First, there was the announcement that Russia’s Defense Ministry will hold drills for reservists in all of the country’s military commands in August-October. Now comes yet another announcement, this time that Russia’s will be holding military exercises this week involving 100 aircraft in the west of the country near the Ukraine border. This kind of activity does not mean that Russia is saber-rattling or somehow threatening anybody, much less so getting ready for war with NATO. But, yes, Russia is definitely muddying the waters.
Such exercises are primarily designed to test the readiness of the armed forces, and it is quite possible that this is indeed their main goal this time, but one important side effect of such activity is to overwhelm the surveillance capabilities of the US/NATO by basically putting up so much activity on the US/NATO monitoring screens that something important could be easily hidden. What exactly?
Well, the preparations from some kind of military move, of course. Though I personally do not believe that Russia will move into the Donbass at this point. Also, this kind of activity could be used to increase covert aid and even covert intervention. Another option is to use this kind of “noise” to change the disposition of Russian forces. Whatever may be the case, we can be pretty sure that the Russians are trying to give the US/NATO somewhat of a headache and to make them wonder what exactly Russia is up to.
The Saker
It could be to take out those missile launchers and multiple rocket systems that the junta are moving to Donetsk.
Mikhas.
Maybe Russia will increase their help to Iraq and Syria…
Plus supply some heavy weaponry for Novorussia…
It’s called hiding things in broad day light. The Opolchenie are about to find more stuff ” along side the road” :)
With some controversies reviews and scary predictions but some relevant historical data including, interesting edition of “From the Shadow” By Daniel Estulin, for RT in Spanish:
http://actualidad.rt.com/programas/desde_la_sombra/view/134762-sombra-e84-i-guerra-mundial-historia-ambiciones-imperiales
There are a number of dots that must be connected.
First, those that you enumerate.
Second, we now know that the wheels are coming off the Ukrainian punitive expedition. What one reads on this website and what one reads in the MSM are mutually exclusive. Only one can be true. And it turns out with the publicly acknowledged surrender of 450 Ukrainian troops, we know which one.
Third, what is only a dot perhaps in my mind, is an article that points out that the US is $800 billion away from producing at full capacity. And part of the problem is the wind-down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
So. What Russia is doing is telling US/NATO that when they start bombing the militia there will be a response. Everything Russia is doing is an effort to demonstrate to US/NATO that they will not stand by for a NATO air war against the militia.
But it gets very tricky. Because the US essentially cannot stand by while much of Ukraine is lost to the “separatists”. What is more, the US has been extremely successful in characterizing Russia as the reincarnation of Hitler’s Germany and Putin as Hitler. Will their own constituency permit them to let the “terrorists win”?
We are entering extremely dangerous waters in which there is going to be a winner and a loser. The US has been patiently making it so Putin has very, very little to lose.
Best outcome? Russia informs the militia it can only do so much, advance so far. Will that be possible?
Russia is issuing a warning.
“Whatever may be the case, we can be pretty sure that the Russians are trying to give the US/NATO somewhat of a headache and to make them wonder what exactly Russia is up to.”
Or perhaps the Russians are telling the US that they know exactly what the US is up to and are warning them off from doing it. It would be in line with Russia’s demonstrated superior intel and their pattern of warning US lately Through military manoeuvres such as the dummy bombing runs at the USS Donald Cook.
Exactly. Do whatever has to be done for Novorussia. Preserve all options should the ‘international investigation’ prove to be a NATO ploy. Preserve options for the next false flag. I believe that, if the Russian Federation should intervene, they will go straight to the endgame and seize Odessa, thus forcing the rest of the state formation known as Ukraine and its western sponsors to enter a defensive mode.
Muddying is not a good descriptor, Saker.
Deceiving, faking out, confusing, obfuscating would be more accurate.
But also, it is a very good way to study the signals intel signatures of NATO on their radars, perhaps, to steal codes and communications.
Feints are offensive, defensive and scouting moves all in one.
What we see with the militia is a small unit Intel and action that is overwhelming the stiff armor command and formations. But it is, I am thinking, also Russian Intel penetration of Ukie communications.
It is crucial to know with certainty the force order and true commitment and tendencies of the enemy.
As I’ve said before, NATO is designed and equipped to attack, not defend. It has only attacked its entire history.
The defense of Europe was promulgated against the massive Soviet tank forces and always relied on nuclear weapons to stop any “attack”.
Clearly, NATO can only “hold the line” for as long as it takes the U.S. to dominate the skies. The U.S. is spread so thin, it seems that Europe will soon see that it stands alone or it loses the entire Middle East to ISIS.
Each side in this RF versus NATO is built for nuclear deference,not fighting a war.
Russia is best equipped to defend. It no longer has the mass in place to even threaten a war.
Though the US MIC is ramping up weapons output, it is going to be using those weapons in the Middle East. Iraq-Syria-Iran-Saudi Arabia is a huge, wide war for oil, gas and pipeline defense.
Roll in Libya, Egypt, Israel, and the coming collapse of Jordan and Lebanon if ISIS is not stopped, and you have more war than the ghouls of gore could ever dream of.
Russia is demonstrating its advantages. All year long Putin has exercised all aspects of the far-flung military, region by region, specialty by specialty. These are messages to both NATO and the RF military itself. The threat will increase in the coming years as the Senate elections and new Presidential election ratchet up the Putin-hate.
Russia won’t be out of danger until China’s presence is felt on the Euro side of the Eurasian New Silk Road. Same with China vis a vis Japan’s threat in the East China Sea arena. Russian military presence in the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and of course, the Sea of Japan, is crucial for Russian Paciific and arctic interests.
We will see 3-5 years of this “flexing” of muscles.
Ominously, Romney may be invigorated to try again for the Presidency. At the least, his warnings about Putin and Russia will be the theme of the election campaign and first years of the next presidency no matter who runs and who wins.
America loves enemies. If they don’t find any, they create them.
This drill is a diplomatic move. It means that Russia is preparing for the next phase : a no-fly zone aboive eastern Ukraine. So basically, Moscow says : “If you indeed want to achieve th complete seizure of Donbass, then, we will react accordingly. it is up to you now to come back to negociations table”.
Another interesting edition of “From the shadows” by Daniel Estulin for RT in Spanish:
http://actualidad.rt.com/programas/desde_la_sombra/view/134070-sombra-e83-kosovo-sindicato-criminal-europa
Snowden has just leaked papers proving, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the Jewish Holocaust in Gaza is a British/US supported act of genocide. Given the Jewish control of Britain and American, this should come as no surprise.
Tony Blair’s current puppets, the so-called ‘Alliance’ (officially a joint rule of the supposedly right-wing Conservatives with the supposedly leftish social democrats called ‘Liberals’) made its first act after gaining power the issuance of ABSOLUTE IMMUNITY to all Jewish war criminals visiting the UK from Israel, France, Netherlands or the USA.
You see, Blair had inadvertently scared off Jewish war criminals when he allowed a EU wide law punishing Crimes against Humanity that occurred anywhere on the planet, to become active in Britain. For a period of several years, any UK citizen could seek the immediate arrest of any war criminal as soon as they entered the UK.
Now the law is inverted. Even protesting war criminals from Israel is a criminal offence under so-called ‘harassment’ laws.
Gaza shows what Tony Blair and his demonic cabal have planned for Russia. Yet Putin considers, to this day, Blair to be his no.1 ally in the West.
Blair gave Putin his ‘Georgia War’, which I doubt even one of you here knows or believes. And that silly conflict was 100% designed to set up the Ukraine situation years later. Except Putin trusted Blair, and believed Russia would easily reclaim Ukraine, not fall into the West’s trap.
Tony Blair ‘converted’ to Catholicism in order to head his massive ‘INTER-FAITH’ organisation- a body he used to covertly infiltrate and recruit within Syria and Libya before he launched his genocides against both nations.
But the zionist filth of the mass media tell you Blair is a ‘pathetic nobody’, so you never bother to notice his direct involvement in conflicts across our planet.
Look, you know Putin is leaving the Humans of Novorussia to their fate, and you know Putin is gearing up to smash the massive Ukrainian attack against Crimea. Can anyone here defend the foolishness of Putin? He is proving to be the perfect catspaw of the zionists, and the demons, like Blair, above them.
“Maybe Russia will increase their help to Iraq and Syria…”
Are you joking? Putin also supports the House of Saud and the leaders of Israel. Senior Russia leaders are forever in Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Russia invaded Afghanistan to prop up a secular regime in a Muslim nation (no contradiction there- most so-called Christian nations in the West also have secular rule). Russia wanted to fight back the hyper-extremist Islamic forces from Pakistan, who originated from religious schools set up be the British and Americans and Saudis years earlier.
Today we call these Islamic extremists ‘Taliban’, but they had a different name when Jewish Hollywood depicted ‘Rambo’ and ‘James Bond’ fighting alongside them against the ‘satanic’ Russians. Oh those damned Soviets, who wanted evils like female rights, religious freedom, and socialist opportunities for all ordinary people in Afghanistan. No wonder the West had to fight them.
Today, the leaders of Russia are anything but Socialists. They don’t even feel sick when dealing with the worst monsters in the world- the ruling classes of Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Putin isn’t trying to prevent the creation of Great Saudi Arabia or Greater Israel. At best, he is supporting, in the most feeble way possible, old allies in nations like Syria. But like Putin’s support of Humanity in Novorussia, his help is specifically designed to preclude any sort of ultimate victory for the ‘aided’.
No, Putin is happy to create legends of insane, but hopeless ‘bravery’- Humans who fight to the death against ever growing hordes of chaos and destruction. Remember that film “300”- I hope you recall the 300 are all dead at the end.
Or what about ‘Spartacus’ (recent TV show is mind-boggling). Slavery is more perfect than ever in the Roman Empire after the revolt. The cruelty in Roman’s arenas gets vastly worse in the following centuries.
A few ‘big’ acts by Putin could ruin the ambitions of the West for the rest of the 21st Century. But, instead, Putin is a perfect unwitting puppet of the West, and will do exactly what the demons of the West require of him.
My guess is Russia is adding additional stress on a Ukie military that is already having serious morale problems. After all, why should Ukie troops risk their lives trying to defeat Novorassia if that will only lead to a Russian intervention. Even if Russia has no intention to intervene, there’s no reason to reassure the Ukie troops.
This is a good use of speculation unlike speculation re MH17 which gives advantage to the opponent.
All tactics must be context specific.
It amy be worth considering a couple of plausible strategies. These drills may indeed “muddy the waters” so to speak on many fronts.
Not only would this allow for some deliveries, hidden in plain sight, but will indeed allow for some serious close intel observations. This would allow for more precise target acquisitions as well as detect multiple chock points.
This would also provide enough data intercepts to determine the potential NATO responses as the chatter gets louder. If the RF has the ability to convert this chatter efficiently, it may well be able to target the Right Sector as like minded oligarch funded mercenaries with more precision.
This also may serve to scare the begeezus out of the less than willing conscripts that may consider fleeing to the RF if presented with the calamity they may face and the consequences of not surrendering. Since they RF has indeed shown such compassion to the surrendering conscripts and sent them home to mommy, the tide may turn on a dime in western Ukraine and against the cabal in Kiev.
This may also prove useful in engaging the silent fence-sitters into action against the junta. So far all they are being fed are scripted narratives, at some point food for thought becomes valuable as actual food for body becomes scarce.
In other words, the more NATO provides munitions for war, the RF can provide butter for dinner. This strategy may kill several birds with one stone with morale being the driving factor…
Perhaps they want to make those involved in bringing missiles to the region think twice. Perhaps they want to shoot down various kinds of missiles. After all, didn’t Strelkov talk about a large attack on chemical facilities?
where are located the gas reserves in Ukr ??
http://en.ria.ru/world/20140804/191712845/Ukrainian-Army-Amasses-Ballistic-Missiles-MLRS-Near-Donetsk.html
This is a complete game changer for the Russians. Im willing to bet if the mad bastards start firing off these BMs Russia will have no other choice than to intervene. President Putin had been hoping that the morally and spiritually bankrupt EU so called leaders would react in kind to Russias diplomatic overtures over the past several weeks, even rescinding the authority to use Russian troops on Ukrainian soil, but in the end all he got was a kick in the teeth from the bunch of morons with tougher sanctions over some trumped up accusations so now all bets are off. These BMs are capable of carrying a nuclear payload and the Russians are well aware of this, and who can forget the Nazi dickheads in kiev openly stating that it would only take them a few months to acquire a nuclear capability, especially if they had a lot of help from those shining paragons of “democracy and freedom” in Washington. So I think if the murderous filth start firing these missiles off that would indeed be the last straw for the Russians. Be very careful what you wish for ukies, as I do believe you are going to get it big time. Oh by the way don’t expect any help worth speaking of from the “exceptionals” in Washington as you aren’t going to get any. Just ask the tie muncher sakashvili how much help he got from his NATO buddies. America will indeed fight Russia to the last drop of Ukrainian blood. Just in case it hasn’t gotten through to the thickos in kiev, the MAJORITY of the populations of the west ARE NOT with their governments on this one and most can see through the lies being spewed out daily in western MSM. You are on your own guys and I definitely will not be wishing you good luck in dealing with the Russians.
I’m widely agreeing with Saker, but
– I’m wondering whether there isn’t a tendency to see things from a us-american centered perspective. I’m quite certain that the us perspective is far less important in Russian reflections than one might believe.
– a us spy plane (I think yesterday) came too close for Russia’s well feeling to the Kaliningrad region and Russia scambled a jet (presumably a Su-27).
Now comes the interesting part: The us spy plane didn’t just flee, no, they did flee in obvious panic. Although (neutral) Sweden had denied air rights, the zamericans went through swedish airspace anyway because it was the shortest and fastest path away from the Russian jet.
Now remember the us navy cruiser in the black sea … Russia had sent 2 Su-24 fighters right across the us navy cruiser – and the zamericans ended their maneuver and hurried back to port and us navy sailors fled in panic.
One can’t but see that behind all their barking and self-important bragging nato knows perfectly well that their military isn’t worth a lot against an enemy more powerful than goat herders.
More importantly it strongly suggests that the standing orders are in fact “Provoke, brag, bark, sound aggressive – but DO NOT at any cost be engaged, no matter what!”
– Possibly the most important co-factor has been overlooked so far.
Yesterday Spetznaz and intelligence veterans, and some other groups very close to security have officially announced the creation of a patriotic group against the 5th colonne in Russia.
This is a VERY MAJOR evolution!
Please note that there already *is* a patriotic group (lookup E. Fedorov). So, in fact, the new patriotic group of security related veterans, which also has the full official support of the orthodox church, is de facto the step from “patriotic group” to “patriotic group with professionally trained paramilitary and security divisions”.
Of course real numbers are hard to come by but it seems reasonable to assume membership in the higher hundreds of thousands and some ten thousand paramilitary and security members, partly veteran, partly newly trained volunteers.
In other words, Russia now has a major inofficial/non-state militia, intelligence, security group.
Considering that any zato attack on Russia almost certainly is planned to be a hard-core colour revolution, possibly hand in hand with some military attacks, we see Russia perfectly well prepared.
For one the Russian military can fully concentrate on military tasks, knowing that mother Russia herself is very well prepared by capable patriots taking care of colour rats and all sorts of traitors.
Moreover Russia can now chose to hunt down the traitor rats officially or inofficially.
And hunted down they will be! The usa “ambassador” will not be able to recruit and buy rats as quickly as the patriots will clean them out; and diverse “democracy ngo’s” will experience bad luck as in “their bus being crushed in an accident”.
Beaten to it by other commenters, but here’s your answer:
http://rt.com/news/177856-missile-rocket-systems-ukraine/
@Mr. Pragma,
You have bit upon a point that has seemingly been ignored or purposely concealed from the MSM, of coarse, as well as most alt media. One reason may be that many of the alt media have been co-opted or are simply unaware or self censoring for whatever reason.
While the reasoning may be varied, the fact remains that the PTB, especially those the control the 5-Eyes need to constantly berate and belittle both the RF and the PRC and portray them both as backwards, undeveloped wastelands filled with ignorant drunkards and/or peasants.
This is also the way the portray the Persians, Arabs, Chaldeans, Africans, South and Central Americans in much the same way as they have done in the past with the savage First Nations, Indigenous and Aboriginal Peoples.
If the collective citizenry understood the truth about those so called backward people, they would not be sheeple willingly led to the slaughter by their capitalist (oligarch) masters that, in all respects, have absolutely no marketable skills/trades/knowledge other than spinning Babylonean math on paper.
Really, how can they “sell” a war against an equal or superior adversary. They can’t…
DumpHarper!
Do we realize that in a very close alternative reality we have been all dead this June 18?
http://rt.com/news/177720-us-spy-plane-sweden/
From Veterans Today:
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/08/02/mystery-bombing-runs-over-ukraine/
“Fighter bombers attacking civilian targets in Eastern Ukraine, flying with Ukrainian Air Force markings, have been traced to air bases in Romania, Moldova and Azerbaijan, armed and some perhaps piloted by Poles and even Israelis.”
“Canadian journalist, Geoffrey West, working with online “plane spotting” groups has identified combat aircraft flying “packages” over Ukrainian air space as taking off from NATO and other facilities.”
These military exercises are primarily designed to dissuade.
They’ll demonstrate to the US military the level of proficiency and integration of the Russian air defenses and air force, just in case the “folks” at the pentagon have been consuming too much of their own propaganda.
With all eyes trained on Ukraine and Western Russia, US analysts will carefully observe these manouvers and quickly conclude they are not dealing with some goat herders in Pakistan.
They are dealing with the world’s best air defense system fully integrated with a superb air force.
They grudgingly will have to report to their masters that any military campaingn on Russia’s backyard is suicidal.
It’s just another reminder of that from Mother Russia with love.