Putin had to approve Russian attack on US troops

New York Post ^ | Feb. 14, 2018 | Ralph Peters

[AdmSmith]

Bits and pieces are in the public domain, in a few years it will be revealed.

[AdmSmith]

Russian spy Sergei Skripal WAS poisoned through his car air vents with powdered Novichok nerve agent and at least 38 other people are sick from it, Americans reveal
Ex-Russian spy and daughter Yulia may have inhaled ‘dust-like’ form of Novichok
American officials said they had ‘clearer picture’ of how attack was orchestrated
They say powdered form of the substance was delivered through BMW air vents
It comes amid separate claims that Yulia, 33, was dating a Russian secret agent

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5516693/Russian-spy-Sergei-Skripal-poisoned-car-air-vents.html

[AdmSmith]

Here are 20 different narratives offered (so far) by Russian media and officials for the poisoning:

The United Kingdom did it to fuel anti-Russian sentiment (source: Russia 1 TV channel)

Ukraine did it to frame Russia (Russia 1)

The United States did it to destabilize the world (Russia 1)

Theresa May helped orchestrate the attack because she is a friend of CIA director Gina Haspel (Zvezda)

It was an attempted suicide (Russia 1)

It was an accidental overdose (RIA Novosti)

It was due to accidental exposure from Britain’s Porton Down research facility (Russia 24 TV channel)

The Porton Down lab carried out illicit human testing and is lying about not producing Novichok (RT)

Skripal’s future mother-in-law did it (Moskovsky Komsomolets: mk.ru)

Terrorists did it (Russian ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson)

American-British financier Bill Browder — blacklisted in Russia for denouncing corruption — did it (Russia 1)

A drone did it (Zvezda and Russian defense ministry)

Skripal was a chemical weapons smuggler (Pravda)

The West is using the case to deflect attention from Russia’s successes in Syria (Russian ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson)

Britain is using the case to deflect attention from Brexit (Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Russian UN ambassador, Russian OSCE ambassador)

The attack was an attempt by a rival faction to undermine Vladimir Putin (state TV)

Russia has destroyed all its stockpiles of Novichok (Sputnik)

Russia never developed Novichok (Interfax)

Only the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Sweden have Novichok (Russian ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson). All three countries have denied the claim.

There is no evidence that the nerve agent used against the Skripals was Novichok, Porton Down lab is struggling to identify the substance (RT)

http://euromaidanpress.com/2018/03/30/russian-media-have-published-20-different-narratives-on-skripal-poisoning/

[AdmSmith]

What A Brave Russian Scientist Told Me About Novichok, The Nerve Agent Identified In The Spy Attack, by Will Englund.

Thanks to the Russian nerve agent “Novichok,” I once got to see the inside of an interrogation room at Lefortovo, the old KGB prison on the east side of Moscow.

It was in 1993. The Russians were not pleased that I had written an article the year before disclosing the existence of Novichok, identified Monday by British investigators as the weapon used last week in the attempted murder of former Soviet spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury.

Full story:

https://www.ndtv.com/opinion/what-a-brave-russian-scientist-told-me-about-novichok-the-nerve-agent-identified-in-the-spy-attack-1823082

[AdmSmith]

The prelude to the attack:
Last October, at the height of a political crisis in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, a letter arrived at the Iraqi oil ministry in Baghdad from Igor Sechin, head of Kremlin oil major Rosneft

The Baghdad government was showing a “lack of constructive position and interest” about Rosneft’s offer to develop southern Iraqi oilfields, Sechin wrote in the letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.

Kurdistan, a region of about 6 million people in northern Iraq, had just tried and failed to break away from the rest of the country. Baghdad had dismissed the Sept. 25 independence referendum and sent in troops to seize control of key oilfields - Kurdistan’s main source of income.

Now Sechin, one of the closest allies of President Vladimir Putin, said that given Baghdad’s reluctance to work with Rosneft, his firm would instead do business with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which showed “a higher interest in expanding strategic cooperation”.

And Sechin held a stronger hand than many Iraqi officials realized, according to seven sources familiar with the matter. Days before, Rosneft had taken over ownership of landlocked Kurdistan’s oil export pipelines to Turkey from the KRG in return for $1.8 billion.

The aim of the deal for Rosneft was not only commercial, but to cement Russia’s political influence in Iraq and the Middle East, according to the Rosneft, oil industry, Kurdish and Iraqi government sources.

Control of the pipelines has given Rosneft a central role in ongoing talks between the KRG and Baghdad aimed at resuming full oil exports, which were disrupted by the referendum and Iraqi seizure of oilfields, said the sources.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rosneft-iraq-insight/the-great-russian-oil-game-in-iraqi-kurdistan-idUSKBN1HQ1R3

[AdmSmith]

For the history book:
https://www.intelligencefusion.co.uk/single-post/2018/04/13/Wagnerian-Airstrike-Geolocating-an-American-Attack

[AdmSmith]

How a 4-Hour Battle Between Russian Mercenaries and U.S. Commandos Unfolded in Syria

The mercenaries loosely coordinate with the Russian military in Syria, although Wagner’s leaders have reportedly received awards in the Kremlin, and its mercenaries are trained at the Russian Defense Ministry’s bases.

Russian government forces in Syria maintain they were not involved in the battle. But in recent weeks, according to United States military officials, they have jammed the communications of smaller American drones and gunships such as the type used in the attack.

“Right now in Syria, we’re in the most aggressive E.W. environment on the planet from our adversaries,” Gen. Tony Thomas, the head of United States Special Operations Command, said recently, referring to electronic warfare. “They’re testing us every day.”

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/05/24/world/middleeast/american-commandos-russian-mercenaries-syria.html

Some of the comments are worth reading such as this one from a Russian(?):

What I’ve read from independent Russian sources, the mercenaries from the groups allegedly affiliated with “Putin’s chef”, Evgeny Prigozhin, grossly miscalculated American tactics.
Russian army command structure is highly centralized, whilst American troops put most decision making to the commander in the field and grant authority over artillery, air force him/her, and this commander might be of the considerably low rank.
Mercenaries may have believed that for whatever “geopolitical reasons” small group of U.S. troops would avoid the armed confrontation and would be recalled, and would leave the lucrative oil field and plant. But instead this field commander exercised its authority and struck back, leaving hundreds dead.
It is against the Russian military’s shared belief and logic that the mere field commander can call a massive air strike without calling a bunch of four-star generals for approval.
P.S. There is a grim version of events circulating in the social networks that allegedly the mercenary company practices “disposing of” the fighters in such a manner to avoid bringing them home and paying the salaries. In that case the fact that few hundred fighters were supported by just a handful of vehicles and zero anti-aircraft missiles supports this rumor.

[TigerLikesRooster]

So what good these mercenaries do if they find out they won't be paid and disposed of? They cease to be effective fighting force.

[AdmSmith]

When contractors get killed abroad in combat actions it draws little attention. The general public is less sympathetic to the death of a soldier that fights as a mercenary for a pay check. Regular Russian soldiers killed in foreign countries draw attention to operations the government does not care for the public to know about. This places Wagner contractors at significant risk. Contractors are somewhat anonymous and can be used for more hazardous missions.

According to Mark Galeotti, senior researcher at the Institute of International Relations in Prague,

“The Russian people are not very enthused by the idea of an empire that would involve their boys coming home in body bags. There’s clearly a lack enthusiasm for this conflict.” “By having this military company Wagner, they can have a force they can actually deploy ... but when people die, it doesn’t have to be announced.” (news.com.au, 2017

http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/swj-factsheet-observing-wagner-group-open-source-intelligence-study

[TigerLikesRooster]

The previous article seems to imply that the company would send to the mission where they are most likely to be killed and save money by not paying them. If you work for such a company and find out this company policy, would you fight as you are told to? That is what I was asking.

[redcatcherb412]

“It was a test. And our military passed.”

If you're going to twist a tigers tail, you better be wearing cast iron underwear because the claws will be coming.

[AdmSmith]

The quote was from a comment to the article, not from the article. Sorry for not being clear about that.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Correction: send (them) to the mission

[AdmSmith]

More about Wagner and their likely involvement in the killing of 2 reporters.

https://theins.ru/politika/112326

[McGruff]

“Russia’s version of the American thugs who worked for the company formerly known as Blackwater”

Huh? Blackwater are American thugs?

[firebrand]

I guess you missed comment 48.

[AdmSmith]

Wagner: A closer look at Russian private security and military enterprise.

Wagner partners with the Russian military for issues of transportation and logistics, similarly to their western counterparts. However, in both Ukraine and Syria members of Wagner served at times to augment Russian and/or local forces or have served as an “elite infantry“, in direct-action operations, not merely as advisors or trainers. Wagner is also reported to suffer unusually high numbers of casualties for a PMC, which suggests that in some theaters Wagner serves in primarily a combat role, rather than less hazardous non-combat tasks like training and advising.

In CAR and perhaps in Libya, Wagner’s primary mission appears to be the extraction of mineral wealth, securing arms deals, and training local specialist forces, rather than pursuing discernable foreign policy objectives in line with those of their country of origin. This differentiation is important when considering the role of the aforementioned western PMCs, who typically do not operate as independently as Wagner seems to, but are more closely bound to national objectives.

https://www.offiziere.ch/?p=34979

[familyop]

"Wagner: A closer look at Russian private security and military enterprise."

Going back to the early 1970s, men without prior combat-focused training who joined mercenary companies were most often poorly trained. Good training is expensive, so governments like ours tend to do it best. Men with much prior combat-focused training from such governments tend to have the best survivability.

Those who survive about two months' worth of patrols with frequent firefights tend to live much longer. Recruits who have not been previously trained for light combat specialties (like infantry) in armies like that of the U.S. also tend to be captured much more easily (ammunition expenditures, lack of desire to move under fire,...).

[AdmSmith]

Putin’s Chef Preps Soldiers for Final Assault on Syrian Rebels

Grouped into tank-equipped units of 50 men each and backed by Russian air power, the plan is for these soldiers to work with uniformed Syrian forces, first to establish escape corridors for civilians, one of the people said. Then they’ll engage in the street-to-street fighting required to clear the heavily populated city of thousands of al-Qaeda-affiliated militants, he said. The operation, if it goes ahead, could take months.

Prigozhin didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment via his Concord Catering company. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said only that Russia will act in Idlib “on the basis of agreements” with neighboring Turkey, a leading critic of recent military action in the region.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/09/06/putins-chef-preps-soldiers-for-final-assault-on-syrian-rebels-a67172

[BeauBo]

“Then they’ll engage in the street-to-street fighting required to clear the heavily populated city (Idlib) of thousands of al-Qaeda-affiliated militants”

Another little Raqqa.

I am guessing that the USA will consider it open season on hunting al Queda, with no bag limit. Turkey will probably squeal like a stuck pig though.