Unless you read Russian or monitor the free blogosphere, you might not have noticed this, but something big just happened in Russia: Kerry, Nuland and a large State Department delegation have traveled to Sochi were they met with Foreign Minister Lavrov and then with President Putin. With the latter they spent over 4 hours. Not only that, but Kerry made a few rather interesting remarks, saying that the Minsk-2 Agreement (M2A) was the only way forward and that he would strongly caution Poroshenko against the idea of renewing military operations.
To say that this is a stunning development would be an understatement.
For one thing, this means that the so-called “isolation of Russia” is now officially over, even for the “Indispensable Empire”.
Second, this is, as far as I know, the first official US endorsement of M2A. This is rather humiliating for the US considering that M2A was negotiated without the Americans.
Third, for the very first time the US has actually warned the Ukronazi junta against a military attack. This, at a time when the Ukronazis are in a state of bellicose frenzy and Poroshenko just promised to re-conqueor not only the Donetsk Airport, but all of the Donbass and even Crimea, show that for the very first time the US and Kiev are not on the same page.
Fourth, the USA has, for the first time, declared that if M2A was implemented, EU and US sanctions would be lifted. Interestingly, the Russians were not even interested in discussing the topic of sanctions.
So what does that all mean?
At this point, nothing much.
Americans are terrible negotiators and in every single US-Russian negotiation over the conflict in the Ukraine the Russians completely out-negotiated their American “geostrategic partners” (the quasi-official ironic Russian term describing the West) every time. What typically happens, is that Kerry caves in, then comes back to Washington and changes his tune by 180 degree. The Russians know that and the Russian media stressed that in its analyses.
Still, the USA can zig and then zag as many times as they want, reality does not zag. If anything, the recent presence of Chinese and Indian troops on the Red Square showed that the notion of “isolating Russia” is a non-starter whether Kerry & Co. accept it or not.
Then, there was the rather interesting behavior of Nuland, who was with Kerry’s delegation, she refused to speak to the press and left looking rather unhappy.
Finally, a quick check of the Imperial Mouthpieces reveals that the Imperial Propaganda Department does not really know what to make of it all.
So what is going on, really?
Honestly, this one is too early to call and, as I said, the chances for yet another US “zag” are very high.
Still, what *might* be happening is that the Americans have finally (!) figured out a few basic facts:
- Russia will not back down
- Russia is ready for war
- The Nazi-occupied Ukraine is collapsing
- Most of the world supports Russia
- The entire US policy towards Russia has failed
All of the above is rather obvious to any halfway competent observer, but for an Administration completely intoxicated with imperial hubris, crass ignorance and denial these are very, very painful realities to catch up with. However, denying them might, at the end of the day, get the USA nuked. As the expression goes, if you head is in the sand, your ass is in the air.
Thus it is possible that what just happens is the first sign of a US sobering up and that what Kerry came to explore with Lavrov and Putin is some kind of face saving exit option. If that is so, then this is terminal news for Poroshenko as this means that the US has basically thrown in the towel in utter disgust with the freaks in power in Kiev.
Furthermore, this might be a sign that US military analysts have taken a very negative view of the Ukronazi changes of success in their planned “Reconquista” of the Donbass. By going to Russia and officially endorsing M2A Kerry might be sending a message to Poroshenko: forget it, it ain’t happening!
Still, I would strongly caution against any premature optimism. I consider a US “zag” a quasi-certitude. My hope is that the “zag” will be limited in magnitude and that when it happens, it will be more about face-saving exit for Obama than about a denial of reality.
What is certain though, is that Russia has won yet another battle is this long war and that all the signs are pointing at the inevitable defeat of the Empire.
The Saker
spot on…till we see what u- turners r up to when back to temporary home of obomba .
cheers Saker :-)
Not a reply to you Baaz,I just wanted to get this at the top of the thread!
http://novorossia.today/tragedy-for-family-from-gorlovka/
And guess what? the OSCE is going there, to see if the people of Gorlovka are shelling themselves!!.
A Great Indian chief once said, the White(House) men words are written on water.
Putin should not trust John Pinocchio.
Paleface speak with fork tongue.
The Neocons response:
http://rt.com/news/258389-saakashvili-mccain-ukraine-advisors/
McCain in Ukraine to “advise”.
Rgds,
Veritas
The neo-conservative ‘movement'(as in bowel action)is Judaic phenomenon and the Hanoi Nightingale, John McCain is just a low grade Sabbat Goy.
omg…..fantastic “movement” comment
nightingale indeed
thanks
Christine
ps….do Sakashvili and the Nightingale share ties?
Christine
Apart from their naked psychopathy, I have no idea.
right
That great Indian Chief John Keats.
“M2A was negotiated without the Americans…”
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Thanks for the laugh! That felt really good.
Yesterday means only two things:
-Assad is a dead man walking
-Iran will NOT get the S-300 systems
Hey Saker, whatever happened to hoping sanctions would not stop as sanctions were actually helping the Russian economy reinventing itself?
“Americans are terrible negotiators”?
I suppose that’s why they’ve pulled the rug from under Putin in Cuba and Iran in just the last few months…
You are really grasping at straws these days, mostly symbolic straws, like Shoigu signing himself, which, when it truly comes down to it, means squat in the grand scheme of things.
All I can say today is… good luck to you, your beautiful wife and your children, Mr. Assad. You are going to need it.
I agree with this comment . The USA writes treaties that are not worth even the ink they are written on , at the first opportunity they would be broken . There is a long history attached to this that goes back to the American Indian wars . U- turns in foreign policies are a specialty of Washington
Even Russia can do quick U turns .The delivery of the S-300 system to Iran is in doubt and Assad did not get the S-300 either , he seems to have has been abandoned to an intensifying campaign to get rid of him to make room for a gas pipeline from Qatar . Sacrificing Assad by not giving him the S-300 was a price paid to the friends of the Cabal in the Kremlin .
In Ukraine ,the Minsk accord could fail any moment and the sanctions are still there . Greece could be an opportunity lost . It seems that most Russian successes have been checked .
‘ a load of Bunking Charlie !..Thank you Saker its been one of those days where I received yet another personal celebration .When seeing “Merkel’s’ face on Sunday my 1st thought she has been read the ‘riot act’ who’s next? ” oh the parade to the world who’s really realigning the crazies Thank you ‘President Putin ‘was my second thought >the waters calmed considerably sleep has been pleasant Thank you.
Sir, you got it very wrong…Mr. Putin & Mr. Lavrov know what they doing and know very well with whom they dealing…
Russia hasn’t won and the USA hasn’t lost.
Bleed on sheeple. Yet again, the globalizing oligarchs take all.
And Russia will help you like they’re helping Assad.
Bye bye Bashar. Unlike your father, you were an enthusiastic whore for fascism and the phony war on terror — this is your reward.
Putin will get the same.
I have always wondered why Putin has not publicly come out to say that they will stick with Assad and support him.
Honestly, this drivel ain’t worth a serious answer.
Mogamboguru
Please clarify which “drivel” you are referring to.
Is it the Saker’s analysis OR is it the comments of Morte and the anonymous wisher of Assad’s early death?
Clearly nothing is concluded, but the Sochi meeting signifies a retreat of sorts, no doubt with not so concealed dagger behind the Bonesman’s back, but still do you believe this was an assignment either Kerry or Nuland actually carried out with pleasure?
In terms of Morte and anonymous death wisher, one gets the sense both would surely sulk away from any truly lasting strategic victory against the Empire that they could not piss all over, rhetorically. Oh, yes, that would never do. That would deprive both of the pleasure of practicing the art of the Wet Blanket, perpetual cynic, and being exemplars of Full Spectrum Impotence and Sniveling Servile Submission to perpetual oligarchical rule.
Since I prefer not writing to the trolls directly, I’ll reply to your comment.
It’s sad to see this pathetic Russia bashing at every turn, because the arguments seldom have an intellectual basis.
The Saker is always intellectually honest and deals in facts. However, when he deals with facts such as the Americans’ absense at the Minsk agreement, it’s met with scorn although being true.
Anonymous is right when pointing out that the case has previously been made that sanctions will ultimately serve Russia. I think we at lst can say that the Point has been reach where they don’t harm Russia any further. However, I am quite convinced that abolishing sanctions would definately be a victory for Russia. Besides, I don’t think that the West without Russia will have the world’s backs turned on them.
As for “the carpet being pulle from under Russia’s feet” on Iran and Cuba, on Iran, I don’t even know what the refers to, hopefully not the recent nuclear deal brokered by Russia.
On Cuba, to make that assessment, one would have to live in a parallell universe, sinse that ALSO was a strategic loss and face saving moment by the US, which marked first of all that their sanctions on Cuba were counterproductive, and secondly that their missile surrounding tactics is a failure since Russia responds (and no, Cuba hasn’t dropped their allegiance to Russia, and even if they had, Russia has more allies in the area).
Finally, how anyone could make the assessmant that “Assad is a dead man Walking” is just plain stupid. Nowhere has Putin sold Assad out, nor will he. Actually, recently I’ve heard US officials make comments hinting a reprochement to Syria.
Russia is right on course now, and with victories like this Russia and China will be on the throne in no time.
Lavrov has said that Russia will provide all the Support Assad asks for.
As long as its paid for up front.. That part I don’t like but since Russia is also offering soft loans there. it might be a legal tactic that Russia is not directly funding Assad like Iran is going but only selling them equipment because they paid for it.
The reason Syria does not have S300’s is because it can target planes inside Israel. But they do have other recent Russian SAM’s and some of which were sold to the Ukraine militia.. yes its a weird world, the Ukraine government pasties sells American weapons to Syria and Syria sells Russian weapons to Ukraine’s enemies. Iran also send a bunch of old SU’s to Syria as well.
And they have also created their own version of s-300 if anyone thinks Russia didn’t assist in the effort then I have some farm land for sale in Texas in the middle of chemical alley you may be interested in.
RR
You are right.
Markus, thank you for your more measured analysis.
These guys just need to look in the mirror once in a while and get disgusted by what they see. I don’t mind providing the mirror, when I have the time.
I do NOT wish Assad’s death. Quite the contrary.
I was just referring to the pattern of the last 15 years, which is that Russia drops its allies like an old pair of socks each time the going gets tough.
Judging by Kerry’s body language durin the press conference (unlike some politicians, Kerry is actually very easy to read) he got what he came for.
Perhaps Kerry “got what he came for”. But his boss is going down.
from today’s http://www.larouchepac lead, with supporting material on Sochi:
Events of the last several days make it clear that President Obama is going down–and fast. His own Democratic Party defeated his free trade bill in the Senate by an unprecedented near-unanimous “no” vote on Tuesday. Although there is subsequent talk of a compromise on four killer amendments that were demanded by Senate Democrats, there is no certainty that the renewed effort will succeed; and the votes are not there in the House.
Obama’s despicable boycotting of the Moscow commemoration of the defeat of Hitler blew up in his face, as many world leaders, particularly from Asia, joined with President Putin in celebrating mankind’s victory over fascism 70 years ago.
The latest indication that Obama’s White House days are numbered, came yesterday, when sane U.S. institutional forces intervened, and Secretary of State John Kerry traveled to Sochi, Russia, for eight hours of talks with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and President Putin. The intent of the talks was to de-escalate the British-Obama provocations against Russia before they reached the point of thermonuclear war. Kerry delivered a clear message that sane circles in Washington intend to resume collaboration with Russia on war avoidance. The clearest public expression of this intent came during the joint press availability by Kerry and Lavrov, following the four-hour meeting with President Putin, when Kerry delivered a clear warning to Ukrainian President Poroshenko to back off from plans to resume military actions to retake the Donetsk Airport.
There are other indications that talks with Iran are moving ahead towards a P5+1 agreement before the June 30 deadline. This makes it all the more urgent that the Anglo-Saudi war plans be stopped dead in their tracks–by the continued mobilization to force the release of the 28 pages from the original Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11.
This week, Seymour Hersh blew the lid off the Saudi-Obama Big Lie hoax around the killing of Osama Bin Laden. In a 10,000- word piece, Hersh revealed that Bin Laden was killed in a premeditated assassination, engineered with the Saudis. There was no fire fight with Al Qaeda guards. There was no torture-derived evidence that led to the location of Bin Laden’s Pakistani safehouse. Not one single detail of the “official” Administration account was true–and in the course of putting out one lie after the other, Obama betrayed the very Pakistani military officials who turned over the key information and ushered the US assassins into Bin Laden’s unguarded compound, where he was, in effect, under house arrest by the Pakistani ISI.
Lyndon LaRouche commented on Wednesday that the progress on the P5+1, combined with the Kerry talks in Sochi and the continuing Democratic revolt against Obama, also means that the drive to dump Obama is on an accelerated trajectory, and could mean that the looming financial blowout can be averted. This, he stressed, must be the intention.
With Obama down, it is possible to quickly cancel the financial fraud, and, through emergency legislation, launch a new financial and monetary structure to revive the productive economy. This begins with the immediate reinstatement of Glass- Steagall. There must be a revival of the productive economy, meaning that the gambling debt and the other waste must be eliminated and penalized. Glass-Steagall is more important than ever, given the current context. Credit must be developed for useful production, especially for training of a new generation of skilled workers. We must build up the fractured communities around the country that have been devastated by the economic policies of the past 40 years, and genuine economic growth must be restored on a progressively accelerating scale.
In short, the current system must be reversed, and the parasites have to go.
The shift that has taken place in the recent days is the consequence of some people facing the reality that the world was headed to thermonuclear extinction, and that the survival of mankind was directly on the line. The decision is clear: It would be beyond madness to run the risk of such a fate, and so, actions had to be taken to overturn the British-Wall Street desperate rush to war.
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Lead
SUPPORTING MATERIAL
Kerry: Use of Force by Poroshenko Would Be Destructive of Minsk Agreement
The constant theme of the Obama Administration and its NATO allies has been to place the entirety of the blame for continued warfare in southeast Ukraine on Moscow. Therefore, according to this line of reasoning, if the Minsk agreement fails, it is because Russia has not held up its end of the bargain. It should be noteworthy, therefore, when Secretary of State John Kerry admonishes the Kiev regime for contemplating the continuation of violence to achieve its goals in the Donbass.
Kerry’s comments came during a joint press briefing in Sochi with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on May 12. A member of the Russian media asked Kerry to comment on the public vow, made by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko a few days ago, to retake the Donetsk airport by force, if necessary. Kerry said, according to the State Department transcript, that he hadn’t heard the speech,
“but if indeed President Poroshenko is advocating an engagement in a forceful effort at this time, we would strongly urge him to think twice not to engage in that kind of activity, that that would put Minsk in serious jeopardy.”
Kerry went on to give Poroshenko the benefit of the doubt, that maybe he was talking about the long term, but he warned that
“resort to force by any party at this point in time would be extremely destructive at a moment when everyone has brought together the working groups, the working groups have met, and the working groups have an ability to try to provide a path forward on all of those issues that many of us have been concerned about over the course of the last months.”
Lavrov, standing next to Kerry, said that he “absolutely” agreed with him and that “any attempts to engage again in a forceful scenario could be really undermining the efforts that we have been taking.
Overall, Kerry spent four hours meeting with Lavrov and another four hours meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In addition to discussing the Ukraine crisis and the urgent need to fully implement the Minsk Accords, they discussed the P5+1 negotiations with Iran, and seem to have particularly discussed the current Syria situation, on the eve of the Obama meeting at Camp David, Thursday, with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) representatives (events begin Wednesday night with a White House banquet), which will take place all day.
In fact, the Kerry visit to Sochi was, in itself, a political coup against Obama and the British, who have been on a jihad against Putin and Russia since the launching of Nuland’s Nazi coup in Kiev in November 2013. Washington sources made clear that the Kerry trip was made possible by a strong intervention by sane forces in Washington, including within the Pentagon and JCS, who saw the world headed towards thermonuclear extinction and had to act. These sources reported that the open, face-to-face dialogue between Kerry, Lavrov, and Putin was a significant, albeit first step towards de-escalating the danger of general war.
Just what is, in fact, the nature and the scale of the British influence on the actions of United States government, parts thereof, or agencies? Some people say Britain is the proverbial 51st state of America, some say they’re really calling the shots. It’s a total mystery to me. Who has what kind of influence and why?
The UK is a rapidly failing, if still highly malignant, neo-feudal state. Its ruling class are quite vicious, but relatively powerless. They most confine their sadism and psychopathy to kicking the tripe out of their own poor, disempowered, weak and vulnerable, like the disabled, screwed by the Tory thugs and often physically assaulted by social detritus, of which the UK has a huge and growing quantum.
Hersh’s contribution was inaccurate in one crucial aspect. Osama died in 2001 or 2002 of his end-stage renal disease. The person slaughtered with exemplary cruelty and cowardice by the US Special Forces butchers was a stooge, a double probably used in all those phoney ‘Osama’ videos we were brain-washed with during the noughties.
The USA and Israel (the greatest mass torturers in recent history)do not torture for information, notoriously unreliable when obtained under torment and duress. They do it to intimidate, and for the sheer pleasure of it.
Meanwhile in Macedonia …
The old saying ‘White man speak with forked tongue’ applies without question to the US. What they say is irrelevant. What they do is all. Will they rein in their ISIS death squads in Syria? Will they cease training the Nazis who are now part of the Ukraine military? … Will they pull their troops out of Georgia and other states bordering Russia? What about the missile defense system? Will the MH17 inquiry be handled properly?
Remember the US has driven all this. They are the ones who have to sort it out.
Good news! There are caveats: Liars cannot ever be trusted. Making serious agreements with Mafia is dancing with death.
Good news nevertheless is good. Now to start documenting the reasons why exceptionalism of America is a house of marked cards. Why those who live in the Western war empire, are doomed.
Using the plainest of words and concepts, as humanity faces self extinction otherwise. I think of Sergei Glaznev’s brilliant You Tube video on the purpose of the US takedown of Ukraine. Suzanne
Right on the money
Russia has a long range communications monitoring station in Cuba which is ripe for reactivating. Russia has got agreement for a Glonas GPS ground station in South America which may be useful in improving targetting of missiles in the Americas.
A rather obvious US gov troll or shouldIsay a neocon troll who wouldlike to see America and Russia go at it.
@Anonymous you wrote:
You bring up interesting points. However you admitting that you got a good laugh “that felt really good” (my, my! what a small frustrated world you live in that you felt the need to state that): from those words one can infer that you have been very frustrated that things have not gone the way you would have liked – why else would you feel the need for a cathartic laugh? Let’s see what happens before being so cock-sure you know how the world works.
If what Saker has written is true, then this is a total capitulation for the Neocons. A humiliating defeat for the Neo-cons and Neo-liberals. However, given how weak and ineffective Kerry has proven to be, even if he has Obama’s support to carry out his words, we then have the matter of bought and paid for Congress that needs to be brought to heel.
Oh I wouldn’t be too overjoyed that any minor US sanctions will be lifted: neither Obama nor Kerry have the power to pull that off any time soon (what?! with your bought and paid for Congresswhores and Senatutes… ;). So Saker and Putin may still get their wish no matter what happens. So, I’m afraid you’ll have to keep dealing with fact of an increasingly self-reliant Russian economy being forced to develop and the fact that the Oligarchs will continue to be forced to keep their money in Russia instead of squandering it on the useless UK realestate market or laundering it in UK tax-free havens (to prevent asset seizures by bankrupt EU & UK governments).
It’s not that American’s are terrible negotiators, they are not, it’s that this particular negotiating team has almost no power to deliver on any commitments they made (like the “theoretical’ Iran deal that can’t get implemented because the US Congress will play around with it – I really don’t know what the Saudis are worried about.).
Actions speak louder than words, especially when applied to that bombastic flip-flopper Kerry and his team of screaming hysterical brainless banshees. The only real sign that things are going to change is if we see Nuland get Sh*t-canned (fired/sidelined), if that happens then you’ll see real policy changes, until then, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
I do think the Americans are generally terrible negotiators–but that’s a very specific skill and it doesn’t usually matter to the outcomes of their negotiations. They make up for it by being very good at some other skills that surround negotiations.
They are excellent pre-negotiators. That is, they are good at controlling the media climate that surrounds negotiations, so that the general atmosphere of ideas reflects their concerns and positions, and they are good at setting the conditions under which negotiations will take place, often pushing other parties to give away much of what the negotiations should have been about as a condition for negotiations to begin, and they are good at setting agendas so that their issues get discussed and other people’s don’t, and they are good at intimidating others into not pressing their claims in the first place.
And they are excellent post-negotiators in that they excel at not holding up their end of bargains while continuing to insist on other people holding up theirs. Again, propaganda helps make sure few notice.
With these skills, they don’t generally need to be that good at actually negotiating, and so American diplomats’ skills in that area have IMO suffered.
These skills, however, work best when they have a massive preponderance of power over the other side/s. They don’t work so well on Russia or China, and so their lack of skill at the actual negotiating part can cause them problems at times.
Nonetheless, I think Putin has been caught out a couple of times by his disbelief that they could so blatantly betray a deal as they routinely do.
I dare adding one cent to Purple Guy, just in an attempt to translate it into plain day-by-day usual wording.
They are preeeety good at what they do most and best: lie, misinform, threats and blackmail.
I agree with you, Augusto. Americans threaten and blackmail all the time, which is why they may appear to be, indeed, terrible negotiators, as they simply do not need to negotiate, they simply demand.
Would be conquerors do not negotiate, they simply attack.
Americans only ‘negotiate’ to a degree with those nations they cannot militarily threaten openly without consequence: Russia and China. And then, only after decades of threats without achieving anything tangible, they condescend to ‘negotiations’ with nations that have been courageous enough to be willing to go to war to defend themselves against American military aggression, such as Cuba and Iran, with whom they do not really mean to negotiate at all, since theirs is simply a change of tactics to pursue the same original goals of setting up stages for political instability and regime changes, which they don’t even care to hide. In the case of Cuba, American officials openly claim that they want to open up Cuba to the U.S. to gain better access to the Cuban people so that they can keep preparing a color revolution.
But I think Purple Library Guy has a very important point on his last paragraph, about American’s ability to blatantly betray deals as they routinely do, which is one of the things they excel at.
Meaning that this diplomatic episode could still be a cover screen to some deep undercover bullshit they might still want to try, though it is very probable that even they are not so idiotic as to think they can really fool Russians, whom have the best intelligence resources of the world at their command.
The USA does not and can not negotiate with others because they are ‘Exceptional’. They tell everybody else (but the Israelis, who tell the US what to do)what they must do because the give and take and compromise of true negotiation would imply that the ‘non-Exceptionals’ are human equals of the ‘Manifest Destiny’ crowd. This refusal to be honest, plain-speaking and willing to recognise the interests of others (as seen in the abrogation of every single treaty and agreement made with the Native Americans)is particularly marked in US dealings with the Chinese, who are seen by the US elites as racial, cultural and civilizational inferiors. The Senate hearings the other day attested to the raw fury in the US elite that a pack of ‘mere Asiatics’ were fast surpassing them.
How do you know what Putin does?
The LAUGH felt good. Nothing else. As a European betrayed by its own elites, I was hoping that Putin truly was standing to the hegemon.
Facts have proved that he is not. It’s all theater.
In other words the people cannot count on ANY politicians. Period.
The neo-conservatives are the manifestation of Judaic hegemony in US politics, and the neo-liberals the manifestion of their hegemony in economics. One feature of the group psychopathology is unbounded aggression. They are never satisfied by any quantum of cruelty and destruction visited on their numerous enemies. Hence the destruction of the Arab world, one country, one society, one population, after another, following the clear outlines of the Oded Yinon Plan. I believe that a clear expression of the psychology driving their actions can be seen in an article published in the Los Angeles Times in 2002, by David Perlmutter a Louisiana State University Professor. This, one must remember, came about because Perlmutter was enraged that certain people had criticised Israel for its savage repression of the Second Intifada, where, despite ten times as many Palestinians being slaughtered, ‘precious Jewish lives’ were being lost to Palestinian retaliation.
‘Israel has been building nuclear weapons for thirty years. The Israelis understand what passive and powerless acceptance of doom has meant for them in the past, and they have ensured against it. Masada was not an example to follow-it hurt the Romans not a whit, but Samson in Gaza? What would serve the Jew-hating world better in repayment for thousands of years of massacres but a Nuclear Winter? Or invite all those tut-tutting European statesmen and peace activists to join us in the gas ovens? For the first time in history a people facing extermination while the world either cackles or looks away- unlike the Armenians, Tibetans, World War Two European Jews or Rwandans-have the power to destroy the world. The ultimate justice?
Of note, naturally, is the extremity of the hate (a feature noted by Tacitus) the genocidal ambition (like the fate suffered by the Midianites, Jebusites, various other Canaanites and celebrated every year at Purim and Passover)the hysterical narcissism of the feeble acts of violence perpetrated by the Palestinians in response to overwhelming and pitiless Israeli violence being presented as a threat of ‘extermination’ of the Jews (not of the Palestinians, those ‘two-legged animals’, of course)and the fact that a large US newspaper would publish such maniacal filth.
The establishment of Israel, opposed by various figures in the US at the time, particularly in the now more or less defunct WASP establishment, will be seen, I think, as a really significant step towards global catastrophe. The mixture of Judaic antigoyite hatred, European colonial settler hatred of the indigenous who refuse to disappear so that the Herrenvolk can steal their God-ordained lebensraum, and the intensified hatred of non-Jews that derived from the horror of the Nazi Judeocide, has produced a state, violent, aggressive, bellicose and murderous, where at least half the population, so it seems, are pitiless and extreme chauvinists and racists. And armed to the teeth with nukes, and not loathe to use them, if ‘tut-tutting’ goyim don’t stop whining about the eternal repression and brutalisation of the Palestinians.
As Don Rickles said to Howard Stern on the David Letterman show, “wait til we elect a Jew President.”
The Apartheid State really loathes the M-16.
But hey, guess what?
They’re for free!
I appreciate this as it’s always good to get a reality check.
But I think it’s a bit — what would be the opposite of “over the top”? “Under the bottom?”
In fact, you and Saker are bookends.
US was on the phone a lot during Minsk but the actual document is Zakharchenko’s voice.
You greatly underestimate Cuba, who leapt instantly to leadership in denunciation of the U.S., organizing hemispheric solidarity with Venezuela and forcing U.S. back into its kennel.
Check Shoigu. And check sanctions, but all of Cuba would agree that the hideous economic shock they endured when Comecon fell apart and reneged on all its contracts was, in the end, needed to shove Cuba into developing its domestic economy, as sanctions have done in Russia.
I don’t think Syria and Iran are for sale. Putin is definitely on a roll, and not about to self sabotage. If he gave them something, I expect (hope) it was a face-saver, not a victory.
It was the world leadership he demonstrated in holding the U.S. off from Syria and Iran that created the public response he, and Russia itself, have received. Sochi engendered national pride but it was essentially fluff. The national pride engendered by Putin’s foreign policy is substantive and will heal a lot of dysfunctional trauma in the Russian psyche. (The polls that give Putin his astronomical job approval numbers consistently put foreign policy on top, above doubling salaries or more than doubling pensions.)
Cassandra, I agree w you that Syria & Iran are not for sale. The forces aligned against Syria appear to have intensified, though, and I am very concerned. Greece I think will fail to sustain her commitment to receive Turkstream: She is showing herself as a weak reed, lacking the decisiveness to default & exit the euro.
Cassandra, they did not get nothing from Mr. Putin or Mr. Lavrov but Gmo free tomatoes/potatoes…but wait appearance VICKY cookie monster in Moscow on 05-18-2015
Hezbollah is in Iraq right now fighting ISIS and not a peep about it from the USA. Does that sound like Russian betrayal to anyone?
Hi Charette, errr… I mean ” anonymous “:
I thought you were done here
Do you sincerely believe that “f.ck the EU” Nuland was upset just because Russian customs officers didn’t allow her to smuggle cookies in and she was having the cold turkey or is there some other reason for her belligerence and your “ha…ha” hysteria?
Cuba and Iran huh, good ol brotherly partners of the great U S of A. Dont forget to add Japan, Vietnam and also Germany to that list of reliable partners. Except the problem is these nations were at one point brutally surpressed, invaded or bombed the hell out of by the US in the last 80 yrs. I would be careful being so comfortable with who you call your freinds because similar to sharks when they sense a little blood they go on a feeding frenzy even on their own kind.
You think, that Cuba and Iran get immediately US friends, because they get attention now?
They know exactly they are dealing with evil.
Everybodys tactic right now is to avoid war until US crashes.
The proximity of US collapse only increases US belligerence. The means to destroy is the USA’s greatest remaining strength.
So erroneous conclusion.
What happened lately to make the US change their position?
– Russia and China strengthen their military alliance
– Russia and China boost their economic ties
– China and India dare to support Russia by attending the 70 year WWII anniversary
– BRICS speeds up the de-dollarization
– BRICS have just finalized the $ 100 billion bank
– US allies join the AIIB despite US advice.
– US-backed coup failed last February in Venezuela
– US-backed coup failed last January in Macedonia
– New US-backed coup failed few days ago in Macedonia
– Crimea is lost for Ukraine and therefore for NATO
– Greece refuse to surrender
– Putin cancels South Stream and give birth to Turkish stream
– American shale gas industry is a Ponzi scheme and is about to burst
– Russian gas in irreplaceable
– Russia-backed Donbass has been winning battles on and on for at least 8 months
– More and more Ukrainian draftees flee refuse to serve in the army
– Revolts are boiling in the US and in Europe
– Putin’s popularity is skyrocking in Russia
– Putin is more and more popular everywhere in the world, even in the US
– Baltic states and NATO have a big mouth but won’t dare face the Russian bear
For sure,Putin and Lavrov don’t believe a word of what Kerry says, but it seems that the Empire is stuck in a corner. Yet since the Empire cannot enter by the door, it attempts a passage through the roof or the window. Yet it seems that Putin and the resistance axis already anticipated every US moves. Putin’s large smile does not mean that Russia won the war yet, but that the West keeps changing strategies; meaning the West has been losing.
Gloating.
Anonymous, you are a real d**k. A pathological dips**t. You have no insight and your observations are colored by your deep seated pathologies shared by your neo con buddies. enough said.
keep dreaming………..
This is a paid troll. They are found on RT News as well. Disregard.
Then, there was the rather interesting behavior of Nuland, who was with Kerry’s delegation, she refused to speak to the press and left looking rather unhappy.
Well, being a zionazi herself, and representing zionazi interests, if this actually does represent a 180 in the American policies over the Ukraine, I think she wouldn’t be happy about that. On the other hand, if it’s another diplomatic ploy of attempting to look the “good guys” by the ZPC/NWO side, she might have just had a bad case of the usual neocon butthurt and didn’t feel like much like talking to the media.
Not only that, but Kerry made a few rather interesting remarks, saying that the Minsk-2 Agreement (M2A) was the only way forward and that he would strongly caution Poroshenko against the idea of renewing military operations.
Maybe the Kerry-bot was instructing the nazi junta to wait for the false flag and be sure not to jump the gun? Maybe a propaganda ploy to look like the “good guys”, with it only being empty theater, with a new offensive just around the corner to be blamed on Russia, as usual. It could be a real change in policies, but I’m inclined to suspect, rather, it’s more of the duplicitous, slimy-weaselly theatrics we’ve constantly seen out of the ZPC/NWO.
Kerry has far more direct ways to communicate w Porky. I make his public statements as pure PR, to distance US from Ukrainian actions. US will continue to arm & train them. Kerry’s statement was just US painting itself as Snow White.
Inconsistency confuses the opposition and inhibits devising a coherent counter-strategy, especially when you are trying to get a group to agree on it.
Penelope
“Kerry has far more direct ways to communicate w Porky. I make his public statements as pure PR, to distance US from Ukrainian actions. US will continue to arm & train them. Kerry’s statement was just US painting itself as Snow White.”
You’re probably right.
Thank you for this, Saker. Let us get down on our knees and pray that they are and will come to their senses.
Saker, good analysis.
Merkel in Moscow, Kerry in Sotchi. When do we see – lets say – Nuland or Obama in Sewastopol?
Never of course …. but things are moving, quite obviously.
Isolation for Russia is over – I expect something like a “tit for tat” out of the Sochi talks – …. you get back the Donbass, we will bomb North-Africa and Yemen – even if that is completely mad and senseless.
Next weeks will show.
Next months will become most interesting.
Regards – Chris
Dear The Saker,
I like these little diplomatic digs by Larov in Fort Russ article:
http://fortruss.blogspot.ca/2015/05/lavrov-met-kerry-in-victory-at-sochi.html
On the surface it seems positive but somehow I don’t think the NeoCons will let anything positive happen…..are they lulling Russia into a false sense of security?
If Kerry told Chocie boy Minsk 2 needs to be fulfilled – why were the junta attacking the DPR again and passing Nazi laws at the same time? Why still ratching up Macedonia? I haven’t seen the Nuland leaving miserable pictures/tv – must have been a Russian channel/press.
I thought it was telling that the US made nearly all EU countries not attend VE day celebrations in Moscow but came and laid a wreath at Sochi. Was it just photo opportunities to say – hey we are the ok guys trying to mend relations…..just a thought…..
Rgds,
Veritas
All talk of the USA compromising is insanity. The USA, driven by its neo-conservative controllers is endlessly belligerent, driven by extraordinary xenophobia-hatred of everything unlike itself. Once Russia, China, Iran and Timbuktu have been ‘liberated’ to the ‘Freedom’ of shouting ‘How High, Sir!’ every time a Judeo-Christian ubermensch yells ‘Jump!’, they’ll set out to conquer the cosmos. When you empower psychopaths, you get psychotic consequences.
In summary:
1) “… So what does that all mean? At this point, nothing much. …”
2) “… So what is going on, really? Honestly, this one is too early to call and, as I said, the chances for yet another US “zag” are very high. …”
That’s it.
Carácoles!
and i had thought it was an innocent, social meeting in sochi.
Yes, they need a face save, the imperial policy was TOO good for china and russia medium range plans!
But i agree, saker, the deep State will take a zag back soon.
How can they confess and explain that to their domestic sheeple coast to coast?
And if they delay it further this will give Putin the precious time he needs.
PS. As we say, I would gladly “give a leg to the devil” just to see the EU f**er Nuland´s face at those conversations with bad Vlad. Putins smile right at her nose is priceless.
Augusto
I’m with your ” I would gladly “give a leg to the devil” just to see the EU f**er Nuland´s face at those conversations with bad Vlad.” However, even if she is a hard faced zionist bitch, let’s remember, she’s not the one calling the shots.
Thierry Meysson wrote an article saying the US foreign policy is not about control of countries in the Middle East, Africa, or Europe, but about chaos. There are powers way above F*** Nuland and Obomber, that thrive on the chaos generated by endless war. Banksters, amaments manufacturers, and ologarchs all love it, and they tell the politicians what to do.
Absolutely! And, if we are right, this is a day to be remembered!
Perhaps it means that USA and the pro-USA oligarchy in Ukraine are planning to attack soon, and they want it too look like they gav the peacedeal every chance.
Of course, the junta will attack again. So what?
The futility and self-destruction merely hardens the facts on the ground.
There won’t be peace in East Ukraine for a dozen years. Bandits, terrorists will cause death and some destruction even if there is total separation of Donbass.
What matters is the big picture. Ukraine crippled so it can’t be used by NATO. Ukraine as part of Eurasia, even if only a part of what was Ukraine is that entity connected to Eurasia.
If you judge everything by combat reports, you miss the big picture for Russia.
Ukraine has no hope, no chance to reverse the facts on the ground. Killing children in schools and women in parks has won them nothing. A tiny militia has held them off, destroyed them three times over, and now is a coordinated Army of Novorossiya.
Another summer of war? Hardly. There will be battles, but there won’t be a sustained war.
Ukraine is incapable of fighting for more than a few weeks.
This is a land war fought on Russian turf, battles tactically built to be destroyed by Russian military. That’s what we have seen play out for a year. The Ukies walk into cauldrons and get sliced up. They have no alternative because they must be on the offensive. Figure it out. No air cover and an attacking force gets into deep trouble if it has bad leadership.
The Ukies officially admit losing nearly 9000 men in Debaltcevo in February, killed and wounded.
I look forward to the junta’s next offensive. It should be in the high 5 figures of sacrificed troops. The sooner the debacle, the larger the catastrophe, the deeper the despair, the longer the peace.
At some point the people will have had enough.
Thank you Saker for this analysis. I expected it and it came just on time.
I agree that the US is trying to save face in front of the inevitable. Considering that the American attempt of a coup d’État has failed in Macedonia (http://www.voltairenet.org/article187566.html) they have to do some kind of damage control.
In the meantime the US will continue its devastating policy to weaken Russia and establish its grip in the South China Sea. Nothing will really change until the USA breaks down. The combination of foreign policy and internal problems, including the upcoming financial collapse, will finally bring the US to its knees.
I’m not sure the coup in Macedonia has failed.I think it has just got started.The Empire has complete control over the Kosovo gangs.And can (and will) keep the terrorism building.Today we have opposition mobs in Skopje demanding the government resign,quite large mobs “a la Kiev” a year and a half ago.The purpose of this is to halt the Turkstream.Which should say anything needed about the US wanting to become friends with Russia again.But they haven’t stopped it yet.They need Macedonia for that.So going by the Empire’s regular MO,the coup hasn’t failed.Only the first moves have been played.As long as they can manipulate the Kosovo Albanians,and the Macedonian opposition.They are in the drivers seat.And since not one bordering country (nor Russia it seems) will help Macedonia,the Empire will probably succeed there.
Someone posted a comment I saw that I find very interesting and intelligent.If Greece allows the Turkstream into their country (and so far it seems they are,but I’m not taking bets for the future).Instead of building an extended pipeline through Macedonia.Why not cut out the middleman and build an underwater pipeline directly to Italy.And from there into Central Europe.From what I’ve read an extender is meant to go over to Italy anyway.And since the Italians are in bad economic shape,and need income.It would seem that they might agree, and be strong enough that the Empire wouldn’t dare a “color revolution” there.The problem would then be solved and the uncertainty of going through the Balkans avoided.
Good point Uncle Bob 1.
According to Thierry Meyssan the coup d’état planned for May 17 failed but I agree with you that this is the first salvo and there will be others. It is interesting to note that the main organizers of this operation, including Fadil Fejzullahu (Killed in the course of the assault), are close relatives of the US ambassador in Skopje, Paul Wohlers.
The US has many chestnuts in the fire at this time. It is doubtful that it will not burn its fingers on at least one of them.
Bob–Who really needs TurkStream to go beyond Greece, EU or Russia? I say EU. Also, Iran just announced it will focus its natgas exports toward the Asian market, not EU!!!
Meanwhile inside the Metropole, about 1/3 of the population is officially no longer in the labor market, over 100 Million people!! Almost 3X the population targeted by FDR’s One Third of The Nation speech! If about 35 Million needy people was deemed a crisis in 1937, don’t 3X that number constitute a Triple Crisis today?
True,but that still doesn’t change anything .The EU “needs natural gas” imports.Where it comes from isn’t important except to those having to pay for it.If the North Sea produced enough for their needs they wouldn’t buy any from Russia.But it doesn’t (and is actually shrinking).So they must get it somewhere.In a rational World,the obvious answer is from Russia.Its simple and easy,cheaper,and there is plenty of it.But as the saying goes, “cut your nose off, to spite your face”.They are doing everything they can to disrupt that supply from Russia.The Empire wants to replace that gas from Russia.And that is enough for the EU stooges to know.They went along with stopping Southstream.And I don’t hear them defending the Turkstream plan.The Empire wants US and Qatari gas to replace Russian gas in Europe.And they are working hard at subverting countries,using terrorism and murder to “get’er done”.Its stupid,irrational,immoral,criminal,etc,etc.But we are talking about the Empire here.And they never let “little” things like that get in the way of their plans.
There won’t be any natgas going to EU from North America; there isn’t enough to export. Qatar’s moving slower than a slug to develop its South Pars field and isn’t a solution either. Discoveries are still being made in the North Sea, but they only serve to slow the rate of decline, and are mostly in Norway’s zone. If EU remains subservient to the Empire, then it will implode within 10 years since it’s not doing what its interests demand.
Gas fracking has peaked in the USA, decades before the crazy predictions of the hucksters who sold the whole scam. To paraphrase the immortal Mark Twain, a fracking shaft is a hole in the ground with a liar standing next to it. The USA would be in the market for gas itself, but, felicitously, its economy is about to implode again, as the new asset bubbles blown up by Quantitative Easing etc, detonate, possibly triggered by the Ponzi scheme of junk-bond financing of the fracking scam, the sub-prime mortgages of the hour.
Uncle Bob 1:
You ask Why not build Turkstream underwater to Italy if Macedonia becomes a US puppet?
I guess the Russians cd do that, but you know this begins to get grotesque: Russia is working so hard to give EU the benefit of something that they are working so hard to avoid accepting. If they are that much under US domination maybe they’ll refuse the gas once Russia has spent all that money laying the pipe.
EU looks increasingly like it’s on its way down & Asia’s on its way up; can’t the gas be sold somewhere else?
No, I know the Russians have to try a little longer to take EU away from US, but Turkey looks as if it’s wavering on the deal, too. Turkey wants Syrai over-run so she can grab territory, but another outcome will be the Qatari pipeline which will then be cleared to run thru Syria and on to EU. So if Syria is taken over, Turkey won’t need Turkstream either.
Yet another reason why Syrai is not for sale, but is quite valuable to Russia.
Russian pipe line politics forces the West to play cards in order to counter it, for if not, Russian influence will grow.
When you play a card, you show your hand, or at least partly.
What has the West shown in the Ukraine? What is going on now in Macedonia?
The public image, controlling the narrative is very important for Westerners because without this people will see them for what they are: imperialists.
I think it is a mess too.The problem is that until the pipelines to Asia are complete and much of the gas relocated there.The EU market is very lucrative for Russia’s Gazprom.I think if they could tomorrow ship all the gas to Asia they would, and tell the EU to take a hike.It appears to be heading that way,but just very slowly.In an ideal World.The EU would realize that with Russia they have a goldmine.Gas,oil,iron,coal.You name it Russia has it.Plus the land route to Central and East Asia.And the largest population (by far) in Europe to sell the EU’s exports to.But we aren’t in an ideal World.And the EU is throwing all that away to kow-tow to the US.In the end if the EU survives at all.They will regret having thrown the future away.Which ,unless they wake-up and change is exactly what they are doing.
Bob–Did you read the 4-part series at Fort Russ, “Russian-Chinese New World Order”? It illustrates the opposing dynamics quite well. http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/05/russian-chinese-new-world-order-part-1.html
The Blindness of the European Union in the Face of US Military Strategy
by Thierry Meyssan:
http://www.voltairenet.org/article187529.html
The Leo Strauss ‘chaos theory’ at work in Ukraine and ME.
Inquiry..
Since the neocons are so big into this creating chaos to gain control, have they been doing that in domestic rivalry — creating chaos in the US government, old Republicans, Democrats, and sanity-based (such as it is) military and intelligence, and in the US population? And how will that come home to roost?
“And how will that come home to roost?”
The links to Prof. Richard D Wolf, that I / you have been watching(brilliant speaker!),indicate to a non american, that the USA is in drastic decline.
The premier capitalist state has “emigrated”, jobs have been ‘outsourced’ and capital has fled to more profitable climes.
The chaos is there and no doubt ‘solutions’ will be found for the excess population.
Never underestimate the coldness of the psycopathic mindset.
I have been watching this decay closely since 2008 and have come to think that American ‘preppers’ have it right!,but only in survival mode.
People off the grid are just as much in danger now,as in ‘Waco’,Texas.
“Only in America!” ?
By the pricking of my thumbs,
You might want to take a look at an article that comes up automatically when you enter globalresearch.ca. It’s about the constant spraying of geoengineering. I don’t know where you are; is it occurring there too?
If you want to be really uncomfortable, look at http://vigilantcitizen.com/sinistersites/sinister-sites-the-denver-international-airport/
Capitalism is a system created by psychopaths to consolidate their control over societies. It leads inexorably to greater and greater inequality, as it has done save for the thirty glorious years from 1945 when a certain degree of upward social mobility and income security was granted Western populations solely out of fear of communism. Once that threat disappeared, the return to neo-feudal social and economic dispensations has been rapid, and, driven by the dark energy of the extreme xenophobia and misanthropy that possesses the elite, the process is accelerating. And we seem almost to forget the concomitant ecological crisis of crises, driven by reckless greed and exploitation.
Blue,
My guess is that the constant goading of the black population in the US, followed by agent provacateurs w the police being ordered to stand down & permit looting adds up to a preparation: If Americans begin to seriously demonstrate on political grounds I would guess that this can be masked by black riots due to more killing.
The controlled media + the kill switch on the internet + all their practice at staging hoaxes = maybe hiding an uprising when the time comes. In the meantime our black population is being radicalized by the police homicides which are suddenly news-worthy.
You might be interested in this article I saw on Fort Russ about the US racial issue:
http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/04/andre-fursov-racial-lid-has-blown-off.html
Uncle Bob, Thanks. It occurs to me in reading it that the US wants post-WWIII
chaos, but w/o the war. Post WWII chaos promoted their dominance.
WW2 never ended. The USA just took on the Nazi mantle, and much of the personnel, too. The ideologies were already pretty congruent.
Another day in the life,
Thanks for the Voltaire link to the chaos analysis.
James Petras has been writing at Globalresearch about his belief that the “product” US wants w its wars is chaos. He had already started writing about in 2011 & more continuously since March of 2014. I’m always baffled when I see so many analysts say that US has failed in its wars; if chaos is what they wanted, they seem quite successful.
Pepe Escobar, too. He calls it the Empire of Chaos. It’s genocidal, still fairly slow, a million here (Iraq) and few million there (east Congo) but easily cranked up once you’ve destroyed societies and put carefully selected and trained psychopathic surrogates (Daash) into the field. What I’d like to see from Putin is sign Defence Pacts with Syria and Iraq, then fly in thousands of troops and air power and obliterate Daash and exterminate every one of the monsters you can find, and drive them back into their bases in Turkey and Jordan. And see if Uncle Satan has the bottle to do anything about it.
I’m not nearly as optimistic. The key battleground at the moment is Greece.
Are they going to remain in debt suffrage and bondage to the EU/ECB? Or will they pivot East to BRICS?
I really don’t know at this stage – the game is on. Tsipras is coming to St Petersburg June 18-20, there’s aBRICS Summer in Ufa, Russia on July 9-10, and them between July 20 – August 20 Greece owes nearly 7 billion Euros to the ECB itself.
This is the maker ore break point for Greece – there are still two months of twists and turns to go.
And of course you have to throw in to the mix Turkish Stream / Greek Stream and EU sanctions against Russia.
Russia will not allow any response to provocations or any escalation in Ukraine until these issues are sorted out. But will their adversaries? I have no idea. The next two months would appear the ideal time for another false flag to be blamed on Russia or a massive Ukie offensive to derail Russia’s charm offensive with the lines of Greece.
This thing is not over by a longshot. I would hardly be triumphant.
Tsipras is a puppet prime minister and Greece a debt colony.
Syriza will implement new austerity measures and also plans to sell key assets to German Companies
I read that German banks made 1.2 Trillion off of Greek debt (since the mid-1990’s).
Here is what Slovenian political scientist Mitja Zagar & his economist friends calculated about Greece’s debt:
Just recently a few economist friends of mine from France, Scandinavia, Germany, and the UK did some research on financial currents in the Eurozone prior to the crisis in Greece. They did calculations only for a few banking systems, but the findings were still remarkable. German banks made approximately 1.2 trillion euro on the Greek debt crisis. Swiss and UK banks made something around one trillion euro…
Who got the money that went to Greece? Banks in Germany, Switzerland, and UK earned far more than ever went to Greece. And what actually went to Greece was channeled into private pockets. The average Greek might have done a little better, but they only got on average a thousand euro annually. But three percent of rich Greeks, in terms of taxes, brought 600 million euro out of the country in the year of crisis.
Lots of people underestimate that threat to US. Greece would be the ideal pilot subject for the BRICS bank. They can design a rescue program focused on growth (instead of just looting the country like the typical IMF job), coupled with Russian/Chinese investments and succeed where IMF and EU have failed for the last 5 years.
Imagine the blow to US (IMF) and the whole EU austerity strategy. The BRICS bank would be the best alternative against IMF all over the world, while the governments of the EU south will have a lot of explaining to do to their populations. A successful Greek rescue, could bring to power many Pro-Russia governments, all over Europe. What will that mean for NATO and US plans?
So, in a typical USA move, they go to Russia and trade Ukraine (Minsk) for Greece. As soon as Greece implodes in July and caves to their every demand, a simple false flag can make Minsk invalid again.
exactly!
John Kerry: It is useful to hone ones analytic skills by best-case/worse-case scenario. Saker, you are coming off the “high” of watching the incredible display of Russian national unity of May 9th so you miss the fact of the upcoming US elections and a thoroughly disgusted electorate. This is the Amero-fascists big push to power so picking a war is in the cards for them or anything else to manipulate the masses into fearfulness and acquiescence. Most Americans do not care about what does or does not happen in the Ukraine so perhaps the rulers are willing to let that go even without compensation elsewhere. Putin is in a power position so he does not need to give anything at all. Let Montenegro be a warning for the Caucasus and regions to the East thereof.
By the way, the March of the Immortals was Putin’s act of merging with the soul of the Russian people and it was just as spiritual as Shoigu’s gesture under the arch in Red Square–just more subtle.
I have to wonder if this isn’t related to Hillary and 2016. Suppose WW3 is actually planned for the next Clinton administration. Then they will have to make it look otherwise in order to get her into office. Maybe the Democratic leadership realized that “Hillary is going to start WW3” would have traction among Democratic voters so they are going to cozy up to Russia right up to the election.
To say that the US policy has failed, you need to go back to your list of goals. You listed them early on and then a few months ago. The US had succeeded in many of those, such as damaging Eastern Ukrainian industry or cooperation with the Russian MIC.
Anyway, this could just be a feeler to see what Russia would offer. Kiev might attack in a few days, but it would useful for DC to know that the Kremlin would be willing to agree to certain things that would be painful if revealed.
Also, a couple of scenarios might make the Kremlin feel relieved but not really be so good. One is a federalized system along the lines of Canada, but with the usual anti-Russian domination in Kiev. The other is a moderate anti-Russian party and president in charge. If Russia doesn’t change the textbooks, media, charities, etc. it isn’t really a victory.
slightly o.t. : can’t wait for the day when media garbage (cnn,bbc,hromadske,vicenews,etc…) gets flushed! : )
Nukeland &Co were dishing out some cookies in Kiev and yet they could only come up with a bucket of potatoes for Putin?
Overall, I think the battle will be refocused on some other areas, perhaps, as somebody already stated, it will be intensified in Syria, or elsewhere. As Genghis Khan famously said “there is always a peace offering just before the real fight”.
I’m sure they have enough sense not to eat anything those vipers gave them anyway ;)
The only thing that surprises me is how it took so long for US and Russia to start mending the fence. May be both were trying to see how much the other is willing to back down. So as expected, world is going back to how it was for every one – apart from Ukrainians who didn’t learn any thing from Georgians. Let’s see who is the next patsy in the big list of Uncle Sam’s dummy.
Oh, I just realized it was Lavrov who gave potatoes to the Ketchup boy, not the other way round.
I thought the Russians were modern and sophisticated, but here we have Lavrov giving Kerry a basket of potatoes like some backwoods peasant from the steppes. I would have expected Krushchev to bring a basket of potatoes. Is this is some kind of hint to Kerry that he looks like Mr. Potatohead?
No – They were NON-GMO potatoes – the point was Monsanto and the Ukraine are over!
David, sorry but I read that 75% of Ukraine’s ag-land has already been sold– altho the law permitting it doesn’t come into force until 1/2016.
What one regime permits,another government can forbid.A point that I think the current businessmen in the West seem to overlook.They can burden Ukraine with debts if they want.But if the junta is overthrown all the “deals” they made can be declared criminal, and renounced by the liberating government.And that should be one of the first actions taken (right behind ordering trials for the fascist leaders).
Turn about fair play
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-25723304
John Kerry gives Sergei Lavrov two large Idaho potatoes
13 January 2014
GMO potatoes, don’t eat it!
No, US potatoes aren’t GMO– but they are tasteless. Only organic potatoes are any good now. I get mine at Trader Joe’s or grow them.
Penelope. I don’t know where the link is but I read in the past couple of weeks that the Potato in the US is GMO>…all potato chips will be GMO>
Ann is right, the USDA approved a GMO potato called Innate created by a company called Simplot late in 2014. McDonalds has already said they wont use it, and they are a major customer of Simplot. Planting is to start this year.
Saker, I think you might be getting more out of this meeting than there really is. Even if the US is giving up isolating Russia (and I don’t believe they are), they will for certain be formulating more strategies to undermine Russia. They will never give that up – no matter the cost.
I agreed, when you are dealing with psychopaths and manipulators do not expect anything good from them, they are all pathological liars. The truth reviled by result , not by what they are tell us.
https://www.stratfor.com/geopolitical-diary/sochi-us-russia-negotiations-remain-inconclusive
This is stratfor’s highly biased take on the talks.
I am curious how the Republicans will react.
Is it possible that a bit of sanity have returned to the US State Dept.? If so this is truly a historic moment. Let’s pray that that what seems to have happened is true.
No it is not possible. The State Department are merely Sabbat Goyim WASPs, who do the leg-work for the Judaic neo-conservatives who control and drive US geo-strategy (hence its insane belligerence).
To MM: On one point must beg to differ. They’re haven’t been any/many “WASPs” at DOS for a long time. Jews. Jesuits. A couple of AA’s for diversity. That’s about it. Same with CIA. (Although CIA was always skewed jesuit…since “casuistry” is an art form…as designed by Ignatius Loyola…who’s background was the talmud… and WASPs were not generally educated nor hard-wired for the art of deception…).
You are spot-on in terms of neo-con’s driving the DOS agenda. They are in fact Neo-Bolsheviks. And have been setting US policy toward Russia for decades. At this juncture they “own” it.
My take on these events is simple. The worm has turned. The moral insanity of ZIO-Neo-Bolshevik US global policies (i.e. warfare against humankind across the globe) eats ones very soul. Conscious power is the ability in CHOOSING to NOT participate. It’s the only way back to sanity. And humanity. And that, my friends, is what’s happening.
ZOGs are experiencing the law of diminishing returns. They have lost so many American “hearts and minds” in the past few years. And are being “shunned” personally and professionally. They are forced to re-think and re-group to preserve power. They KNOW their survival is at risk. Sure. They will zig and zag. And there will be events on display to sow fear. But sunlight is the best disinfectant. And they can’t stop Truth.
As an American, I have much respect for Russia and its people. Their endurance and dignity throughout the years. I hope we can muster a bit of this strength for what’s coming.
I can’t remember, but I i think years ago I saw a sketch on a comedy show (maybe Monty Python) where a fellow went to buy something and there were two twin brothers as salesmen. One made all sorts of nice promises and deal offers, and then left, and the other one reneged on everything the first one said.
Anyway, that’s seems to be US foreign policy — two (or more) camps, neither one talking to the other, with different goals and positions, and saying different things because they never get together but are constantly fighting with each other behind closed doors.
One says Minsk should be implemented and sanctions lifted; the other scuttles it and pursues the original war plans. In the meantime Kiev is trying to set up concentration camps for Russians in Ukraine to induce Russia to invade — at the instructions of the war-mongers. There is not only lies in whatever the US says and does, but two USs, with two different policies — not only duplicity, but schizoid, competing duopoly.
It seems that the over-competitive empire uses divide and conquer not just on other countries, but on itself, in a political ‘civil war’, and no one able to bring unity and consistent integrity of strategy, or even purpose.
We see some indications of it: New neoliberal Democrats vs older ones, finance vs manufacturing, crazy neocon Republicans vs ‘RINOs, Kissinger criticizing Vulcans, etc. — schisms everywhere. It’s worse than Russia’s monarchists vs fifth column liberals (who Putin can mange to a fair extent).
Maybe — looks a lot like that to me.
Kerry,do not trust him.I don’t go with Donbas for Assad.that would make Putin a murderer and hypocrite.Those things he definitely AIN’T. That’s EE territory.
Russia will always outmaneuver the US but there is one action the US will always excel at: the use of its military to destroy entire nations and peoples.
I’m sure the Russians are thinking behind their smiles that ‘we can never trust the US except to stab us in the back’.
Kerry came, he saw, he was conquered by the facts on the ground.
Putin and Lavrov gave him two baskets: one with tomatoes, potatoes and a 70th Anniversary T-shirt. The other basket was Syria, Iran and Ukraine, linked together, inseparable. Tied with a Minsk 2 ribbon. If Minsk 2 is not fulfilled, there will be no deals on Syria and Iran.
Syria: Russia wants the puppets the US controls to come to negotiations. US wants Assad out.
Iran: Russia wants no snapback of Iran’s sanctions. US wants no S 300s for several more years sent to Iran.
Minsk 2, the orphan abandoned at the door, scoffed at, belittled, ridiculed, hated, dreaded is the tar baby Putin brought to Belarus. 13 conditions that trap Kiev, Germany and France (standing in for EU), NATO (no third armed force allowed in Ukraine), and the US who signed on at the UNSC without one word in the document changed.
Russia has no obligation in Minsk 2. It continues the Voentorg, will keep its military command and control in Donbass, and waits to collect Novorossiya when Kiev fails to take all 13 steps.
Russia has the border, and Minsk 2 says Russia can keep it until the agreement is fulfilled.
Kerry went to school yesterday and learned his A-B-C’s in “You’re ****ed”, a special judo move only certain Dans possess. (Putin has a dojo in Sochi, I suspect).
Flat on his back on the dojo mat, Kerry tapped out and went away saying the right things about Minsk 2.
Only a few astute observers understand Minsk 2 is a brilliant document. It has the full power of International law now that the UNSC has adopted it. (Putin loves legalities, formalities, when it suits him.)
Though it does not have heavy enforcement to stop the junta aggression, it has horrific consequences for Kiev. It frees Donbass and Russia to proceed to whatever they want for the future of Novorossiya. Kiev cannot win. Facts on the ground. Conditions in Minsk 2.
Kerry now knows.
Thank you, as always it is a pleasure to read your comments,
“Kerry went to school yesterday and learned his A-B-C’s in “You’re ****ed”, a special judo move only certain Dans possess.”
Please stop,that was too funny.cheers.
Love reading your stuff, thanks.
Larchmonter, I agree that Minsk 2 is underappreciated.
http://syncreticstudies.com/2015/02/19/the-beautiful-truth-about-minsk-ii-the-debaltsevo-debacle/
Early on Joaquin Flores had an astute insight into the dynamic intrinsic in the Minsk 2 agreement.
I have been studying Minsk 2 since the beginning. May do a short piece on it if I think it matters.
However, Flores’ piece is excellent on its own.
Carefully read, Minsk 2 is clearly Putin’s masterstroke.
Larchmonter, Yeah, most people haven’t actually read the Minsk 2 documents. So they have all sorts of misunderstandings about “betrayal”, etc.
Without more warfare we’re going to be disappointed in our hopes for a bigger Donbass, and I think Scott may be right in today’s sitrep that that is what Kerry is avoiding.
There’s a totally different take on the reason for the new US strategy: playing Russia & China against each other @ http://atimes.com/2015/05/us-puts-russia-china-entente-to-litmus-test/
Thanks! This struck me too (as a face saving, chickening out trip)! Very informative and much better informed than the otherwise sober MK Bhadrakumar at Asia Times who has always no matter what and very much so this time´, kept his position that Obongo, the “teleprompter man” is a somehow “smart” and calculating(!) statesman, despite the fact that he is outdoing North Korea´s characterisation of him, monkeying around,cornering himself and insulting Russia and Putin personally. short of calling Putin the latest Hitler, there is nothing this clown can do to restore any form of normalcy at that level.
In his piece it is Russia backing off and Kerry saving Putins face! (that would have required Lavrov making a trip to Obongo´s golf course, not Kerry going to Sotchi) Read that crap with utmost caution but for someone having put all his bet on Obongo´s alleged “smartness” there is simply no way out. It is obvious given Kerrys performances so far, that, at a safe distance he will turn around and attack Russia with silly comments, Twitter & Facebook-evidenced accusations and whatnot.
But at the very least, he knows where the red line is drawn and he will make sure that Obongo´s white masters doesn´t pass it.. Also, being a Nudelman on that trip couldn´t have been a more unpleasant experience…
Uncle Obama was talent spotted at college by a Zionist teacher, then recruited, given his first job and launched and financed in politics by rich Chicago Jews. In the article ‘Obama and the Jews’ in the Chicago Jewish News of October 24, 2008, Pauline Dubkin Yearwood outlines Obama’s ownership by the Jews and total immersion in Jewish affairs. Abner Mikvah, a Bill Clinton functionary, ex-judge and former Congressman simple states that history will see Uncle Obama as not the first ‘black President’, but the ‘first Jewish President’. His appointment of Penny Pritzker of the Hyatt Hotels dynasty, responsible for many sub-prime rip-offs by her Superior Bank, targeting blacks and other minorities, shows you exactly where Uncle Obama’s allegiances really lie.
It was decided by the US military that a first nuclear strike on Russia would not prevent retaliation. Recent development of Russian missiles can avoid the installed defenses on the Polish border. That is why Kerry has no alternative but to negotiate for a peaceful settlement in East Europe. There is presently no sure way to destroy the Russian Bear.
Melvin, I think the “defenses” that are there to launch anti-missile missiles can just as well launch offensive nukes, no? I mean a launcher is a launcher.
I also believe there is nothing to celebrate here. Whatever the zionazis agreed upon will not be honored, or it’s going to be interpreted in their own way while at the same time blaming Russia for breaking the agreements.
Perhaps the best example of this Russian “victory” would be the situation in Syria. While two years ago Syria really did avoid direct bombing by NATO (thanks to Russia), today it’s in a ten times worse position.
Add to it everything that happened between then & now, & it becomes clear how the zionazi long-term strategy works; incrementally increase the level of violence to lure Russia in & keep making more chaos in other potentially unstable points to spread out the ‘line of front’.
The worst thing to Russia that could happen now would be the ‘normalization’ with the zionazis. Instead, it just has to keep going in the opposite direction, whatever the short-term cost is.
Yeah because they’re on to Macedonia now!
and they just delivered 150 tons of diplomatic mail in 20$ notes to Kyrgyzstan and re-activated one of their retired experts of colour revolutions and sent him there.
If the Americans stopped the war in Syria, I might say they are serious but they are like pit bulls and they’ll never stop until the place is destroyed.
The element of genocide is crucial, too. The Zionazi Axis of Evil takes killing sub-humans very seriously. First in accord with their religious obligation in compliance with Yahweh’s injunctions in the Book of Joshua etc and celebrations of genocides at Passover and Purim (Satanyahu’s recent address to his slaves in the US Congress contained a barely disguised threat of a new Purim against Iran), second to intimidate future victims and lastly as part of an ever more apparent drive to reduce global populations through mass slaughter, in order to avoid the worst case ecological collapse.
Thats really good news… Thank you to bring it!
I would gladly trade every guest “SITREP” we have gotten in the past 3 months for this one piece by the Saker. We can get news stories about Ukraine and Russia from any one of two dozen sites, but we can only get this kind of top-notch analysis from the man himself, the Saker.
I wholeheartedly concur, though I also feel indebted to Saker for his focus on Ukraine.
Thank you, Saker. And thanks to commenters for very helpful comments.
I made a similar comment on RT – and also referenced the *exact* same destabilization tactics being used on Macedonia. They didn’t let it through..so confirming the hypothesis.
However, there are indicators that Ziorael’s energy ambitions via AIPAC/CFR-controlled Washington are facing a major speed-bump:
http://rt.com/news/258169-leaders-letter-palestinian-israeli/
There is also a nascent BDS movement growing in the US..
. Throw in Obomber’s re-ignition of the terrorist-support charge against Iran – things are obviously not going well for the Saud’s in Yemen (or Saudi itself) – and we are looking at early-stage empire disintegration, methinks.
Note: Turkey might be providing ‘back-door’ support to topple Assad, but the NATO operation is itself facing real security threats: Turks want it out.
A Grexit will clarify things further, particularly in how it re-aligns security,
Yes Saker, this joyous occasion so reminds me of “Peace in our time”
Oh wait, that was the precursor to WW2, silly us.
As always with Washington, judge them by their actions not their words and you can’t trust them as far as you can throw them. Meanwhile, the diplomatic and geostrategic dance continues and many people are killed horrifically as a result.
Not just the US Dollar must die but all forms of Private Central Banking must be destroyed and banking/currency of the people for the people must be born in its stead. Free from Usury, Private interests and Governments. As decentralised as possible. The ills of this world require it for the healing to begin.
The world will be devastated, one country at a time, until the USA and its Evil Empire are brought down. Their belligerence, aggression and murderousness is, essentially, unlimited because it is driven by a psychotic hatred of others and a positive delight in murder, cruelty and destruction. Since 1620, but with roots that go way back and deep down into the darkest recesses of the human soul.
Absolutely
Thanks for the hopeful news. What this probably means is that the rats are already leaving the sinking ship for one that will allow business as usual. Russia may save our assets this time ’round but on the final round it’s going to be up to each one of us to SOS.
Typical case of American diplomatic maneuvering- make polite, cordial talk with a shotgun fully loaded under the table, Saker, with his Russian mentality focuses solely on the talk as if it means more than the action. While Kerry negotiates in Sochi, American forces consolidate their grip on Georgia, the Baltics and all along Russia’s borders. Unprecedented hostile activity all along the borders with no sign of the tide abating anytime soon. And as far as Kerry instructing poroshenko to play nice, Gorlovka was mercilessly hammered last night. Diplomacy is only a means to more effective aggression in American tradition, not a road to compromise. How do you explain the inconsistencies between words and deeds Saker, because they are diametrically opposed, why the emphasis on the words?
Considering Germany’s Steinmeier said “there has been a serious breakthrough in implementing the Minsk agreements” and that Porky is in Berlin for talks, this might be a genuine move for the Americans to disentangle and leave the Germans to set the Kiev junta on a different track.
We need more maturity and it aint happening with kerry. Kerry and his pals are sidelined in US, we saw with bibi’s address in congress. Kerry will hog the limelight in news and nothing else matters for him. Even if there is temporary halt in Ukro nazi assult due to fear from bear, syria is the concluding part, if syria falls, then ukraine becomes trivial and porshenko is going to leave the country to rags and fly away (probably to isreal). Syria is the current hotspot for WW3 or armageddon for humanity. Everyday i pray that i am wrong.
They are building the case to explain the upcoming “punishment” meted out against America for (the appearance of the) abandonment of doing Israel’s bidding.
Famine, drought, an upcoming huge earthquake followed by a tsunami (San Andreas movie is more than likely contributing to this ala creating a growing morphic field of millions watching and henceforth focusing on it). All toward proving “prophecy” even if all cases of it up to this point have been faked by them wearing the gab of “radical Islamists” who’ve all spawned from the Jew-formed Salafi Wahabi sect, HAARP sound technologies, off-permit siphoning away of water supplies and manipulations of all the trading markets – real estate, precious metals, commodities, bonds and equities.
This bullshit is about Shemitah every seven years and the upcoming “super Shemitah” (Jubilee) – expressing negatively for “bad behavior” nations, i.e. America, such as what happened in 2001 and 2008 with the largest historic stock market crashes.
By way of deception the Mossad (and all western intel) will wage war and attempt to culminate the “world to come” consisting only of racist Talmudists and their “righteous Gentile” boot licker slaves.
Fortunately they will fail as more and more people are informed.
I agree with the other commentators who see the meeting in Sochi as US theatrics, and highly unlikely to indicate any change in underlying US intentions toward Russia. Containment (i.e. isolation) of Russia has been THE primary US foreign policy goal since the end of WWII. This is the one US strategic goal that has remained absolutely consistent for the last seventy years, and I do not believe it is being changed or modified now. Certainly tactics may change in response to changing situations, but the goal remains the same – the US as the ONLY world hegemon.
Don’t listen to what the US says, watch what it is planning to do.
And from China today:
China Lashes Out At US: “Refrain From Provocative Action”
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/13/2015 – 12:09
While apparently the US does not have its hands full already with orchestrating (and profiting from) two proxy regional wars, one in Ukraine and one in the Middle East, and feels compelled (by shareholders of US “defense” companies) to prove to the world it has long since lost its globocop status when China roundly ignores American threats, China wasted no time to do just that and overnight Beijing strongly condemned a proposed U.S. military plan to send aircraft and Navy ships near disputed South China Sea islands to contest Chinese territorial claims over the area. It didn’t end there and China escalated verbally to a near breaking point when Beijing urged “relevant countries to refrain from taking risky and provocative action.”
See the petrodollar for the change in oil trade.
See the yuan in bi-lateral trade not going throughout the BIS (Bank of International Settlements). There are at least 56 nations using the yuan in trade.
See the AIIB (China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank) replace Asian Development Bank, World Bank and IMF.
The Hegemon has NATO and a crazed Japan military to contain vassals but not contain Russia and China. Can’t use force on them or threaten them to ‘behave’.
The Hegemon is weaker every day. Totally a joke in diplomatic circles. Has had to shoot down airplanes and disappear others to make Malaysia “obey”.
The Hegemon is losing huge sectors of Latin America. Soon will face a Nicaragua canal protected by Russian missiles. China is all over Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, South Asia and Southern Europe.
It isn’t noticeable yet, but the Dragon and the Bear are doing quite well under sanctions and containment and destabilization.
New SWIFT, new credit ratings agencies, Eurasian banking, BRICS banking, amassed gold hordes for their sovereign funds, and the trust of two-thirds the world.
The most popular leaders in the world (Putin and Xi).
Where is the Hegemon winning? With ISIS? With liver-eaters? In the halls of Banderastan?
2015 is the perceptible beginning of the end of hegemony, if not the Hegemon. It is the beginning of the end of unipolar power.
Larchmonter…Thanks for your comments here and on other sites.
All of these BRICS/ multi-polar moves you point to either exist only on paper, or exist in their embryonic stages. They aren’t concrete actions on the ground today ( save the posturing and diplomatic coups), and they have definitely not survived any real world tests yet. On the other hand, the steps being taken by the hegemon are current and in practice on the ground in a tangible way. For every theoretical move the multi-polar forces propose, the empire of chaos responds with real death and destruction of populations and nations that will take decades to rise again. Is China about to expel the U.S navy by force of arms off their shores in the near future? Or are they just counting on posturing in the media with parades in Moscow and sending a few vessels to symbolically cruise the Mediterranean to scare off the Americans. When the empire wants Russia out of Ukraine, they do so with real killing and destruction of Russia’s proxies in the Donbass. The same applies to Syria and everywhere else they seek to dominate. I just don’t get how the anti-hegemonic coalition seriously expects to gain real tangible spoils, which can only be attained through war, without bloodshed and actually doing any real fighting. It’s like the promises of politicians and propagandists which sound marvelous in theory but somehow never happen in reality, they only fool the naive public who are left paying today for future benefits with no one to hold accountable when the slick salesmen fail to deliver as promised. All the complex strategies and diplomatic coups mean little if the facts on the ground are left unchanged. When will the PLA join Russia’s mighty military in smashing the Pentagons proxy armies on the ground from Eastern Europe to the Middle East and beyond? Because those hegemonic forces are not theoretically entrenched in those strategically vital regions, they are there physically today, and entrenching in real time.
Hi Larchmonter445,
Just wanted to say it is such a pleasure to read your comments. I’ve learnt a lot from you already.
Keep those thoughts coming!
Larchmonter, You say,” See the AIIB (China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank) replace Asian Development Bank, World Bank and IMF.”
Neither China nor Russia are contemplating replacing IMF. They, especially China, are requesting change in voting rights within the IMF. The IMF system needs to be overthrown, not made more representative. It rules central banks such that individual countries cannot control their own central banks, and they do not have sovereign control over their monetary policy. They cannot create their own investment credits, but must borrow dollars or euros at interest. Think back to what Khazin & Starikov have both said about why Russia’s development has been slowed: They both said there was lack of control over the central bank.
Starikov’s free online book Rouble Nationalization–the Way to Russia’s Freedom explains this.
IMF is very low on funding. If they don’t reform, and the US Senate won’t do it, they will have no money to loan pretty quickly, because China and the others will walk.
The only institution the China-Russia partnership wants is United Nations Security Council. The finance and banking institutions are all going to die or change to China’s and Russia’s satisfaction.
That is why the big rush to get TPP and TPIP in place. It is the new stranglehold on the vassals and the competitors to the US.
Different mechanism that looks like Trade with Free Trade ambience, but it is cement shoes for the rest of the world.
Unless they remove the shoes.Like I’ve said before no country is forced to obey deals made by criminal regimes in power.Just as China renounced the “unjust treaties” forced on her during China’s weakness.So can other countries.These trade pacts can be ended by the governments of those nations saying “we renounce them”.Its the same as the “default” that every country seems to fear so much.In reality,if you are burdened with unjust debts and making it worse by going into debt further,its best to default and save the further debt.
So China has 1.3billion people, 300k of those live in wealth and luxury, the remaining billion subsist in abject poverty. The citizens of novorossiya live in abject poverty right across Russia’s frontier with their maimed and disabled soldiers reduced to begging alms for surgery and medical rehabilitation. With these inescapable facts as a backdrop, Some folks on here want the poor of South America and the rest of the developing world to believe that the BRICS/AIIB/ multi-polar coalition is seriously considering rescuing them from the grinding poverty they exist under. Their goal is to depose the American hegemon with those gullible poor as cannon fodder so they can enrich themselves in the aftermath. I highly doubt those poor will find the salvation they think is coming with the new elites who hope to replace the American order. Call me a faithless pessimist but elites are elites everywhere you go, old or new, the lot of the poor will never change.
That’s not true of China.They are constantly trying and succeeding in lifting people out of poverty.You just have to understand where they started from.In the last 30 years they have brought 300 million people out of poverty.A record no state has been able to match,or come close.Are they through,and satisfied,no.The government wants all China to be out of poverty.But you can’t wave a magic wand and make it so.Their development plans are gauged towards that goal. Novorossians have the talent and the undeveloped resources to build a prosperous life.What they need is the freedom and peace to develop their land.You are right that oligarchs all over are criminal.And that is why they need to be driven from power.
And Venezuela also lifted one third of it’s people out of poverty….Brics are backed by gold,,,,not federal reserve notes. The US is a hegemon in name only….it is like the chicken with it’s head cut off that continues to fly around the barn yard. It is finished…and for this reason is at it’s most dangerous. America can re-build lord knows it has decades of neglect to take care of in it’s own backyard the question is-does it have the humility to accept the task or will hubris be the order of the day? The American people want to stay home and mend their broken fences-can the elites mend their ways? Some of them yes, some of the elite always join the revolutionary forces, others like John McCain need to be dispatched to a distant island, while still others just need to be shown the video’s the NSA has compiled on them or their off shore holdings exposed. 5 people in executive positions can do it. Look what Putin has managed and it was Yeltsin who put him into power once he saw Yugoslavia turned to dust. The same thing can happen in America. Afater all it only took a handful of people to pull off 9/11 and it wasn’t people living in caves carrying boxcutters.
RR
Larchmonter beautifully said. One thing I will say, have a look at the global bond markets, they are taking the only tool left the west has been able to use as a financial weapon. Soon skyrocketing interest rates will simply collapse the debt ridden rotton economies of the west.
Then it will truly be good night irene
many thanks.
NATO is going to have a bigger office in Kiev Stoltenberg just announced(TASS)….
May 13. /TASS/. NATO will expand its office in Kiev and send there its military personnel, including advisors to the Defense Ministry, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday at a news conference following a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission on the sidelines of the alliance’s foreign ministerial meeting.
..Rus is not going to have a new START Treaty………. “May 13. /TASS/. An issue of a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) is not on Russia’s agenda at the moment due to unstable global situation concerning the strategic balance, Mikhail Ulyanov, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control, said on Wednesday.
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In an interview with Kommersant daily, Ulyanov said that “no one will be able to answer the question at the moment whether a new treaty on the strategic arms reduction would be concluded.”
“At least this issue is currently not on our [Russia’s] agenda,” the diplomat said adding it was because that “since the end of the Cold War era there had never been such an unfavorable situation for continuing talks on the nuclear disarmament.”
..and
“NGOs receiving grants from US well known to Russia’s authorities – official
Russia May 13, 11:24 UTC+3
United States allocated $9.3 million to Russian NGOs last year and is trying to conceal the names of grant recipients, Izvestia daily newspaper claims in its recent article”(TASS).
After having read some real history of the Anglo-Zionist perfidy since the late 19th century, I wouldn’t be optimistic. I suspect this is just a set up of Obama as the new “peace in our time” Chamberlain of the 21st century, before the real Anglo-Zionist war agitation gets going with either Hillary or Jeb Bush as the new US president.
Absolutely agree. ‘the new “peace in our time” Chamberlain of the 21st century’
The UK has just been duped by the most ‘dodgy’ general election result ever – even more so than the last one, where thousands of voters were turned away from the polling booths – against all probability the Tories are back in… (those chaps with a National Service Bill on the backburner.)
‘After having read some real history of the Anglo-Zionist perfidy since the late 19th century,’ – smells rather similar to John Major’s unlikely election victory which led the UK into war.
I don’t believe things happen by ‘co-incidence’.
I still remember the Scots referendum:
People were taking pictures of the tables where voting slips,stacked in 6 inch bundles,were placed on a No table or aYes table.
There, in plain sight, bundles of ‘Yes’ votes on a ‘No’ table!
Other pictures of scrutineers filling in ballot papers.
True democratic voting has never existed in Britain,I remember in the sixties,The old Liberal party polled 6 million votes,for a grand total of 13 seats!.
Same this time 3.8% = 1 seat!….a disgusting system….the ‘Bw-itish gerrymander!
Its interesting that Scot’s voters gave almost the entire of their seats in Parliament to the independence party.I see trouble coming for Cameron there.If he plays hardball over a new referendum (he refuses the idea).We may end up seeing a new “Braveheart” situation there.Or maybe a better scenario would be to call it “Donetsk West”.The Scot’s have a history of not liking to be forced to obey.
Bob, I believe the real reason the referendum was rigged,was due to the existence of proven oil reserves, located off the coast of the western highlands.
This oilfield has been quietly sidelined,but with independence it would have been exclusively Scots.
“Donetsk West” …has a nice ring to it!
Oh and add these facts as well.
1. Most American’s support Russia as well while no longer supporting their own corrupt US government
2. Russia has been in the right in almost every aspect in the Ukraine while the US has always been in the wrong.
“Interestingly, the Russians were not even interested in discussing the topic of sanctions.”
I had to laugh out loud at this one…. this is Russia’s way of rubbing the West’s nose in the fact that the sanctions have hurt the US and EU far more than they hurt Russia. Sanctions have also dramatically accelerated the disengagement of the Eurasian bloc from the West and the dollar, and the longer Russia can keep the sanctions on, the better. Watch for the lifting of sanctions coming after a low-profile appeal from the US and EU along the lines of, “Pretty please, can we start selling stuff to you again?”
Im Westen nichts Neues
Victoria “Nudelman” Nuland does not like too be told NO…Her humiliation should be world front page news. She has caused nothing but death and misery with her
meddling in other peoples business with her neocon husband and her wet noodle friend Jeffery Pyatt. Arrest them, and try them for crimes against humanity.
I wouldn’t believe the Empire if the leaders swore on a stack of Bibles.They are trying to trick Russia (once again).The question is, will Russia fall for it (once again).It seems lately things have been going as Russia wanted.So how do you stop that, if you are the Empire.You act like you want to kiss and make up,that’s how.At the same time you are giving more money and arms to Kiev.You are stabbing Russia in the back in Macedonia, over the pipeline.You are having more NATO drills on Russia’s doorstep.And you think “OK ,they’ll fall for anything,they always do”.So you send a smiling Kerry to say we want good relations.All you, Russia, need to do is let Novorossia be taken back by the junta.Let our liver eaters…er…I mean “democratic forces” kick Assad out of Syria.So of course we can build the Qatar pipeline ,screwing you out of the European gas market.Because since we are blocking “Turkstream” you won’t have a good way to ship your gas to Europe anyway. Oh,and by the way,we are staying even longer in Afghanistan too.That way we can cause you, China, and Iran,trouble throughout Central Asia.Now “as I was saying, lets be friends”.And if you kneel…er…I mean,if you agree to our offer of “friendship”.We will lift the sanctions on you.That is,”if Minsk 2 is fully complied with” (of course though, Poroshenko holds the key to that,not Russia or Donbass).My hair starts itching,and I feel my back for a knife sticking out.Every time I hear that Russia has been talking to the EU/NATO/US,every single time.
PS,as to the Empire’s word meaning anything.Obama just accused Iran again of being a “state sponsor of terrorism.The same Iran,that the same Obama removed a few months ago from the (absurd) US list of countries that sponsor terrorism.His word not kept for even 6 months.Maybe he’ll keep his word to Putin for a full six months.But doubtful,not with an election coming up.
Yes, I agree, they are only doing this now as a time-out, while the spend their efforts “containing” the other “untamed” entity, China.
Totally agree. Uncle Bob knows them well, it seems.
Nothing happens until it has happened.
Americans have been masters at the BS game ever since they stole everything from the native first people. One just has to casually peruse the myriad of treaties – all agreed to by the US and ALL broken only by them.
See the heart-rending account of the “great white father’s” relentless pursuit of Apaches under their incredible leader, Geronimo (Goyahkla).
See how Washington swindled the great Sioux (Lakota, Nakota, Dakota, et al) nation out of their land, reneging on treaties within 15 years of signing. All swindles backed by legislation, of course, – it makes the swindle legitimate.
You think a leopard would change spots so easily?
Over 200 years practice of getting deceit perfected.
Utter swine.
Russia, of course, is aware of the duplicity – has had a lot of practice in dealing with such perfidious “partners.”
Highly dubious, this exchanging-potatoes-in-Sotchi meeting. Nothing good will come out of it.
Potato salad, mashed potatoes, fried potatoes, boiled potatoes, roasted potatoes.
Lots of possibilities.
Freedom Fries !
Why would this be a U-turn, when the US holds now the best tactical position of its history?
I hypothesize that Kerry went to Sochy to present a save-face deal — for solving the conflict in Ukraine — that Russian elites will be tempted to accept, while Americans will still make some local gains, keep their NATO allies happy, and — most importantly — put the siege of Eurasia in mothballs. The siege of Eurasia, devised by the neocons, is the main motive behind the rapprochement between Russia and China. And severing economic ties between Europe and Russia will, in a decade or so, create economic ties that will transform that forcible rapprochement into a more mature alliance.
Thus, it is the Brzezinski doctrine itself that forces the US to confront the newborn ties between Russia and China, before they become too strong to break.
The US could, soon after “normalizing relations” with Russia, start a provocation in the South China Sea, where the Russians would be bound — by history, and previous agreements — to support Vietnam and, thus, cool off relations with China.
But it is, by no means, sure that the neocons will agree on this. The neocons function as the political branch of the American military-industrial-security complex, whose interest lies on reigniting the Cold War.
The inertia of the military-industrial complex in Washington should not be underestimated. They are still following the Brzezinsky plan drawn up thirty-five years ago. You can ask the American Indians if the US Federal Government has ever kept any of its treaties.
Saker,
yes it looks like a “good news”, but let’s not forget that US said “carthaginem delendam esse”, and for practical reason the may have just momentarely put the idea on a shelf. On the other hand I am sure that under the “smiles, and exchanging of potatoes and tomatoes” Russia cannot “forget” what happened this past year. And the US got something from the coup in Ukraine: they are now part of the region, with a regime that will be even more puppet in their hands than all the other EU states, and which is heavely armed, ready to start again any time in Dombass, or against Russia, and if the need arises, ready to put in line any Eu state unwilling to follow the party line.
]Ukraine’s terror war against Donbass, Novorussia – Goals for dummies
Two main reasons for the nazi classic, the terror war waged against civilians, from targeting the infratructure to wiping off entire villages,
1. Ethnic cleansing of the bombed areas.
2. Terrorize population in russian speaking areas where people were not able to start an armed rebellion because they are disarmed, from Kharkiv to Odessa.
Illuminati media stating the second goal while suggesting that it worked for everyone [1]:
“No one in Russian-speaking Kharkiv wants to follow rebels into open revolt. …
Everybody here, on both sides of the barricades, agrees that they are horrified by what’s happening in next door Donbass and do not want to see the war come to Kharkiv.”
Notes
[1] http://news.yahoo.com/walled-off-non-rebel-eastern-ukraine-frustrations-kiev-120913983.html
BASICS
Ethnic cleansing of East Ukraine: nazi agent “Putin” has the MAIN role
http://illuminati-media.blogspot.com/2014/08/ukraine-russia-pushes-ethnic-cleansing.html
Full scale terror war against civilians, alias the REAL World War III, started in Syria, 2011
http://armageddon-now.blogspot.com/2013/03/world-war-3-stages-began-in-syria-2011.html
Terror war against civilians: restarted by the nazis in Europe 1999 in Serbia.
It didn’t reach the Syria, Iraq and Donbass stage because Milosevic agreed to let NATO occuppy Kosovo.
It’s not a capitulation from the AngloZio, but something like “good one, you leveled up”.
The first big concession here is Crimea, they “will lift sanction if M2A is implemented”. So here you have, Crimea is out of the equation “officially”.
Secondly, Kerry declared that “to give S-300 to Iran did not break international right”.
And third they “salute and recognize the effort of the russian people in WWII”.
Fourth: “please help us with syria :c “
Off the wall speculation:
Kerry – for whatever reason – has an axe to grind with Victoria Nudelman. Clever as he thinks he is, he dragged her along with him to Sotchi, with no other plan in mind than to humiliate her. And indeed, how she hated those seemingly never ending few hours in hell. :-)
Agree… it surely was not cookie time for Vicky ,but hellish hours..
No idea if what you postulate is true, but if it is, it is probably because Kerry first let V Nuland to do whatever she wanted on Ukraine, including all the nonsensical ideas like sanctions, etc, then after a whole year, find that it’s not working and decided to “rein her in”.
I see this in the whole setup of the Obama administration. Obama is simply a lousy manager, he delegated various people to be in charge of various “duties”, and is simply too aloof. Thus all hell is breaking loose. Of course, this is a generous view of Obama. I doubt he deserved such generousity.
I don’t want another face-saving measure for the US regime.
Every time Putin helps the US, he gets his face slapped.
The world has to recognize the US regime being slapped down.
Don’t fool yourself comrade. This is nothing more than a temporary setback. The empire is large, rich and powerful and anyone would be a fool to think it would seek Peace now that its programme in Ukraine is beginning to falter. Iran is why they need a temporary Peace in Europe and Putin is a fool for letting them off so easy. I may be wrong but the Resistance needs to ensure that the US and its allies overcommit in Ukraine while Iran takes on Saudi-Arabia. It is no secret that the US is quite involved in the Ukraine affair and we need it needs to be further bogged down in a war that its proxies will lose rapidly if it takes its feet of the gas just for a little bit. Peace is important but not at the expense of an ally.
Peace
Russia needs Peace. Russia fights for Russia and Russians, not for others. It will stand with others, use all means to protect others, but it will not fight alongside others in some geopolitical war. The most we will see is RF troops with SCO comrades fighting terrorists. Small conflicts.
That’s what superpowers do. Others (allies?) fight, armed and advised and assisted by the superpower.
Does Iran fight for Syria? It sent Hezbollah. Does Iran fight for the Shia in Iraq? It uses Shia militias in Iraq. Even Turkey, in quite a pivot, uses Kurds to fight ISIS. And of course, the chickens*t Saudis always use others (paid) to fight for them. Pakis, Sengalis, whoever has excess troops, cannon fodder.
the appearance of peace is always useful to Russia
Russia has lost Ukraine, at least temporarily. Even if USA is trying to negotiate, the fact is that Ukraine is controlled by Western powers. Ukraine was historically part of Russia /Ussr and after 1991 was non-aligned but close to Russia. Now there is a puppet regime in Kiev. EU, NATO has absorbed almost all the Eastern bloc countries. We are moving towards a global government based on the model of Economic neoliberal globalization that is run by multinational corporations and transnational elites. People of Europe are enslaved and European homelands are colonized by massive illegal immigration. European nation states are no longer sovereign and exist as puppet “states” only to accommodate the multinational corporations. State power is increasingly transferring to various transnational organizations (EU, ECB, NATO, etc).
While the political system that is falsely called “democracy”, is just a parliamentary oligarchy that is rehressing into a dictatorship.
Russia is under threat and exists in a very toxic international environment. And Russia is the last sovereign, military powerful country able to resist NWO.
In order to survive, Russia will need to disconnect from globalization and to build a self sufficient economy.
Otherwise, it will get swallowed by globalization as integration proceeds on economic and cultural terms
“Russia has lost Ukraine, at least temporarily.”
In the modern world ,run on propaganda.You don’t loose something “temporarily”.You loose it or you keep it period.Russia hasn’t lost it yet.Though it is close.Give another year or two of junta Russophobic propaganda in schools,books,newspapers,magazines,the internet,and on TV, 24-7.And the entire youth will be lost to Russia.The Empire knows the value of “soft” propaganda to influence humans.The US invented “Madison Avenue” after all.They know that given the right lie,said over and over.Taught in school to the kids.They can convince 90% or more, of the people,to think whatever they want them to think.The old Soviet generation is dying out.Their children are afraid to speak out (most of them) and their grandchildren have drank the Empire’s “koolaid”.When you are a child and you are taught something in school.And the newspapers you read,books you read,the TV you watch daily says the same thing.Then you believe it.It works even better if you can blame all your problems on an “enemy”,internal or external,and preferably both.The fascists and nazis took two of Europe’s most intelligent, cultured, nations in the 1920’s and 30’s (Italy and Germany) and proved it works.The US learned that lesson well,and adapted it to the post-war World.Today in Ukraine they are testing it again.All Ukraine’s problem are solely “Russia’s fault” and because of internal “Putin agents”,everyone can of course see that.If it wasn’t for Russia “invading Ukraine”.And if it wasn’t for “Putin’s agents” causing trouble.Ukraine would be a “modern,wealthy,democratic,European values” state.But NATO and the US will “save” them from the “evil Russians”and they can join the EU and live happily ever after.All they need to do is get rid of the internal “traitors” first.The “Colorado beetle sub-humans” in Novorossia.And if they can’t ,so far,its obviously again because of “Russia” and “Putin agents” betraying the “Great Ukraine”.So they must work harder to cleanse the nation and stay loyal to the “US and EU” to defeat those “vile” enemies.
Here is an example of what caused this mess to start with.A Ukrainian language textbook from “before” maidan.The type of teaching today’s “Right Sector” were taught with.And bare in mind this was a “language studies” text book.Not even a history book.And you will see the poison that infected Ukraine .Funded by the West, to further their nefarious plans for Ukraine:
“We are all the children of Ukraine. Ukraine is our mother. One cannot choose one’s mother, honest people at least. But the Little Russians, having been born Ukrainians, have rejected their own mother; they pledge allegiance to their stepmother [meaning Russia] and serve her like a mother. There are people among us born this way, people among us living this way, and demanding respect unto themselves. Such ‘children of Ukraine’ do not skip a beat when they betray their mother –Ukraine. They have no sense of shame for such heinous behavior; they do not have the moral quality of responsibility to their ancestors or their descendants; they do not feel remorse for their disgraceful behavior before the whole Ukrainian nation.
Only in form do these creatures belong to the human community, but in their essence they are degenerates and sub-humans (even if they have a higher education, academic degrees and titles). Ukrainian prisons long for many of them, long and cannot wait to welcome them. But do not worry jails; wait, and your time will come. You will yet open your doors and see the Ukrainophobes, and while hold them, not as guests, but to shut them in forever. And then Ukrainian society will be cleansed from this garbage, this unbearable filth and shame.”
Read more: http://sputniknews.com/politics/20150506/1021795428.html#ixzz3a414nXfY
Ah, but a lot of “the entire youth” will be in Russia waiting out the war or trying to get a job.
Also, German Nazis had a much easier time using Jews as a unifying theme. The Russian and Soviet influence in the Ukraine is so strong that it requires a demonic frenzy to stamp it out. This fire in the minds of men is in itself unable to avoid destroying itself.
I beg pardon for the expression but WTF is doing Nuland there? She would never be part of the solution, just to step on Russian soil makes me mad. Hardly any of the others but specially Nuland is not to trust. Is she trying to get pull some money back to Chodorkovsky? Otherwise I do not see any role for this “lady”
So, Kerry “would strongly caution Poroshenko against the idea of renewing military operations,” and you are surprised, dear Saker. I had been thinking of responding to your rather superficial and unappreciative comments about the Victory Day parade in Donetsk in your “Happy Birthday Donbass!” comments on May 11, but I am rather lazy. Nonetheless, allow me to take this belated opportunity.
Joaquin Flores has already commented on some of the symbolism of the Donetsk parade rehearsals, and I would suggest to you that what happened in the Donbass on May 9 sent a tsunami shockwave through NATO, and still has the heads of military analysts spinning. Some of the delusions and illusions about the situation in Novorossiya have been stripped away by incontrovertible evidence, and perhaps others have been spun. Let’s start with your comment, “the Novorussians just had time to give their uniforms… a quick wash.”
Apart from the video showing the the delivery of brand new uniforms to Motorola’s normally unkempt battalion, let us examine the uniforms of the various platoons and companies in the Donetsk parade. The parade was headed by a flag party of Cossacks in rich traditional dress followed by an honour guard wearing the uniforms and black berets of police Spetsnaz.
Next, came a company of military academy (the Donbass West Point) cadets in white dress uniforms representing the next generation of the Novorussian officer corps. The cadets were followed by a company of the general staff of the 1st Donetsk Army Corps not carrying arms and a further company of the Corps carrying arms. These two companies wore the standard field cap of regular army units.
Then, came a company of the Ist Separate Slavyansk Motorised Rifle Brigade wearing olive green berets, which indicate special training in reconnaissance. Then, followed companies from each of the 3rd Separate Gorlovka Motorised Rifle Brigade, the 5th Separate Donetsk Motorised Rifle Brigade, and the 7th Separate Tchistyakov Motorized Rifle Brigade, each of which wore the standard army field caps.
Next, came the really interesting contingents, companies from the 11th Separate Motorised Rifle Regiment and the Republican Guard of the International Brigade, each wearing airborne uniforms, complete with the lighter blue striped telnyashka and blue beret, which again indicates elite training. These two companies were followed a company from the 5th Battalion Tactical Group wearing maroon berets, the mark of Spetsnaz training.
Finally, there was a company of Berkut wearing bluish camo and the typical black berets of police special units, followed by a company of the uniformed Civil Emergency Response Corps not carrying arms and wearing bright red berets. The platoon of troopers riding Motorola’s IFVs were dressed in the full combat gear of special forces rather than fatigues. Givi wore a proper tanker helmet.
The uniforms were truly uniform, not the eclectic outfits generally seen in hundreds of hours of video records of the Novorussian insurgency. The flag bearers were escorted by officers with drawn swords. Many of the officers wore Ukrainian service medals, with older officers also wearing Afghanistan campaign decorations. A few wore Novorussian decorations. None of the troops in the parade had hidden faces. Compared to the men of definitely mature years, usually featured in Donbass combat footage of the past year, these companies were filled with very much younger men.
We are learning about the deception that kept NATO in the dark until the fait accompli of Crimean accession to Russia. I conjecture that we are seeing another grand deception unfolding here. Let’s begin with the Donbass call for a mobilization earlier this year, followed by occasional videos of less-than-impressive recruits undergoing so-called, live-fire training in Novorossiya.
While the “absolute perfect order” of the ceremonial troops in Red Square may have been impressive, the precision of the eight by eight companies in the Donetsk parade and the level of training indicated by apparently specialized forces is not something that comes from a few months of mobilisation. It appears to me that the young men of the Donbass are back, after intensive training in Russia, along with many of the “lustrated” officers of the Ukrainian army. Givi made a veiled comment about some differences between military academy officers and “autodidacts” like himself.
Perhaps the “Nemtsov” report is right about one thing, which is that great deal of money has been spent on training a Novorussian army in Russia or Kazakhstan, since the putsch in Kiev. If the training was as intense as I imagine, it may explain the Russian casualties among recruits from distant places who trained with the Donbass recruits, and maybe more from other parts of the Ukraine under very tough conditions. If so, there were likely scores of NovoRussian casualties among the recruits, which have perhaps been disguised as combat casualties in the Donbass.
Lets’s look at the numbers, a typical motorised rifle brigade following current Russian standards would have three infantry battalions of about 400 men each, a tank battalion, a howitzer battalion, a MRLS battalion, an anti-tank artillery battalion, an anti-aircraft battalion, a combat engineering battalion, a maintenance battalion, a reconnaissance company, command staff and other support companies for a total of about 4500 officers and men. Perhaps the Novorussian brigades are not that big, but they showed most of the components, including tanks, the variety of artillery and the self-propelled Strela anti-aircraft systems.
An army corps comprises at least two divisions, each of which comprises at least two brigades. and in total personnel may range from 40,000 to 80,000. Five combat brigades and two regiments were represented at the parade. The odd numbering is interesting. I do not know if the brigades are all part of the 1st Donetsk Army Corps, but, regardless, given that the front lines could not be substantially stripped, this represents a very significant combat force. The parade in Lugansk apparently did not include a match past, but Plotnicki conducted an inspection of possibly ten companies. So, we may assume that the LPR has a similar sized force.
The “Novorussians were proudly parading Soviet 1970 equipment” you wrote. Indeed they were, and very properly proud! Did you not observe just how beautifully the equipment had been restored, almost like new. Only one engine, that of a Grad truck showed any signs of smoke. Everything else had been perfectly tuned. They were a little less successful in Lugansk, but, still, what a contrast with the maintenance record of the UAF. Further, did you notice the armour upgrade to the turrets of the DPR tanks, protection against the top/down strikes of NATO standard anti-tank missiles.
Now, let’s broaden the context. Did you observe the incredible festivities in Makeevka, where thousands turned out for the Victory Day March of the Immortals. It was an essentially civilian event led by a small honour guard of unarmed soldiers in fatigues, and others with their families scattered through out the crowds, except for occasional officers with sidearms. There was a small, armed, honour guard at the WW II memorial/cenotaph, which was eventually covered in wreaths and masses of cut flowers. There were large numbers of youth and cadet groups, all having a very good time, and looking healthy and well-fed, just like the crowds in Donetsk and Lugansk. Lugansk had the most security for crowd control. It was virtually absent in Donetsk and Makeevka.
There was a parade with some armour in Yenakiyevo. Then, there was the annual re-enactment of a WW II troop train hauled by a vintage steam locomotive from Yasinovataya via Debaltsevo to Lugansk with festive crowds along the route. Put it all together and you have a remarkable demonstration of solidarity by the people of Donbass, and a very impressive display of military capability by a combined population in the DPR and LPR of about 3 million only.
One should not forget the remarkable fortitude of Alexandr Zakharchenko, who stood, for so long speaking and taking the salute, on one leg supported only by a cane, while holding his right foot up to avoid putting weight on his wounded leg. The next day, he was out on crutches. What an example to those perhaps more averse to suffering the pain of combat wounds.
You mentioned the possibility of an attack, and what tempting targets the various parades made indeed for Uragan and Tochka volleys, or air strikes. With a tip of the hat to Arthur Conan Doyle, I draw attention “to the curious incident” of the ATO in the parades. The ATO did nothing in the parades. “That was the curious incident” What was the restraining factor? Certainly not the OSCE plea for peace during the celebrations.
The world has been given a full picture of a peaceful, but prepared, population, just like the evident peace and stability in the Crimea. A huge contrast with the chaos under the Kiev regime. Also, considering the comments of US “trainers” about the quality of the “troops” that they are trying to train, it is no surprise that Kerry doesn’t want to poke the wasps’ nest. Given a recent comment by Zakharchenko about recruits from other regions of the Ukraine, I speculate that among those highly trained troops in Novorossiya, are significant contingents of Ukrainians from other regions, now well armed and ready to lead uprisings when inserted.
I loved your rundown.And hope you are correct on the numbers,training,and equipment.It gives me more hope for victory over the junta.I too was impressed by the parade and the devotion shown by the people of Donbass.
WOW. Thank you. I don’t know enough about military uniforms to tell who the different groups were.
This is a very impressive list of capabilities indeed. And I like the assessment that many may have had serious training in Russia. We always hoped they would, but there’s been no evidence.
Lugansk forces would be fewer and not as well organised, organisation being a weak point in every sphere there, unfortunately. But they make up for it in enthusiasm. They did a lot of loud cheering for their parade, as if cheering liberators, whereas in Donetsk the crowd seemed more in awe at how professional their liberators had become.
Ukraine social media accused Zakharchenko of being drunk, playing in slow motion parts of the video where he wobbled a bit. They did not show him walking half a kilometre uphill at Saur Mohila on crutches.
Thank you Mr Anonymous on May 13, 2015 · at 5:43 pm UTC for that rundown of what we were looking at in the parade. I’ll have to watch again this wknd with yr notes in hand.
One has to wonder why, as Kat Kan notes, Lugansk hasn’t had the benefit of whatever training and organizational resources have been tapped by Donetsk. visible throughout the conflict, there remains an unnatural and perplexing gulf between the two republics. There seems to be much less information available about Lugansk, and what there is tends to point to troubles of various sorts. Are they really that different socio-politically, or is it simply that iDonetsk wound up with superior leadership by a luck of the draw?
See Zakharchenko struggling with his wounded leg starting at the 7:56 mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6qU2999NhA
Festivities in Makeevka, DPR. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiXaetBRMA8
Festivities and parade of armour in Yenakiyevo, DPR. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqY-vJObiRc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP7WsQnIbgI
The victory steam train from sendoff at Yasinovataya in Donetsk, through Debaltsevo to its welcome in Lugansk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPyu9f5FrEM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMUdX3rxaR8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSbeXclHxKk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAQ4cZIGtMo
The above speak volumes about the confidence of the Donbass population.
Sevastopol march-past starting at 1:23:15 by regular Russian armed forces.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Smc_vMcepA#t=5011
Aborted from Sunday 17th look like.
but the snakes usually have a dual, offset plan in case the 1st one fails.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article187566.html
Translated with yandex.com (F- E)
Failure of the coup in the US in Macedonia
by Thierry Meyssan
Macedonia has placed it out of harm an armed group of which she watched the sponsors for at least eight months. She warned, and a new coup attempt, planned by Washington for 17 may. It was extended to the Macedonia the chaos already installed in Ukraine so as to prevent the passage of a Russian gas pipeline to the european Union.
Voltaire network International | Damascus (Syria) | 13 may 2015
Looks like the PRC Honor Guard marching on the Red Square scared the demons back under their rocks. Thank God.
Nuland should never be allowed to step on any soil outside of Israel. She is a blood soaked criminal and she represents pure evil.
@ The Saker
I have a question about a factual detail. You mention: “… Kerry, Nuland and a large State Department delegation have traveled to Sochi were they met with Foreign Minister Lavrov and then with President Putin …”
However, I could not find any indication in the news of Nuland’s presence there, not in texts, not in photographs. Moreover, today’s complementary analysis of the event by Ambassador M. K. Bhadrakumar in Asia Times, http://atimes.com/2015/05/obamas-overture-to-putin-has-paid-off/ , claims in closing: “… Significantly, Kerry’s entourage to Sochi had a notable absentee – Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, the mastermind behind the “regime change” in Kiev in February last year. …”
Indeed: was Nuland present or not?
Johan
Thank you!
Just when you think Russia is a goner Putin and his team pull another rabbit out of the proverbial hat! the last two rabbits Greece invited to join BRICS and now the US imperial ambitions in Ukraine dashed in one easy step anti Russian Sanctions falling down but so antagonizing to Europe it is putting the whole NATO alliance in jeopardy ! This US foreign policy failure can also be seen as a slow defeat for the Dollar as the reserve currency. The Obama administrations ground shaking failures have produced a fearless backlash and I expect attacks against US military bases on foreign soil to begin soon!
Unfortunately I am not as optimistic as you are (I never thought I would say that to you, of all people).
Rather I fear that Washington needs its back covered at its other crime scenes (Iraq, Syria, Yemen, just recently former Yougoslavia, and Iran still to come). At best, Kerry needs Russian support (or at least benevolent neutrality) to achieve the Empire’s goals at those places; at worst, it’s just a smokescreen, and the US-backed assault on Novorussia will go ahead soon.
Watch out for the next provocation (I mean it in the Russian sense of false-flag attack à la MH17).
Maybe US delegates came to Sochi for conditions of surrender. Any “face saving” is already impossible, all the world knows they are losing – worldwide! (lost war against rouble, lost Debaltsevo, Asian investement bank, Turkey stream, 3 NATO prezidents in Moscow on 9th May, trading of rouble-yuan in Moscow etc.)
That it is Sochi makes me support your theory. I really pray it is so.
See this report from CNN:
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/12/europe/russia-us-kerry-visit/
How “humble” they talk… We can’t trust then but, the words “We need Russia cooperation” cames a lot…
And in this report they back on Syria and Iran much more than Ukraine… It really hurts Poroshenko heart… hehe
But seriously, on Minsk II, I think the Yankees are trying to stick their noses (as always) at the negotiating table and force his way into the, now, quartet, to try some profit (as always).
Why so many negative comments?
This is a huge diplomatic victory for Russia. If there is peace, great. If there is war, the USA is once again on record for having reneged a commitment.
I doubt the Russians or Novorussian are naive enough to disarm based on this.
I am worried however about other places (like my own country) where the USA is up to no good…
M.K. Bhadrakumar at Asia Times has a perspective on the Sochi meeting:
http://atimes.com/2015/05/obamas-overture-to-putin-has-paid-off/
thanks for the link, a good assessment of the situation.
One sentence gave me pause:
“Significantly, Kerry’s entourage to Sochi had a notable absentee – Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, the mastermind behind the “regime change” in Kiev in February last year.”
She WAS there as a previous link from Vineyard moderator BH shows..but it doesn’t drastically affect the conclusions in the article
Read that link, it’s one of the lousiest post from him that I can remember. What a sellout.
@ SanctuaryOne,
Q; M.K. Bhadrakumar..
R; Ahhhh, the man who predicted Syrian president Assad would fall in the next 2 weeks… 3 years ago.
Never read the dude again.
It’s worth reading any intelligent and articulate article if only to see how things are being shaped and to consider different perspectives. If you stop reading anyone who has had a wrong prediction or with whom you believe has written in error then you may as well stop reading completely.
Few people, other than myself, are free of errors -particularly in gray and sometimes unpredictable subjects like geopolitics.
Once I though I made an error, but I was mistaken…..
Ziostan is gearing up for more bloodshed – Iran still in the gunsights, but Lebanon (Hezbollah) in for a pounding:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/195387
Start of the Big M.E. War those Orthodox Rabbis briefed Putin about?
I’d keep a weather-eye on Crimea.
When u see this disgusting evil judas goat actually doing something constructive, but way late, that’s the hint!
St. Malachy finally delivered the eviction notice to this Last-of-theLine traitor. 900 year on.
Vatican to recognize Palestine: Abbas visits Pope on Saturday
nsnbc : After years of negotiations the Vatican and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as well as the Palestinian Authority agreed on a draft treaty for the Vatican’s recognition of the Palestinian State. The treaty is expected to be signed and come into effect later this year. PA President Abbas is scheduled to visit Pope Francis on Saturday.
http://nsnbc.me/2015/05/13/vatican-to-recognize-palestine-abbas-visits-pope-on-saturday/
Winston Churchill:
“Americans will always do the right thing, but only after they have tried everything else.”
or
“Americans will always do the right thing, but only after they have exhausted all other possibilities.”
Hm, I noticed last year that after a conciliatory style announcement the junta performed a sweeping attack. Actually, they did this trick twice. Conciliatory tone, everyone gets relaxed, and then: sudden attack. I’ve tried to dig up the actual chain of events but I couldn’t. As far as I can remember, the first one was even before the “ATO” (what an idiotic name…), and perhaps Yats was the one who tried to show his friendlier face. The nazis attacked the protesters a few days later. The second time I’m pretty sure it was the US viceroy, and artillery attack was the follow up. So Donbass be prepared!