The western narrative of a ‘losing Russia’ has just been decimated by Moscow’s blitzkrieg against Ukraine and its foreign-backed terror operations
by Pepe Escobar, first published at The Cradle and posted with the author’s permission
The terror attack on Krymskiy Most – the Crimea Bridge – was the proverbial straw that broke the Eurasian camel’s back.
Russian President Vladimir Putin neatly summarized it: “This is a terrorist attack aimed at destroying the critical civilian infrastructure of the Russian Federation.”
The head of the Russian Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, confirmed face-to-face with Putin that Terror on the Bridge was carried out by the SBU – Ukrainian special services.
Bastrykin told Putin, “we have already established the route of the truck, where the explosion took place. Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, North Ossetia, Krasnodar… The carriers have been identified. With the help of operatives of the FSB, we managed to identify suspects.”
Russian intel leaked crucial info to military correspondent Alexander Kots. The cargo was ordered by a Ukrainian citizen: explosives packed in 22 pallets, in rolls of film under plastic wrap, were shipped from Bulgaria to the Georgian port of Poti. Afterwards, the cargo was loaded onto a truck with foreign license plates and proceeded overland to Armenia.
Clearance at the Armenia-Russia border was smooth – according to the rules of the Eurasian Customs Union (both Russia and Armenia are members of the Eurasian Economic Union, or EAEU). The cargo evidently avoided detection through X-rays. This route is standard for truckers traveling to Russia.
The truck then re-entered Georgia and crossed the border into Russia again, but this time through the Upper Lars checkpoint. That’s the same one used by thousands of Russians fleeing partial mobilization. The truck ended up in Armavir, where the cargo was transferred to another truck, under the responsibility of Mahir Yusubov: the one that entered the Crimean bridge coming from the Russian mainland.
Very important: the transport from Armavir to a delivery address in Simferopol should have happened on October 6-7: that is, timed to the birthday of President Putin on Friday the 7th. For some unexplained reason, that was postponed for a day.
The driver of the first truck is already testifying. Yusubov, the driver of the second truck – which exploded on the bridge – was “blind:” he had no idea what he was carrying, and is dead.
At this stage, two conclusions are paramount.
First: This was not a standard ISIS-style truck suicide bombing – the preferred interpretation in the aftermath of the terror attack.
Second: The packaging most certainly took place in Bulgaria. That, as Russian intel has cryptically implied, indicates the involvement of “foreign special services.”
‘A mirage of cause and effect’
What has been revealed in public by Russian intelligence tells only part of the story. An incandescent assessment received by The Cradle from another Russian intel source is way more intriguing.
At least 450 kg of explosives were employed in the blast. Not on the truck, but mounted inside the Crimea Bridge span itself. The white truck was just a decoy by the terrorists “to create a mirage of cause and effect.” When the truck reached the point on the bridge where the explosives were mounted, the explosion took place.
According to the source, railroad employees told investigators that there was a form of electronic hijacking; the terror operators took control of the railway so the train carrying fuel received a command to stop because of a false signal that the road ahead was busy.
Bombs mounted on the bridge spans were a working hypothesis largely debated in Russian military channels over the weekend, as well as the use of underwater drones.
In the end, the quite sophisticated plan could not follow the necessarily rigid timing. There was no alignment by the millimeter between the mounted explosive charges, the passing truck and the fuel train stopped in its tracks. Damage was limited, and easily contained. The charges/truck combo exploded on the outer right lane of the road. Damage was only on two sections of the outer lane, and not much on the railway bridge.
In the end, Terror on the Bridge yielded a short, Pyrrhic PR victory – duly celebrated across the collective West – with negligible practical success: transfer of Russian military cargo by railway resumed in roughly 14 hours.
And that brings us to the key information in the Russian intel source assessment: the whodunnit.
It was a plan by the British MI6, says this source, without offering further details. Which, he elaborates, Russian intel, for a number of reasons, is shadow-playing as “foreign special services.”
It’s quite telling that the Americans rushed to establish plausible deniability. The proverbial “Ukrainian government official” told CIA mouthpiece The Washington Post that the SBU did it. That was a straight confirmation of an Ukrainska Pravda report based on an “unidentified law enforcement official.”
The perfect red line trifecta
Already, over the weekend, it was clear the ultimate red line had been crossed. Russian public opinion and media were furious. For all its status as an engineering marvel, Krymsky Most represents not only critical infrastructure; it is the visual symbol of the return of Crimea to Russia.
Moreover, this was a personal terror attack on Putin and the whole Russian security apparatus.
So we had, in sequence, Ukrainian terrorists blowing up Darya Dugina’s car in a Moscow suburb (they admitted it); US/UK special forces (partially) blowing Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 (they admitted and then retracted); and the terror attack on Krymsky Most (once again: admitted then retracted).
Not to mention the shelling of Russian villages in Belgorod, NATO supplying long-range weapons to Kiev, and the routine execution of Russian soldiers.
Darya Dugina, Nord Streams and Crimea Bridge make it an Act of War trifecta. So this time the response was inevitable – not even waiting for the first meeting since February of the Russian Security Council scheduled for the afternoon of 10 October.
Moscow launched the first wave of a Russian Shock’n Awe without even changing the status of the Special Military Operation (SMO) to Counter-Terrorist Operation (CTO), with all its serious military/legal implications.
After all, even before the UN Security Council meeting, Russian public opinion was massively behind taking the gloves off. Putin had not even scheduled bilateral meetings with any of the members. Diplomatic sources hint that the decision to let the hammer come down had already been taken over the weekend.
Shock’n Awe did not wait for the announcement of an ultimatum to Ukraine (that may come in a few days); an official declaration of war (not necessary); or even announcing which ‘”decision-making centers” in Ukraine would be hit.
The lightning strike de facto metastasizing of SMO into CTO means that the regime in Kiev and those supporting it are now considered as legitimate targets, just like ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra during the Anti-Terror Operation (ATO) in Syria.
And the change of status – now this is a real war on terror – means that terminating all strands of terrorism, physical, cultural, ideological, are the absolute priority, and not the safety of Ukrainian civilians. During the SMO, safety of civilians was paramount. Even the UN has been forced to admit that in over seven months of SMO the number of civilian casualties in Ukraine has been relatively low.
Enter ‘Commander Armageddon’
The face of Russian Shock’n Awe is Russian Commander of the Aerospace Forces, Army General Sergey Surovikin: the new commander-in-chief of the now totally centralized SMO/CTO.
Questions were being asked non-stop: why didn’t Moscow take this decision way back in February? Well, better late than never. Kiev is now learning they messed with the wrong guy. Surovikin is widely respected – and feared: his nickname is “General Armageddon.” Others call him “Cannibal.” Legendary Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov – also a colonel general in the Russian military – lavishly praises Surovikin as “a real general and warrior, an experienced, strong-willed and far-sighted commander.”
Surovikin has been commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces since 2017; was awarded the title of Hero of Russia for his no-nonsense leadership of the military operation in Syria; and had on the ground experience in Chechnya in the 1990s.
Surovikin is Dr. Shock’n Awe with full carte blanche. That even rendered idle speculations that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov were removed or forced to resign, as speculated by the Wagner group Telegram channel Grey Zone.
It is still possible that Shoigu – widely criticized for recent Russian military setbacks – could be eventually replaced by Tula Governor Alexei Dyumin, and Gerasimov by the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, Lieutenant General Alexander Matovnikov.
That’s almost irrevelant: all eyes are on Surovikin.
MI6 does have some well-placed moles in Moscow, relatively speaking. The Brits had warned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the General Staff that the Russians would be launching a “warning strike” this Monday.
What happened was no “warning strike,” but a massive offensive of over 100 cruise missiles launched “from the air, sea and land,” as Putin noted, against Ukrainian “energy, military command and communications facilities.”
MI6 also noted “the next step” will be the complete destruction of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. That’s not a “next step:” it’s already happening. Power supply is completely gone in five regions, including Lviv and Kharkov, and there are serious interruptions in other five, including Kiev.
Over 60 percent of Ukrainian power grids are already knocked out. Over 75 percent of internet traffic is gone. Elon Musk’s Starlink netcentric warfare has been “disconnected” by the Ministry of Defense.
Shock’n Awe will likely progress in three stages.
First: Overload of the Ukrainian air defense system (already on).
Second: Plunging Ukraine into the Dark Ages (already in progress).
Third: Destruction of all major military installations (the next wave).
Ukraine is about to embrace nearly total darkness in the next few days. Politically, that opens a completely new ball game. Considering Moscow’s trademark “strategic ambiguity,” this could be a sort of Desert Storm remixed (massive air strikes preparing a ground offensive); or, more likely, an ‘incentive’ to force NATO to negotiate; or just a relentless, systematic missile offensive mixed with Electronic Warfare (EW) to shatter for good Kiev’s capacity to wage war.
Or it could be all of the above.
How a humiliated western Empire can possibly raise the stakes now, short of going nuclear, remains a key question. Moscow has shown admirable restraint for too long. No one should ever forget that in the real Great Game – how to coordinate the emergence of the multipolar world – Ukraine is just a mere sideshow. But now the sideshow runners better run for cover, because General Armageddon is on the loose.
***
IMPORTANT ADDENDUM: During Hurricane Ian, Pepe also sent me these two articles which I highly recommend to you all! Andrei
One from PressTV: Killer Nord Stream 2 piece with all the twists and turns:
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/
One from the Cradle: Killer Michael Hudson exclusive interview focusing on Eurasia:
Thanks for this article.
Kiev Regime’s attack on Kerch Bridge was a stupid move and perhaps a desperate attempt for a PR win by Elensky and his ilk(and their Western backers) .
I have to say, Russia and Putin have been so patient with these bullies(Ukronazis and their NATO backers). I wouldn’t have that kind of patience. Russia could have destroyed all of Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and decimate Ukrainian military early in the conflict and it would all be over. But by going through the ‘slow way’ and giving chances to Kiev/NATO and the latter’s insistence to escalate and never back down, the hypocrisy and ugliness of the West is exposed for all nations to see.
The nature of the conflict has indeed changed. May Russia achieve victory soon!
Agree.
It is ringing true now, Putin’s words early in the conflict. That “history will not be able to show Russia as the aggressor in this conflict.”
Chance after chance, untoward patience and concern for civilians and their well-being. Multiple warnings time after time. No one can say the response was “unprovoked” any longer.
They can only say this: “We were offered temperance and humility. But we squandered it. As we have before.”
Sure, but it was also important to have one’s “partners” in the multipolar world order to see what Russia has had to put up with and take the high road. There’s no way BICS+ can say that Russia was being aggressive in any way whatsoever.
I am waiting for the western mainstream media headline that says
“Russia bombs its own bridge. Why? Because Vlad the impaler is just plain crazy (also a vampire)”
Gotta keep up those high MSM journalistic standards.
Excellent summary and update, Mr. Escobar, thank you for it.
This is a major escalation obviously. Russia has been very reluctant to escalate thus far but now it should be clear that Russia can and will deploy multiple weapon systems against infrastructural targets any time it chooses. This counterattack by Russia today isn’t anywhere near what Russia is capable of on just the conventional level. I am very sure Russia could flatten whole cities in Ukraine in a matter of hours with just conventional weapons if it chooses.
So where does this go from here? Is this the price the leadership in Ukraine is willing to pay for a rather ineffectual truck bombing on a civilian bridge? Russia’s escalation ladder has a number of rungs that Ukraine doesn’t have.
Mr. Escobar, I wish I could call you Pepe. I’ve been looking forward to your next post as Dimitri and crew worked to get back on line. I thoroughly enjoy reading you and am grateful for the education.
Blessings to you Sir, you deserve them IMHO.
Just a while ago Russian RT published this: https://russian.rt.com/business/news/1059570-gazprom-sevpotok-vzryvatel-nato
“Gazprom: in 2015, a NATO mine destroyer was found near Nord Stream
The official representative of Gazprom, Sergey Kupriyanov, recalled that in November 2015, during the inspection of the Nord Stream, an underwater NATO mine destroyer was discovered between the strings.“He lay exactly in the space between the threads of the gas pipeline. It was a point: 651 km, depth 40 m,” he said .
Kupriyanov added that the object was neutralized by the Swedish Armed Forces.
“NATO said that the underwater fuse was lost in the exercise. These are NATO exercises – when a military explosive device is exactly under our gas pipeline, ”he said.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russian specialists were not allowed to investigate explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
On September 26, sabotage occurred on two Russian export gas pipelines to Europe, Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2.nspection of the Nord Stream, an underwater NATO mine destroyer was discovered between the strings.”
Thank you for this informative analysis, Pepe Escobar. It is always a joy to reflect on those highly sensitive issues in your company.
Regards always, LR
Pois é… A guerra é um jogo de xadrez mortífero e todos nós sabemos como são fracos os Russos nesse jogo (os Alemães que o digam…).
Todos aqueles que por aqui (e por outros lados) andaram a lamentar a suposta tibieza do desempenho bélico russo devem guardar a sua fogosidade guerreira de sofá para brigas de bar onde o excesso de álcool e a falta de bom senso passam por coragem.
Os meus parabéns ao Sr. Pepe Escobar por mais um excelente texto.
Today’s Russian reaction was very prompt and effective. Also it showed that contrary to NATO propaganda, Russia hasn’t run out of missiles.
Thanks for all the information. I hope this instructive retaliation proves sufficient.
BTW for those who haven’t noticed this, Ukrainska Pravda is a publication of the International Renaissance Foundation:
https://www.irf.ua/en/about/
“The foundation was founded by the philanthropist George Soros and is part of the Open Society Foundations international network.”
Ukraine claimed they knocked down 40 of the 100 missiles, can that be true ? Seems pretty doubtful but then I am surprised they have so much military power still available to them as they have been using the past several weeks. No doubt these were not hypersonic missiles, so, regular cruise missiles could theoretically be shot down as Russia has done in Syria. But what is to come next is where the story is. Time to put an end to Ukraine.
This is also a message to all Europe, the UK and USA that the Russian military is not a ‘paper tiger’ and that is a bad idea to poke the bear.
Russia is showing that in a single morning it can take any EU country apart with a very small number of civilian deaths and no need to use nukes … just totally wreck the infrastructure.
Modern society depends on electricity.
EU is a tool, a whore, a puppet. But so is white America. People like Biden and all those whore politicians are cuck-dogs of Jewish Power. Jews rule the US. Look at the men around Biden. Look who controls finance, gambling, big tech, law firms, courts, and etc. Jews also use gangster tactics to blackmail people and employ antifa and blm thugs to burn cities down(but they get legal protection from Jewish lawyers and courts).
Because Jews control the West(or Schwest), the current Ukraine War must be called a Judeo-Russian War or Russo-Jewish War. It’s about time Russians named the Jewish Power, which has stooped so low as to recruit nazi-like elements on Ukraine. Imagine that. All this carping about the Evil Nazis and the Holocaust but Jews are now happily working with neo-Nazis in Ukraine who are essentially self-loathing Slavs into the delusional ideology of ‘aryan supremacy’.
But then, the very Jews who’ve long whined about McCarthyite witchhunts, blacklistings, and paranoia are now canceling people left and right, using Big Tech monopoly to censor voices, denying banking services to dissidents, and hysterically blaming Russia-Russia-Russia for all the evils done actually by Jews themselves. What vileness.
The Kiev regime isn’t Nazi. It’s Judeo-Nazi, or Jewish brains using dumb slavo-nazi muscle. (Any Slav who takes up Nazism is a total idiot piece of scum considering what Nazis thought of most Slavs. They are as scummy as Japanese, South Koreans, and Taiwanese who do the bidding of the Globo-Homo US against other Asians. It seems Japan reverted to its old role. It once worked with Western Imperialists to carve up China. Today, it’s back working with the West against China, the only truly sovereign East Asian country left.)
The term ‘Judeo-Nazi’ will drive Jews up the wall because it will expose what has become of Jewish Power. Jews went from victim narrative to supremacist agenda. Ironically, Jews used the victim narrative to mask their supremacist agenda. Every time they attacked or invaded, it was in the name of Anne Frank and preventing another Holocaust. So, every enemy of Israel or Jews became the ‘new hitler’. No wonder shills like Hillary call Putin ‘putler’ even though it’s the Jews who are allied with sub-nazi scum in Ukraine.
Isn’t it about time to call it Jukraine, if not Jewkraine?
This is a Judeo-Russian War or Russo-Judean War. Ukraine is just caught between and is a tool of the Jews. Russia has more claim to Ukraine for historical and ethnic reasons, whereas Jews have no claim on the territory. But they sure colonized many stupid Slavic minds with the Polish Disease of self-loathing Slavism.
It’s like the Korean War was really a US vs USSR/China war with Korea caught in between. Had it been left up to Koreans, it would have ended quickly with the northern regime uniting the country. US intervention made it a bigger war and China’s entry(at the request of Stalin) made it bigger.
Anglo-American scum must answer for aiding and abetting in Jewish Evil.
“The Kiev regime isn’t Nazi. It’s Judeo-Nazi.”
Yes, this is a bitter truth that the Jewish Community at large is reluctant to accept.
The Nazification of Ukraine was envisioned by American Zionists in the 1990-s when they began a collaboration with the Dobriansky family of Bandera followers. The Zionist-staffed US Department intensified the Nazification of Ukraine after Nuland-Kagan’s putsch in Kiev in 2014. Actually, the putsch was a collaborative effort between American Zionists and the leading self-proclaimed Ukrainian Nazis like Tyahnybok and Parubiy.
As for Anne Frank’s “diary,” there is strong evidence that it was written by Anne’s enterprising father, Otto Frank.
“Otto Frank sued two Germans, Ernst Romer and Edgar Geiss, in 1980 for distributing literature denouncing the diary as a forgery. The subsequent court case produced a study by official German handwriting experts that determined that everything in the diary was written by the same person but noted that this person (whoever it was) had used a ballpoint pen throughout! Unfortunately for Frank, the ballpoint pen was not available commercially until 1951, whereas Anne was known to have died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen in February 1945.”
This has nothing to do with ethnicity, or ancestral lineage. There are only two basic families on the earth.
God planted the children of the Kingdom of Heaven in His field, and His enemy the Devil (IE. Lucifer, Satan) planted the children of the wicked one in His field. (Matthew 13:37-39) God’s field is the earth. When the devil, who hates God like we hate evil tried to mess up God’s field he didn’t plant all of his children in a far corner of the field, he planted them in and amongst God’s true children all over His field. Thus there are children of God, and children of the Devil completely intermixed all over the earth. They’re in the same families, ancestral backgrounds, nations, tribes, clubs, occupations, churches, etc. ( where better to mess with God’s children than where they gather together to praise and worship Him ?) .
Therefore, as the Bible tells us; at the conclusion of God’s use for the earth as such, which will then be “evil free”, there will be some in Heaven from every nation, kindred, and tongue (Revelation 5:9).
Guess what ? That means the rest will be some in Hell from every nation, kindred, and tongue.
Hating Jews seems to me to be a fruitless expenditure of emotions. Many of them are their own worst enemy. God told them that if they obeyed His commandments (the 10) and follow His edicts, and deal righteously with others they would be blessed more than any other peoples on the earth. But if they didn’t obey His commandments, and didn’t follow His edicts and didn’t deal righteously with others they would be cursed above all other peoples on the earth. Which route do you think they chose ? That’s right ! It depends on the individual Jew. Everyone of us stand or fall individually based on our relationship with The Lord God.
Are the ‘bad’ Jews any worse than the ‘bad Polynesians’, or the ‘bad Americans’ (we’re like mongrels here, a lot of American’s don’t even know what their ancestral backgrounds are, nor do they care)
Try to get over this, “It’s the Jew’s fault” and you’ll have more emotional energy left over to apply in areas that give you peace.
The way I see it, when God called the Jew’s His chosen people, He was choosing them to make an example out of, for the rest of us, of what to do, and what not to do.
God bless all of you and your loved ones and keep you safe through what lies ahead for us.
The bombing of Kiev
is a good start. You have to attack the snake’s head more than its tail.
But perhaps all the bombs should be dropped on just two buildings. The Ukrainian security services building and the Ukrainian parliament (preferably while they’re having a meeting).
Excellent summary Mr Escobar. Thank you!
General Surovikin, Supreme Allied Commander, on his first full Monday in his new post later briefed reporters, stating that, he intended to hit the ground running . . . . . . and flying. As soon as he could figure out all the coloured ‘f**k-you’ buttons and wiggly things on the board at H/Q, the missiles would continue to launch with increasing velocity, that, or up until morale improved within NATO command centres.
Space Oddity
Ground Control to major Z
Ground Control to major Z
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on
Ground Control to major Z
Commencing countdown, engine’s on
Check ignition, and may God’s love be with you
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
This is Ground Control to major Z
You’ve really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear
It’s time to leave the capsule if you dare
This is major Z to ground control
I’m stepping through the door
And I’m floating in the most peculiar way
Elon Musk’s stars look very different today
Can you hear me?
It’s obvious Zelensky and Elon Musk are two interplanetary spaced-out hoppers, along with Hunter Biden, Spacemen.
Today, Putin said “If there are any further attempts to conduct terrorist attacks on our soil, Russia will respond firmly and on a scale corresponding to the threats created against Russia”.
Rather than waiting for the next terrorist attack and then responding firmly, it would be better to completely destroy Ukraine NOW so that there will be no more terrorist attacks period!
There is absolutely no reason to stop the attacks until Ukraine is either destroyed or surrenders.
As impressive as these attacks were, they will not stop Ukraine from committing further terrorist acts against Russia.
Unless these attacks continue, many soldiers and civilians will be killed in the Donbass etc.
If Russia does a true shock and awe, Ukraine will surrender in 1 week at most.
Russia can continue these air attacks without meaningful resistance. But if they don’t, the battles on the front line will be difficult. Why else mobilize 300,000 troops?
The most powerful military in the world with the most sophisticated weapons in the world can end this conflict in a matter of days.
” Rather than waiting for the next terrorist attack and then responding firmly, it would be better to completely destroy Ukraine NOW so that there will be no more terrorist attacks period! ”
Who do you think initiate these terror attacks ? Even with Ukraine removed from the map, they will not stop.
Crimea Bridge was not “the straw that broke the camel’s back” and “Ukraine is (not) just a mere sideshow”.
Russia & the West have been fighting over UA for a century. It’s the geo-political pivot of Eurasia, so whoever controls it leverages whatever power they can muster over the whole continent. Disruption of Eurasian integration and China’s BRI is what makes UA important to NATO. NATO gave up Afghanistan (the other pivotal spot in Eurasia) to focus on UA. Losing both UA & AF is to hand Eurasia to the RU-CN axis and withdraw to N. America. That’s why NATO all but emptied its arsenals in the attempt to hold on to it, and are now resorting to sabotage.
Unfortunately, the SMO’s message failed to break through the phalanx of lies protecting NATO’s group-think bubble. It’s the NATO-led offensives/escalations in Sept/Oct, followed by NATO’s sabotage of Nordstream & the Crimea Bridge that showed RU that NATO is going for broke and will keep going until stopped by a larger force.
There’s no way NATO can afford to stop on its own. If it did, its post-USSR mission, indeed its entire raison d’etre would evaporate, so RU will now stop it. It’ll take all of UA, dismantle its political & security structures and either create a new state(s) or incorporate it wholesale. If there’s a NATO after that, and it persists in sabotage, the war will go to London & DC. RU will not allow the West to have UA, period.
The Eurasian dog cannot allow itself to wagged by its (European) tail. The tail insisted, so RU is cutting it off.
“MI6 does have some well-placed moles in Moscow, relatively speaking. ”
It seems that the RT moderator team is infested with fifth columnists. The moderators are carefully weeding out posts that are critical of NATO and US Ziocons but save the anti-Putin and anti-Russians posts. They are “joking” at the RT’s expense.
Russia should tell the truth on 911 or other atrocities. But then they might be censored.
@cerena
RT is equivalent to India’s WION and China’s CGTN Europe. Within these “news networks” are pro Empire of Lies cheerleaders. I watch RT and occasionally CGTN Europe. RT is subtly pro West and pro Ukraine. CGTN Europe sounds exactly like BBC or Skynews and I think their newscasters are British(from their English accent). They interview “experts” from Pentagon and have ‘on the ground’ reporters from the likes of AFP and Reuters. Not one reporting shows Russia on a positive light. All are negative and show either Ukraine as victim of “Russian bullying” or a “Ukraine winning over weak Russian military”. There is not even a pretence of a balanced view. This, from state sponsored Chinese news network! In stark contrast to Global Times, unofficial English propaganda mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China which is, implicitly supporting Russia. I wonder if CGTN is to show China “plays” to the dominant Western narrative for their Western/international audience and Global Times for a different group of readers . I can’t explain this anomaly. Anyone has some thoughts on this? Perhaps I should ask those pro China folks in their channels/sites .
Everything you’ve said about CGTN is true, I talked about it here and asked those exact questions “if they’re appealing to the west”. Like you’ve said, hope someone well firm with Chinese politics can answer that.
Thank you @ sinotibetan
@ Sajjid
Thanks for your comment.
I do have a hypothesis to offer for this ‘anomaly’ but I am not sure if it’s true.
The problem for /with China is that it wants “the best of both worlds’…will explain that shortly. In my previous posts in other threads, I opined that we are all vassals of the US Imperium just with different degrees/depths of vassalage. Current Euro-Atlantic bloc Vs Eurasian bloc is a struggle of Eurasian powers to break free from their bondage to the West/Euro-Atlanticist ,to be ultimately truly sovereign.
China benefitted and is still benefitting (albeit with dwindling rewards) from the Chinamerica parasitic/symbiotic relation. The model is basically – US (and Western)corporations invest in China to get maximal profits from dirt cheap “smart” labour(modern day slavery) and lax regulations from a dirt poor China and China benefits from Western investment that improves Chinese economic prospects at a phenomenal rate. For the Euro-Atlantacists, all putative issues about alleged Chinese human rights violations were glossed over as they salivate for this exploitative arrangement . It is in their mind that as the Chinese middle and upper class arises, these groups will have a mentality similar to their Western counterparts and a regime change can be arranged in the future to ensure China remains a vassal.
Chinamerica was and still is the working economic model for China….something that is unsustainable as reality sets in. Unfortunately for the Chinese , the Euro-Atlanticist correctly realized that the Chinese Govt managed to prevent regime change within China and so is targeted for destruction. China used those Western investments and technology transfers(the West will claim they are “intellectual thefts”) to significantly improve their native scientific/technological industries . China thus will not want to obey Euro-Atlanticist diktats like when it was an economic midget. So China, also wants to be part of the Eurasia bloc to remove those Western shackles.
The only problem for China is the West no longer believes Chinamerica benefits them and fears the Dragon as a rival and enemy. The West is decoupling even if they know they will suffer economic turmoil. To Western elites, retaining their hegemony is the only thing that matters and they also believe they will emerge victor in the decoupling(ie China will suffer more economic desolation than the West and that average middle and upper class Chinese whose minds have been enslaved with Western notions of a good life will rebel and effect a regime change or chaos in China).
So, China wants the best of both worlds. It is unable yet /unwilling to break free from Chinamerica(hence CGTN Europe and an optical “neutral” stance on the Ukraine conflict ) – for fear of sudden economic downturns would provoke rebellion at home. At the same time, China knows that US is indeed the enemy of an independent and sovereign China , that strategic partnership with Russia and other Eurasian powers are needed, and that ultimately direct US -China face off will come – hence the economic backing of Russia behind the scenes and Global Times articles (for pro multipolarity audience).
China wants to appeal to both sides which I think is folly. It should take a stand – capitulate to the West for vassalage and be a second Japan (follow the CGTN Europe narrative ) or take a stand for independence and stop the moralistic posturing to please Western audiences (the Global Times , pro Eurasia narrative). There can be no middle ground as it’s a war of two antithetical global orders. Perhaps this is a temporary arrangement while waiting for the correct timing to unleash the latter. Within the pro China camps are those who try to salvage Chinamerica(analogous to those in pro Russia camp who tried to bridge West-Russia relations prior to the Ukraine conflict ) Vs those who are resolutely pro Multipolarity and pro Russia .
Just my opinion.
I wouldn’t know about that.
Would anyone in the CPC callously omit the Soviets’ role in Japan’s surrender (defeating the Japanese Kwantung army in Manchuria) and conveniently favor the USA’s use of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (IINM something Putin condemned in his recent speech)?
It could probably have been a hiccup, but sometime last year, a few columns were written condemning a scene from Marvel’s Eternals* film where the protagonist complains about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. With Putin’s and the Iranian government’s condemnation of the bombings in mind, I was shocked to hear praise of one USAian war crime on a site that not only supports Russia but also has condemned other such war crimes by the USA.
(I haven’t followed GlobalTimes since they disabled commenting, so I don’t know if anything had changed from then and now.)
Armenia, for me is a question mark. Whose side is it? Russian, European, American?
Taking in consideration what has happened to the Crimea bridge, president Putin should ask all the states involved to change their policy of control. It would be better to have “a common Eurasian ” policy which
everyone should follow “without exception, or changes”.
I cannot avoid “the feeling” that someone of the so called “friends” has betrayed Russia….
Nice article as usual Pepe.
To be honest an ISIS-type suicide bombing did not cross my mind when I first read about the bridge attack. Uppermost was the possibility of a truck laden with a new type of powerful explosive hidden on the truck itself — fuel tanks, chassis — rather than the cargo, and then detonated. The train was a coincidence, the truck driver an unsuspecting luckless soul. The Russian intelligence source scenario, the one involving almost half-a-ton of explosives mounted on the span and requiring impeccable timing sounds a bit fantastic. At any rate my original theory has been proven wrong, and I trust the Russian authorities know the real story.
Truth be told I was a bit surprised to learn — the implication of Gen Surovikin’s appointment as SMO commander — that up til now the Russians were running the SMO without a s,ingle headquarters/commander overseeing it. The Russian chain of command for the SMO has always been a bit fuzzy. All this time, did they just split the SMO ‘operational theatre’ into two or three sectors and just let the field commanders in those sectors just run with it, a sort of Russian form of Helmuth von Moltke’s ‘Auftragstaktik’?
Surovikin has a very impressive record but he’s only days into the job although he could have been informed about the appointment much earlier and consequently already well briefed on operational matters to make the transition smoothly. Nonetheless I do think the plans — perhaps overseen by Sergey Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov — for your Russian Shock-and-Awe were already lying on the shelf at Russian military headquarters and only needed to be dusted off and implemented by the new SMO supremo.
After this breathtaking display of Russian rocketry there shouldn’t be any doubt in anybody’s mind — Biden’s too if he’s still lucid — that VV Putin doesn’t lie and doesn’t make threats he doesn’t intend to carry through.
With all due respect to senor Escobar, the russians haven’t reached the Shock ‘n’ Awe stage yet, at least they way they understand the term. That missile attack on the SBU’s installation and the energy infrastructure – that was just a reminder to the Ukies with whom they’re dealing with.
yes grayzone has done very good journalism with a good source to expose a possible but naive UK WW2 type plan to blow up the bridge.. without any details or assessment of Russia’s protective defences and systems that would make it most unlikely and if succeeded fully expose UK being directly involved in such international terrorism and sabotage.
The “scoop” Pepe reveals of 450 kg explosives within the bridge structure- not attatched eg by undersea means-similarly does not explain how they could have been installed by getting around the surveillance systems. Such would blow apart the bridge sections whereas the truck explosion caused deflection etc sufficient to unbalance the sections off their pedestals as seems to me.. we saw the giant flash on-note on- the roadway. Explosives within the structure would have lifted the roadway and sent debris particles of that everywhere and there seems little evidence of such.
Anyone expert enough out there to assess what kind of explosives by the colour ..smoke . speed .debris… action …residue..I am not sure about it being wholly fertiliser based. Seems to be pictures of no damage to the underneath of road sections.
and yes the pillars supports of the broken roadway are being examined today as they would have flexed and or fractured maybe during the displacement of the spans especially if both spans did not fall in synchronisation .
It makes me smile. Of course there was deserved retaliation and more promised if the Kiev regime carries on like this. But what happened to the previous criticism when it was suggested Russia needs to pull its finger out and start to show a bit of ‘shock and awe’ and that doing nothing only enboldened NATO. You didn’t realize it would eventually come to this and are now cheering for something that was obvious?
The video I posted from US Senate dated Dec 7 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBUIlHM9WSo confirms blowing up Nord Stream 1+2 was decided by Dec 7 2021. It is all a big conspiracy.
This is just a warm up for the big show. That starts when the ground freezes. Russian is looking to see what damage they caused and how long it takes Ukraine to repair. Plus they just showed how to overwhelm the Ukrainian air defenses. Russian is moving massive amounts of armor and material to the front. So get your popcorn ready.