Check out Putin’s “confession” about the “polite armed men in green” (kindly translated by my wonderful Muslim friend and translator “S” !شكرا جزيلا لك يا صديقي):
Saker Message:
Check out Putin’s “confession” about the “polite armed men in green” (kindly translated by my wonderful Muslim friend and translator “S” !شكرا جزيلا لك يا صديقي):
Who in their right mind would want to go against this guy?
He is so polite when speaking to the press, and so genuine
mindfriedo
“the best nobility of descent exhibits itself in politeness and in refinement of manner”
Ali ibn Abi Talib
@Saker:
I have a dumb question. I’m trying to send you money through PayPal (using your email address, vineyardsaker@gmail.com). PayPal is telling me that “this recipient is not yet registered.” Should I be concerned about this, or should I proceed?
By the way, PayPal was asking for your first and last name. I said that your name was “The Saker.” ;) I don’t know if that caused a problem, though.
– Abraham
Please try sending it to saker.analytics@gmail.com
thanks a lot,
The Saker
Apart from being smart and suave, V.P. is definitely easy on the eye
From Abraham:
@Saker: OK, my $10 gift went through! May God bless you.
– Abraham
Maidan’s “sincere revolutionaries” acted for money.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLSpPoH3Aac
Have to agree with the comment from Anonymous 16:46. The quote from Ali definitely fits. Putin has demonstrated himself to be a noble gentleman and a man of honor. What a contrast with that incompetent, blustering fool of a stuffed shirt who managed to con his way into the White House, namely Obama. Though there is still a lot of anti-Russian propaganda in America and Europe, I think the truth is starting to get out. God Bless Mother Russia!
Confreres and Confreiras:
Putin seemed a sensible guy and a good mood.
Differs greatly from the opposite which only appears before a Teleprompter.
I read in some reviews that the lowering of Brazil by “Standard & Porkr’s” was a “punishment” for being part of the BRICS.
Interestingly, on the same day, the U.S. $ has fallen!
A country that is “demoted” and, to coin “rises” in relation to the U.S. $!
Crazy thing!
First of May is “Labor Day”, I am anxious to know what China and Russia will promote.
Do not forget about what I said about the good old “barter”.
hehe.
Alexandre.
:-)
Quoting the NYT:
> While anything seems possible, the operating assumption among some American and European officials is that Mr. Putin will not overtly invade eastern Ukraine but instead opt for a murky middle plan, using local agitators and perhaps undercover special forces to stir even more unrest in largely Russian-speaking areas of the country.
(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/26/world/europe/us-challenge-now-is-stopping-further-putin-moves.html)
As is to be expected: Assumptions, opinions, innuendos, vague claims – only thing missing is any evidence.
However, I’d be surprised if Putin didn’t have agents on the ground. My question is: Are they only “gathering intelligence” in the classical sense, or in the Orwellian CIA sense which means: financially supporting activities of certain persons, instigating actions etc.
For the CIA, everyone with English reading skills and a modicum of time knows what they have been up to since their maculate inception.
For the current FSB (or whatever Russian intelligence agencies happen to be working in the former Soviet territories), I have no clue. Except Western propaganda that claims that they the Russians are doing exactly all those terrible things that we know the CIA is involved in.
Honk
http://www.km.ru/joke_day/735606
I could swear the woman in blue and yellow is a spitting image of Nuland.
вот так
@Enrique:
And don’t forget the previous “incompetent, blustering fool” in the White House before Obama. In the last 13 years between Bush and Obama what a tragedy it has been for the USA (and for the world actually). And I’m not saying before those two there was anything better either…
These have been Putin’s counterparts since 2001. Can you imagine how frustrating it is for him, and for Lavrov also, to have no one intelligent, sensible or reliable to deal with? I don’t know how they stay so composed when dealing with such fools…
I definitely want to give kudos to Lavrov. Every day lately he has to respond to all the western nonsense. They huff and puff and threaten and sanction and insult, on and on and on… He has to counter their silliness, responding with reason, intelligence and diplomacy over and over again. I really admire him. The man deserves an award for patience…
According to Sarkozy, he dissuaded Putin from taking out Saakashvili by pointing that he be remembered like Bush.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/3454154/Vladimir-Putin-threatened-to-hang-Georgia-leader-by-the-balls.html
If so, Putin made a mistake. He should have done so not because he wanted to, nor that he could but that he needed to, to send a clear message.
They would of course reasonably concluded from this episode that Putin can be manipulated. Hence the Ukraine operation, where they expected to be able to deter Putin from taking action by making him out to be Bush (well, you can’t call him Bush so its Hitler).
Another thing, you need to give them more credit that you have. Obviously they would know Crimea would cede and there would not be much they can do about it. Crimea ceding is just a gambit for them.
Crimea was never the target. It was the rest of Ukraine. To have missile interceptors and move based there.
So if Ukraine is not “Austrianized” to Russia’s satisfaction, Russia has to rolled into Ukraine. Executing Russia’s own version of the Monroe Doctrine is nothing to be ashamed about.
This may seem unreasonable or excessive but its not our perception that matters, its theirs.
There is a Chan (Zen) Buddhist story of a blind man given a lantern during the night in a forest. He says, I don’t need the lantern, I am blind. The person who gave him the lantern told him, its not for you to see in the night but for others to be able to see you.
I hope the strategists of the Kremlin has already thought of this.
Putting missile interceptors so close to Russia merely reduces the threshold for the use of nukes. You use them while you can.
If Ukraine is not Austrianized satisfactorily, the best thing for humanity is Russian military intervention in Ukraine, east and west.
I am sorry Russia (and Putin and other Russians) has to bear so much burden for humanity.
Dear Saker,
Just to say that if I have not been commenting on your blog recently on the Ukrainian crisis it is because I have both ill with influenza and very rushed for time. Suffice to say that on the Ukrainian crisis generally we are in complete agreement. I have carefully read all your posts and found them consistently informative and very useful.
Briefly, have on the subject of “the polite men in green” have you seen this article in the WSJ? It looks well sourced to me. It has been widely ridiculed across the internet I think unfairly since in my opinion it confirms something you have mentioned previously – the exceptional discipline and sophistication of the Russian military and of the Russian political leadership, which has utterly confounded the US’s intelligence operation. To my mind that is very important in itself. By contrast the constant leaks of revealing telephone conversations (Nuland, Ashton and Tymoshenko) shows that Russian intelligence has the Ukraine almost completely covered. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304026304579453331966405354?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304026304579453331966405354.html
“Obviously they would know Crimea would cede…”
Perhaps, but I’m not so sure. Maybe it’s my imagination, but it strikes me that Western intelligence got caught with its pants down over the sudden appearance/disappearance of the “polite green men” (apparently thwarting some kind of a threat), and then by Russia’s lightning takeover itself.
CJC Gen. Dempsey groped for answers when questioned on who the green men were, and SAC Gen. Breedlove blatantly expressed NATO’s surprise (at the Brussels Forum):
“We saw several snap exercises executed in which large formation of forces were brought to readiness and exercised and then they stood down,” he said. “And then…boom—into Crimea…with a highly ready, highly prepared force,… starting with almost a complete disconnection of the Crimean forces from their command and control via jamming and cyberattacks and then a complete envelopment by the Russian forces inside of Crimea.””
In short, NATO could but watch a event that they didn’t anticipate, and were surprised by the level of preparation.
What they would have known is what we all knew. That UA was likely to spin out of control, especially if funds were sparingly applied. To my mind, that they couldn’t care less about that means Crimea was the prize. An out of control UA was useless to NATO. Nobody installs strategic weaponry in a failed state.
Crimea is critical to any Russian presence in the Middle East, where the West has plans.
That may explain why the West hasn’t been able to square its sails ever since. Defeat, snatched from the jaws of victory, has left them floundering in disarray.
This raises another interesting question.
Breedlove’s statement implies that Russia was able to evade the West’s SIGINT leading up to the takeover. The steady drip, drip, drip of damning telephone tapes (some of which should have been encrypted) further suggests Russia has gained an intelligence advantage.
Is this a recent development, or a card they’ve been holding back?
Which begs the question of the Snowden affair…
Erebus
Greetings from Singapore:
Your Putin ‘confession’ induced me to re-listen/watch Putin’s speech in Munich (2007). If I’m not wrong, this was the first time he told the West his view of a new multi-polar world. It ends like this ==>
QTE
In conclusion I would like to note the following. We very often – and personally, I very often – hear appeals by our partners, including our European partners, to the effect that Russia should play an increasingly active role in world affairs.
In connection with this I would allow myself to make one small remark. It is hardly necessary to incite us to do so. Russia is a country with a history that spans more than a thousand years and has practically always used the privilege to carry out an independent foreign policy.
We are not going to change this tradition today. At the same time, we are well aware of how the world has changed and we have a realistic sense of our own opportunities and potential. And of course we would like to interact with responsible and independent partners with whom we could work together in constructing a fair and democratic world order that would ensure security and prosperity not only for a select few, but for all.
UNQTE
Ahhh, had Mr Mercouris’ post been up when I wrote, I doubt I’d have bothered.
A message from the Department of Redundancy Department.
Erebus
This is an interesting development:
Путин предложил подумать над наказанием за сокрытие двойного гражданства (Putin offered to consider punishment for concealing dual citizenship)
http://www.vz.ru/news/2014/3/27/679273.html
Probably will push the more hard core disruption agents to a more covert level, but it will be useful in identifying zionist and other hostile elements in Russia operating more openly at less covert levels. And it will give Russia a way to legally combat the people who are concealing their dual status for covert ops reasons, and a way expose the “color revolution” types operating more in the open once they are exposed as duals, much like exposing those who made pilgrimages to the U.S. embassy exposed them as corrupt agents of the west.
вот так
Sorry for my naive question but I’m new… can someone explain me why we call the soldiers of Russian Army the polite armed men in green? I’ve been searching with no success.
I take this opportunity to send a huge thank to the saker, your contribution to the truth is highly valuable, respect!
All best,
Pat
@Dear Alexander: the exceptional discipline and sophistication of the Russian military and of the Russian political leadership, which has utterly confounded the US’s intelligence operation.
Absolutely. The same thing happened in 08.08.08 when the US military was stunned not only by the speed of the Russian counter-attack, but even more so at the amazing readiness of the Black Sea Fleet which immediately left harbor. The Russian military is one of the most capable and sophisticated on the planet, but that is something which the West’s racism (to call things by their proper name) simply cannot accept. So a long stream of canards are built up and fed to the people to present the Russian military as primitive, corrupt, disorganized, using only massive firepower and big numbers, with commanders unable to find creative solutions, with courageous but fairly dumb soldiers, etc. etc. etc. This is all just designed to make your average westerner feel adequately superior.
I would add here that this is not AT ALL what is taught at Fort Leavenworth, Carlisle, Annapolis, Sandhurst, Saint-Cyr or in any other truly military institution. There is an entire generation of US commanders who carefully studied Reznichenko’s book “Taktika” or the Soviet offensive in Mandchuria. The pros in the West are well educated, its the general public which is kept in crass ignorance and fairy tales fed to them by the corporate media.
In the case of Crimea, the Russians clearly knew that there was a storm on the horizon so they scheduled large scale exercises in western Russia. Then, something happened which clearly triggered a very strong alarm because the way the “Polite Armed Men in Green” were sent in was clearly a “war mode” – hence the total “maskirovka” and signals silence. Speaking of the latter, even since Soviet times the Russian have always practiced even large scale operations without the use of radio/signals gear, not only to remain undetected, but because of the risks of using them in a real war. I remember my own military instructors telling us about the Soviet military “these fuckers can move an entire armored division just by waving flags!!”. They were in awe of that :-)
to be continued…
… continuation
To be fair – the units sent into Crimea were not your garden variety motor-rifle units, but Spetsnaz GRU and other, similar, air-assault units. They get the best men, the best gear, the most training and the most time. Still, officially at least, every single Russian brigade is now at full readiness, what was called “A readiness” during the Cold War.
Already in in 2000 the Russians literally crushed the Chechens (which all the western pseudo-specialists said would never happen), then in 08.08.08 they crushed a US-trained Georgian military (even though the Georgians had an initial big superiority in numbers, better gear and the Russians had massive command and control issues) and now this operation in Crimea.
My personal take is that the Russian military today is every bit as combat ready as any military in the West, including the US. It still suffers from 20 years of quasi-total neglect (1980s to 2000s) in some critical fields (chemicals, lack of modern computer chips, generational gap (either old or young – not enough middle-aged specialists), lack of drones, corruption, problems in the space sector, etc. but so does every other military all of which have “issues” (no F-35 in Russia!). Finally, there are lot of militaries in the West which are in a terrible situation (France, Greece), but these are rarely reported.
No, my friend, Putin does not bluff. When he moved Russian forces into Crimea he knew full well that there was a risk of a western military response. But he also knew that Russia would prevail. The Russian military is already in pretty good shape, and before 2020 it will be in a fantastic shape, way stronger than any possible adversary could be by then. That is also what is freaking out the Empire – they know that time is against them. They are right.
Kind regards and take care,
The Saker
@Pat:can someone explain me why we call the soldiers of Russian Army the polite armed men in green?
Sure! When the Russian special forces showed up in Crimea, they had not distinctive markings on them, and they refused to identify themselves. Furthermore, and that is very very typical for Russian Spetsnaz, they were exquisitely polite and courteous in their attitude towards bystanders. This is typical Russian Spetsnaz behavior. These guys, who will slit your throat in a blink of an eye if ordered to do so, consider themselves tough enough not to have to act like a bully, be rude, or threaten anybody. They are taught to act with polite courtesy until the moment comes to kill. I know of one unit were the commander like to great his soldiers with “good morning my cut-throats!” (in Russian “headcutters”) every morning. But these men will be very polite and never threaten anybody if that is what the mission requires. Most Russian military personnel is not always that polite, you can hear a lot of cursing and rude expressions around them, so the folks in Crimea noticed that these guys in green were uncharacteristically polite which, in a way, made them look much more formidable and potentially scary (to their adversaries). Hence the nickname.
HTH, cheers,
The Saker
What confession? he’s referring to Russians targeted by dumb U.S. sanctions
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/03/20/ukraine-crisis-sanctions-gunvor-idUKL6N0MH4PX20140320
(Reuters) – The United States added Russian billionaires Gennady Timchenko and Boris and Arkady Rotenberg to its sanctions list on Thursday, potentially dragging their huge and far-reaching business interests into the standoff between Russia and Ukraine.
Until this week, Timchenko owned 45 percent of Gunvor, the Swiss-based oil trading firm that he co-founded in 1997. He is a non-executive director of Russian gas company Novatek and was awarded the French Legion d’honneur last year.
The Rotenbergs are brothers. Arkady, the elder brother, is a long-time judo sparring partner of Russian President Vladimir Putin and owns Stroygazmontazh, a builder of oil and gas pipeline projects for Russian state and private energy companies.
“Putin has investments in Gunvor and may have access to Gunvor funds,” the U.S. Treasury said as it added Timchenko to its list of “Specially Designated Nationals”. People on the list have their assets blocked and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them.
Gunvor said in a statement it was outraged by the U.S. Treasury’s linkage of Putin and Gunvor.
“President Putin has not and never has had any ownership, beneficial or otherwise in Gunvor. He is not a beneficiary of Gunvor or its activities. Any understanding otherwise is fundamentally misinformed and outrageous,” the company said.
“Regarding the designation of Mr. Timchenko, we are currently assessing the potential impact on our business.”
It was unclear what the repercussions would be on Gunvor, which is based in Geneva. Switzerland has not announced any sanctions against Russia.
The Rotenbergs and Timchenko were among 20 Russians placed under sanctions by the United States on Thursday. President Barack Obama threatened broad penalties against key sectors of Russia’s economy if Moscow moves deeper into Ukraine.
Timchenko sold his stake in Gunvor to its chief executive, Torbjorn Tornqvist, this week as part of what the company called a “contingency plan” in a statement.
Gunvor said Tornqvist now owned 87 percent in the company, with the rest being held by employees.
The U.S. Treasury said it advised caution when considering transactions with a company that may be controlled by a sanctioned person, but it added that Timchenko’s stake in the company is below the 50 percent threshold that would automatically trigger sanctions on Gunvor.
Gunvor had turnover of $93 billion in 2012, according to a factsheet on its website, earning $433 million. It traded around 2.5 million barrels of oil a day, the factsheet showed, the equivalent of almost 3 percent of global supplies.
The company has more than 60 global banking partners, the factsheet said, and sources crude oil from 35 countries. Gunvor employed more than 1,600 people in 2012.
Tornqvist told Reuters in November that the company was studying growing opportunities in North America resulting from the shale oil boom, including exporting liquid petroleum gas, and looking at select trading assets.
Gunvor owns a $400 million stake in the Signal Peak coal mine in Montana that it bought in 2011.
Arkady Rotenberg has a stake in Russia’s largest bridge builder Mostotrest through investment vehicle Marco Polo Investments, where he is a main shareholder. Both his firms were involved in construction work for the Sochi winter Olympic Games held last month
Saker
“Soviet offensive in Mandchuria.”
Few people in the west seem to know about those campaigns, both the ’39 and ’45 campaigns were quite decisive Soviet victories over the Japanese in ways the west never was able to accomplish themselves. Which is maybe why few people in the west know about this history. ;)
“The pros in the West are well educated, its the general public which is kept in crass ignorance and fairy tales fed to them by the corporate media.”
I knew a lot of military and ex-military back in the 1980’s and I would say their views of Soviet capabilities were probably even worse and more indoctrinated than that of the general public. But these were mostly naval low level officers and below.
вот так
That evil Putin is at it again ;)
Society needs protection against extremism in times of colored revolutions – Putin http://rt.com/politics/putin-revolution-extremists-protection-613/
вот так
An interesting contrast, that says it all, between Putin and Obama is that Putin speaks frankly and candidly, and as far as I can recollect, does not openly lie. Obama, on the other hand, like most Western politicians, lies incessantly. His great gift is that he lies with aplomb, without outward sign of any conscience afflicting him. His tour de farce of lying after meeting the Pope, where he spoke of his concern (Obama’s)for the poor and downtrodden, when, in truth, his regime has been one of the most socially regressive in US history, under which wealth, poverty and inequality have grown like topsy, was the performance of a born psychopath. A ‘charming’ one, perhaps, but one who can lie without regret.