The number of well-informed commentators, politicians, blogger and observers who are predicting a war – or at least of a serious risk of war – between Russia and the USA is sharply rising. Though I myself am rather inclined to believe that the US will use the Ukrainian junta to attack Russia rather then risk a direct confrontation, I would not go as far as saying that I find a direct US-Russian war impossible. If only because many wars are not deliberately started, but rather stumbled into. For all these reasons, it is, I think, high time to look at the historical record of Russia in wars.
It turns out that a military historian in Russia already did all the work for us. Nikolai Shefov is the author of 10 books about Russian history including one entitled “The Battles of Russia” in which he not only looks at each war, but actually at all the major battles fought in all the wars of Russia between 1700 and 1940 (he stops at the Soviet-Finnish war and does not include WWII). Here are his findings:
Between 1700 and 1940 Russia/USSR fought in 34 wars and won 31 and in 392 battle and won 279. We could say that Russia won 91% of her wars and 71% of her battles. Russia’s opponents included: Swedes, French, Germans, Turks, Poles, Tatars, Finns, Caucasians, Japanese, Chinese, Austrians, Hungarians, British, Italians and Central Asians.
In the author’s opinion Russia lost only three wars: the Crimean one, the Russo-Japanese one and the one against Poland in 1920. He considers that Russia won the first world war because no enemy ever stepped on any part of the Russian land (If you are interested, here is a link to an the original book in Russian, to an article summarizing the book, and to a machine-translation of this article into English).
I would just add that Crimea was fought against what I call a “great ecumenical coalition” (including Anglican British, the Latin French and the Muslim Turks) which outnumbered the Russians by over 200’000 people (there was almost a MILLION “ecumenical attackers” for just over 700’00 Russian defenders. But yes, Russia did lose this one.
Did Russia lose the war against Japan? I would argue that the Russian Fleet sure was defeated by the Japanese Navy, but Japanese historians have a very different view of what happened and consider that Japan’s military was spent by the time the peace treaty was drafted (by the Russian side, by the way) and that Japan had been forced to accept very bad terms. At the very least, I would call this one a draw.
As for the Russian-Polish war, yes, the Soviet’s lost this one badly. But look at the kind of Soviet Union we had in 1920: a country in the midst of a civil war, with many uprising taking place, with a “worker-farmer” “army” with no real officers and let by clueless commissars. So while the outcome was a defeat, the circumstances of that defeat are, I think, so unique as to be irrelevant.
But whatever the fine print and different views of the significance of individual outcomes, I think that these figures strongly suggest that attacking Russia is an exceedingly bad idea, even when only conventional wars are considered. Attacking Russia while she has the powerful nuclear arsenal on the planet is utter lunacy.
Let’s hope that this short reminder will reach at least one of the crazies who think that playing a game of chicken with Russia is a sound policy and that the Russians will “blink first” impressed by the US/NATO military prowess.
The Saker
Russia has two great allies. Winter and vast amounts of land where Russians can retreat, regroup and spring back when the invader’s supply lines become way too long and unsustainable. Thus any student of history would avoid such scenarios and attempt to weaken Russia from within (e.g. Chechnyan war, 5th columns and color revolutions). Alternatively, an opponent would attempt to drive a wedge between Russia and China.
I’d like to think that a comfortable majority of Europeans are well aware that a war against Russia would be a ruinous war fought on behalf of Obama, rather than a war fought in their own interest.
I’d also like to think that they would sooner drag their own US-obsequious “leaders” into the town squares and hang them than allow their countries to be a part of such a war!
While all news is on the int’l trade acronyms TPP, SCO, EEU, & so on, it’s interesting that the NAU is not dead yet.
http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/14813
With NAFTA as the foundation, the renewed push for deeper North American integration continues on many different fronts.
My opinion is that the the US will indeed use Ukraine as a battlefield and cannon fodder. With that they really hope to create a swamp like conflict for Russia an this can be achievable creating chaos but mantaining control (like you have said). But in the scenario that Russias buys time, Europe goes deeper into crisis and China moves agressivly toward dedollarization and the takeover of world economy, and if there is a crisis of interest in the oil prices, USA gonna be in a very much weaker position and the chances for succes will go thin, considering a armed conflict as at least a necessary malady to recover strength. But my real take is that i will not count an open conflict between superpowers killing each other, but playing with the minds and motivation from the population of earth, and USA has a lot of media power. It is gonna become a HUGE cultural and ideological battle , while in the battlefield, the earth will suffer more and more the slow death of it resources and the capability for sustain us. Culture and technology will make the superpowers powerful between humans. On the battlefield though, they will be very present, only without insignia. The best philosophy, technology, understanding and physical and moral prowess will make the diference. If this is THE WAR, humans will use all they have to prevail. To take us to a higher level or destroy us forever.
In the short term i believe that Russia will make Ukraine even more dependent of her putting them in position that any cut from the
these services will make huge problems and contradictions to Ukraine and make their goverment even weaker.
From the Andes
Wondering what Nikolai Shefov thinks about the Winter War when the USSR attacked Finland. Victory should have been easier, if you consider the size of the adversaries. Also since this a war showing that the USSR have been the ‘aggressor’, I am surprised that it is not more cited as sample for russian aggression.
Only Mongols got Russia, and they did not attack from the West.
Today, only Chinese can get Russia, but it doesn’t seem to be on their minds.
The Wend.
You are right.And that is why weakness by Russia is such an error.NATO has already gamed the lost of the Ukrainian Southeast.They knew it could and probably would happen.All the ranting and wringing hands is make believe on their part.They know that a nuclear Russia, when push comes to shove,is not a country they want to risk attacking.Russia’s indecision and showing weakness is what allows them to puff themselves up and look to the Western public like they are protecting them from the savage bear.Had Russia acted at the start the Western propaganda Russophobia could not have been anymore than now.The crisis would be over (since the junta would be gone).And right now Ukraine wouldn’t be at war.If we have learned anything this year we’ve learned the West will stop at nothing short of outright war to destroy Russia.And as long as Russia stands around and lets the propaganda,and fascism in Ukraine grow,I can’t be sure about the “short of” either.
Daily the Russophobia and Putin demonization gets worse.Story,after story,comes out in the West.Plot after plot to bring Russia down is tried.And is unanswered by Russia.Some people consider that a sign of strength on Russia’s part.To resist all that calmly and keep going.I don’t agree with that (though I hope its right).I see it as dripping water into a glass.Sooner or later the water overflows the glass.Letting the 5th column plot.Letting the NGO’s plot.Letting demonstrations continue to happen organized by the West.And letting the Western sanctions to continue unanswered is the dripping water.Sooner or later the glass overflows.And by then its too late to turn of the faucet without a lot of effort.
Russia’s best move so far.And the one that will help make Russia secure in the future is the pivot to the East.And that should be continued as fast as possible.Russia needs to understand that the West is gone for them right now.There is no amount of propaganda strong enough to reclaim it at the moment.If and when the reality bites in the West and the loss of Russian trade and resources hits.Then maybe it might change.But right now they need to stop wasting their time on the West.Pretend they don’t even exist.There is nothing you can’t get from the East.Russia can live without the West,they have before.And it appears they must again.It not something to freak out over.It just is something to accept and deal with.
Uncle Bob
The US sent an expeditionary force that landed in the Siberia-Far East soil. 1918.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expeditionary_Force_Siberia
Another force was sent into Arkhanglesk in 1918.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_Bear_Expedition
Considering how tentatively Eisenhower dispersed forces along the Soviet sphere in WWII, holding back Patton and his tanks, etc. it seems clear that the smart generals like Ike and Marshall knew not to poke the Bear.
They understood that containment and economic warfare was preferable. Even though they had a two year advantage in nuclear weapons, they wisely opted for hegemonic advantage rather than devastate the planet.
The neocons of course are a radical psychotic group. They love war and chaos. And they rationalize a limited nuclear war that could topple the regime they hate in Moscow.
Putin, and the general staff and Intel orgs of Russia, understand the threat and are rattling their missiles to warn that the Bear never bluffs.
I believe that Russia will defeat any attack created by using Ukies and Poles and NATO and mercs. They will also alter Ukraine forever when that war is launched if is.
And Putin will use that emergency to clean out the Liberals and fifth columnists during the brief war.
How brief? 72-96 hours. Putin is not going to take casualties in high numbers. The full fury of all defensive artillery, close air support and short range missiles will obliterate the Ukie army and whatever isn’t in a Russian or Militia uniform.
Ukraine will be splintered once and for all. You start a war, you lose your sovereignty. That’s the law if the victor wants to enforce it.
Poland will get the burden of the West Ukraine.
Ukraine used to be divided East and West bank of the Dnieper centuries ago and it will probably return to something similar.
Poland will get the west of Ukraine, in a demilitarized fashion. The East and South will be in Russia’s portfolio. If Putin leaves an integral whole, it will be a federated entity, with very weak central government.
Kiev will be an historic tourist attraction, no longer a capital city.
If the Ukies in the west fight a guerrilla war, they will be facing Kadyrov’s Chechens.
There is no future for Ukie military, NATO wet dreams and destabilization via conflict with Russia.
Ike knew it. And he understood how fast the loss column fills when Russia is attacked.
reb site casts a very jaundiced eye to the AirAsia whatever.
very telling is that it was very nearly to the day (DEC 26 & DEC 28) 10 years from the Banda Aceh tsunami.
project ‘seal’ mentioned at bottom is an actual real historic item, so how much was advanced in the 6 decades when it was first researched.
http://therebel.website/en/mike-king/827528-indonesian-air-asia-false-flag
Saker,
How many of those wars are unprovoked, and for sole purpose of expanding Russian territory at great expense of treasure and human life especially to the other parties?
And Why does Russian not understand world view of it as aggressor in world events?
How do you think regions like Chechnya will be content to staying under Russian control forever?
You have made the same awful observation as I have: “The number of well-informed commentators, politicians, blogger and observers who are predicting a war – or at least of a serious risk of war – between Russia and the USA is sharply rising.”
My gut feeling is that up to 60% of the informed predictions I have read in the past few weeks predict a NATO – Russia shooting war over Ukraine in the near future. More and more people are even predicting nuclear war, including Paul Craig Roberts.
Nikolai Starikov may be the most moderate: he proposes a mini-war, a frozen conflict to avoid a big war.
(Kristina Rus offers a very different translation of the Starikov article.)
Dear Saker,
I think you are a bit unfair to the Red Army of the 1920.
If it had not been for its foolish rash toward Warszaw, Józef Klemens Piłsudski would have been surely defeated.
Also, it was probably not an inexperienced militia, but one hardened by the civil war.
Furthermore, it was not led only by “clueless commisars”, but also by experienced commanders; unfortunately, there was a lot of quarrelling between them…
During 2014 the effects of religious persecution, social upheaval, natural disasters and war saw the rise of refugees worldwide to 50 million people, half of them children.
This is the same figure given to the number of refugees after WW2. Even without the reckoning of population growth between 1945 and 2014, it seems the AngloZionist empire has done rather well in the creation of global chaos and homelessness, and all ostensibly without WW3.
I’m glad to read your ‘quick look at history’ Saker, even if there is another devastating war, Russia will not be conquered, ever, and I am incapable of believing otherwise whether I be naïve or not.
“He considers that Russia won the first world war because no enemy ever stepped on any part of the Russian land”
That is patently false:
http://www.emersonkent.com/images/eastern_front_1917_8.jpg
http://mrshealy-usii.wikispaces.com/file/view/WWI_Map.JPG/289451919/WWI_Map.JPG
Russia losing WW1 had catastropic consequences for Czarist Russia and directly led the Jewish-led coup, falsely known as the ‘Russian revolution’.
Furthermore, WW2 had only losers, except the US. The British and French lost their empires and were devastated. Germany: no comments needed.
But even the USSR lost WW2, not in territorial sense, like the eyes of modern people, but in the eyes of Stalin himself, in the strategic sense. Stalin never appeared at the victory parades in 1945. Reason: in his own eyes he had failed to achieve his main objective of WW2, namely reaching the Atlantic coast, before the Anglos could set foot in Europe and meet him halfway. The establishment of World Communism, which from the early days had been the objective of the USSR:
http://tinyurl.com/n7cgpq7
…required that Moscow would conquer entire Europe. Stalin would not succeed and realized that the communist revolution would eventually fail to reach its objective.
In the spring of 1941, the entire USSR was in state of total mobilization. Millions of troops were ordered to move to the German frontier to prepare for the final assault against Europe, planned for ca. July 10, 1941. This movement of troops was detected by the Germans, who decided not to wait and deal the first blow themselves, three weeks before the Soviets could, which was the only reason why they almost made it to Moscow: it was German price shooting of Russian troops and war equipment from the air over congested roads and railway tracks. The initial German advance was breathtaking for this reason. Stuck before the gates of Moscow in the mud, they were eventually defeated by the Russian winter and US aid to the USSR.
The Germans had merely 4,000 tanks, the Soviets 30,000 vastly superior T-30 tanks. The Germans were badly prepared for the winter, only wearing thin cloths. They had fuel problems. In other words, like Japan/Pearl Harbor, Barbarossa was a desperate attempt to stave of defeat and the only meager hope the Germans had was to reach Moscow, so they could dissolve the ‘evil empire’, before the Americans would appear in Europe.
It was a close call. What probably made the difference, was the British invasion of Thessaloniki/Greece, early 1941, with the intention to threaten the only ‘gas station’ available to the Germans: Ploesti, Romania. This British move forced the Germans to invade the Balkans and Greece, which was precisely the intention of the British, in full coordination with Stalin, so the latter had more time to prepare for his assault. this British move costed the Germans three valuable months, which caused them NOT to reach Moscow before the onset of winter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Clv-c6QdBs
http://www.amazon.com/Chief-Culprit-Stalins-Grand-Design-ebook/dp/B00BKRWZIM/ref=sr_1_1
http://www.amazon.com/Assured-Victory-Stalin-Great-Peace-ebook/dp/B005Z523TG/ref=sr_1_4
Kind regards,
Dutch
“I’d like to think that a comfortable majority of Europeans are well aware that a war against Russia would be a ruinous war fought on behalf of Obama, rather than a war fought in their own interest.”
There is zero chance of a European mobilization against Russia over Donbass or Crimea, and as long as Putin manages to stay out of Ukraine, not much can happen. But, please, please, do not invade Ukraine. Putin obviously is aware of this.
Points of risk could be the Russian population in the Baltic states. What would Russia do if western war mongers would start to agitate against the Russian minority there?
Kind regards,
Dutch
Excuse me, but in my first post I should have put this Albert Weeks link:
http://www.amazon.com/Stalins-Other-War-Strategy-1939-1941-ebook/dp/B00E8TPFDQ/ref=pd_sim_sbs_kstore_1
Kind regards,
Dutch
Biggest began during during WWI. The external orchestrated Bolshevik revolution was a great defeat for the Russians that led to the slaughter of millions by their own.
There would be no winners if it becomes direct confrontation. Just a question of who will lose the most.
And one other thing, Nuclear ICBMs do not care what season it is.
I don’t think the people in charge of the USA are nearly insane enought to start a direct war with Russia. They can and will try to make the Ukraine into a more and more rabid bulldog, but Russia probably feels it can handle rabid Ukrainians, especially because rabid ukrainians will be harder and harder to find if ever a REAL war starts between Ukraine and Russia, no matter the level of NATO help.
Bottom line is, you need people on the ground and we wonder what brave country is going to invade Russia. It’s all sheer bravado. The torch-carrying banderites are going to do that? Please.
Hell, Hitler had the best army in the world, best equipment, best everything, and threw the best he had at Russia, 4 million men or more. Then he threw the kitchen sink too. It wasn’t that long ago. Russia chewed up and digested the whole thing in about 2.5 years. Where are 4 million men going to come from today to fight against Russia? Really, a military attack on Russia is out of the question. What they will try and keep on trying is “regime change” by any means at their disposal. This is where the Russians need to be extremely alert and watchful of their fifth column, which has always been a feature of some Rusian elites.
On a side note, length of time undefeated is not by itself a good predictor of future things, unless we are speaking only of defensive ability, which Russia has in spades.
For example, in the 16th and 17th centuries, when battles were almost constant all over Europe, the Spanish armed forces went virtually undefeated (on land)for well over 150 years thanks to the “tercio” units. But that was a pretty offensive army, and when they finally lost their edge, they lost it for good, and the record didn’t help any more.
It boggles the mind to think there may exist people who believe the US/NATO could muster a force coherent and efficient enough to be capable of doing today what the Germans could not do 75 years ago.
I fully agree with your level headed analysis.
As much as the anglo-zionist empire may hate Russia and want to see her destroyed, there is also a reality they have to contend with.
They are doing the best they can so as to foster regime change if at all possible.
Now more realistically, the imperialists would just settle with delaying Russia’s inevitable rise to great power status once again.
The Madness of the Demi-Gods
I would be cautious to present the past as a guaranty of the future. Numbers mislead, the question is the other sides perception. For the madmen at wall-street not even the sky is the limit. Their experience is that with all their numbers – if you just get the right combination – you can win over anybody. The corruption is seeded deep into all people on earth and what good are the highest walls around a city if paid traitor just opens the gates…
Please do not underestimate the enemy in wars there are no rules and to many unknowns to be sure of anything.
That is how the Demigods like to prove them self – win the unattainable. From their own perspective their only enemy is fear no other reality can stop them – a frightening dangerous mindset.
Q
“anonymous”
Currently, much of Africa and the Middle-East are mired in imperialist sparked wars.
However, the most dangerous conflicts -before history – are the ones in Europe.
Europe has been the epicenter of imperialist rivalry; and, lately, it is the center of imperialist assault on Russia, and her allys and potential allies (the assault on Yugoslavia’s Serbs are one example).
Russia is being assaulted economically and politically by an alliance of American, Anglo, and Zionist Oligarchs.
When you play with fire……. Wars begun in Europe are very dangerous. The World Wars, although begun in Europe, spread globally, and slaughtered tens of millions.
For Russia, which staged a strategic retreat in 1990, there is no more ground they may yield if they wish to avoid the total dismantling of their nation and nationality (and suffer the resulting impoverishment and enslavement of their people).
Vladimir Putin’s government has no room to retreat; there lies the danger. The proto-fascists, and their front NATO, are, like Hitler’s Germans before them, expecting and demanding the impossible. Can you see the danger?
The American Oligarchs must be effectively opposed from within the Belly of the Beast. And the maturation of that domestic resistance is as vital, actually more imperative, than the needed refusal to surrender from without (by the Russians and Chinese).
The Chinese leaders remain handicapped by their totalitarian centralized (pyramidized) government. They need to involve their people in a Republican form of electoral democracy, in order to obtain more of the moral high road as they resist imperialist efforts to dismember their nation.
The Russian government sports a functional (still needing more polishing), Republican Democracy of multi idea and multi party electoral culture. Therein lies much of the moral high ground occupied by President Vladimir Putin (that drives the imperialist propagandists wild).
The principal mouthpiece of the American and Zionist Oligarchs, the “New York Times,” has lately featured five and six major articles and editorials, daily, all foaming at the mouth with impotent fury against Putin.
These attacks are only partially effective (Americans will usually believe anything they are told by their controlling oligarchs), but these anti-Russian attacks have, in the past, during the Stalin era, been much more effective. Denigrating Stalin and his Bureaucrats was easy. They cannot as easily explain Democratic Russia and its elected leaders, (and its carismatic President who holds so many open Press Conferences and communicates so well with his people).
Ironically, the explanation for the inability of the American People to resist their criminal Oligarchs is precisely because of their having lost their political freedoms and liberty on November 22, 1963.
Political slaves cannot defeat world imperialism. They were not able to do it in Russia in 1990, and they will not be able to do it today. They won’t be able to do it in post Castro Cuba.
Only Free People can defend Freedom. The heroic and successful efforts at liberation by the citizens of Crimea and Novorossia were underscored by the successful achievement of electoral efforts by their citizens of nascent Democratic Republics; their citizens were put in motion by the VISION, and were effectively willing and able to defend their gains, as a Peoples in Arms.
The VISION must not be surrendered; it is as valuable in opposing the totalitarian Oligarchs as the courage of the Novorossian Partisans and that of the Russian Army, (and it is responsible for that courage).
The VISION of a free people, politically and economically empowered, is what will defeat the imperialists.
Peter J. Antonsen
For the Democratic Republic!
For Durruti and all who have died defending a Democratic Republic!
IMAGINE
Hi Peter,
Thanks for your input. May I ask you to elaborate on the liberty lost on November 22, 1963 ?
Will Russia sit and wait to be attacked? Not necessarily if history is a guide.
1700: Russia attacked Sweden as part of a coalition.
1811: Alexander I. tried to enlist Prussia and Austria in a preventive war against France. Napoleon discovered this, attacked.
1941: Stalin dismantled Western defenses, organized biggest offensive buildup in history, spoke of attack to graduates in Kremlin on May 5 (W. Resun.
I hope the politicians in Washington appreciate the fact that the American public has zero interest in another war, especially with a major power like Russia and for no discernible good reason.
However, I don’t think the 34/31 statistic really proves much by itself because you don’t know how the various sides compare. For example, WWII and the U.S. attack on Grenada could both count as a “war” in such a statistic. Also, such a statistic doesn’t explain the “Why”. And nobody wins a nuclear war regardless– at least that is my belief.
Has anybody heard more details about this?
From fortrussblog
..on January 15.. anti-Russian government protests are expected to be held in Moscow and around the world..
@Anonymous 02 January, 2015 19:40
“Russia has two great allies. Winter and vast amounts of land where Russians can retreat, regroup and spring back when the invader’s supply lines become way too long and unsustainable.”
True, but this conflict, which has already started, is as yet (by the socalled West) fought primarily with economic, diplomatic and legal means and with superior propaganda. Russia answers with domestic production of important goods and by challenging the financial control systems of the West. I dont know about Swift, but Visa and Mastercard will soon be replaced in Russia. If real war starts, it will be nuclear.
In this age, warfare is not as it was in the past. In Chechnya, Moscow learned the next generation warfare and we saw an improved version in Crimea. It was taken over with hardly a shot fired. Add to that that the Russian defence forces have been modernized.
I can certainly not see the US or the EU sending a million man army against Russia, winter or no winter. I know what happened in ww2, I hate that war, but I cant see that happening again. That means neither winter nor geography is what protects Russia today. Good leadership, a sound culture and rich resources do.
With that in mind, you should take a look at the empire, the opposing force. Do you see good leadership, a sound culture and rich resources?
Saker, I’m sure you heard about the murder(?) of Bednov of LNR brigade Batmen. Immediatly there are again these conspiracies that the oligarchs which are ruling Rossija (lol, not really) are behind this and that Putin sold Novorossija for the 57473th time and all this typical nonsense. I really don’t know Plotnitsky, but why should he be in bed with any oligarchs which are controlling Putin? (another big lol)
Of course it’s possible and also likely that he is trying to take people which he don’t like out of the game, but what has Rossija to do with him? I’m also quite sure that the Kremlin (the pro-Eurasian part) isn’t to happy about the statements from Plotnitsky that he want’s Lugansk in the Russian Federation. And also who know’s which crap these military commanders did.
Can’t say I agree on WWI. Russia was in a very bad place by 1917, which helped the Bolshevik fifth column to take over. And when they took over they signed the Brest-Litovsk peace – in fact a capitulation.
And when you look at Stalin, he behaved much like a leader of a previously beaten nation – he did everything to correct the major deficiencies of WWI. Russia lost WWI on the industrial front and because of treason within. He focused everything into the armaments industry (the German tank industry was consistently outproduced by the Soviet one), and in crushing any idea of treason.
The idea of attacking a nuclear Russia is quite insane, though. Even provoking it is extremely dangerous, which tells us a lot about the state of the Empire and its leaders. Even if they are complete psychos they wouldn’t be playing with fire if they did not think the Empire is about to crumble.
has anybody ever considered that Christian and Jewish fundamentalists actually wish for the end times scenario to take place?
To cries of hallelujah preachers hail the new strategic era – the period when the Temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt . But first a terrible war will take place between the U.S. and the evil king of the North ( Russia, the place of the throne of satan) and Russia will be destroyed. God himself will come to power and glory and kill him in a flash and carry out the Last Judgement.
You couldn’t make this stuff up, but it’s looking like the Jewish fundamentalists and Christian ones have some, ahem power in the world, no?
Counter to logic, this one. Not sure Russia (or anybody except believers) would win this war.
Significant development… one of the most senior Australian politicians Fraser has called the US a ‘dangerous ally’:
https://deepresource.wordpress.com/2015/01/02/america-australias-dangerous-ally/
He is afraid that Australia could be caught in the middle of a future Chinese-American conflict. Fraser clearly does not believe in a second American Century. And he more or less chooses the side of the Russians over Ukraine.
Here is another potential defector in the making of the US empire.
The geopolitical picture for Russia is getting better with every day.
And January 15, a meeting is planned again between the foreign secretaries of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine, which is also good news.
Kind regards,
Dutch
I think one serious russian loss is omitted – again from Poland but in 1604. I think everyone here knows about time of troubles so I will not elaborate about historical events but rather on strategy and using internal weakness.
Military confrontation with Russia by any state than PRC is out of the question simply because it is too costly. But deliberately rotting Russia political and financial system is a safer and more efficent way to relevate it to regional power status. I remember polish former foreign minister Radek Sikorski once said to Condolezza Rice when she asked if Poland needs additional 300 million dollars to support opposition media in Belarus that for this kind of money he could easily coup Lukashenko and bring him tied up and gagged to the White House.
After another colorful revolution in Ukraine and Victoria Nuland revelations that seems like a fair price. How much toppling Russia power and staging a coup would cost? I suppose something around three magnitudes higher – at least this is what polish OSW said. However would it be actually needed?
The answer is no – very simple, because there is not single one political entity in Russia ready to seize power and become a western lapdog. Aside from one russia pragmatists, there are only far right and far left – incompatible with any sort of cooperation with the west and far more hostile. Also the chaos variant were no power is left that was done with Libya, Syria or Iraq does not work with nuclear states – the risk is far too big.
Putin is thus Russia biggest asset as there is no alternative to him, but also there is no real working alternative for Russia than cooperation with the west. Sooner or later he will be pinned down by sanctions so much he will have to compromise – the same goes with the west especially EU part as both are very much perfectly compatible. Europe needs raw resources and Russia needs technology – both would naturally become good business partners with very big dissatisfaction form the US.
From my perspective this big turmoil that happened in Ukraine is short-term beneficial for Poland. Crimea annexation made it impossible for the next few years to work Germany and Russia with business as usual perspective ignoring Poland and Baltics agendas slipping into isolation. For the first time Poland has tactical nuclear weapons via NATO nuclear sharing – and thus came a lot of military investment for necessary infrastructure after decision to finally build missle shield. Ukraine which was always treated more like a potential enemy than ally is weakened to almost brink of a collapse and Russia suffered a lot in terms of economy. This makes Poland’s position far higher than before Maidan – the best interest is to continue conflict in Donbass further weakening both sides and milking US support over this case.
I do not negate possibility that some sort of short war will errupt with Ukraine as a proxy against Donbass or Crimea – whatever happens this will be a “safe” war for both NATO and EU.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-12-31/inside-obamas-secret-outreach-to-russia
“…the White House turned to an old friend of Putin’s for help. The White House called on former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to discuss having him call Putin directly…Kerry has seemed more enthusiastic about mending ties with Russia than Obama himself…”
Those are awesome stats. I’m glad Russia is a winner because the world needs her now more than ever.
That being said, I am depressed that so many wars were fought involving just one country. What has become of us? We were created as lovers. How did we become killers by outright commission or cowardly omission?
More or less, most big wars of the last 500 years have been (central) banker’s wars, leading to the current one world order with US-sionists at the top.
I’m no military analyst but as the North American continent is surrounded by protecting oceans Russia has such a huge land mass that retreating and drawing out any invader and their supply lines is an equally daunting obstacle. Better the failing western financial masters of the universe threw away thoughts of world domination and planned for a world of cooperation in many areas and competition in others between giants.
This shocking talk brings together
an account of the 9/11 tragedy
that is far more logical than the
one we’ve been asked to believe.
Gathering stories from the
mainstream press, reports from
other countries, the work of other
researchers, and the contradictory
words of US government officials,
David Ray Griffin presents a case
that leaves very little doubt that
the attacks of 9/11 need to be
further investigated.
Disturbing facts emerge that put
into serious question the official
story and reveal an enormous
deception. Packed with bonus
features, expert analysis, in-depth
commentary and unforgettable
conclusions about this tragic event
in American history.
“A devastating expose’ of the myths
and lies in the official conspiracy theory
about 9/11, Griffin scrutinizes the
timeline and physical evidence of
September 11 for unresolved
inconsistencies.” – PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY.
Video Total: (106 mins)
9/11: The Myth and the Reality – Full Talk
http://www.ForbiddenKnowledgeTV.com/page/26931.html
I just finished reading Larchmonter 445’s comment and it rings true. How utterly foolish of the 3rd Reich to attack all of Russia with a mere 5 million men no matter how well trained and equipped. But the 3rd Reich was the western financial masters reply to their earlier bank rolling of the Soviets as replacement for the central bank denying Czars.The western bankers could plat these games ad nauseam until nuclear weapons forced a change of tactics or else self immolation along with all else would have been the outcome.
Dutch wrote:
The Germans had merely 4,000 tanks, the Soviets 30,000 vastly superior T-30 tanks.
Hitler said that when he unexpectedly visited Helsinki, but do we know it is true? I listened to his conversation with Mannerheim on youtube and was struck by the fact he didn’t shout. His voice was different.
“The Germans were badly prepared for the winter, only wearing thin cloths.”
That is true. Germany planned for a summer war, but was delayed in the Balkans (thanks Serbia). A German weatherman said the winter would be mild and Hitler said he would provide heat for soldiers. I don’t know what he planned to use, mind power or sorcery, but he failed. The soldiers suffered.
The reason why Operation Barbarossa was postponed from May to June, was not the extremely brief campaign against Yugoslavia and Greece, which required relatively small numbers of troops and equipment.
The reason was that the spring rains rendered the Russian steppes impassable. The Germans simply had to wait for the summer heat and dry the land.
@Russia won the first world war because no enemy ever stepped on any part of the Russian
It was rather a draw. If we consider that the breaking up of the Tsarist empire was the principal aim of the War, then it achieved only a limited success. The civil war ended in the creation of the Soviet Union, which in 20 years recovered all the territories lost (including the clearing of the Far East of the American and Japanese expeditionary forces).
WWII was a repetition of WWI with the same success(the West did not learn the lesson of WWI). Russia cannot simply be broken up.
Apparently the West is incapable to learn from history and seems prepared to repeat the mistakes of the past with far dire consequences that in the past.
Anonymous 02 January, 2015 20:39 wrote:
“Wondering what Nikolai Shefov thinks about the Winter War when the USSR attacked Finland. Victory should have been easier, if you consider the size of the adversaries. Also since this a war showing that the USSR have been the ‘aggressor’, I am surprised that it is not more cited as sample for russian aggression.”
As I understand Putin, he has said the attack on Finland was a mistake. There was no need to conquer Finland and the sovjet generals did not know what they were up against. Every bridge in the east was mined and thousands of sovjet soldiers lost their lives in vain crossing them (one in my family) before they could fire a shot. The Finns partly used guerilla tactics. Soldiers on ski in white winter uniforms attacked and withdrew. The sovjet generals were replaced and the first war was won eventually, but the second war meant the Sovjetunion could not concentrate all its forces against Germany.
The Finns say the Swedes abandoned them, but if you had asked Molotov, he would have told you the war was a Swedish war. In fact, he did. There were not many Swedish volunteers, but the massive military support did make a difference. Well, what do you expect when the USSR was aggressive and attacked its neighbours. Moscow made a big mistake. Several cities in neutral Sweden were bombed.
The two wars concern me a lot. The northern countries have common roots and I can count relatives in all of them.
Anonymous @ 02 January, 2015 22:28 “I can certainly not see the US or the EU sending a million man army against Russia, winter or no winter. I know what happened in ww2, I hate that war, but I cant see that happening again. That means neither winter nor geography is what protects Russia today. Good leadership, a sound culture and rich resources do.
With that in mind, you should take a look at the empire, the opposing force. Do you see good leadership, a sound culture and rich resources?”
We have seen the longest war in US history, Afghanistan, supposedly ending this week.
This War was as costly or more than the Iraq war because of the long supply lines through hostile Pashtun held territory . The Empire has a formidable Navy that proved to be nearly useless in Afghanistan. It needed to secure landing rights and free passage into the Stans and required some cooperation from Russia. But its ultimate objective was to dominate a strategic piece of real estate in Central Asia. Air power alone and drones do not win wars. This was proven in the Balkans war and against ISIS. A land invasion is always necessary.
The empire and the propaganda only works if and while the standard of living of the populace is not eroded too fast. As soon as the dream vanishes the melting pot and multicultural accommodation breaks down and there is no propaganda that can fix it.
You are mistaken to say that Soviet Russia “lost…badly” the Russo-Polish war in 1920. In April 1920 Poland launched a major offensive intended to seize the Russian borderlands and in particular Kiev to reestablish its 1772 frontiers. In May the Polish army occupied Kiev; three weeks later it was forced out by a Red Army counteroffensive which drove the Poles back to the outskirts of Warsaw. There the tide of battle turned again and the Red Army in its turn was driven back. However, it was near-run thing and at the end of the fighting in October 1920, the Poles held less territory than they they did in April when they began their offensive with tacit French support by the way. The outcome of the war was something of a draw. The Poles occupied territories with majority Ukrainian and Byelorrussian populations which they lost in 1939.
It is true that most invaders of Russia have done badly. Even the Mongols were eventually driven out. In 1918 the Soviet government denounced the treaty of Brest-Litovsk and the Germans withdrew fearing the Bolshevisation of their armies. The Allied intervention (1818-1921)also failed. The Japanese withdrew from Vladivostok in 1922.
If there is any lesson to be learned, it is that to make war agst Russia is unwise and almost always leads to catastrophe for the aggressor.
You are mistaken to say that Soviet Russia “lost…badly” the Russo-Polish war in 1920. In April 1920 Poland launched a major offensive intended to seize the Russian borderlands and in particular Kiev to reestablish its 1772 frontiers. In May the Polish army occupied Kiev; three weeks later it was forced out by a Red Army counteroffensive which drove the Poles back to the outskirts of Warsaw. There the tide of battle turned again and the Red Army in its turn was driven back. However, it was near-run thing and at the end of the fighting in October 1920, the Poles held less territory than they they did in April when they began their offensive with tacit French support by the way. The outcome of the war was something of a draw. The Poles occupied territories with majority Ukrainian and Byelorrussian populations which they lost in 1939.
It is true that most invaders of Russia have done badly. Even the Mongols were eventually driven out. In 1918 the Soviet government denounced the treaty of Brest-Litovsk and the Germans withdrew fearing the Bolshevisation of their armies. The Allied intervention (1818-1921)also failed. The Japanese withdrew from Vladivostok in 1922.
If there is any lesson to be learned, it is that to make war agst Russia is unwise and almost always leads to catastrophe for the aggressor.
russian lost 27 millions in second world war while anglos lost only 0.9 millions .so the anglos won in the second world war against russians whom they killed en mass through german army.though the russians won the second world war the rteal enemy of russia the englishs cumbags did nto have to sacrifice themselves but used germans to kill russians.
the same way they are killing thousands yearly in iraq and syria.
would you still be as hapopy if the russians lose that number with anglos safe int heir english land- or should Russia not kill the english scum–b–ags now with massive nuke attack and stop all the wars for ever?
the very fact that Anglos ever dare to think of war against nuclear Russia shows how much anglos are assured of weak leadership in russia and how much those anglos have planned all the maneuverer in advance-because anglos never venture when they think they may loss their limbs or life.
Saker, I haven’t finished your article because I just wanted to say to you,
You are my favorite commentator and journalist BECAUSE you are skeptical about NATO’s and the US’s ability to go to war.
If not for you, the alternative media audience would by now be in the same situation, on the other side as MSM audience…
Alternative Media beats a war drum, just like MSM.
If it was that simple for the US and NATO to go to war, then they would have done so.
They have been threatening Iran forever but have not dared an actual attack.
This is just one example.
Yes, now I’ve finished it and yes, Saker, you’ve done it again.
There is mass hysteria in the Alternative Media community, started by the so called dissenters. Same as Ebola. And many of these alternative commentators don’t publish anything but one view…its disappointing, but there it is.
Thanks Saker and I look forward to the whole year at your side.
Right after the coup in the Ukraine, I speculated here that the ZPC/NWO plan was to draw Russia into the Ukraine in another Afghan scenario they would not be able to win. I still think that is the plan, though I think Crimea’s early escape was not a part of it, and that is why it rankles so. I still think the zionazis/nazis are working up “low intensity” war options, not full scale conflict (some neocon bum bandits excluded, who adolescently still think they are immortal and untouchable, live in a fantasy world, and who don’t make the final decisions).
Shefov’s statistical tally of Russia’s wars is interesting. I’ve never seen it laid out before like that. Most histories of Russia/USSR are by western propag…”historians” and they tend to concentrate Russian defeats and pile on the horse manure extra thick besides (like that gay nazi claim that the USSR was planning to attack Germany in 1941 that keeps making the rounds among Israel’s “historically enlightened”).
вот так
to the anonymous regarding 9/11…
Has anyone here read Dr. Judy Woods’ book about “Where Did the Towers Go”
Its about directed energy using in part Tesla’s discoveries with magnetc fields and laser…anyway Dr Woods is highly qualified to judge images from 9/ll and has actually be ostracized BY the 9/11 community for questioning their reasoning behind mini – nukes and controlled demolition… check out her website “Where Did the Towers Go?” for another better discussion of 9/11…best so far.
Kudos to Dutch! His narrative of the real and hidden history of WW2 deserves great emphasis. Everyone should re-read his comments, especially the first one.
The Saker is still regurgitating the tabloid history of WW2 as told via Hollywood movies and the lamestream media, i.e., hardback books and television programs about WW2.
What allowed Stalin to turn the tide during the War on the Eastern Front (which by the way was more than 90% of WW2 in the European theater, Private Ryan not withstanding) was the Japanese assurance that they wouldn’t attack Russia’s rear flank in the East. This pivotal assurance allowed Stalin to mobilize the entire Russian Army to fight against the already badly outnumbered Germans. Leaving HIS eastern front almost completely unprotected. Yankee’s “land-lease” program of supplying Stalin with lots of heavy military hardware also helped tremendously.
Today, history is rhyming once again and this time it is China that is protecting Russia’s rear flank. Russia today is completely undefeatable.
The only question as to whether Russia will survive WW3 is this: “Are those ABMs defending Moscow nuclear tipped or conventional?” (Yankees are stupid to “shoot bullets with bullets”; they never have heard of Missile Command???). And are there sufficient number of these Russian (nuclear tipped) ABMs protecting the other major Russian cities?
Everyone: Stalin’s Communist Russia (led by many Jewish leaders) is NOT the same as Putin’s Russia (led by many Christians).
Search online for the book “Icebreaker” by Viktor Suvorov for the real story of who really started WW2.
Are you somehow trying to argue that the Germans were the victims of WWII?
The American lend lease program to the USSR was not as massive as you (as well as many other anti-Soviet) make it sound. All in all, it amounted to around 10% of Soviet industrial output throughout the war period.
Japanese assurance or not, the Soviets had to keep at least seven hundred thousand troops in the Far East in case the Japanese ever attacked. Keep also in mind that most Japanese troops were fighting in China and not in the Pacific Islands as Hollywood movies would have you believe.
If the Germans were outnumbered in WWII it was all their fault since they started the war in the first place. But in reality, their numerical disadvantage was not as great as the German generals wanted the world to believe. In matter of fact, most of Europe colluded or actively allied itself with the Germans.
One more thing. Why is a country that is allegedly led by some Jews inherently worse than a country that is led by Christians?
By your logic, Nazi Germany was morally superior to the USSR, and we should be sad that the latter defeated the former.
Some good news that hopefully is the beginning of taking some wind out of U.S. warmongering tail. And that is Steven Seagal and now Oliver Stone speaking out about Russia and or UA.
http://rt.com/news/219211-stone-ukraine-us-policy/
http://rt.com/news/218899-stone-kiev-massacre-cia/
Larchmonter445, agree with you all the way.
Furthermore in my mind, President Putin is doing everything perfectly. I doubt very much he cares about those who consider him weak. He cares about his people and not the second guessers or those demonizing him.
4th June, 2007.
President Putin is wrong when he says that russia should or will target the missile on europe if america goes with anti missile defence plan in Europe.
Russia with massive nukes must target england because this cold war -like the one before- is being started by england for the benefit of english race only-.it is race war between the english parasite race versus the rest of the world-the sooner the rest of the world realizes that better it is for the world.
look how Germany wes vilified soon after fall of soviet union-look how russia is being vilified immediately after Putin made russia strong.
in fact it was not America but england which asked for ABM against Russia. BBc spy journalists were harassing presidential candidate Gore not to go ahead with Florida recount on ground” ally like britian want to conclude AMB deployment in Yorkshire as soon as possible so there should be no delay in govt. formation.in other word accept fraudulent win of bush for sake of england ! “
-such is the evil propaganda of British spies inside america. .
poland is nothing but a proxy for the british bastards.
It is no use targeting Poland -target the main villain which is england and the english nation which must be stopped now.
The problem is not invasion but occupation of a country.
The blackmail right now moved from the Crimea to financial support of the Ukraine.Even to ‘war reparations'(500 billions asked by the US).
The West(mainly the US)are asking RF to pay for this failed country,because they just realized too late,that it is going out of proportions,some talk about hundreds of billions USD/EUR to keep the Ukraine alive and to rebuild it,transform it into a Western country with up to date industries(2015/2020) etc…
Neither the EU which is near a total collapse(deflation,elections in southern countries in 2015 with very high ‘risk’of victory of anti EU/EURO parties,mass unemployment)..neither the US almost as bankrupted as the EU(but they can print and restart their QE at any time if necessary),will pay this massive ukie bill.Even with nice prospects of Monsanto and Oil profits in the future.
I’m sure that RF is not interested at all to pay Ukies debts(they still have enough pending).They will continue to use the Donbass to protect Crimea from an Ukie/Nato proxy attack.
Unfortunately for the people of NR,RF don’t need them in RF.
It would be too expensive to handle.
Putin can not abandon Assad in exchange of some kind of easing in the Ukraine,because it would mean on the medium term the end of the european gaz market for Gazprom as the Qataris would build their pipelines via Syria.
I confirm that EU politicians will never be able to sell to their people a real hot war against RF.
Or it would be necessary to have a ‘major’ false flag before,but a real major one,with thousand or more deaths(nuclear plan?).A MH17 power 100.
The main problem now is more inside the Ukraine,the warmongers at the Vrada have zero solution to provide to their people.
How can the Yats,Poro and co justify the total collapse of the Ukie economy and the ukie society?
Put the blame on these bloody russians,war is their only way out,if at least the Donbass does not come back in the Ukraine.They could sell the idea of a later war(‘one day’)for Crimea if their US masters say so.
I don’t see another Maidan happening any time soon as people who are not nazis(the majority)are so afraid of the Nazis and PS,they would need to be in a state of total despair to risk their life.
Nuclear war is impossible.Even if Obama and the Neocons are crazy,the Pentagone will never obey to such an order(same for the Russian military).
Military have cold heads,and do not react as the politicians on the emotional way.
Boots on the ground,ok maybe in the Ukraine on a soft way,but the West will never attack RF(we have elections in 2016).Merkel is becoming every day a little bit more neocon,as she will leave politics soon,she does not care a lot about reelection.Cameron has an election coming up in May,going at war against RF being a good point for a reelection?I don’t think so.
@Peter J. Antonsen
The Chinese leaders remain handicapped by their totalitarian centralized (pyramidized) government. They need to involve their people in a Republican form of electoral democracy, in order to obtain more of the moral high road as they resist imperialist efforts to dismember their nation.
The CPC control is from top down, not a pyramid up.
It depends on performance for approval. If the nation does not perform, the Party risks reaction.
Chinese population is volatile when unhappy.
Over the years of opening up, 35+ years now, two full generations have experienced and studied “democracy”. It is not a desired goal. Every poll by the Western pollsters can’t get the reaction they want. China is not in pursuit of Democracy. The people are in pursuit of wealth.
Wealth and stability is desired by vast numbers of Chinese.
The meticulous ascension to leadership in China has to be studied to be appreciated. They don’t put the nation into the hands of political hacks or wannabes. They choose very carefully over decades of observation of performance the most qualified men and women for top posts.
The seven leaders now in the Standing Committee have each led Provinces, enormous populations and tremendous change and development during those years. The two top guys were in VP roles, Xi and Li. There is nothing anywhere in the world like how leaders are elevated by the CPC.
And their work product is formally studied by thousands of others all along the way. It is reviewed every year. There’s a five year plan and they have milestones and benchmarks.
The performance of state owned enterprises, and the big banks and the PLA, etc., are carefully studied. They weed out bad actors. Not just for corruption but for bad performance.
And now they have Weibo, the Internet. They have hundreds of millions of eyeballs, voices and cameras capturing opinion and networking it in a flash. Even if they quickly censor something, a hundred million people can see on Weibo tweet in a flash. Usually, things stay up and get spread around for twenty minutes before the Great Firewall censors take it down.
They have all the freedom of any nation. They don’t ache for voting in billion dollar rigged phony two party system elections.
Young women, badly in need of a marriage according to custom, are not marrying now. You know why? They want to get wealthy first.
The government allows more than one child and not everyone is having that second child. Imagine that.
China may lose its spiritual base to materialism, but they have more Christians than Communist Party members. Even though the big crosses on Churches are being taken down.
China is not what you read about or see in the West. You have to get past the West’s bullish*t filter and seek out sources of info from the other side.
CCTV 9, on cable would be good for some things.
Lots of good stuff on Global Times.com.
From America a news aggregator chinaversusa.com has lots of articles, tagged by subject, and news sources.
From China:
ChinaDaily.com.cn
Xinhua (http://www.news.cn/english/)
China.org.cn
english.Caixin.com
SCMP.com (anti-government)
There’s a huge list available Chinaverusa.com
In fact China’s meteoric progress of the last few decades was only made possible by its Communist “dictatorship”
If there is one thing that severely handicaps developing countries, that something is liberalism and “democracy”
This debate has definitively been put to bed.
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/helme040507.htm.
5th april, 2007.
That the fight against communist russia was not about communism but against another race is clear from this article inform canda in which the anglosaxon author unashamedly calls for anglosaxon insitgated new cold war and may be world war even if they can get away with it.
it is really a fight between the evil anglosaxon race and the rest of the world including the west which really includes europe and which is also target of england –the leader of this anglosaxon cabal.
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/helme040507.htm.
“
Off Topic Question: I have a friend who has been to Estonia and has told me that “You wouldn’t believe what the Russian propaganda is like.” Very aggressive. Does anyone know in fact what it is like in the Baltic states. I would suspect I have to consider the source on this one.
Either Russia, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Iran, Indonesia, Egypt and other large developing countries stand together or they hang separately.
The writing is on the wall. 3rd world war started by england is already on for last 3 years-only the victims like Russia, china and India are stupidly blissfully oblivious of this.
The england and her stooge US does not tolerate any potential peer competitor and would not give up her control and subversion of other countries. All plots are made in London to be fulfilled by English proxies like good old usa, and now muslims sunni terrorists like british Saudi created ISIS, Taliban and al nusra.
, along with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the English and Obama regimes created, trained and funded the terror group known as the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL), allowed them to rampage throughout both Syria and Iraq, then labelled them an existential threat, and is currently waging war against them along with their EU allies and Sunni monarchy lapdogs.
The england and its stooge US (and its allies) both support and fight ISIS, ISIL, IS at the same time, in Syria, Iraq and wherever else they brew it. End result? Chaos but chaos which serves a purpose: out of chaos comes a divide and conquer type of new world dominance, hegemony kind a chaos. Brilliant hey?
We are living in a topsy – turvy world, where might is right, evil is good.
Taliban -”Cowards”
The western reporter “why??”
Taliban man ”The Russians at least had the bravery to face us”
“The Americans and british hide behind American skirts and call in air-support so that they try to destroy us by air attack from a far to make it easy for their soldiers”
“and we used to have stringer missiles in 80s so you can see soviet bravery “
Peter Antonsen,
China has a better moral base already. Wealth, stability, and a relative meritocracy versus the West’s democracy, world destabilization, and an entrenched oligarchy.
To appreciate this, you first have to realize that the West’s propaganda about China is like what it is for Russia: full of lies. Here is a Chinese VC’s take on why the Chinese government is well run and quite adaptable.
http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_x_li_a_tale_of_two_political_systems?language=en
The percentage of high officials in China with rich or connected parents is quite low, say, 10%. Compare that with the US. There is a very serious crackdown on corruption going on in China. When is the last time that happened in the US or France or Australia?
Dear Saker
————–
The West has declared a cold war on Russia. The ultimate goal of the United States of America is to destroy Russia. The Americans already consider plans about the neutralization of the nuclear potential of Russia. Plan A is to strike a blow that would behead Russia. Plan B is to destroy the launcher. President of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, Konstantin Sivkov, shared his views about the developing standoff between Russia and the West in an interview with Pravda.Ru.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/71506
————————————
When will you, the Russian media or we who support multipolar world, we who don’t want that USA wipes Russia off the map say:
When will Germany, Spain or Norway or whoever stop listening to her present colonial master America?
Dear Saker, if we cannot use that kind of language than our struggle is futile.
Anonymous said…02 January, 2015 21:37
“The Germans had merely 4,000 tanks, the Soviets 30,000 vastly superior T-30 tanks.”
LOL, this tank?
http://www.o5m6.de/t_40.html
“The Red Army’s need of tanks was so great that even weak tanks were needed badly. To increase the output of T-40’s, the factory simplified construction of the vehicle. First of all, all the amphibious features and radio were removed. In July, 60 modernised tanks were built. According to archival documents, those tanks had the same name, but after the war they were renamed T-40S (where “S” means “sukhoputniy” or “overland”). The hull silhouette of the modernised tank was left unchanged. In spite of frequent requests, the armament of the T-40S wasn’t changed. From July 1941, the factory started producing the T-40S with flat rear armor plate (i.e. without a cavity for a screw propeller). Frontal and side armor of the hull was increased to 15 mm, and the frontal and side turret armor was increased to 20 mm. The vehicle had fully welded armor of homogenous steel. Unofficially, this vehicle received the “030” or T-30 designation. From September 1941, some production T-30’s were armed with the 20 mm ShVAK automatic tank gun (with 750 rounds of ammunition), which was in the last stage of development. In total, 443 vehicles were produced in 1941 in three different versions. However, these variants were never accepted by the Red Army, the T-30 designation was abandoned, and all the vehicles were designated simply as T-40’s.”
Obviously you meant the T-34, but are totally clueless about real history and simply parroting some Israelo-American crap you read.
The Soviets didn’t have 30,000 T-34s, either, not even close. They didn’t even have 30,000 tanks, unless one counts agricultural tractors as tanks. :D
вот так
P2
What they had was between 23000 and 24000 tanks and 4-5000 armoured cars. This number includes WW1 vehicles and redesigns of these from the 20s. Most of the rest were later designs which were outdated by 1941. There were 967 T-34 and 508 KV types (I know, you’re wondering “KV, what is that? Billy-Bob Goldberg never mentioned it in his concise “History of the Commie Devil in WW2”).
Of these vehicles, only 27% were actually capable of operations lasting even a few days, most were mechanically broken and in need of repair. This includes the new T-34 and KVs, which were brand new designs with a lot of mechanical problems. As there were few spare parts, and mechanics were short to be had, it means many of the mythical Soviet armoured horde never even entered the picture. Most Soviet AFV loses were to mechanical or logistical breakdown in those first few months, not to the western hyped nazi over exaggerated prowess on the battlefield.
The Soviet forces were also split between east and west, about a quarter of their effective force (learn the meaning of the term) was kept in Siberia to deter a very real Japanese threat there. The Soviet decisive defeat of the Japanese in the Khalkhin Gol War actually had far reaching consequences rarely acknowledged by zionazi/nazi…oops, I’m sorry, [cough] western, “historians”. It ensured that the Japanese feared war with the USSR more than they did with the Americans and their by then Anglo colonies. And acted accordingly. When nazi Germany declared war on the USA, hoping that would influence the Japanese to declare on the USSR, the Japanese essentially said “no deal, were not that suicidal – yet”. The Soviet war declaration in 1945 is what caused the Japanese capitulation, not the nuclear attacks by cowardly Ami.
The real reason the USSR fared so poor in the nazi invasion was mainly due to poor leadership under a paranoid Stalin regime that wanted no internal challenges to its rule. On the military side, these figures should speak for themselves: 3 of 5 marshalls, 14 of 16 army commanders, 60 of 67 corps commanders, 136 of 199 divisional commanders, 221 of 397 brigade commanders, the slaughter of lower echelon officers was equivalent. This wasn’t just due to Stalin’s people fearing usurpation and their paranoia of it, it was profoundly connected to military philosophy. Stalin was cavalry, his people were cavalry. His and their’s, purge of the Soviet military not only removed the potential threats to their control, it killed off most of the modern thinking strategists and tacticians in the Soviet military. The chosen survivors, the ones deemed safe, were mostly cavalry sludge, such as still commanded the doomed and similarly vanquished Polish forces in 1939 and the Ami colonial forces in the Philippines.
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The Euro-Americans are a meglomaniacal people.
It may not be wise to attack Russia, but that is only true if you are SANE.
The Western world most definitely is not sane. They are drooling psychopaths who imagine themselves the “Good Guys” who are threatened by the non-Western hordes.
Just remember, these Europeans invaded, colonized, and currently occupy the entire Western Hemisphere from Canada and America to Brazil and Argentina. In fact, the vast majority of these nations in the Western Hemisphere are European colonizer nations.
This is not to forget that the West tried with less success to conquer and subjugate most of the Eastern Hemisphere from Africa to the Middle East to Asia.
The West is a world-devouring civilization who think that they have a God-Given right to takeover and rule the world, as they have mostly done since 1492 and their mass murdering hero Christopher Columbus.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article186204.html torture for al qaeda connection to 9-11.
Official report discloses that confessions were NOT extracted by torture. Rather that torture was a precurser to inculcating (planting) the desired confession. There was no attempt to extract a confession, rather it is officially admitted that false “confession” was simply planted. So it is admitted that the CIA’s purpose in torturing this subset of 119 people was to accept planted confessions. I can’t imagine how this has come to be public. I think the article is a Must Read. The torture report strips away all pretense that al qaeda was involved in 9-11.
@In the spring of 1941, the entire USSR was in state of total mobilization. Millions of troops were ordered to move to the German frontier to prepare for the final assault against Europe, planned for ca. July 10, 1941
Is that falling back on Suvorov’s controversial, to say the least, “Icebreaker”? Although the thesis of Suvorov was comprehensively refuted almost immediately after the publication (1987!), it was regurgitated recently in the PR War against the “perennially aggressive Russia” (warmly embraced by the perennially threatened Balts!).
The poor Nazis were acting in pure self defense!
That is why they burned all those villages in the Western USSR. I mean poor peasants are well known mortal enemies of civilized Europe.
Pobediteli
http://english.pobediteli.ru/
“Our project is our way to personally thank the soldiers of the Great War living among us, and tell the story of their heroism…”
An interactive historical site describing events of the Great Patriotic War with personal commentary throughout. On the map, click the green arrow to start, then click of everything available.
вот так
Maxim Trudolyubov writes in the New York Times Russia according to its leaders “must run that same distance in 10 years” to catch up with the West that was 100 years ahead. Theyse leaders were right when they also said if they did not do it they would have been crushed. Russia’s history was either flee or fight. Sometimes they did the flee thing (after the fall of Kiev to Batu or was it Genghis ) but mostly they stood and fought.
They absorbed those who invaded them like the Finns, and the Vikings. They ran from the Mongols to Moscow and into the vast landscape of forests and marshes of Russia and eventually defeated the Mongols at Kazan, and then took the vast lands of Siberia for themselves.
In other case, which were more numerous, they sent the invader home in body bags or just fertilized the vast steppe lands with their bodies. Who were these that died doing the same thing that NATO and EU is doing today? The Swedes, the Teutonic Knights, the Poles, the Turks, all of Europe with Napoleon, the British and the French again, the Germans again, and after WWI USA, Canada, the British, the French, and many others, and of course let’s not forget 1941 all of Europe again under the Nazi leadership. Once again we see the Nazis at it, and once more the staging area is Poland and the Catholic lands of western Ukraine. One more crusade this time planned in America.
“Most pre-revolutionary rulers died on the throne, or were overthrown and murdered” Trudolyubov writes. Yes and is this any different from what took place in the West. How did Charles I and Louis XVI and Kennedy and Lincoln die? How many foreign leaders did we kill so that the Empire can plunder the poor?
Trudolyubov also writes “The czars postponed the abolition of serfdom for decades because they feared that the move would upset the delicate status quo between nobility and peasantry”. Serfdom was abolished prior to the abolition of slavery in America. Slavery remained because it was in the economic interest of the slave owners. Imperialism remained for the same reason.
When Trudolyubov walks the streets of Paris, London and Madrid is he in awe of the wealth that built these cities or does he think of who died so that the wealthy could build monuments to their crimes.
There is a concept of war, called “4G Warfare” (fourth generation warfare), which is very popular among the cocktail party set in D.C. and among a few professional officers. Martin Van Creveld (Israeli) and William Lind (American) have been big proponents of it. It relies primarily upon acts of sabotage, sedition, assassination, and psychological operations to sap an adversary’s strength and degrade its will to resist. It seems to me that this is the type of war that the United States is pursuing against Russia – and China as well.
I am sure that the Russians are preparing for war. But the Russians must surely understand that there will be no outright military attack by NATO. The West will squeeze the Russians into making the first move. But as long as the Russians are thinking of “counterattack” against the seditious actions taken by the West to undermine Russia and its “near abroad”, and of limiting their offensive to the eastern part of Ukraine, such military actions will have no beneficial strategic consequences for the Russians, and will bring as many problems to the Kremlin as they will solve. The vast space of the Russian landmass is of no consequence in a military-industrial conflict with the west. Russia will be attacked from a distance and from within, “death by a thousand cuts”, so to speak.
Greetings from France:
Andre Vltchek
QUOTE
Look at all that nihilism surrounding us!
The Empire has no beautiful songs – songs about building the nations; it has no poetry that could cover our backs with goose bumps. It has no leaders who could, with hardly any security; stand on a balcony facing a crowd, sharing with people their passion for building a great world for all of us.
It has no loyalty, and it offers no certainty. ‘Love’ it produces is ‘interest and business oriented’, it does not last, and it is cannot be counted on.
The Empire cannot even fight, anymore, because it is sickly and cowardly. It murders millions, yes; but it murders them by pushing buttons and by flying drones, and by using proxy regimes – its colonies.
It is because the ideals of the Empire are low, because its religious dogmas are depressing, because capitalism is shallow, because neo-colonialism is immoral!
***
If the Empire kills us, we would all die for nothing – only so the Empire and its maniacs could thrive!
Therefore, let us not die! Let us fight for life, against the fascism that is now choking our throats.
Let us unite and shout:
“We Want This Earth Back!”
“We Want Kindness, Decency And Love Back!”
But these shouts should not be slogans at some protest marches. Protest marches do not work.
We either fight, or we change nothing. These should be the demands on our banners, our battle cries!
Ask anywhere in Latin America and Africa, in Asia and Oceania, in the Middle East, even in the epicenters of the Empire – in Europe and North America: the people want to live in a world free of constant fear and irrational guilt. They want hospitals to cure the sick and to prevent others from getting ill, schools to really educate, and housing to give a roof and shelter to people, cities and villages to offer a great quality of life to their inhabitants. They want certainty.
People want life to have meaning again… and to be full of beauty, of hope and dreams! They want to watch the stars above, and to dream. Sometimes they can’t even define it, anymore, but if you talk to them, this is what most of them really want.
“A journey of a thousand li begins with a single step”, said great Chinese philosopher, Lao-tzu, some 25 centuries ago.
But in order to make that very first step, one has to stand up, to be erect.
And in order to stand up, one has to be alive; one has to be determined.
True, it is sometimes easier to kneel or to prostrate, than to stand, than to walk forward, than to struggle. Sometimes it is easier to betray, than to remain loyal to one’s dream, to one’s love, to the essential principles.
But one truly lives only when he or she is upright, when marching forward and aiming at a better world, when keeping promises and pledges.
The Empire broke many; it bought many, or scared them into submission. But others are standing up. Not everyone is for sale, neither is everyone ready to serve.
The first steps are being made, everywhere. Many thousand li distances will soon be covered.
Fascism will be fought. Humanity will be defended! By reason or by force, the regime would have to yield to the interests of humanity. It will not be allowed to make that final, the most destructive step!
UNQUOTE
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/01/02/2015-defending-humanity-by-reason-or-force/
Cheers
Mario Medjeral
Friends,
Thank you all for your thoughts, arguments and analyses. I have learned quite a bit from your sage articles
and comments.
I hope you’ll forgive me my foolishness and naivete, but I am a rather young fellow, and when it comes to
politics and geopolitics, I am a total baby. I am also a pessimist by nature. With that said, I would
appreciate if someone could dispel my doubts regarding the following points:
1) In reading multiple articles on veteransnewsnow and counterpunch, I am beginning to see a clear pattern of
government & corporate merger in the imperial homeland. In this system, it seems it is the corporate leaders
who call the shots. However, those businesspeople have no access to classified military & intelligence data (legally at least). Even if their politician vassals/prostitutes informally tell them everything, these business
leaders most likely do not keep themselves informed of the sizes, compositions and equipment levels/capabilities of the world’s militaries. In other words, they are clueless what the US military & NATO are capable of and what Russia, China, etc. can do, and cannot make a reasonable, rational calculation of what the outcome of a war would be. Moreover, their culture is such that they do not want to hear those who truly know; they prefer to listen to their yes-men and hear what they want to hear. As a result, I am concerned they may consider WWIII a calculated business risk worth taking under their perverse cost-benefit analysis.
http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2015/01/01/513717murdoch-scaife-and-cia-propaganda/
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/01/01/oh-those-nasty-russians/
2) Further, the international elite are likely more than willing to sacrifice US and Canada since they can relocate
anywhere in the world at will. They have unimaginable quantities of hidden assets (offshore bank accounts,
stocks, bonds, gold, gems, artwork, etc) and can start a new imperial headquarters at another location.
Australia fits perfectly – it is Anglo in language & culture, similar size to the US, plenty of resources,
plenty of harbors to build naval shipyards and no land borders to protect (among other factors). However, it can be any other country – Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. Whichever country is strongest after the nuclear holocaust will do just fine.
continued…
3) In evaluating military capacity, it is at least as important (perhaps even more so) to look not only at the existing staffing & equipment levels, but the potential for raising more troops and manufacturing more weapons & supplies and delivering those to needed areas. Points 4 to 6 will focus on these issues.
4) As far as raising a million-person army or better, I think the imperialists can do it in a jiffy. The foundation is already being laid – the first step being the degradation of the living standards in the US and the West. This makes military service look very attractive – they have salaries (with cost-of-living adjustments and annual raises) and benefits. Remember how the recruitment figures in the US went sky-high after the economy collapsed in 08? I remember seeing multiple news reports at the time about all branches of the US military meeting their recruitment goals for the first time in years. I saw an article recently on counterpunch that the corporations are now allowed to unilaterally cut their pension obligations and the new law just signed by Obama gives them even more leeway in this regard. The author also seems to think that municipal pensions and even Social Security may be in jeopardy in the future. These are just a couple of examples, but my point is that the elites can quickly turn the economic screws on the US population, blame it on Russia and they will have themselves an army. There will be plenty of willing recruits – some out of dedication to Nazi ideals, others out of anger at Russia as prescribed by the presstitute propaganda machine, still others out of desperation. Plus, they can always bring back the draft.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/12/31/us-republican-congress-first-salvos/
5) If US goes to war, you can count Canada, Israel and UK in, as well as most of the EU. Perhaps there are fewer brainwashed people in Western Europe, so their recruitment rates may not be as high, but every little bit
helps. Also, don’t forget to add Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines;
possibly also Malaysia, Indonesia and other Asian nations, as well as Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern
puppet regimes. If the going gets tough, throw in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and most of Africa. These can be intimidated or bought off cheaply. Finally, South America is teetering on the brink; the pro-people anti-imperialist governments are hanging on by a thread. A wave of political assassinations and a few empire storm trooper death squads can quickly change all that, so the militaries of South American countries will likely fight for the empire as well.
6) The US (even today) has greater industrial capacity than Russia, and definitely far greater industrial potential. While they don’t produce much now, remember what happened in WWII when new shipyards were being built in no time at all and the US was churning out Liberty ships at will? Add Canada, Mexico, EU, Australia and New Zealand and we have an industrial sleeping giant that can go from 0 to 100 in no time at all.
7) So in summary we have: Russia, China; hopefully Iran, Mongolia, N.Korea, Cuba and the 5 Central Asian Stans (dare I say plus India?) VS. the rest of the world. I don’t like these odds, but probably neither do the imperialists. If this war happens, it is more than likely to go “nucular.”
8) As far as economic warfare, it seems to me the empire holds all the cards. It can print money at will so will never run out. It also controls the markets. I don’t see how a collapse can possibly happen. Dr. Paul Craig Roberts noted that “With debt exploding, negative real interest rates make no sense. With real consumer incomes, real consumer credit, and real retail sales stagnant or falling, the stock market is a bubble.” These are absolutely true statements, to which I would like to add that with all these factors, plus the monstrous ongoing QE, the suddenly increased value of the dollar makes no sense, but yet it is the reality we see. Since the elites have absolute control of the markets and manipulate the exchange rates of various currencies and commodity/equity prices at will, I am concerned that even if Russia & China were to dump all their dollar reserves, it will have zero to minimal negative effect on the dollar & the US economy. As a result, I don’t see how the empire can collapse economically. Russia, China and several others may stop using dollars altogether, but I think even this extreme scenario will not significantly damage the empire as it has full control of the markets. Plus, US is China’s #1 trade partner so China will not give up the dollar altogether.
Friends, please obliterate these dark thoughts of mine with your logic and facts so I can sleep a little
better tonight!
L
The US psyops/film, The Interview, and Sony hacking hysterics are part of an American false flag attack designed to rationalize American threats against North Korea and its government.
Similar psyops, vilification, and false flag terror attacks against Russia (like the MH-17 shoot-down) reflect a similar American threat against Russia.
The end result: World War.
“False Flagging the World towards War. The CIA Weaponizes Hollywood”
http://prolecenter.wordpress.com/2015/01/01/false-flagging-the-world-towards-war-the-cia-weaponizes-hollywood/
If I am not mistaken, I think that in the case of the Crimean War, along with the French, British and Ottomans, there were also significant numbers of Piedmontese Italians.
Not long ago, Russian considered Chinese are thief, not worthy doing business, or associate with them. Chinese in Russian’s view are second class citizens, only good to be a servant. Now it want Chinese into every misadventure it is in in the pretext of the west is after China after Russian.
Does any one really think rationally in Russia?
Is Chinese really not know who Russian is?
Anonymous said..
“I am surprised that it is not more cited as sample for russian aggression.”
Why would it be.It was a war of the multi-national USSR headed by the non-Russian Stalin.Just how is that an example of “Russian” aggression.
Uncle Bob
Anonymous said…
“How do you think regions like Chechnya will be content to staying under Russian control forever?”
How long will any province belong to any country.How long will Bavaria be content in Germany,Wales in the UK,Brittany in France,Sicily in Italy,or Texas in the US.Chechnya is a part of the RF.No more and no less,than those other areas are parts of those countries.All the Western BS about Chechnya breaking away,is just that BS.
Uncle Bob