by Renee Parsons for the Saker blog
A week after Sy Hersh’s expose on the Nord Stream pipeline explosions, there is still no word that pretend President Biden who denies any knowledge or involvement in causing an Act of War in the Baltic Sea has yet to offer an explanation to the American public or reach out to Russian President Vladimir Putin – but what possible explanation could be offered when the Biden co-conspirators, millions of Americans and Putin’s Security Council all know the truth.
Even though the balloon distraction consumes the American mainstream media with the anonymous buoyant inflatable nonsense of a psyop as if to avoid the inescapable moment of truth – which will come inevitably. In any case, a good guess is that the Russians are not amused by whatever game the Biden Administration has conjured up to deflect attention from the reality of a world level Act of War crisis.
While the media remains aflutter with the guessing-game possibilities, TPTB appear confident that because Russia has been restrained and prudent in its reactions during its special military operation; including the unrelenting NATO lies but especially to the inhumanity of the Ukraine Nazi’s. There is a general refusal on the part of the Americans to believe that The Bear would ever retaliate, that they could never be pushed so far until there was nowhere else to go.
Perhaps as the European mainland flounders in an energy and economic crisis of its own making, they are experiencing a resurgence of lost sovereignty and awareness of their loss of independence at the hands of the US.
As the US and rest of the world await Russia’s response to the Biden Administration’s denial, legendary professor, historian, philosopher and political analyst emeritus Noam Chomsky has reminded us of the reckless and provocative impact of the US withdrawal of arms control agreements on Russia’s well-defined borders and legitimate security interests.
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The Intercontinental ABM Treaty was signed by President Richard Nixon in 1972 in Moscow with each participant limited to a small portion of their territory. The Russians chose to protect its capitol at Moscow while the US chose to protect an ICBM site at Grand Fork, North Dakota – what does that tell you?
Three days after the 911 attack, President GW Bush with vice President Dick Cheney at his side, decided that the ABM was a ‘relic’ of the Cold War that had outlived its usefulness; announcing the withdrawal citing the Treaty’s hindrance of the US protecting itself as if it might be subject to a ballistic missile attack from ‘terrorists’ or ‘rouge states’ with access to comparable nuclear weapons. Despite its original intent of “unlimited duration,” the ABM included a withdrawal option in case of ‘extraordinary events” that jeopardized the parties’ “supreme interests.” The US then notified Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan of its intent. It was the first time the US withdrew from a nuclear arms agreement but not the last.
Withdrawal of the ABM allowed offensive weapon facilities to be located close to the Russian border as Putin described the Treaty as a “cornerstone” of Russia’s security system. In his 2018 Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly, Putin spoke of the US unilateral withdrawal:
“We did our best to dissuade the Americans from withdrawing from the treaty. All in vain. The US pulled out of the treaty in 2002. Even after that we tried to develop constructive dialogue with the Americans. All our proposals, absolutely all of them, were rejected.”
“All these years, the entire fifteen years since the withdrawal of the United States from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, we have consistently tried to reengage the American side in serious discussions.”
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By the mid 1990’s President Bill Clinton abandoned Secretary of State James Baker’s “categorical assurance” to Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev that “there would be no extension” of NATO’s jurisdiction “one inch to the east.” As Gorbachev put it in 2008:
“the Americans had promised that NATO wouldn’t move beyond the boundaries of Germany after the Cold War but now half of central and Eastern Europe are members, so what happened to their promises? It shows they cannot be trusted.”
As a result of the Malta Summit in December, 1989 between President GWH Bush and President Gorbachev, former Ambassador to the Soviet Union Jack Matlock said that
“..if Bush had been re-elected and Gorbachev had remained as president of the USSR there would have been no NATO expansion during their terms in office. There was no way either could commit successors” and that “I personally opposed the way NATO was extended to Eastern Europe, greater effort should have been made to create a “Europe whole and free,” by developing a new security structure including Russia”.
In addition, Robert Gates, then deputy national security advisor believed that “Gorbachev…” had been “led to believe” that the “expansion of NATO eastward” would not happen.
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The Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty was signed by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and President Ronald Reagan in 1987 in Reykjavik, Iceland eliminating thousands of missiles that would potentially have carried nuclear warheads. To Gorbachev and Reagan’s credit, the INF abolished an entire category of nuclear weapons while allowing first-hand observers of missile destruction and on-site verification as part of Reagan’s ‘trust but verify’ motto.
By 2019, President Donald Trump announced that he was suspending compliance with the Treaty and cited development of a prohibited missile by Russia while Putin countered that the US anti ballistic system in Europe which was within striking distance of Moscow could be used for offensive purposes. The Treaty ended a superpower build up in Europe as it banned ground launched missiles with a range of up to 3400 miles.
In October, 2018, US national security advisor John Bolton arrived for two days of talks with Russian officials who called the INF withdrawal as “dangerous” and “showing a lack of wisdom” as a “mistake.” Known to be belligerent to the Russians and arms control agreements, Bolton was also to meet with Russian Foreign Secretary Sergei Lavrov and Secretary to the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin who was looking for ‘clarification’ on US intentions.
In response, Putin denied any violation of the INF and announced suspension of Russian involvement in the Cold-war era INF Treaty to pursue a new generation of hypersonic missiles.
Renee Parsons served on the ACLU’s Florida State Board of Directors and as president of the ACLU Treasure Coast Chapter. She has been an elected public official in Colorado, staff in the Office of the Colorado State Public Defender, an environmental lobbyist for Friends of the Earth and a staff member of the US House of Representatives in Washington DC.
It should be pointed out that in 1972 Nixons, willingness to sign a reasonable agreement like the ABM treaty was not independent of his and the US’s dilemma concerning the space program. After The USSR had managed to lift Apollo13 out of the sea -empty – and then the US having to come to collect it later.
Since it has been suggested that the US themselves had arranged it like that it seems the US after having left the gold standard and, in 1972, not yet having established the petrodollar, was in a dire need of export income and to be willing to play nice. For a while.
Of the Russian failures in the Ukraine and elsewhere in dealing with the Western powers, and one has to admit there where failures, stemmed from what I believe is Russia, like so many people in the East, believing the primacy of self dignity in affairs. One must realize that dignity is not a value in the West, but rather something to be exploited. One need only look at how the politicians in the U.S.A. conduct themselves. They have no shame.
I think though the Russians are slowly, but finally getting it. They are realizing that the Western powers “are not agreement capable.” Ask an American Indian about making treaties with U.S. government. Treaties are made by the U.S. government for the purposes of buying time. We, people, Russians, et. al. need to realize when they deal with the Western powers, they are dealing with Psychopaths who will not back down. Look at the Indian wars to get the flavor of the method. The U.S.- Seminole wars lasted over a period of 42 years. The U.S. wars with the Apaches started in 1849, and went on ’till 1924. (See Wikipedia.) There were starts, and stops, treaties, all to buy time. In the end the Indians were decimated. So, the U.S. is into long wars, and will go until they get what they are out to do. Like an infestation of cockroaches Western powers need to be stamped out before they overwhelm. Like with roaches, with them there is no negociation.
Correct,i don’t know if Russia realised what they were dealing with or not,Putin is a smart guy,but the Reich/Nato needs a bloody good thrashing in Ukraine and i hope when this is all over the Russians turn away from the West totally,those Psychopaths have been trying to destroy Russia for years they need teaching a lesson they won’t forget,i wish Russia would take those illegal US bases off the map in Syria,or at least destroy the oil the US gangsters are stealing.
A very useful article, thank you.
It’s essential to have links to the relevant documents, as here.
Brother Robert Shule, all y’all. Bob’s got a good point, the enculturated assumptions of the Slavic People, and I’d say it not only cultural, but genetic, or epigenentic, are that the “other” is “ejusdem generis”, so to say. One assumes apriori that the opponent is rational and not a psychopathic gang of insane pirates. This, I might say, is a manifestation of the land peoples, as opposed to raiders from the sea. Raiders know no law outside their camps.
But taking MacKinder generally, and with a nod to Brother Ted (unibombermanifesto) K’s general thesis, the Peoples of Eurasia are perpetually juxtaposed to the poverty of the ausland, pretty much the pirate people that did the collapse of 1175 BCE, their diaspora. It’s heterogeneous, but has drang nach osten, as the Vikings rowing up Russian rivers…seems “racial”, curated epigenetically by structures…and so on. The Flow of the deltas P and V and whatever constants according to Heaven.
Recalling Stephen Decatur, Jr. …pirate “nests” must be dealt with…
It’s a real hard rain, my friends and brothers. The word “extensional” is tossed about in chatterings. Let’s consider the stories of the dying kings and desperation… MacBeth, I think, fits…
Of course good old Mac was not a coward, in the end. From which may we take the idea that the fight is not yet?
Those big big speeches…https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/en/news-page/world/russia-ukraine-coming-to-a-head-major-historic-speech-by-putin-on-february-21 Yeah, the Brother is his own self, but he’s not wrong. Not very often. Just hysterical, sometimes.
Best! P
sorry about the misspelling
Misspelling ? I was awestruck with all the big name spelling — classic education ??
Me too. I had to read it a few times. I noticed no misspellings because I’m not erudite enough.😁
The US have been breaking treaties since they sat down with Chief Sitting Bull,then they ended up murdering him,some things never change.
Touche’! How many treaties did the English break? Enlighten me please.
Joe Biden is being blackmailed by ZelenskyY (who has the Burisma files in Kiev and threatens to release them) and also by Russia (which, when they reach Kiev, could also release those files.)
The result? Billions of dollars in obsolete weapons and a few balloons to distract the mainstream media.
AS long as the Democratic party and the fetishist American Left (obsessed with ZelenskyY’s beating a snare drum with his private parts while wearing high heels) use sexual preference as the criteria for military alliances, there is no hope for a peaceful solution.
Found this on World – From a French Army Officer;
I am an officer of the French Army. I have been reading your page for some time to get a different view of the conflict in Ukraine. Thank you for what you do.
If I write to you today, it is to tell you exactly what it is like to be an officer in a Western European army in 2023.
In concrete terms, we are constantly being told about “high-intensity warfare” and “the return of modern warfare”. We, specifically, are told about the importance of our role as armored officers, because “tanks will play a major role against our enemies”. We are constantly being fed a pro-war arguments, very anti-Russian, very pro-NATO discourses (no surprise there). In other words, we are in an era like in 1872, when France had just lost against Germany, and the whole country was in propaganda mode to prepare the “revenge” (we call this “revanchisme” in France).
That’s kind of the feeling I get (even if I don’t really see the revenge we would have to take on the Russians, Lol).
But this bellicose speech is a facade, like a cat growling at a bear hoping to scare it. In reality our army is in tatters. We are unable to maintain our Leclerc tanks for example: only fifty of them are functional, a shame for “the first army in Europe”… A shame for an armored cavalry officer like me… It is not better in other sectors of the army, we have for example almost no more CAESAR (thanks Ukraine!). In other words, we have neither tanks nor guns.
The French like to make fun of China, which they say is a “paper tiger”. The paper tiger is us. Our army was unable to eliminate 500 terrorists in Africa, it would not last 2 days in a real modern war.
But the most ridiculous thing is what? It is that our army is wallowing in this mediocrity. Like an old man who contemplates his reflection in the mirror, dreaming of his past glory. I’m thinking of a specific episode that happened recently and that justified my writing to you: an evaluation for my officer class that we just passed consisted in “eating properly” and “knowing how to set a table in a noble way”, to respect the tradition of armored cavalry officers (supposed to be particularly noble)… Funny if it was just some tradition. Except no: it was decisive. Those who misaligned knives and forks got very bad marks, which would be reflected in their career and choice of regiment. The French army breaks the ambitions of young people who have been preparing for 6 years to lead tanks, for a story of forks…
This army is ridiculous, it is only a shadow of its former self. It disgusts all the sincere French patriots: most of my comrades consider leaving the army as soon as they can. For this reason in particular, because the army brings nothing. But also because they do not want, for some of them, to be the minions of NATO while they enlisted to serve France…
You don’t have to worry about Western European countries, our arrogance is theater.
I give you my greetings, take care of yourselves and let’s pray (whatever our obedience) that this conflict will stop and that Europe will find again a peaceful and multipolar balance.
Great post,you could mirror that here in the UK,i doubt we could fill a football ground with Combat troops,and all that tradition you talk about is the same here,nothing wrong in that in the right place,my late Father served in WW2,his Regiment was the Coldstream Guards,he told me about most of the officer class,Dad said many were clowns who had the right family connections and nothing else.
Some videos for today.
RT speaks to PMC Wagner head, Evgeny Prigozhin, as group advances on Artemovsk:
https://odysee.com/@RT:fd/y-evgeny:2
Russian airborne troops seize trench network and beat off Kiev regime counterattack:
https://rutube.ru/video/40955c16313c179342bf5d9126b89106/
The FSB arrested an Azov terrorist organization recruiter that had posed as a refugee to enter the Russian Federation:
https://rutube.ru/video/92faeaff7639854e7b039dc1cd2e6b83/
Russian precision strike destroyed Kiev regime Grad launcher while it was firing:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/r72jjdBPDJLZ/
Russian Lancet drone destroys Polish-supplied self-propelled howitzer:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/oCvMl7Iz45h5/
Russian ATGM takes out column of Kiev regime troops:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/e5X2h5XJb5hz/
Big group of Kiev regime troops gets destroyed in Kremennaya forest:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/HSY5aitxee07/
Russian Su-25 conducts airstrike:
https://rutube.ru/video/22b3b0d65277c4ec10cda265a93c18de/
Russian self-propelled howitzer pounds enemy position:
https://rutube.ru/video/d0586337cbe3decf8b48ca32900250f9/
Russian D-20 howitzer pounds enemy position:
https://rutube.ru/video/e31c594c01b2829022260fd5a6af80e1/
Hello! From my point of view, the leadership of the Russian Federation does not loudly protest the attack on properties and interests through acts of military aggression by the USA on the underwater structure N.S. I and N.S. II. If those pipelines belonged to the US, those who would have attacked them would be eating embers by now. I don’t know, but the fact that the West confiscated the assets of Russian citizens in the West, the fact that their assets of the Russian central bank abroad were frozen and maybe confiscated, in this sense the lack of strong and continuous protests from the leadership of the Russian Federation, is proof of lack of respect and appreciation for its citizens.
Thank you for the superb post. I deeply appreciate the education. To give you an idea of what I was, I used to be a Bolton fan. This was when I was a Neocon Dupe.
I remember young Vlademir Vlademerovich Putin at our base in Iceland. To give you an idea of how much I’ve changed, I believe the SMO is justified, I’m ashamed of my rulers and the rulers of my native Europe.
Today I believe Putin is one of the greatest leaders in history and admire all of his administration.
Slava Rusya! Z🇷🇺
Today they introduce Environmental Justice Officer and Equity initiative. Even the fart will be sanctioned, and they definitely laugh when not public. Another sign of irreversible decadence.
https://philosophyofgoodnews.com/2023/02/18/environmental-justice-officer/
Thanks petergrfstrm, a must read about this saga is the following article,
https://www.aulis.com/illusion.htm by Aerodynamicist Alexander Onoprienko.
I would add that President Richard Nixon suspended the USD to gold convertability Sunday, August 15th, 1971.
The building of pipelines to Germany and construction of the Kamaz truck factory in the Soviet Union begun in 1969. More than 100 thousand people worked at the construction site itself. The future automobile plant was provided with the most modern technological equipment at that time. More than 700 foreign firms took part in equipping it, including the world-famous corporations Swindell-Dresler, Holcroft, Seacast, Ingersoll Rand from America, Bush, Huller, Liebherr from Germany, Italian Morando, Excella, Fata, French Renault, Swedish Sandvik, Japanese Kamatsu and Hitachi (see https://kamaz.ru/about/history/?ysclid=le9unngug8238123654 for details).
The income from oil and gas sales from the NASA lunar landing fraud led to the stagnation of the Soviet Union and eventually its demise.
The scientific super-stars of their time have given the Russian Federation the foundations to rise again out of the ashes of the Soviet Union. When will the Russian Federation burst the empire’s illusory bubbles?