In a new twist of absolutely staggering stupidity, it appears that NASA has decided to suspend all cooperation with Russia in a move to express its disapproval of the reunification of Crimea with Russia. Apparently, some delusional megalomaniac in the Administration seriously believes that Russia depends on NASA for its space program while, of course, this is very much the other way around. Just like the US needs Russia to safely get its “boys” out of Afghanistan, the US fully depends on Russia to get an astronaut into space and yet it is NATO and NASA which as suspending all cooperation with Russia and not the other way around.
I wonder what they would do if Russia decided to call their stupid bluff and really suspend all cooperation with NATO and NASA…
Mind you, Russians are hyper-realists and not easily offended. As long as they don’t care – and they don’t – they won’t take any harsh measures and let the crazies in the White House huff and puff about how they are “isolating Russia”. From the point of view of the Kremlin, the more the US adopts absolutely ridiculous and outright idiotic “sanctions”, the clearer it is that nothing truly dangerous will happen.
Though, who knows, in despair the Obama Administration might take a truly dramatic decision.
Close the McDonald’s on Pushkin square perhaps?
The Saker
The Zionist bankers are in the process of amputating the Russian leg (and maybe the Chinese one if necessary) to save the body of their banking/financial system from the ‘contagion’ of govt run nationalist central banks.
The bankers have lost all hope of controlling Russia so are now focussing on consolidating their power over US/EU. The new Openly declared Cold War will help them do this. They are trying to provoke Russia into helping them do this. I’m sure Putin is alive to this but the bankers will leave him limited options.
Dear The Saker,
From RT:
” Ukraine’s state health commission has withdrawn the sale of Russian pastry, cheese, and fish products, due to Moscow’s non-compliance with Ukrainian legislation, according to the authority’s website.
Among the banned products are those from chocolate factories Red October and Russian Chocolate, candy factory Rot Front, Babaev branded food, Vychunay-Rus herring, Roscon canned fish, and Lactalis Istra melted cheese.
Russian products were banned under the request of Svoboda parliamentary faction head Oleg Tyagnibok.”
I throw my hands up…..also shows the extreem right still have a lot of power…so much for the assasination of one of their own…
Rgds,
Veritas
I think Russia should become the custodian of the ISS. Or perhaps when it comes time to replace the cosmonauts, they just maroon those from USA without any additional supplies. As for Afghanistan, I say drop all NATO ties. US/NATO need some reality forced into their imaginary world based on lies.
@Apparently, some delusional megalomaniac in the Administration seriously believes that Russia depends on NASA for its space program…
It looks like all assessments about Russia’s real capabilities are wide off the mark. See the following “analysis”:
From NYT:
In Crimea, Russia Showcases a Rebooted Army
By C. J. CHIVERS and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN APRIL 2, 2014
The lightning-quick seizing of strategic installations and the surrounding of military bases in Crimea, including the base here in Perevalnoye, provided a clear show of the new Russian military’s capabilities.
It was a sharp contrast to the brief war with Georgia in 2008, when Russia overwhelmed its much smaller foe on a tiny patch of ground, but also revealed the sorry state of its own forces — problems that stretched back to the two military campaigns in Chechnya. (In Georgia, Russian military vehicles were commonly seen broken down on the roads, with cursing soldiers beside them.)
While analysts said that there was now better equipment and training throughout the Russian military, some cautioned against drawing too broad a conclusion based on the forces in Crimea, many of which were part of elite units that were among the first to benefit from the overhaul.
“It is certainly a step up from where they were in 2008, but how far of a step up we don’t know yet,” said Dmitry Gorenburg, a senior analyst with the Center for Naval Analyses, a Virginia-based research group financed by the United States government. “Is the Russian military now a conventional threat to NATO? I don’t think so. I don’t think it’s that much of an improvement yet. It could be down the road.”
Mr. Gorenburg noted that the Russian troops had faced no opposition, and that there had been no fighting. “Essentially they were taking over facilities and buildings from troops that had been given no orders or who had been given orders not to resist,” he said. “There was no actual combat.”
It brought back hilarious memories from the Georgian war. The TV were showing the vehicles in difficulties laughing at the “rag tag” Russian army which had no night vision goggles, when everything was already finished and the well equipped with NATO gizmos Georgian Army was fleeing at maximum speed.
WizOz
Saker
I suspect once the last American ISS crew member has been returned to earth (by the Russians), the adolescent zio-queens running zionazi-nazistan will then sever co-operation on the ISS as well. It is the sort of thing Netanyahu mentality Israelis would do and it is clear the ziofascist west’s behaviour towards Russia is now being run like it was Israeli run (or perhaps a cloned McCarthy bum bandit). In the west, it appears the adults took a vacation and left the children to manage things.
вот так
The great problem, in my opinion, with Zionazism is that it has exacerbated the worst features of Judaism, a cult created out of hatred of others, and the determination to ‘live apart’ from the rest of humanity. As long ago as the dawn of the Christian Era, Tacitus observed that the primary feature of the Jews was their hatred of non-Jews. That was, naturally, reciprocated from time to time in pogroms, massacres and, particularly in expulsions. Hadrian, one of the greatest Roman Emperors found the Jews such a menace that he attempted to extirpate the ‘religion’, entirely.
Nowadays this Judaic anti-goyism, the real ‘Oldest Hatred’, is more monstrous than ever. The horror of the Nazi Judeocide and the Western indifference to it, the brutal racism of the Zionist colonial atrocities in Occupied Palestine, and the Palestinians remarkable heroism in refusing to be broken by creatures who see them as sub-human (like all Western colonialists)and the growing power of Jews over Western societies, a situation quite like no other that I am aware of, constitute a real ‘bitches’ brew’. Add to this recipe for disaster the ongoing Oded Yinon ‘Zionist Plan for the Middle East’, where all the countries of the region and as far as Libya and Pakistan are to be destroyed and smashed into fragments (akin to the fate of the USSR, Yugoslavia and planned for Russia and China)and Israel’s growing role as a global centre of various criminal enterprises, eg blood diamond, sex, human organ and drug trafficking, pornography, surveillance and electronic snooping and money laundering, Israel certainly ‘punches above its weight’. And it certainly makes itself reviled, by its neighbours, by the growing numbers of informed citizens in its Western puppet states and by the victims of its criminality from Central America to Kashmir. This has nothing to do with ‘antisemitism’. This is the real and understandable reaction of decent people to the arrogance, belligerence, manipulativeness and criminality of a tiny tribe whose leaders are plainly of one opinion with Rabbi Kook the Elder, the Godfather of the settler Judaic Taliban, who infamously observed that, ‘There is a greater difference between the soul of a Jew and a non-Jew…than there is between the soul of a non-Jew and that of an animal’.
Greetings From Singapore:
From what I see NATO is seriously looking for a confrontation. Cutting off links/communication and placing boots and equipment close to the Russian border.
The other issue is MH 370. Was anything done here to ‘contain’ China? On today’s technology, planes do not disappear without trace.
EU/NATO is a prison of nations
From Davidius
American exceptionalism
I think we can narrow it down to:
Big guns
small brains
mjm, I for one am convinced that MH 370 is a psychological warfare attack on China by the Real Evil Empire, and is probably linked to the Kunming massacre and as yet unseen further atrocities. I hope, but doubt, that I am wrong. The Empire will never, ever, allow mere ‘Asiatics’, non Judeo- Christian Asiatics, to rise to global hegemony. If only because there never will be a Confucian-Zionist, Daoist-Zionist or Maoist-Zionist claque to join the Christian Zionists in worship of the Holy State.
mjm, I for one am convinced that MH 370 is a psychological warfare attack on China by the Real Evil Empire, and is probably linked to the Kunming massacre and as yet unseen further atrocities. I hope, but doubt, that I am wrong. The Empire will never, ever, allow mere ‘Asiatics’, non Judeo- Christian Asiatics, to rise to global hegemony. If only because there never will be a Confucian-Zionist, Daoist-Zionist or Maoist-Zionist claque to join the Christian Zionists in worship of the Holy State.
mjm, I for one am convinced that MH 370 is a psychological warfare attack on China by the Real Evil Empire, and is probably linked to the Kunming massacre and as yet unseen further atrocities. I hope, but doubt, that I am wrong. The Empire will never, ever, allow mere ‘Asiatics’, non Judeo- Christian Asiatics, to rise to global hegemony. If only because there never will be a Confucian-Zionist, Daoist-Zionist or Maoist-Zionist claque to join the Christian Zionists in worship of the Holy State.
Russia should hike the price on soyuz-tours for “hostile nations” (USA)sky high or refuse them to ride along all together. If they insist, refuse to sell them rocket engines, which they rely on for any space related activities and detach the Russian modules from ISS for a joint BRICS venture. Ever since their space shuttle program collapsed, western MSM propaganda media notoriously fails to mention how their “Astronauts” get to the ISS but, miraculously somehow, they do. If they do mention it, we are supposed to conclude that it is thanks to Kazakhstan because that is where the Baikonur is located. Ouch! The western ego….
Russia also, in a friendly gesture, let the American´s hitch hike for free the first two years i believe, but of course, not a grateful word of that other than from the Astronauts themselves.
MH370 looks to me like a case of a great power throwing its toys out of the pram because it did not get what it wants (over the Crimea issue.
If this is true (and it is based on the strange timing of the event and the equally strange timing of the Chinese mass stabbing incident – another infantile fit of rage perhaps by the Western secret services) then what is it most likely to pressage?
Again I am influenced by the timing of the events just mentioned – as well as the alledged discovery of clones of MH370 in Israel and France. The fact that the remains of MH370 – now declared by the puppet media as being undoubtedly in the South Pacific ocean (the deepest and furthest point of the ocean conveniently) are unlikely ever to be positively confirmed (since the black box will stop signalling eventually) only adds to the suspicions concerning this case.
Maybe the real plane WAS ditched into the sea at this juncture – the important point (for subsequent use of clones) being that no one should ever be completely sure about this one way or the other. By the time anyone fully worked it all out it would already be relegated to the “ancient history of the CIA” books; like the murder of JFK or the Gulf of Tonkin incident and other false flag exercises. Who cares about those now? Just conspiracy nuts.
Given this timing then the most logical next move I believe would be a capitation strike (utilising the plane filled with explosives or a dirty bomb or whatever) directed at central Moscow during a full sitting of the Duma or Russian parliament. This would leave Russia effectively leaderless, like a headless chicken running around and unable to identify a target (plausible deniability by the Western security services, possible “Islamic” culprit) let alone order a strike against it.
The chaos that would ensue would doubtless lead to the seizure of power by the very same rootless oligarchs (aided by state department and Soros funded NGOs) who just happen to be waiting in the wings in every former Soviet capital. By the time anyone “agin it” had worked out QUI BONO (Washington and the bankster IMF etc) it would be too late to do anything about it.
Strictly controlled “elections” would complete the seizure of power (into the hands of Nato friendly elements) and the breathtakingly audacious coup would be complete. Russian opposition to Zionist Middle-East policy would effectively end overnight, ratcheting up the pressure on Syria and Iran to unbearable levels.
Certainly the cynicism of such an operation emanating from Western sources would not surprise me in the least (yet another very good reason for exploring the seemingly outlandish hypothesis I would not normally entertain)..
Stop using terms like “idiotic” for these psychopaths. They’re NOT idiots. They’re psychopaths and more intelligent than most. They MEAN to do this. The imperatives are to convince the people Putin is a villain AND to make Putin so mad he will make mistakes.
I’m sure they’ll settle for a cold war if they can’t get a hot one, but they are NOT by any means ready to settle for that yet. In fact, the insults and disrespect and murderous provocations are far more likely to escalate than to simmer down… ESPECIALLY when everybody is still providing them with the cloak of “stupidity”.
@Nines: Stop using terms like “idiotic” for these psychopaths. They’re NOT idiots. They’re psychopaths and more intelligent than most.
I am sorry but I have to categorically disagree. Yes, they are psychopaths, especially when they act together, but they are ALSO idiots. I have seen quite a few of them personally and I have always been extremely unimpressed by their intellectual abilities or education. Mostly, these are immoral people who made their careers by being unprincipled and by brown-nosing those in power. But they still are 1) delusional 2) idiots – by that I mean that their arrogance makes them *sincerely* believe that they can shape reality and 2) that their analytical capabilities are minimal.
But yes, psychos they are for sure.
Cheers,
The Saker
Dear Saker, great you are back!
I cannot see the nazis giving up their arms, and given the IMF austerity (probably mostly hidden until after the ´elections´) I forsee fascist and bandit mobs plundering and raping the country. Blackwater mercenaries will not improve this picture! Perhaps a maidan 2, but eventually the south, the east and Transdnjestria will have to become independent (and preferably later) join the RF.
I have another question though: Definitions, assumptions!
And unfortunately, it is very difficult for me to properly articulate this highly divisive subject, it is a long reaction, but not very clear:
Let´s take the worst example:
Bankers, neocons, neoliberals, olicharchs, zionists, mainstream media.
One common denominator: ´Jewish´.
As I am very much opposed to any form of racism I cannot accept this conclusion. Even more: I am almost incapable of making out the difference between a jew and any other white person.
Since I cannot even make out the difference, I have to give everyone the benefit of the doubt:
Bankers are vampires.
Zionist are racists, thiefs and demons.
Neoliberals take us back to the middle ages.
Olicharchs are even worse, and most of them are jewish.
(Could be explained by history, but they kill democracy, and basically want us to be slaves!).
The media are very biased, and in the US , all jewish owned (except the zionist Murdoch).
In the Netherlands, the government has many jews (many not very zionist) in important positions.
In Europe, it is absolutely NOT DONE to point to jewish origins of any problem; my own 87 year old mother would kill me for it!
So, for an analyst, of course there is a problem!! (statistics)
However statistically plausible:
Are bankers zionists? (evidence).
Are (jewish) olicharchs zionists?
Is Israel involved? (evidence).
What about the role of ´moderate´ jews in western Europes politics?
And a very clear definition of things like Anglo- zionists.. I understand it OK, but when I try to defend (the opposition against), I get stuck.
Very complicated!
Sorry for the somewhat confused reaction!
Testosterone Pit – Home – Dollar Hegemony Under Attack By Export-Superpowers Germany and China
@The Saker: I would guess you are perfectly correct when you refer to many psychopathic leaders as “idiots”, however according to at least one of my sources, the anti-Russian rhetoric is not “stupidity”, but the “theater” of part of a policy of containment directed by the “deep state”.
Here is a direct quote from someone I follow very closely who thinks along these lines:
Did you manage to become an Associate Professor in International Relations, Urvashi without ever having heard of George Kennan and his policy of “containment”?
That is the very heart of what the first Cold War was, along with internal destabilizations and a weapons race.
So the putsch that Empire has orchestrated in Kiev, (hardly of a defensive strategic interest to the Anglo 5 or even Western Europe), is simply more of the same old policy of containment, which IS the Cold War.
The dynamics of this Cold War however are different today, because Russia is smaller and comparatively weaker than the old Soviet Union, but China is much more powerful.
And more importantly China is being subject today to the same policies of containment as Russia, especially with the remilitarization of Japan.
So today the relationship between Beijing and Moscow is much closer than it was during the days of the Soviet Union, with the promise and expectation that it will get much closer still, with every provocation from Empire.
And Empire is about nothing if not provocations.
So I believe that we can now call this Cold War 2, and it is THE foreign policy “legacy” of Obama as the first Cold War was the legacy of Truman and Churchill.
I think you’re some kind of Miss Irma with her crystal ball:
http://www.egaliteetreconciliation.fr/McDonald-s-ferme-ses-restaurants-en-Crimee-24496.html
McDonald’s closing in Crimea.
Was just going to post here as well but Gallier beat me to it.
You joked at what the US will do next, pull McDonalds out of Russia? Well just today read this.
Source: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/mcdonald-s-quits-crimea-as-fears-of-trade-clash-grow-1.1750501
Looks like McDonalds is leaving Crimera. LOL
Peace,
Colm
Hello Saker, your on Asia Times, AGAIN!!
Your emerging popularity will make you a target and the attacks will continue.
Remember the speech Don Corleone gave at the meeting of the head of the 5 Families, in the movie The Godfather”????
It start’s off with, “I’m a very suspicious man”….
Well as you become more effective and your voice is heard more and more.
You will become a threat to them.
You are from the intelligence world so I’m sure you are somewhat prepared for the things that will come to you and your family’s way.
I’m sorry for all that, but on to my question.
What will be the fate of Tranistria?
This will either be the biggest strategic piece of property or the biggest headache to Russia.
I am awaiting your analysis.
Fernando