I will keep this one short. You all have read all the nonsense about 100 to 600 Russians killed in the recent US air strike in Syria. According to these rumors (typical PSYOP stuff, by the way) the “hundreds” of Russians were private military contractors (PMCs). Well, for one thing, PMC rarely operated in the hundreds to begin with (5-20 people is much more common). But nevermind that. Turns that that official US and Russian sources actually more or less agree on the casualty figures. Here is the summary made by Cassad:
- 40 volunteers from local tribes
- 15 SAA fighters + Brigadier General
- 20 fighters of ” ISIS Hunters” group
- 5 Russian PMCs
Now that looks *a lot* more likely and more or less matches the official US “100” figure.
In my opinion this airstrike is pretty much a non-event. The US Americans attacked a column threatening their control of the zone of Syria they want to occupy (what else is new?), the bombing was a one way thing with no air cover or air defenses (so probably not Russian or even official government organized), the column was wiped-off (well yeah, of course), the folks at CENTCOM were all happy with it and did not know what to say when some three letter soup agency decided to pounce on this to create a massive big deal ex nihilo. The Russians were equally baffled. A few days later, the entire story collapsed but for a short while the Internet went crazy about it.
Lessons learned: next time around when you hear the next mega-rumor, relax, take a breather, don’t immediately jump to conclusion and just wait! Wait until the dust settles and you actually get some facts. Here is a pointer: big, important, events usually have big, important, consequences. When you hear of a mega-rumor and then nothing happens, you can be pretty sure that this is a non-event.
It is pretty safe to predict that there will be A LOT of these fake mega-non-events in the future, so we better get used to them. At the very least, let’s wait 24 if not 48 hours before reacting to them. Most likely imnsho: a new “chemical attack by the regime” followed by some “coalition bombing” which will “send a strong message” to the “regime” about the use of chemical weapons (in reality the US-backed “good terrorists” will use chlorine gas to trigger yet another bomb/missile strike on Syrian forces).
The Saker
The mortars. The swarm. The trade centre. They will do something. Things will plunge a ways from there. But yeah this story had bulldust written all over it.
Thanks for this update.
The “World of social media” twitter etc – was going crazy about this story.
It was being driven by Russian liberals, strelkov /girkin and the Americans.
A chance to undermine Putin in the election
Then we get the real story. Thank you
Russian liberals, strelkov /girkin
Well, I would not call Strelov/Girkin a ‘liberal’ but you are 100% correct that all these folks seem happy to work together: Girkin + Iavlinskii + the Ziomedia, etc. It’s open season on Putin for all those who hate him. And it’s only going to get worse in the course of the year. There is a ton of money to be made (grants) by participating in all this too…
we are going to get *a lot* of that crap this year I think
cheers,
The Saker
I think we’ll get most of it in the runup to the elections. Anything to discredit VVP.
An emphatic example shows how deeply the US establishment considers war a permanent and unquestionable situation
http://bit.ly/2Hh0koX
Being that a lot of what happens is for domestic consumption, the message sent is that a message was sent. To the foreign adversary recipient of the ostensible message, the message is sent that: 1. our population is brainwashed; 2. We don’t care; we fart in your general direction, middle finger etc.
It’s all has to do with being an empire and creating reality. Arrogance that doesn’t deign to allow others to see things differently.
What is “military casualties”? It’s based on several groups:
– KIA = Killed in action
– MIA = Missing in action
– DIW = Died in wounds
– WIA = Wounded in action (normally 3-5 times more than KIA)
– POW = Prisoners of war
– non combat losses (injuries, sick… deceased or not)
The disinformation on Russian PMC’s ostensibly getting “killed” in Syria should be put placed in the context of the upcoming Presidential election in Russia, which the West will try to subvert and prevent Vladimir Putin getting elected.
I was expecting such things. The aim is to create an atmosphere of insecurity around Putin and to promote pro-Western candidates. I am happy to see that the Russian public has not fallen for the stunt of hundreds of Russians getting “killed” in Syria. On the other hand, the liberals in Syria were quick to demand the pullout of Russia from Syria and the impeachment of Putin on charges of treason, no less. Now who told them to do that ?
Inside Russia pro-Western candidates are being promoted. It began with Navalny the blogger, who tried a Maidan in Moscow by provoking street violence during one of his demonstrations. After that we got little Ksenia Sobchak, who is demanding the return of Crimea to Ukraine and who has also demanded that Putin be banned from this years Presidential elections. She is also demanding that the Office of President be terminated, so that German style political crisis can in the future be created, so that the country would have trouble creating a Government.
Now I see that the latest pro-Western candidate is a certain businessman called Paul Grudinin, who I didn’t even know existed until a few days ago. The liberal media in Russia are ofcourse backing him. One liberal website has stated that in the elections 60 % of Russians would “vote” for him and 30 % for Putin. Other liberal websites are claiming he will get between 30% and 80 % of the “vote”. Hilarious. Even the famous writer and analyst Israel Shamir has called him “A Russian Trump”, obviously an attempt to try American style politics in Russia by promoting a businessman for Presidential candidate. This stunt will also fail.
Yesterday I read Shamir’s totally absurd analysis of the political situation in Russia and Grudinin’s chances of winning. Shamir stated that the situation on the ground is not as presented by the media and that Grudinin has a “large” following. Shamir also mentioned that Grudinin has been accused of having Swiss bank accounts, as well of being accused of fraud. Big surprise. Perhaps The Saker can explain to readers who this Grudinin guy is, as no doubt few have even heard of him.
The West will do anything to install a pro-Western puppet in the Kremlin. It will use a combination of outside and inside pressures. Inside Russia it is promoting pro-Western puppets. Outside Russia it has for years been promulgating a campaign of vilification against both Russia and President Putin. It’s final, biggest move will be to force Poroshenko to attack the Donbass either during the elections or during the World Cup and hope Ukraine succeeds in defeating the Donbass, forcing Russia to intervene and thus accuse it of aggression. Poroshenko will oblige, as he has US citizenship, which is remarkable for an ostensibly sovereign country. However, this move by the West will misfire and Washington will get another geopolitical disaster at it’s hands. The Russians in the Donbass had more than three years to dig in, no doubt being supplied with additional high tech. In case of an attack the Ukrainian army will be in the open and the Russians dug in. I don’t see them winning, only losing, with potentially catastrophic results for Poroshenko. The Ukrainian Army is mostly made up of conscripts who do not wish to be there. The only troops Poroshenko can count on are neo-Nazis from Western Ukraine, and their numbers are limited, as many of them prefer demonstrating in the streets instead of fighting. Should Poroshenko suffer a defeat, as he will, he might well get a Maidan in reserve, as the Ukrainian population is impoverished and in no mood for any war, as the country has been plundered by oligarchs and foreign corporations. Worse, should a political chain reaction start, the country might well break up into three pieces, as some analysts are predicting. Putin ofcourse knows this. I would not be surprised if he is actually hoping Poroshenko attacks, knowing what the military and political outcome will be.
The March elections in Russia will be the last chance for the West to remove Putin from power. It will fail, just like before.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has stated that 5 “Russians” – not military – could have been killed but they are currently checking the citizenship of the 5 as the information is preliminary:
http://tass.com/politics/990226
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201802151061694386-moscow-russians-syria-coalition-strike-killed/
So we still need to wait and see for correct information.
Grudinin doesn’t have a chance. He is known as someone who has more millions in foreign banks than he has strawberries. Those numbers about popularity are fakes, based on some agency which is registered in one of the Baltic countries and is connected with some Russian company. Sorry, I can’t remember more details. More reliable polls show one digit to maybe 10% for the people voting for Grudinin.
Neo Nazi battalions are not intended for fight in a battle but are for plundering and torture of civilians and for shooting at the back of the regular army if conscripts want to surrender or run away.
Open Letter to the Officers and Soldiers of the Ukrainian Army by Russell Texas Bentley
http://www.russelltexasbentley.com/2018/02/open-letter-to-officers-and-soldiers-of.html
the same letter in Russian
ОТКРЫТОЕ ПИСЬМО К СОЛДАТАМ УКРАИНСКОЙ АРМИИ
Acoording to Rostislav Ishchenko situation in Ukraine is just terrible and each next government will be worse spider nest.
Rostislav Ishchenko: Azov’s “National Druzhina” as the Catalyst for the Disappearance of Ukrainian Statehood
http://www.stalkerzone.org/rostislav-ishchenko-azovs-national-druzhina-catalyst-disappearance-ukrainian-statehood/
Rostislav Ishchenko: The Closer Ukraine Comes to Europe, The More Rotund Its Nazis Become
Rostislav Ishchenko: The Connection Between “Georgian Snipers” on Maidan and Saakashvili’s Deportation
This comment has gone off-topic – this post isn’t about Ukraine. In future please post in MFC or the appropriate thread. Mod.
According to the last (Russia ) state statistics : if elections were held today Putin would have 71 % approval , and his popularity is at the highest.
That’s what you should concentrate at .
And reports of deaths of Russians in Syria would only raise those numbers.
Its hard to believe that anyone would think that killing even a thousand Russians would suddenly make the Russian people want to surrender and throw Putin out of office in exchange for being ruled by a puppet of the same people who are killing Russians.
Sounds like someone has hired the same political consultant who told Hillary that calling Americans a bunch of deplorables would win the election.
Grudinin is the Russian Communist/National Patriotic candidate, BF, and they’re hardly pro-Western (on the contrary).
Neither is Shamir’s (likable) analysis http://www.algora.com/Algora_blog/ totally absurd (exaggerating maybe) . . . Even English RT seems to intentionally distort what Zyuganov or Grudinin say, and write for instance “privatization” when they should write “nationalization” https://www.rt.com/politics/418739-communists-draft-nationalization-bill-in/ . . . Sergey Glazyev also proposes nationalization.
We all know what communists should represent – this Grudinin however was in the United Russia party and he is not a member of the communist party.
He privatised the Lenin farm and it is a public floated business an LLC.
This creates the confusion about what it is he stands for
Don’t be fooled by the label he puts on himself now.
Why did he have 5 Swiss accounts in his name and wife’s name?
There is something about him that smells
Communist want to get back into power and they are using the tactic of using this business friendly guy.
The communist party should have stuck to their principles – the party is popular they don’t need to try these tactics.
Don’t be fooled by the banksters & gangsters’ and – in Russia’s case – the oligarchs’ propaganda machine either.
Ideally Putin (he’s very good) and the Russian people (e.g. Zyuganov-Grudinin, Glazyev, Dugin, Rogozin) should run the Russian Federation, not Putin and the oligarchs. There can be little doubt that (also) in Russia in many ways the oligarchs and the 5th column are still very influential.
Laika von old Monkshusen
Again your statement cannot be accepted. What you wrote pertains to the Yeltsin era, not to the Putin.
Laika von old Monkshusen
It was Russian patriots who placed Putin in power, offering Yeltsin a deal that if he renounced power, he would not be prosecuted.
Yes, Shamirs article is totally absurd, presenting Grudinin as someone who has backing from different blocks, communists and others. He does not, nor does he have a huge following. He is obviously a plant, being placed there right before the elections. As for Russian communists, it would appear that they have been penetrated. Why changes in leadership right before the elections ?
There are many ways to interpret the event and the media mashup that followed.
I look at the military intent, because it was a military event.
CENTCOM took a cheap shot. It’s message was to Russia and Syria who would be the two forces most desirous of ridding the East of the US and its stooges/proxies, the Kurds, now mixed with some tribal forces and many ISIS fighters.
It was a sharp blow. Devastating.
It won’t matter at a later date when Russia and Syria really make a move against the invader, his proxies and the squatters in the oil fields and agricultural areas.
It might not be until late summer or later this year. But at some point, the conflict in the East will be settled with missiles. The US has no way of defending its proxies from missiles. Iranian-supplied missiles to Syria will be used. I’ve always talked about the Kalibrs, but now, I think the Syrians will do the launching. And they will fire Iranian missiles and some Chinese missiles.
The result of this event will be that the US will mark it as a success that led to its retreat from Syria.
The Kurds will sue for peace with Assad when they realize the US has no way to protect them from missiles. Even the Israelis know they have no real missile defense.
And before the US takes its 4000 boots on the ground from Syria, a few dozen will be melted into the blood-soaked Syrian sand.
One of the features of modern war, especially wars in the Middle East, is that all sides lie massively about the casualties inflicted on the other side. This has been illustrated in the Turkish-Kurdish fight where both sides regularly proclaim that they’ve killed hundreds of their enemies while denying almost all losses.
tr
Actually, it’s become an israeloamerican specialty. You know, the invincible ones.
It all reminds me too much of a James Bond movie, where the bad guys are firing enough bullets at him to darken the sun, and All of them miss!–and yet, every stinking one of Bond’s bullets hits their marks! One of these years, Bond will finally get seriously messed up in a movie, and his quip will be “maybe I’m getting too old for this”….or, “I need a vacation!” Terminated, at last. Too bad the war-makers never get tired of war! I fear that we are living in a post-Armageddon society, we’re stuck in this endless war “program/loop”, and that this world has fallen (some time ago, actually) straight into the abyss.
Maria Zabolotskaya, Legal Division, Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, speaking at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (02 June 2016):
“Under Russian law, it is not possible to set up a PMC or use one abroad. Russia is not taking part in the Montreux process, as we rarely use PMSCs and the process primarily brings together States that do… “
Assuming no legal changes since then, who is “Wagner” and what are they doing in Syria?
“Assuming no legal changes since then, who is “Wagner” and what are they doing in Syria?”
The zionazi wagner propaganda op has long ago been exposed as a fraud. You know, fake news. (Removed attack on a fellow poster,MOD)
“who is “Wagner” and what are they doing in Syria?”
Why push discredited nonsense?
Sorry that you didn’t detect the rhetorical aspect of the question (I thought it was obvious).
I’ll re-phrase:
Assuming no legal changes since then, who are the “Russian PMCs” and what are they doing in Syria?
“who are the “Russian PMCs” and what are they doing in Syria?”
Why push unreferrenced and unsubstantiated propaganda?
Someone who was legitimately curious would ask “are there Russian pmc in Syria, and if so, what sort of things do they do there?”
The way you phrased the question is a variation of “have you stopped beating your wife, yet”, a well worn propaganda tactic of framing the narrative. (Removed attack on a fellow poster,MOD)
Any PMCs are private, certainly not hired by the Russian government, but they may contain Russian nationals (hired abroad). Their actions are not coordinated with the Russian military.
These nuances are very important.
False flags on their way as vassal BBC ramps up the propaganda with this shabby article:
Viewpoint: Chemical weapons ‘threat to West’
By Hamish de Bretton-Gordon Chemical weapons expert
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-43074956
Barrel bombs, photo op White Helmets with breathing gear -but they forgot about bystander prop with ‘Syrian headscarf’, and lastly of course, Russia.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon OBE (born September 1963) is a chemical weapons expert and chief operating officer of SecureBio Limited. He was formerly a British Army officer for 23 years and commanding officer of the UK’s CBRN Regiment and NATO’s Rapid Reaction CBRN Battalion
SecureBio went belly up last year.
seems still like a valuable group of people killed – someday may they be avenged.
Conflicting information:
Damascus to Deploy Forces in Afrin – Reports
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201802161061711056-syria-kurds-afrin-deployment-agreement/
Kurds wanted Syrian army to enter Afrin, but deal failed – sources
https://www.rt.com/news/418959-afrin-kurds-syria-refuses-troops/
Israeli Media Says “Half” Of Syrian Air Defenses Were Took Out By Israeli Airstrikes
https://southfront.org/israeli-media-says-half-syrian-air-defenses-took-israeli-airstrikes/
Syrian Forces Shot Down 13 Israeli Air-Launched Cruise Missiles During Feb.10 Encounter – Russian Media
https://southfront.org/syrian-forces-shot-down-13-israeli-air-launched-cruise-missiles-during-feb-10-encounter-russian-media/
“The Syrian military shot down 13 Israeli air-launched cruise missiles additionally to the F-16I multirole fighter, which crashed in Israel, during the February 10 encounter in Syrian airspace, the Russian newspaper Izvestia reported on February 14 citing a source in the Syrian General Staff. MORE ABOUT THE ENCOUNTER
According to the report, the Syrian military used S-200, Buk and Pantsir-S systems against Israeli aircraft and missiles. During the first strike on Syria, Israeli aircraft reportedly launched 11 air-launched cruise missiles. 8 of them were intercepted. During the second strike, Israeli aircraft launched 7 air-launched cruise missiles. Syrian forces intercepted 5 of them.
The report added that the missiles were the key target of Syrian forces. The only aircraft, which violated Syrian airspace, was also shot down. It was the aforementioned F-16I. Russian and Syrian sources reached by Izvestia did not deny or confirm reports that the F-16I was targeted with an old-fashioned S-200 missile.
The article also provided additional details about the February 7 incident when Israeli warplanes struck the Damascus countryside. According to the article, Israeli aircraft launched 8 missiles and Syrian forces intercepted 6 of them.”
Zakharova: The US presence in al-Tanaf is occupation and shelter zone for Daesh remnants
https://sana.sy/en/?p=127504
“The US forces continue to occupy a 55-kilometer area near Al-Tanf, which has become a shelter zone for the remaining members of Daesh (ISIS)” she said.
She pointed out that terrorists of Jabhat al-Nusra are going on in their aggressive provocations in the western part of Eastern Ghouta, particularly shelling Damascus and killing civilians, adding that the West knows this well and condones such acts.”
Maybe this is a valuable additional information update regarding this article:
https://www.rt.com/news/419325-syria-russian-nationals-killed/
“Several dozen citizens of Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States were injured in Syria during “a recent military clash,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said. No military personnel were among the casualties. The ministry reiterated that the Russian citizens involved in the recent clashes in Syria were not part of the Russian military force deployed there.”
“It is pretty safe to predict that there will be A LOT of these fake mega-non-events in the future, so we better get used to them. At the very least, let’s wait 24 if not 48 hours before reacting to them. Most likely imnsho: a new “chemical attack by the regime” followed by some “coalition bombing” which will “send a strong message” to the “regime” about the use of chemical weapons (in reality the US-backed “good terrorists” will use chlorine gas to trigger yet another bomb/missile strike on Syrian forces).”
There hasn’t been a new “chemical attack by the regime” but yesterday there were reports that a government air strike killed about 100 civilians in East Ghouta. If “a strong message” is sent to the “regime” in the next days, then the Saker’s prediction is basically right.