Dear friends, Looks like my so-called “break” is coming to an end. It has been a weird “break”, to be sure. Not only was I unable to really stay away, but I worked on a couple of big things in the background, the biggest one of which I will announce here tomorrow or Tuesday. Tuesday will also be the day when I will re-start the blog at its normal (well,
This column was originally written for the Unz Review: http://www.unz.com/tsaker/week-three-of-the-russian-intervention-in-syria/ The end of international law and diplomacy The end of the Cold War was welcomed as a new era of peace and security in which swords would be transformed into plows, former enemies into friends, and the world would witness a new dawn of universal love, peace and happiness. Of course, none of that happened. What happened is that the
The Saker: You are a very well known public figure in the United States. Still I would like you to tell us three things about you which in your opinion is the most important things about you. Cynthia McKinney: I am always in a state of questioning and learning and I love to research questions and an array of solutions of interest to me. I think curiosity is a good thing
Again, it is thanks to Alena Scarecrow that I can share with you a very interesting video about the biggest military exercise held in contemporary Russia: “Center-2015”. In the Cold War years such a video would have been classified as “TOP SECRET” and western intelligence agencies would have paid a fortune to get it. Nowadays, Russia has made a 180 and is showing a surprising degree of openness. In this
Saker gives up: Wow, I really did take a beating in this comments section! Oy vey! And here is the deal – as a military analyst I know a lost cause when I see it and this is one. So, I am giving up! You guys win :-) You want to flag-wave? Please – be my guest, I won’t argue any more. You think that Russia will have an easy
Foreword by the Saker: Kakaouskia has been a regular contributor to this blog and when I realized that he had first had experience with Western and Russian armor (as a career officer) I asked him to write a short “compare and contrast” between the designs these very different schools of armor design and use. I hope that you will find this exercise interesting and, if yes, I could try to
This column was originally written for the Unz Review: http://www.unz.com/tsaker/week-two-of-the-russian-military-intervention-in-syria/ The Russian offensive in Syria is still very much in full swing and it is hard to make sense of what is really happening or how effective it has been. According to the Syrians, 40% of all the infrastructure of “Daesh” (meaning ISIS+al-Qaeda+all the hundreds of smaller groups fighting together against the Syrian government) has been destroyed. Russian sources are
by: Olga Samofalova translation by: Alena Scarecrow source: http://www.vz.ru/economy/2015/10/13/772080.html “We are independent in the gas issue”, – happily announces Poland having finally built a terminal for receiving liquefied natural gas (LNG). However, the new marine way of delivering gas from Qatar instead of saving financial resources will entail even much higher costs than earlier. Warsaw is already paying – now, that it has not yet received one single cubic meter
The dramatic developments in Syria have somewhat overshadowed the events in Nazi-occupied Ukraine. True, nothing truly ‘major’ has happened there, but that in itself is a major development and a case of “no news is good news”. Banderastan: Remember how close we were to a Ukronazi attack just a few months or weeks ago? That attack never materialized. This is, I submit, major news and something which most of us
This column was originally written for the Unz Review: http://www.unz.com/tsaker/week-one-of-the-russian-military-intervention-in-syria/ The speed at which the Russian military operation in Syria was conducted what a big surprise for the US intelligence community (which I can hardly blame as I was just as surprised myself). Make no mistake here, the Russian force in Syria is a small one, at least for the time being, and it does not even remotely resemble what
So was it a good time or a bad time to go on break? It was a good time. Why? Well, for one thing, I *needed* it. Then, well, as you see, I did not really ‘leave’. But most importantly, this is a good time to take a break precisely because the Russians have begun a military operation in Syria. The truth be told, *during* a military operation very few
Dear friends, Considering the reactions to my recent post “Russia’s civilizational choice” and, especially, some of the negative ones which, sadly, completely misunderstood my views, I am reposting an article originally written in 2013. This ‘repost’ was first re-posted on the Unz Review where I have also taken the accompanying image. I hope that this post will help clarify my position on the issue (even if I am under no
Dear friends, As you know, I am on a R&R break, and I therefore will not write “real” analyses during the month of October (assuming that the ones I wrote in the past were, indeed, ‘real’). But I want to stay in touch with you. Yesterday, I went hiking across the famous Paynes Prairie in Central Florida which was a rather unique experience because due to the heavy rains most
This column was written for the Unz Review: http://www.unz.com/tsaker/finally-some-clarity-about-the-russian-plans-in-syria/ A lot has happened in the last few hours. Putin spoke at the UN, the Russian Parliament has approved the use of Russian military forces in Syria and Sergei Ivanov has given the Russian media a detailed explanation for the reasons which made the Kremlin request such an authorization. The picture has finally become much clearer. What will not happen: There will
Dear friends, This is “The Report” (all in caps!), the famous and, for some, infamous report presented by Sergei Glaziev to the Russian Security Council. Not an excerpt of a paraphrase – the full thing, appendices and all. To say that our translators did a huge and very hard job would be an understatement. I read the original Russian text, and I can attest that it is hell to translate.
(Note: this column was written for the Unz Review: http://www.unz.com/tsaker/russias-civilizational-choice/) This week, Vladimir Putin and a large number of national and foreign dignitaries and guests have inaugurated the biggest mosque in Europe: the new Moscow Cathedral Mosque. This was a big event, much awaited by the many tens of thousands of Russian Muslims who live in the Russian capital and who, in the past, have had to pray in the streets
Foreword by the Saker: I am delighted to post an article which, unlike all the nonsense we have been fed by Ynet, Debka and the rest of them, actually makes sense and outlines what appears to me a very likely description of the rationale behind the military component of the overall Russian strategy towards the war against Syria. This article also confirms my guess that Latakia (and not Damascus) will
Like most of you, I spent 1 hour listening to Bashar al-Assad’s interview with the Russian media yesterday. I have to tell you that I am impressed. But before I discuss this in more detail, let me confess something which old-time readers of this blog might remember: I used to be very opposed to secular Arab nationalists, especially Baathists. Not only did I have an extremely bad opinion of Saddam
The Saker: I will begin with a historical question. Many years ago I had the privilege to work with a most interesting Syrian lawyer whose father had been an influential Syrian personality. Here is what this friend of mine told me one day: Arab nationalism in general, and Baathism in particular, was the creation of the European Masonic elites who used their local Masonic brethren to stir up various kinds
I sat down and listened to the full four hours of the infamous “Shuster Live” show of September 4th. This was not easy (if only because to a Russian ear Ukrainian sounds roughly like Klingon to a English speaker. Except that Ukrainian is really easy to understand, as it is basically a mix of rural Russian, Polish and some old Slavic words). But it was also very interesting (if you
