdish-controlled northern Syria has been seen by the BBC.
The images, from the security analysts Stratfor, show a runway near the town of Rmeilan being extended from 700m (half a mile) to 1.3km.
The US inviting itself into sovereign Syrian territory and creating a military base to supply its ground forces operating there without UN Security Council approval or invitation by the Syrian government sets a dangerous and unacceptable precedent. But assuming the United States has no interest in actually upholding the very international law it attempts to justify its numerous extraterritorial adventures with, what options does Syria have to head off what is a well-documented conspiracy to strip it of its own sovereign territory and expand from there toward Damascus itself?
The answer can be found in Qamishli, Syria, teetering near the Syrian border with Turkey and only 50 miles west of the US’ alleged airstrip in Rmeilan. Qamishli is the site of what is alleged to be a growing Russian presence, including a burgeoning airbase.”
The author claims that this counter-move could negate the American move, which is nothing but a poorly disguised effort to continue supporting rebels against the Syrian government, and ends as follows:
“It is becoming increasingly difficult for the US and its allies to explain just what they are actually even doing in Syria besides perpetuating the war for as long as possible. It is clear that the only progress being made in Syria against the forces of extremism is being made by the long-chastised Syrian government and their Russian, Iranian, and Lebanese allies. It is also clear that remaining hurdles preventing the final restoration of peace and order in Syria is the US and its regional allies who insist on propping up armed groups opposed to the Syrian government, and direct threats and undermining by the US itself aimed at Damascus.
It should be abundantly clear that the US has lost the political war, the proxy war and now possibly checked in the “base war” as well. How much more the US wants to lose before withdrawing from yet another quagmire of its own creation depends on how much credibility the US believes it can still afford to lose as it pursues hegemony openly in front of an increasingly aware global public that has begun effectively fighting back.” END
Of course, the “increasingly aware global public” includes growing numbers of patriotic Americans that are increasingly disgusted with the imperial antics of their current bankster owned “government” and its increasingly well known use of fraud, deception and terror, against the entire world, including its own citizens. .
Thank you Ted. Interesting. Agree with your comment at the end.
Mr. Trump has made it clear that he has no plans to be involved with Ukraine or to intimidate Russia. That said, I guess he really is only nominally “GOP” as the establishment hates him.
listening to these two encouraged me to write this
Its hard to know just how much importance to give the role of POTUS. Is the role mere decoration – a flicking light on a (long dead) christmas tree (in april) or something of more substance? Certainly people look up at the on again off again light and hope that somehow illumination will follow but is this just an illusion foistered of the hopeful against the cold hard reality of a blundering withering giant staggering towards another calamity? Arms and legs flaying knocking over all the little people in chaotic maneuvers as it tries to regain the posture of something real. Clinton Trump or even a Bloomberg? Does it make any real substantive difference who is the figure head of this overstretched near bankrupt one time superpower? I’d argue it makes a lot less difference than people imagine. But it does at least provide a certain level of entertainment value – more akin to World Wrestling Entertainment grudge match than a possibly rigged Wimbledon final.
Thank you.Thank you, Eugenia for providing the translation to this discussion. Just finished watching it, and it was riveting! So much to mull over.
Comparing Poroshenko to a suitcase without a handle, that one can’t carry but just kicks along ahead of them because they don’t want to be bothered with it.
And Mr. Korotchenko’s assessment that Biden’s recent visit to Ukraine was to protect his own financial interests in that region. The US Government is utterly corrupt. It’s sickening!
There’s so much insight in this discussion. Well worth the hour and a half.
Thank You, Eugenia.
Please extend my sincere thanks to Eugenia for the tremendous labor that she undertook to give your followers this translation. It was very illuminating and timely, considering how my foreign affairs have been usurped by developments in Syria and domestically by the American primary process. It looks as though things will unfortunately get much worse in the Ukraine before they get better.
I should also thank you for your continued work keeping this site functioning. I will have to get a copy of your essential book as I’m sure it will be worth every penny and be even more educational.
Thanks Saker & Eugenia, but 80 mins is too long.
Anybody care to do a summary, maybe 10 main points, and/or what they think will happen in the 2nd half of this year in the Donbass?
By the way, I think the Donbass should vote to join Russia, rather than be independent, that way they will get the full power of Russia to defend the people in the west of Donbass against the crazy zombies.
These 80 minutes are worth every second. I think it is necessary to listen to the entire discussion for estimating the probabilities of the outlined scenarios.
Oh Yes, this is the best video on the implications for Russia of the Ukrop Coup in the last year. Worth every second.
This discussion about Ukraine is mind blowing and staggering in its implications. Many thanks, Saker.
George F.
China has censured the United States for sending a warship very close to one of the country’s artificial islands to the South China Sea.
The USS Curtis Wilbur, a missile destroyer, passed within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island, which is part of the Paracel Islands, on Friday, a move apparently designed to increase tensions with Beijing.
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/01/30/448032/China-US-warship
Probably the latest tail twisting because of this first, yesterday 29th:
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/01/29/447871/Silk-Road-train-departs-China-for-Iran-/
Hmmm,I suspect the US State Dept. officials are giggling over their morning coffee at that report. What “next” a letter of rebuke,or the “dreaded” de-friending them on Facebook.If China doesn’t just want to appear silly. Canceling some agreements with the US,that the US wants. Sending Chinese ships to just make a cruise thru the Hawaiian chain of islands (after all they would just be there for a point. Surely the US wouldn’t have a problem with that,would they). Those are what you do to make a point. Anything else is worthless,and a waste of time. The US isn’t interested in want China “thinks about their actions”. They only care what China “does” about those actions.
Next three container ships from China that arrive in the Puget Sound area should be surrounded by our Coast Guard and sent back to their home ports! That should teach them a lesson! Gosh, Wow, Golly!
Now that might have an effect ,you are right. Denying the US population their cheap Chinese imports just might bring on the American Spring so long hoped for.Maybe that would bring people out to the streets.
Bravo! This was a pleasure to listen to (if I can use that term about pretty grim future prospects). Loved the metaphor – Poroshenko causing great annoyance to the US like a suitcase without a handle having to be kicked down the road by its owner!
Yes Ukraine has dropped from the headlines but sounds like that won’t last long as Ukraine, the way it is going is completely unsustainable.
Thanks Eugenia … and Saker. This sort of info is normally out of reach to those of us who don’t speak Russian. From sincerely in my heart, I thank you both, and only ask that may it continue.
Clearly, these guys know what they’re talking about with Ukraine, Turkey and Syria. However, they don’t seem to understand the driving force behind US policy.
While there was once a time when the US created chaos in an effort to divide and rule, that time has long since gone. Today, the US creates chaos for one purpose only, to satisfy the institutional imperatives of the MIC:
1) profits for arms manufacturers and other military contractors, 2) career enhancement for military brass, civilian employees of the CIA, Pentagon, State Department, and militarist thinktanks, 3) attendant high paying jobs guaranteed by ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) for “US persons” that keep those employees loyal to the system, 4) pork for politicians and 5) blockbuster movies and sensational headlines to sell media (and also to contribute to the necessary fear and jingoism).
Measured against these institutional imperatives, US policies are a blockbuster success (many puns intended).
These institutional imperatives of the MIC provide the environment that selects those who will be successful in government, the media etc. If an applicant to any of these institutions does not support the policy of chaos that furthers these institutional imperatives, that applicant will not be hired. So people can not have a “successful” career in journalism or politics unless they have personally found some justification for supporting the policy of chaos. That justification could be a genuine desire to bring democracy, stability and human rights to the world, a more cynical desire for US hegemony, or a desire to manipulate US foreign and military policy into supporting the interests of an “ally” such as Israel or Saudi Arabia. It doesn’t even matter whether the chaos successfully advances those goals. What’s important is that the policy of chaos be supported. If an individual does not support the policy, that individual is stamped “un-American,” a “hate America firster” and is either not hired or defeated in election. There is no conscious conspiracy forcing this, just ecological, environmental pressures. Thus has the species homo militarus evolved not from “intelligent design” but from “natural selection.”
This is why it appears to these two experts that the US does not consider the long term consequences of its policies. The long term consequences are unimportant. What is important is that maximum chaos is maintained.
wow you expressed my thoughts. But do you think this is the Elite? Are we doomed?
Not sure what you mean by “Elite.” What I described is the environment that selects our foreign policy elite, those who comprise DoD, DoS, CIA, think tank and media punditry, Hollywood militarism and the CEOs of weapons manufacturers. Only a small portion are truly depraved enough to be solely interested in profits or career enhancement, and there are rare cases of members of this elite who have eventually come to their senses and realize that the policy of chaos is actually counter-productive to their personal goals of human rights, US hegemony or whatever.
In his 1989 book, JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy, J Fletcher Prouty claimed that this policy of chaos (he didn’t call it that) was already in place immediately after WW II and that it was used deliberately to justify the Vietnam War, by flooding the largely Buddhist South with Tonkinese Catholic refugees from the North after Dien Bien Phu: http://www.amazon.com/JFK-Vietnam-Plot-Assassinate-Kennedy/dp/1616082917 These unfortunate people had no means of support in the South and many became beggars, the Vietnamese word for which is “Kha.” Their acts of thievery, often armed, were assumed to be insurgency. They were the “Viet Kha,” the original Vietcong.
Here’s another article on “Strategic Engineered Migration as Weapon of War,” which may well be in use in Europe at this time: http://www.voltairenet.org/article189184.html
So it’s all “the environment” and no one is to blame? I don’t think so. Yes, it appears like an environmental effect but that is only to us outsiders who can’t pinpoint names and heads. Which is on purpose. We are not supposed to know or be able to bother the perps. Human society is organized in hierarchies, and in a Western democracy it’s about money and property. There are people who have an awful lot of it and want even more. Hence they conspire to fund an enterprise such as 9/11 or ISIS or a little war here or a crackdown there and they organize the sheeple’s resources to achieve their aims. It is specific people who do this and not “the environment”. These people own the System and hide in it. If they were incarcerated or executed the world would be a better place and “the environment” improved.
Don´t agree. These guys understand all those aspects you mentioned, but they see priorities in a different way. This is the point where many western commentators lost the big picture. US policies has been on a reactive level for a long, and it´s getting worse in the future. And finally no-one reaps any profits or career opportunities. I think that everything in this conversation was on spot.
Excellent discussion and views. When the Maidan took place, it in fact represented the death of the country. Two years on and the soul is still lingering on, it hasn’t accepted its fate. More or less like a haunted house. To the realization of the population the country is disintegrating at an accelerated rate. The people are still breathing but everything else is dying.
The only salvation for the people is to have a final revolution and cleanse their country free of all that is cancerous. There cannot be any mercy for any oligarch, they must be liquidated. Their empires dismantled. The mind set of hate must be reversed and filled with positive energy, love and peace. All forms of corruption must be dealt with severe consequences. The survival of the state must be restored. All disorderly conduct brought to a standstill including these fanatical armed volunteers. Maidan should look like a cake walk.
If the Ukrainians prefer to be the prostitutes for the USA, then they will have to suffer the seeds that they have sowed. It is true that never in my imagination that I would see brother murdering brother and for what. To see that the only progress is hatred beyond comprehension is unexplainable to the point that they have terminated the life of their country. It’s a sad situation that will carry on for many years. You people were manipulated by the illusion of a better life. Now you will pay dearly for your mistake. The USA has gotten what it wants and will not let go for they own you lock, stock and barrel. You will now experience the American dream or should I say nightmare.
But to die a slow death will be very painful. So you should thank all the contributors to this drama including yourselves, especially yourselves.
“An immense THANK YOU to Eugenia for taking on such a huge task (even though she has a demanding job and a family!).”
Wow! Watched the Whole Shebang. Wow. Thank You Eugenia. Very Nice of you!
interesting segment snippet : @41:46 – 46:00
Rostislav Ishchenko: “My impression is that Biden came to Ukraine to deal with his personal and this family’s economic and financial issues…I do not feel that Biden came to solve the problems of Ukraine, even the problem of postponing it’s demise. I feel that he understands that the Ukrainian state is falling apart, and he came to extricate himself from that disintegration…”.
Igor Korotchenko: “We know that Biden is personally involved financially in Ukraine, pretty much like Erdogan is involved in oil business with ISIS. Basically everyone wants to get his own profit. In that sense, to criticize Biden is like saying that the person has to live off [The] Holy Spirit. It is clear that the faces the prospect of leaving politics, and he wants to maximally cash in on the opportunities he has as US vice-president to make sure that members of his family, like his son, other descendants, would have a stream of cash going their way, at least, in Ukraine. Why not, this is normal (”normal” in quotation marks) behavior of Western politicians. Americans never appear averse to making a buck”.
Rostislav Ishchenko: “Remember who financially benefitted after Iraq invasion, who got a slice of the Iraq oil “pie”. We even know who makes money on Afghan and Thai drugs”
Igor Korotchenko:: “So, the situation here is easy to understand. Considering Biden’s behavior, maybe he should be subject of investigation by The FBI,which is responsible for internal security in the US.”
‘Igor Korotchenko:: “So, the situation here is easy to understand. Considering Biden’s behavior, maybe he should be subject of investigation by The FBI,which is responsible for internal security in the US.”’ – Clearly, Igor is SO politically naive when it comes to understanding the US, i.e. he just does NOT get it – he is completely clueless. biden is THE main cause – more so than obummer – of the problem in Ukraine, with the crappy neocons like nuland etc.
What he does NOT understand about the USG and related/linked institutions, is that it is so CORRUPT and evil, that the USG PROTECTS their own criminals (those in its circles), and has been doing so for years, especially since 911.
He also needs to be told about the original wolfowitz doctrine and PNAC – as should ALL those in the top of the Russian Government, although some obviously know (more than others).
I think he was being “sarcastic”. He knows the FBI isn’t going to investigate Biden. Or anyone else in the government elite. Unless they are about to loose power,then maybe. But even then its doubtful. It amuses me in a sad way to see stories come out about “Hillary is being investigated” or “Hillary is about to be arrested”. All that is just wishful thinking on the writers part. They have no idea of how the US functions. The political top elite “never” pay for their crimes in the US.It just doesn’t work that way.
Fantastic discussion!! Wow! I rarely have the patience to sit through anything longer than a 10-minute video, but this was fascinating! The two participants were very knowledgeable on the subject of Ukraine and provided many fascinating insights into the situation there and the likely future of the country. Thanks for presenting it!
The elephant in the room in this discussion about the looming disintegration of the Ukraine was mentioned in passing—the (15 ) nuclear reactors scattered about its land. One would think that Russia has a contingency plan to seize these–after all it is Russia who will get the blow back either by the poisoning of the Black Sea or directly by wind currents. Will the Europeans care? They will be relieved. Will NATO and the US bluster and storm-=yes and they will also be relieved. And regional oligarchs will be relieved one way or another of their burden of power or maybe just relieved of their fear of its loss depending on the deals struck. If the US is unwilling to finance the “saving” of the Ukraine the easy way, it certainly is not going to finance anything the hard way when there are more important resource goals to secure in the midEast, Libya, and Afghanistan where all those jihadis can be directed toward the soft underbelly of Russia .
Teranam,
You may be onto something truly frightening, whereby secret western elite keeps treatening RF by means of “inadvertent” meltdowning one or more Ukrainian nuclear reactors. Their use of depleted uranium, mass murder, is well documented, and their total absence of any ethical constraints means that this option is truly on the table. I wonder when are Lavrov and Putin going to publicly address this problem.
Regards, Spiral
They may be waiting for that issue to come up.That would be the perfect excuse for action being taken. Even the EU would probably agree. They don’t want a radiation spread into the EU.
That’s the problem with nuclear meltdowns and or designer viruses from military biological warfare labs; containment -the effects and how far it spreads is unpredictable.
However don’t underestimate the greed, patrician arrogance and stupidity of the neocons who have demonstrably shown that they could not care less about how much devastation they would cause in the EU, Ukraine, Russia or Africa. They doubtless feel they are so far away that they would be unaffected and it would present a splendid opportunity for disaster capitalism, resource plunder, bio-weapon antidote blackmail etc.
The only domestic brakes on their adventurism would come from a US military command that would have the sanity and understanding to negate or refuse to carry out those orders.
The subtitles can be downloaded using Google2SRT.
You need Java installed to make it run.
The little program is portable and once decompressed can run in Linux and Windows.
—> http://sourceforge.net/projects/google2srt/
Could you please download the subtitles for all people here and share a link with us?
http://pastebin.com/ would work fine here.
Thank you.
I wouldn’t normally post anything from the Globe for obvious reasons but I have yet to see this news elsewhere -perhaps due to time differences.
Can anyone comment on the veracity of this? The whole affair has some holes in it still.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/egyptair-mechanic-suspected-in-russian-plane-crash-sources-say/article28452698/
The Egyptian Civil Aviation Ministry denies it.
http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160129/1033926100/a321-egyptair.html
A Reuters article so that’s the US line for whatever reason.
Reuters
Published Friday, Jan. 29, 2016 7:34AM EST
Last updated Friday, Jan. 29, 2016 7:42AM EST
The same article at Reuters, though dated 30th
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-crash-arrest-idUSKCN0V80PO
Is it my PC but I cannot see a video on screen ? Same on wordpress site where I first came across it. I am using windows 10 and MOST videos seem to work ok but I can`t see where to click on one here ? Many Thanks.
If you use a script blocker, you may need to allow scripts on this site (try with temporary exceptions first). The video is also on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dztEsbypVLM
So for the US Russia is Carthage.
In a word – yes.
May this round go to Carthage this time round.
Another WOW!! from me. Absolutely rivetting. I can see I am going to have to learn Russian to keep abreast of what is really going on at the. Thanks a bunch to Eugenia for the translation – a first-rate job.
A couple of points from me:
1. I thought that one of the most profound issues raised was the comparison between the Ukraine ‘Mad-Max’ scenario and the prospective clusure of the Bosphorous as – in the words of putin’s press spokesman – ‘Apocalyptic’. There was quite a meeting of minds on the issue and both saw it as a truly dreadful but nontheless real possibility and one which Russia would indeed be forced to deal with ‘apocalyptically’. I agree. they would. I also believe that US-NATO game plan such scenarios constantly and it is easy to envisage circumstances in which those driving events would quite deliberately force such apocalyptic events – scary, scary stuff as both men conceded.
2. The ‘Money Power’ (as it used to be called) holds no fundamntal allegiance to any state (except perhaps Israel) or power-block per se. The money that the US ‘prints’ – as the euphemism has it and which was alluded to by Korotchenko as the true source of US power – is owed to ‘Somebody’ in the form of US Govt bonds. In the final analysis it is that ‘Somebody’ that has ultimate influence on events. And that same ‘Somebody’ will not necessarily remain apparently loyal to the US either. The ‘Money Power’ has ALWAYS backed both sides. The stakes may be orders of magitude bigger today, but nothing else has changed.
If this is the kind of discussion that makes me pessimistic about the outcome.
I believe there is always a center were countries will gravitate back to. Look what happened after the Rose revolution in Georgia and the Orange revolution in Ukraine: they were undone without Russia doing much to achieve that. There are a lot of things that prevent quick changes and tend to undo them: there are ties between people, there are financial, historic and linguistic connections. It is just logical not to change too much at once.
That is why I am so disappointed about those economic sanctions that Russia is taking against Ukraine. It will do nothing to speed up that process of return to the center. Just as American sanctions have made Putin less popular, so Russian sanctions against Ukraine will do nothing to make the Maidan less popular. On the contrary: it gives the supporters of the Maidan reasons to believe that Russia is indeed as evil as they are being told and in that way it delays the return to the center.
These men discuss Ukraine as a basket case that nobody wants to help. But they fail to notice that the best course for Russia would be to avoid policies that harm Ukraine’s economy in the first place.
I can understand that Russia wants to prevent some things from happening. But it present policy to achieve that is a kind of scorched earth tactic. And one has to wonder whether that really is in the long term interest of Russia as it is in its interest to have prosperous neighbors.
Wim
The sanctions Russia put on Ukraine were in reply to Ukraine putting sanctions on Russia for the most part, and this can be said of the sanctions Russia put on EU, Russia acted only after EU announced sanctions against Russia.
You did, however, utter a truism when you said ‘the AMERICAN sanctions against Russia’. I think inadvertently you put the whole sanctions game in a nutshell, they are all at the instigation of the United States of America, those from EU, those from Ukraine and those from USA itself.
As for the sanctions making Mr. Putin less popular, I think that can be said only of those living in USA, it certainly is not true in Russia where Mr. Putin enjoys a popularity that is the envy of world leaders including Mr. Obama and Mrs. Merkel.
Ukraine IS a basket case, pure and simple. We had experience with them in Krim and Sevastopol for too many years and it was with great pleasure that we summarily put them out, and we did it on our own for the first almost two weeks after the coup d’etat in Kiev. It was the citizens who set up block posts on the Krimea/Ukraine border, it was the citizens who took Simferopol Aerodrome, it was the citizens who blockaded the five roads coming in to Sevastopol, it was the citizens who blockaded Belbek Aerodrome, it was the citizens who blockaded all the major Ukraine military konzerns in Sevastopol Region including the Ukraine Headquarters in Sevastopol and it was the citizens who walled off Yalta on the south coast. Not a finger was lifted to help us until after the middle of the second week after the coup, we helped ourselves and we the citizens stood up in defense of our families, our homes, our villages, our towns, our cities and our peninsula.
Why did we do it? Simple. While maidan was still burning the coup regime in Kiev began making very specific threats to our peninsula, our city and our people, violent threats. The final straw, the catalyst that brought the citizens together as one, was the live interview the Monday after the coup on Channel 5 in Kiev, owned by Poroshenko, at 09:00. In that interview Tyagnibok, a sitting deputat in the Ukraine Rada from before the coup and the leader of svoboda party, and Yarush, the leader of right sector, both the victors of maidan, very clearly said they would bring their combined 5500 ‘fighters’ to Krimea and Sevastopol, burn Sevastopol to the ground and, this is a direct quote, ‘put every Russian in that city to the knife’. What would you have done? Would you have waited to see if that charming pair was serious? We wouldn’t and we didn’t. End of story, we are free now and will never be anything but free, either free or dead.
Auslander
author Never The Last One
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZGCY8KK
In process: The Struggle for Krimea 2014
Auslander,
It doesn’t matter whether those sanctions are a reaction or not. Ukraine is Russia’s neighbor and when somewhere in the future it will need to bring some order to Ukraine that will require money. In that aspect the gentlemen in the video are blind in my opinion: money gives you influence and helps you to get things done. Anyway, that means that by sanctioning Ukraine Russia is in fact harming itself too.
Real retaliation to Ukrainian moves would target the US – as that is were the decisions came from.
And yes, Ukraine is a basket case. But even basket cases sometimes get their act together. For me the question is whether it was possible for Ukraine to get its act together but how that best could be achieved. For example, Yanukovich sidelined the other oligarchs. Their weakening might have opened an opportunity for reform after his departure.
You beg the question in your thinking.
You want to avoid the hard reality of what has occurred.
There is no reform of collapse. There is no reform if nothing exists.
Ukraine does not have a government or an economy, by any test or measure.
A den of thieves is the junta. And industrial and agricultural and mining collapse.
There is no sector of a society that is not totally poisoned with hatred and violence.
They murder media, press, priests, nuns, children.
Ukraine is a former nation-state.
Hoping it ain’t so is delusional.
You must be eating Porky’s chocolates.
Is it in Russia’s interests to continue to support and prop up a regime that is busy killing and destroying the lives of Russians,Russian-speaking,and pro-Russian,Ukrainian people? Helping that regime to survive while they shout insults at Russia, parade around glorifying nazis ,and shouting “Russians on knives”? Help that regime to weather the storm they themselves created for themselves,so they will have more resources to attack Donbass,and cause terrorism in Crimea? Maybe even finance terrorism inside Russia itself,the home of the “hated Moskal”. In your view Putin would need to be Christ himself to turn his cheek that many times. And the Russian government would need to be made up of self-flagellating Saints. Sadly for you, he isn’t ,and they aren’t. So the Bandera regime will need to survive and prosper on the West’s “rouble”,not Russia’s charity.
Wim
Ukraine is beyond help and there comes a time when one has to cut ties with your errant child for the good of both. Ukraine was never a little fluffy nest of sweethearts, far from it, witness the almost instant death and destruction in what is now Novorossiya beginning in late April of ’14 when Donbas was not asking for independence, their first few attempts at dialogue involved simply a bit more say on where their taxes went and a desire to elect at least some of their local administrative heads.
For having the cheek to ask such the junta regime killed a few of them and then a few more. It was after the second spat of killings by right sector thugs sent to Donetsk to bring the rabble in to line with regime policy that the locals began to arm up. It is only the gross ineptitude of the ukraine army and the local security apparatus that saved Novorossiya from instant death in early May ’14.
If you want to understand how sweet the regime and their minions were to the citizens of Donbas perhaps you should read about the evacuees streaming down to Krim by late May ’14, and read what these evacuees had to say about their conditions in Donbas and their journey south. Makes for a good and enlightening read.
With over seven thousand dead civilians and double that number wounded and the loss of about the same number of Novorossiya armed forces in the last twenty one months, let alone the complete and total destruction of civilian infrastructure that was deliberately and methodically done, the time for piece and brotherly love in the two oblasti is long gone and will never return.
Auslander, author Never The Last One, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZGCY8KK
In process: The Struggle for Krimea 2014
“there comes a time when one has to cut ties with your errant child for the good of both”
Sure, but there is difference between cutting ties and deliberately harming an errant child.
The harming is 100% done by themselves and their conspirators (US and NATO, and EU and Turkey and other indie operators like Soros and NGOs).
Killing nazis and baby killers is good. Blowing the hell out of drugged and drunk soldiers is good, too.
Russians are getting serious… If the MIG31’s show up it means a whole another level.. Already one of the new awacs are patrolling Syria. But it needs the MIG31’s to become effective.
Russia’s highest performance air 2 air superiority fighter now in Syria.. 10% better performance than the SU30.
Jan 30,2016 four new multirole fighter Su-35S flight from Russia on Hmeymim airbase
https://twitter.com/miladvisor/status/693766972996259840
Houthi Ballistic missile Tochka kills 200 Sudanese & USA Col, new leader of Blackwater n Yemen Nicholas Petros.
Here is a great example of pre natal learning embedded into western minds, it is their way or the highway.. IE they are exceptional and no one else can do things better or cheaper or faster.. The effects of the western public edudation system in full view..
War in Syria: Russia’s ‘rustbucket’ military
It is also true that there were not enough Russian guided bombs and missiles in the first stage of the Syrian mission: Moscow’s claim that it has used precision weapons alone does not stand up to scrutiny.
The aircraft, missiles and bombs used at first were a mix of old, dating from the Soviet era, and relatively new. There are 34 fixed-wing aircraft based at Latakia: 12 Su-25s and four Su-30SM fighter-bombers; 12 ageing Su-24M2s and six Su-34s. There are also helicopters and an unspecified number of drones.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/war-in-syria-russia-s-rustbucket-military-delivers-a-hi-tech-shock-to-west-and-israel-a6842711.html
Yes, we are living in a very interesting, and dangerous, time…
Guess now we know why the SU35’s are in Syria.. They are far superior in air2air combat..
Turkey: Pilots are given the authority to shoot down w/out waiting for orders.
Russia Imposed a new rule of engagement in the #Turkish border with #Syria and abolish the 1998 agreement. How #Russia upgrade & refurnished custom-made 9 #Syria/n MiG-29 called Fulcrum MiG-29SMP.
Fierce battle ongoing between #ISIS and #AQ in #Qalamoun on d borders between #Syria and #Lebanon. Many casualties & beheading on both sides
Looks like Erdogoon’s retirement fund will be topped up within 1 month.
EU to deliver 3 billion euros to Turkey for refugees by end of February, minister says
http://www.todayszaman.com/diplomacy_eu-to-deliver-3-billion-euros-to-turkey-for-refugees-by-end-of-february-minister-says_411030.html
A 3-billion-euro fund that the European Union had agreed to provide to Turkey for the 2.5 million refugees it is hosting will be delivered before the end of February, Turkey’s EU Affairs Minister Volkan Bozkır has said after talks with Italian government officials.
Firstly, Eugenia, great thanks and appreciation for your excellent work completing such a large task.
You have gifted us so generously.
Second, the end is near in Ukraine for what now exists as a nation. The junta may evolve if the US can hold Kiev. But the nation is dead economically. It has no future. So a new junta is meaningless. Jan. 2017 everything changes in Washington.
Third, Russia will neutralize the dangers to the Donbass and Crimea. Men on the ground and high intensity weapons will handle the threats and attacks. There is substantial evidence that the Donbass militia is an army, and it has significant North Wind (volunteers) in strategic units as its backbone. It will handle any offensive and it can be used, as they discussed in the video, as an internal army to pacify large Ukie formations, most anywhere internally.
Fourth, the threats and dangers to the nuclear sites will be (probably already indicated by Putin to Germany and France) taken by elite troops trained for this over the last thirty years. The UN will okay whatever Russia does in this regard.
Fifth, Ukraine will devolve into a special status, no longer a recognized nation-state, but a welfare state. UN, NATO, CSTO, SCO units will work to police and stabilize the wild gangs, and eventually, the oligarch’s armies. Pieces of Ukraine will be ushered toward neighbors, and eventually, the memory of a nation will pass into history.
There is no saving it. It is a beggar entity run by thieves and murderers.
Sixth, if Trump is elected, Putin and he will change the dynamic immediately. He has already said Germany should decide the fate of Ukraine, not the US.
The straight-line thinking of the two esteemed men in the video certainly may not hold true.
Factors change with the US election. And the did not consider this in their discussion from late last year in this video.
Ukraine might become a Somalia. It has that potential.
But it serves no other nation, and nations make policy in their own self interest. The neighbor states have everything to lose and nothing to gain in keeping Ukraine whole and starving, or keeping Ukraine as a playground for terrorists (Turkey, Tartar, ISIS, AQ or other hybrid warriors).
Gas pipelines across Ukraine (even a South Stream) would be mandatory for EU in the future. Thus, Ukraine has no future as a threat or an impediment. That game is very near over.
Ukraine will be liquidated as nation-state. 42 million is too long a soup line.
Quite ironically, it’s only hope of remaining whole is to pacify and rejoin Russia as a republic.
Maybe historical developments forty years or so from now might recreate it that way.
Not in our lifetimes.
Ukraine is mortally wounded and the victim of self-inflicted wounds. The Western world agrees on this state of affairs and hopes Russia can find a solution.
When Obama and Biden and Nuland are gone, anything that doesn’t rub Washington’s nose in the dirt would be okay as a solution.
re: “Factors change with the US election.”
What factors change?
There are two possibilities I can think of off hand. First,if Trump or Sanders are elected we might see a change for the better take place. And either of them back away from pushing for war and military involvement in the World. On the other hand if Hillary Clinton or any other of the Republicans are “elected”.Then we could see a doubling down on the crazy. And more US military involvement in the World. With a strong chance for a World war breaking out.
Great thank you, to Saker an Eugenia!
What is here at stake is future relationship of Russians and Ukrainians. One or two,depends how you define it, brotherly group(s) of people.
Ordinary Ukrainians are going to need help in the times to come. No matter how bad thing resolve themselves in the near future. Russians needed that help in the 90’s and so did us Serbs during those same times. For us both then, there was no help to be had. Small groups and individuals only stepped forward then. I thank you all here for that help!
But now,Russia is strong again and is close. Ordinary Ukrainians will have a hard time forgetting if Russia turns it’s head the other way. On the other hand, if Russia interferes, western savages will have another excuse to use in their manipulations which will hurt Russia immensely.
Having said that,i will go with help and support. Being strong is not enough. With strength must come responsibility and compassion. Ideal scenario that can come out of this apocalyptic one is that people rise up. Rise up and condemn those Banderites,ordinary and international criminals,psychopaths,… In other words to start cleaning their house alone. Organized uprisings all over,armed of course,junta know only force. Let them be on the receiving end. Civil war is up already and now it needs to be ended. By the people for the people.
Russia will be demonised either way. But they will help. Least the Ukrainians can do is to rise and condemn junta and their collaborationists and provide Russia with rationale to interfere. Something like in Crimea. Show the will to fight for your country! Organise and rise up. Shape the future of your country! If you wait for the international community to help, then Ukraine will have around 20 mil people left. World does not care for you. But you should.
Dragan,
thank you for pointing out that the majority of Ukrainians are humans and not Goose Stepping Banderites. It is a very sad situation for these people in that country now.
Maybe the Nation State will cease to exist in its current form but many of these people will have to survive in what remains and cleanse their land of the troubles that have taken root.
I pray that this happens and that we are there to help them as we can. Not to pull them down and dehumanise them but to help them and give them the gift of self realisation and the ability for themselves to look at themselves in the mirror honestly.
Once they can do this with blunt honesty, we need to be there to welcome them back into the fold of humanity. Empower them to rebuild their society, one free from geopolitical games and oligarch theft.
No more and no less than any other place or group of peoples on this planet a planet which is getting smaller by the day.
Thanks a lot Eugenia for your great work being so busy and also thank you, Saker.
I still could not see the whole video, but I will try it during the week.
Yesterday night I tried repeatedly, but with the voice of Mr. Ischenko, so softly, I fell asleep continuously, despite how interesting it was…..
The entire conversation is priceless. Here is a gem, just in case you missed it (at about 41 minutes into the video they are talking about the U.S. vice-president Biden’s visit to Ukraine on 8 December 2015, while the conversation itself took place immediately after, in December):
41:46, Ishchenko: “… my impression is that Biden came to Ukraine to deal with his personal and his family’s economic and financial issues.”
43:11, Korotchenko: “… We know that Biden is personally involved financially in Ukraine, pretty much like Erdogan is involved in oil business with ISIS. Basically, everyone wants to get his own profit. In that sense, to criticize Biden is like saying that the person has to live off Holy Ghost. It is clear that he faces the prospect of leaving politics, and he wants to maximally cash in on the opportunities he has as the U.S. vice-president, to make sure that members of his family, like his son, other descendants, would have a stream of cash going their way, at least in Ukraine. Why not, this is normal – “normal” in quotation marks – behaviour of Western politicians. Americans never appeared averse to making a buck. Remember who financially benefited after Iraq invasion, who got a slice of Iraq oil “pie”.”
44:13, Ishchenko: “We even know who makes money on Afghan and Thai drugs.”
44:17, Korotchenko: “So, the situation here is easy to understand. Considering Biden’s behaviour, maybe he should be a subject of investigation by FBI … there might be a corrupt component here, it is certainly there, whatever you call it. …”
:-)
(The entire transcript in Russian is at http://svpressa.ru/online/sptv/137973/ )
P.S. The excellent translation of the above passages is Eugenia’s, taken off the subtitles.
Thank you Eugenia for the translation! I do some video translations myself for Russia Insider and I also have a family and I truly appreciate your absolutely tremendous work. Kudos to you!!!!!
What is most striking in this very important discussion is the level of knowledge. I very rarely hear anything this insightful in the MSM.
Thank you Saker for posting this!
Sir…thank you for this video.
A very calm informative discussion. Excellent work Eugenia -that was quite an effort given the length of it!
Worrying outcomes for Ukraine and beyond. I wonder what the Saker and perhaps others e.g. Gilbert Doctorow, Alexander Mercouris et al would make of the various permutations of outcomes discussed.
Sorry to expose, but … non-pundit, non-professional, non-expertise, non-scholar people won’t listen to an 80 minutes interview. Even Russian nationals won’t do it , unless it’s their expertise.
I run a anti-NWO blog in Brazil , my goal is to awaken common local people (the big masses) to stare the imminent prospect of a WW3 , but not to make them specialists/pundits on the topics.
Reading many comments of many articles in this wonderful website here, I guess it’s plausible to suppose/assume that at least 50% of readers here are similar to me.
Short interviews suit my task. I pass, thanks.
Anyway, congratulations for your so great job.
Francisco, I wish you great success with your Braziliann blog. But I can think of several videos which were offered here which were twice as long as this wonderful interview, and worth every minute!!!!! For example, the starkest contrast to this tragic outcome in Ukraine was the heroic result that came from the clarity and unity of the Crimeans 2 years ago. . Put “Crimea, the Way Back Home” in the search box and see if you don’t agree!!
As crises intensify, the attention span of the people can be greatly magnified, and many people who wouldn’t give you 20 minutes before, will suddenly pay attention for hours or even days. In this case, the interview is about the length of one half of a soccer game. I’ll bet many of the people you are talking about that “don’t have time” for this interview watch a game or two every week. And what does the outcome of those soccer games have to do with their future? Nothing!
And a very large number of people don’t care for the short and shallow pieces that are all over the Internet that say they are against the NWO. But we need all types of material for all types of people. So I am happy for the efforts made to subtitle this.
Of course, the idea that the personalities of Biden or Obama are important is debatable, and I happen to feel that the establishment commentators, such as Starikov or Ischenko, are in a politically acceptable range of discussions, and this limits things. A civil war in the Ukraine has been an option for the anti-Russian forces in the West for quite some time. Chaos as mission accomplished has been practically a goal for twenty years, so that, too, is not an apocalyptic scenario, but just business as usual for disaster capitalism combined with keeping Russia and China from building friends and allies.
Sorry, guy! I watched the whole thing and got a lot of information from it. If you have to get the real news you sometimes have to have patience, patiencia, y’know? Slow down, it helps.
Chico (posso lhe chamar assim?), se você quer preparar um blog realmente informativo, você precisa de informação nova – coisa que você só vai encontrar se pesquisar com profundidade. Isso é o que você faz ao assistir entrevistas como essa, direto da fonte. Você tem a sorte de saber inglês; então, use seu conhecimento dessa língua para obter esse tipo de informação que de outra forma não vai achar resumida e em português. – e se achar, seu blog não precisa publicar outra vez.
yandex translation from Portuguese — mod-hs
Chico (can you call it that?), if you want to prepare a blog really informative, you need new information – something that you will only find if you search with depth. This is what you do when you watch interviews like this, straight from the source. You have the luck to know English; then, use your knowledge of that language to get this type of information that otherwise will not find summary and in English. – and if you think, your users do not need to publish again.
Sadly you are right. And that is exactly how the West has gained control over the information filter in the World. Their advertising specialists have told then for years that short “catchy” speeches. Sound-bites,one-liners,and code-words,are what a dumbed-down semi-educated populace will “fall for”. It works,and so they use it.They know that people won’t (the majority) sit still for long explanations.
So they work using the KISS (Keep-it-simple-stupid) principal.Hence the countless droning of “Putin bad,Russia bad”. And the reverse,”the US good,NATO good”.They know people won’t read long books and articles if they can avoid it. Just how many today have “really” read War and Peace,one of the World’s greatest books (and one of the longest). How many people have really ever “read” the full Bible.Certainly,beyond question,one of the longest reads ever.Certainly,we’ve all “heard” about them.We’ve all heard “snippets” or the “synopses” of the stories. But Hollywood movies are usually the nearest most people get to the original sources of those stories.As an example ,I see a new TV production of War and Peace is out. I’m wondering if it will be “updated” to put out an anti-Russian message “between the lines” or not.
The way to combat that BTW,is to “fight fire with fire.Videos,musical productions,documentaries,short speeches,heavy doses of examples,and sarcasm. That is how you defeat the Western tactics in today’s World. The long term answer is educational reform.But that is a generations long process. And we don’t have time to wait for that to be implemented right now. While working for the future,we are stuck dealing with the “here and now” of today’s World. So the answers to fight the empire today must be gauged by what will work “now”. And not what we’d “like” to see work for the future.
Chico, please, send me yours blog link. I always get hope when i see brazilians like you and Rita Lama interested in the geopolitical spheres of our world! Even if we are few in Brazil, we are not alone.
Just a thought for poor old America!
We used to be OK in 1915
But then everything changed!
AMERICA, I LOVE YOU
(Edgar Leslie / Archie Gottler, 1915)
A mid fields of clover,
‘T was just a little over a hundred years ago
A handful of strangers,
they faced many dangers to make their country grow
It’s now quite a nation of wond’rous population,
And free from every king,
It’s your land, it’s my land,
A great do or die land,
And that’s why I sing.
From all sorts of places,
They welcomed all the races to settle on their shore,
They didn’t care which one,
The poor or the rich one
They still had room for more
To give them protection
By popular election,
A set of laws they chose,
They’re your laws and my laws,
For your cause and my cause
Just aThat’s why this country rose.
America, I love you,
You’re like a sweetheart of mine,
From ocean to ocean,
For you my devotion, is touching each bound’ry line,
Just like a little baby
Climbing it’s mother’s knee,
America, I love you,
And there’s a hundred million other’s like me.
Really, a fascinating interview! Many, MANY THANKS, Eugenia, for the translation. I recommend everybody to watch Rostislav Ishchenko’s and Igor Korotchenko’s CONVERSATION. It took me some time to watch it, as it is indeed long; but, it was worth every minute. Thanks, Saker. Now, I have to think about everything new I learned. And read the comments. It will take time…
i am an artist
and an artist today is
nothing but a spurious mechanic
i cant understand why you
still let us whistle and lean over the engine
pcb