Saker Analyses and Interviews
This article was written for the Unz Review: http://www.unz.com/tsaker/week-twenty-two-of-the-russian-military-intervention-in-syria-putin-announces-a-new-strategy/ These are amazing times indeed. Only two weeks ago I outlined the likelyhood of a dramatic escalation of the war in Syria, and this week Vladimir Putin announced the withdrawal of what I would call the “tactical air strike” component of the Russian task force in Syria. How is that possible? How could the Russian warn about Turkish troops poised to
Vladimir Putin has just ordered the withdrawal of the Russian forces in Syria: “I consider the objectives that have been set for the Defense Ministry to be generally accomplished. That is why I order to start withdrawal of the main part of our military group from the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic starting from tomorrow,” Putin said on Monday during a meeting with Shoigu and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey
This article was written for the Unz Review: http://www.unz.com/tsaker/could-russia-still-become-an-ally-of-the-west/ Listening to Donald Trump speaking about his desire to turn Russia into an ally, I caught myself wondering if that was even still a possibility. After all, “the West” – and by that I mean every single western politician – has been lying to Russia ever since the fall of the Soviet Union. Not only has the West lied to Russia
I don’t vote. For one thing – I don’t want to acquire the US citizenship. But even if I had a US passport I would not vote for the following reasons: First, the choice between the two parties is like Pepsi-Cola vs Coca-Cola: both are toxic and impossible to tell apart. Second, every time the American people voted to support one policy, they got the exact opposite, from Bush’s “read
This article was written for the Unz Review: http://www.unz.com/tsaker/week-twenty-one-of-the-russian-military-intervention-in-syria-the-calm-before-the-storm/ The ceasefire in Syria (which is not really a ceasefire, but rather a “focusing of combat operations”) is holding surprisingly well. This is primarily due to the brilliant tactic of forcing each fighting group in Syria to define itself either as a “good moderate”, and be guaranteed safety, or as as en “evil terrorist” and become an indisputably legitimate target which
Dear friends, Last month I have had the real pleasure to have a one hour long conversation with Catherine Austin Fitts, the president of Solari, Inc., the publisher of The Solari Report and managing member of Solari Investment Advisory Services. Normally, the Catherine’s interviews are for subscribers only, but she has kindly agreed to make it available for free to our community. This was the first time I had granted
Foreword by the Saker: to be honest, I have not been following the latest presidential race in the USA. Simply put, I have long lost any hope to see any change come from any election in the USA. Changing the puppet makes no difference as long as the puppeteer remains the same one. Still, I think that there are at least two main puppeteers in the USA: what I call
[Note from the Saker: as most of you know, I am not American, I never was a “US analyst” and my career as a military analyst was in Europe. I do, however, live in the USA] by Ekaterina Blinova for Sputnik International source: http://sptnkne.ws/aJS5 The war is far from over in Syria, however, Russia’s professional diplomatic moves have left Washington nearly no room to maneuver: the US cannot simply return
This article was written for the Unz Review: http://www.unz.com/tsaker/russian-american-agreement-on-syria/ The recent agreement between the USA and Russia really solves nothing, it does not even end the war, and both sides are expressing a great deal of caution about its future implementation. And yet, this is a huge victory for Russia. While it is too early to say that “the Russian won in Syria”, I think that it is now fair
This column was written for the Unz Review: http://www.unz.com/tsaker/week-nineteen-of-the-russian-intervention-in-syria-would-russia-use-nukes-to-defend-khmeimim/ The past week saw no decrease in the tense confrontation between Turkey and Russia over Syria. While Russia’s position is simple – ‘we are ready to fight’ – the Turkish position is much more ambiguous: Turkish politicians are saying one thing, then the opposite and then something else again. At times they make it sound like an invasion is imminent, and
This column was written for the Unz Review: http://www.unz.com/tsaker/week-eighteen-of-the-russian-intervention-in-syria-a-dramatic-escalation-appears-imminent/ The situation in Syria has reached a watershed moment and a dramatic escalation of the war appears imminent. Let’s look again at how we reached this point. During the first phase of the operation, the Syrian armed forces were unable to achieve an immediate strategic success. This is rather unsurprising. It is important to remember here that during the first weeks
This article was written for the Unz Review: http://www.unz.com/tsaker/week-seventeen-of-the-russian-intervention-in-syria-does-erdogan-want-war-with-russia/ The situation with Turkey is rapidly getting out of control: not only have the Turks conducted artillery strikes across the Syrian border, Turkey has refused to comply with its obligations under the Open Skies Treaty and refused to let a Russian surveillance aircraft overfly Turkey. The Russian military has now declared that it had detected signs of Turkish preparations for an
Dear friends, I am reposting here an article I have written for Russia Insider which itself is based on something I wrote for this blog in the past. So while hardly new, this is the most updated iteration of my thinking on this topic. I think that this topic is important, crucial really, and this is why I think that revisiting it on a regular basis makes sense. The Saker
This article was written for the Unz Review: http://www.unz.com/tsaker/week-sixteen-of-the-russian-intervention-in-syria-a-us-invasion-of-syria-next/ This week was marked by major successes for the Syria military the Sheikh Miskeen region of the Daraa Province in the south of the country. In the meantime in the north, the Syrian Army continues its offensive north of the strategic Kuweires air base. But these military successes were eclipsed by rumors that the US was setting up and air base
This article was written for the Unz Review http://www.unz.com/tsaker/putins-biggest-failure/ Whatever happens in the future, Putin has already secured his place in history as one of the greatest Russian leaders ever. Not only did he succeed in literally resurrecting Russia as a country, but in a little over a decade he brought her back as a world power capable of successfully challenging the AngloZionist Empire. The Russian people have clearly recognized
Today I have already posted two excellent analyses of the (possibly temporary) failure of the USA to submit Iran to its will: one by Alexander Mercouris, the other by Soraya Sepahpour Ulrich. I shall not repeat their very arguments here, mainly because both see this as a conflict between the USA and Iran, whereas I see that as a conflict between Israel and Iran in which Israel attempted, but failed,
The lifting of sanctions is an unequivocal victory for Iran, sealing its regional position, and leaving its nuclear capability intact by Alexander Mercouris for Russia Insider. Confirmation that international sanctions on Iran have at last been lifted is unequivocally a victory for Iran. The sanctions should never have been imposed in the first place. As I said in April last year in an article I wrote for Sputnik, the evidence
This column was written for the Unz Review: http://www.unz.com/tsaker/week-fifteen-of-the-russian-intervention-in-syria-when-no-news-is-good-news/ We could say that the Russian intervention in Syria has settled into somewhat of a routine: the Russians are bombing, a lot, and the Syrians are advancing on almost all fronts, but slowly. While those who expected a rapid collapse of Daesh followed by a series of major government victories might be disappointed, I am personally rather encouraged by these events.
by Alexander Mercouris for Russia Insider source: http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/putin-talks-bild-zeitung/ri12178 Putin used Russia’s Christmas break to give an interview for the German tabloid Bild-Zeitung (see here and here). Unusually for the Western media, the German interviewers proved to be both well-informed and intelligent and avoided cliches, giving Putin a good opportunity to explain himself concisely on a wide range of topics. The fact the interviewers from Bild-Zeitung conducted the interview so intelligently
Dear friends, What I want to share with you today is most definitely not a comprehensive analysis of the events which took place recently in Germany, but rather a few unconnected thoughts and memories we came to my mind when I heard about what had happened. So here we go. First, the figures are staggering: according to Russian sources there have been over 700 hundred assaults in Cologne, 40% of
