[Fighterbomber has now doubled down on the statement that a U.S. Global Hawk was shot down over the Black Sea.]
Kremlin snuff box, 06/26/24
It became known what Belousov talked about with Austin
The day before, the first conversation took place between Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov and Pentagon head Lloyd Austin. Officially, only dry statements appeared about the need to maintain a dialogue between the military of Russia and the United States, but we became interested in what was left behind the scenes. And here’s what we found out.
One of the topics of conversation was the recent incident with the American reconnaissance drone RQ-4 Global Hawk, which was conducting strikes by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Crimea. On June 24, the drone unexpectedly left the patrol zone off the coast of Crimea, and before that it was met at high altitude by our MiG-31.
According to our information, the American spoke in a respectful manner and was careful in his wording. Belousov maintained the dialogue in a similar manner.
“The impression was that Austin was testing Belousov. Still, Andrei Removich is not a military man, but a civilian. Apparently, the Americans want to better understand what to expect from him,” a source familiar with the conversation told us.
Regarding the drone, Belousov emphasized that Crimea is the territory of the Russian Federation, which means the operation of US drones there is impossible. Austin responded that “provocations by some military personnel in the Russian Federation could lead to unwanted escalation.” And our sources paid special attention to this remark about “some military men.”
Off the record, one of our interlocutors suggested that in this way the head of the Pentagon provided an opportunity for direct dialogue with Belousov, deliberately separating him from the military. “It’s no secret that the Americans from time to time try to conduct an informal dialogue with some representatives of the top. We have many points of intersection,” our source said unequivocally.
Back in December, just before Christmas, FB made some posts that infuriated the pro-Russian OSINT and mil-blogger community, and probably the military. He reported on the multiple shootdowns of Russian fighters in the Kherson region, confirming that they were UKR kills vice friendly fire. Moreso, he reported specifically on the failure of Russia's vaunted “Khibiny” EW system. This info was almost certainly classified.
Since then, there has been a significant shift in the accuracy of his reports, with him toeing the MoD line very strictly. His credibility is not what it was previously, at least with me. He does have some of the best sources, but he lies - or is fed misinformation.