MUST WATCH! Vladimir Putin on terrorism, Syria and Russia’s foreign policy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKi6Y2-ULb4 ^

[4rcane]

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave an interview to Rossiya-1 television channel presenter Vladimir Solovyov on Oct. 11. He spoke about the military operation in Syria, fighting with terrorists, and the ambitions of Russian foreign policy.

On terrorism “This [the bombing in Ankara] is an attempt to destabilize the situation in Turkey, our neighbor and Russia’s friend. The fact that this has happened during an election campaign is a sign of a clearly provocative act. But we will be effective in combating terrorism only if we fight this evil together.” “I do not understand some of our colleagues in Europe and the United States though, when they say they are fighting terrorism, but we see no real results. What’s more, it’s a well-known fact that the Americans have shut down the program to train the Free Syrian Army. “They started out with plans to train 12,000 people, then said they would train 6,000, and then they trained only 60 people, and it turned out in the end that only 4–5 people are actually out there fighting ISIS. They spent $500 million on this. “They would have done better to give $500 million to us, and we would have put it to better use in terms of fighting international terrorism, that’s for sure.”

On Syria “We informed our partners of our plans beforehand. We informed our American partners and many others, especially the countries in the region concerned, of our plans and intentions.” “Some say that we left this too late, but let me point out that others, when planning and commencing their operations, never inform us, but we informed them.” “We prepared for these operations. We carried out preliminary work that involved concentrating sufficient forces, resources and equipment in the right place at the right time. We did a lot of close, long-term intelligence gathering from space and from the air, and then we analyzed all of the information obtained through various channels.” “Our General Staff specialists, working in coordination with our Syrian partners and other countries in the region, have established an information center in Baghdad, as you know. The data exchanged through this center has added to our overall information. Thus, everything that is taking place in the air or on the ground is not spontaneous action, but the implementation of plans prepared in advance.” “We make no difference between Shiites and Sunnis. A sizeable part of Russia’s population – 10 percent – is Muslim. I have said many times that they are every bit as much citizens of Russia as Christians or Jews, and we make no difference between people. “ “We have absolutely no desire to get entangled in inter-religious conflicts of any sort in Syria.”

On weapons and Russian military policy “…This is not about an arms race.” “We planned our armed forces modernization program several years ago, when the international situation was not in the tense state it is in today.” “We drafted and started carrying out this program not because we were preparing for aggressive action, but simply because the main attack systems our armed forces had at their disposal were gradually becoming obsolete and it was time to replace them.” “Russia has a peaceful foreign policy, and this is no exaggeration. If you look at the political map of the world and Russia’s place on it, it is obvious that we have no need for others’ territory or natural resources. We have enough resources of our own and we have no need for war or conflict with anyone else.”

[1rudeboy]

Oh, Vladi . . . he’s so dreamy. [swoon]

[nickcarraway]

It’s like the 30s and 40s all over again. Some American are in love with a Russia dictator again. 4rcane, you didn’t happen to have a grandfather named Walter Duranty, did you? Just wondering.

[FredZarguna]

Maybe he’ll sign up for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and we won’t have to listen to his Putin Gamma Hoochie fantasies anymore.

[LeoWindhorse]

I have to agree . Putin is right and Obama is an ass-wad .
People are saying Obama is losing his marbles . I agree .
If it’s not his idea he opposes everything . The problem is all his ideas suck on ice and he is a coward to boot .

[Jimmy Valentine]

Putin is making Obama look like a total a-hole and the world is eating it up

[ETL]

Putin is right and Obama is an ass-wad. People are saying Obama is losing his marbles. I agree.

First of all, Putin is out to basically restore what was the old Soviet Union, under the guise of fighting terrorism. So how in hell can he be "right"? Second, Obama isn't losing his marbles, he's an anti-American communist POS. He's not destroying the greatest country on earth by accident, incompetence, or inexperience. He's doing what he's doing by design, deliberately.

[ETL]

October 6, 2015

“Romania is taking dramatic steps to modernize its military. Driven by fears of Russian aggression, worries about older weaponry and equipment, and a not-completely-altruistic desire to protect neighboring Moldova, the government is committed to increasing its defense spending over the next decade.”

https://news.vice.com/article/romania-is-starting-to-freak-out-about-russian-designs-on-transnistria

[who knows what evil?]

People are saying Obama is losing his marbles. I agree.

Like he had marbles in the first place??? :-)

Seriously; he knows EXACTLY what he is doing.

[ETL]

From 2014

Yushchenko, hero of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution warns Europe that Putin won’t stop at Crimea

by Matthew Schofield - McClatchy Foreign Staff
March 27, 2014

Many Ukrainians believe you need look no further than the face of Viktor Yushchenko to understand Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

Once smooth and ruggedly handsome, it still bears the scars from an assassination attempt when someone slipped dioxin into Yushchenko’s food. ...”

Read more here:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/article24765781.html#storylink=cpy
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[ETL]

Russia Is Building A Massive Military Base On Ukrainian Border

The Daily Caller ^ | September 10, 2015 | Reuters

Russia is building a military base along the Ukrainian border, signaling its preparing for long-term support of the pro-Russian separatists fighting for Ukraine. The massive base - scheduled for completion in April - will house ammunition depots and barracks for several thousand soldiers, and will be used to train soldiers, reported Reuters. The Reuters reporter investigating the new base was temporarily detained and accused of being a Ukrainian spy. Russian officials didn't respond to Reuters questions about the purpose of the base and whether it's connected to the fight for Ukraine. ..."

*******************************************************************

Russia Plans Second Big Military Base Near Ukrainian Border
Reuters, via freebeacon.com ^ | September 23, 2015 | Anton Zverev

BOGUCHAR, Russia (Reuters) – Russia is planning a second major military base near the border with Ukraine, where NATO accuses Russian troops of helping pro-Moscow separatists fight Kiev’s forces.

The new base will house 5,000 soldiers and heavy weaponry, according to public documents and people working at the site.

It is further east than one under construction in Belgorod region reported by Reuters earlier this month but still close to the border with separatist-held parts of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, where there has been heavy fighting.

The bases are part of a Russian military buildup along a new line of confrontation with the West, running from the Black Sea in the south to the Baltic in the north, which carries echoes of the Cold War-era “Iron Curtain”.

Russia has also increased its military presence in Syria.

(Excerpt) Read more at freebeacon.com ...

[ETL]

"the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] century" -Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the collapse of the Soviet Union...

"World democratic opinion has yet to realize the alarming implications of President Vladimir Putin's State of the Union speech on April 25, 2005, in which he said that the collapse of the Soviet Union represented the 'greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.'..."

"The more I see and read about Mr. Putin, in power since 1999, and his 'managed democracy,' the more apprehensive I become about the future of Russia and the safety of its neighbors.

If Putin believes that the dissolution of the Soviet Union into 15 independent states represents the 'greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century,' then it follows that Putin might well believe he should do something to repair the loss..."

http://web.archive.org/web/20090415000000*/http://www.hooverdigest.org/053/beichman.html
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“The demise of the Soviet Union was the 'greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century',” Putin said in 2005.

http://www.thetrumpet.com/article/11102.30640.0.0/asia/moscow-puts-the-soviet-squeeze-on-neighbor-nations
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"Putin said Stalin deserves statues in his honor "

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131219/185734707/Putin-Says-Stalin-No-Worse-Than-Cunning-Oliver-Cromwell.html
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"'The Black Book of Communism,'; a scholarly accounting of communism’s crimes, counts about 94 million murdered by the supposed champions of the common man (20 million for the Soviets alone), and some say that number is too low."

Forgetting the Evils of Communism: The amnesia bites a little deeper
By Jonah Goldberg, August 2008:

http://web.archive.org/web/20100711090651/http://article.nationalreview.com/365528/forgetting-the-evils-of-communism/jonah-goldberg

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I give Poot high marks for his campaign against Muzzie radicals. It’s not as though Russia has not been the target of these monsters.

[exPBRrat]

Well I like what hearing even though they may be an element of propaganda. The thing is... his actions back up what he reasons-out the best coarse of action for Russia against the terror threat. He’s very capable...probably the most capable leader out there.

[mac_truck]

“I do not understand some of our colleagues in Europe and the United States though, when they say they are fighting terrorism, but we see no real results.

No wonder the neo-cons are trying so hard to smear this guy, he's spilling the beans on their failed efforts.

[ETL]

I give Poot high marks for his campaign against Muzzie radicals. It’s not as though Russia has not been the target of these monsters.

If Russia was really at war with the islamo-nazis they wouldn't be in bed with the world's leading state sponsor of islamo-nazi--terrorism. Obama has been intentionally weak vs ISIS in order that Putin and Co have a reason to move in, basically take over the country, then, ultimately, the entire Middle East. That while on the move to retake Eastern Europe.

Trump: Iran Deal Requires U.S. Protecting Iran in Event of Israeli Strike

by Jacob Kornbluh
Sept 2, 2015

In a phone interview with CNN Tuesday evening, Trump claimed that there’s “something in the Iran deal” that “people don’t understand” saying if someone attacks Iran, “we have to come to their defense.”

“Does that include Israel?” Trump asked. “And most people say yes, they don’t have an exclusion for Israel. So if Israel attacks Iran, according to that deal, I believe, the way it reads, unless they have a codicil or they have something to it, that we have to fight with Iran against Israel.” ..."

Trump was most probably referring to language highlighted by the opponents of the deal. On page 142, the deal includes a clause that states, “Co-operation through training and workshops to strengthen Iran’s ability to protect against, and respond to nuclear security threats, including sabotage, as well as to enable effective and sustainable nuclear security and physical protection systems.”

Washington-based Center for Security Policy asserted that Annex III appears “to commit the United States and other world powers to the defense of Iran’s nuclear program.”

http://jpupdates.com/2015/09/02/trump-iran-deal-requires-u-s-protecting-iran-in-event-of-israeli-strike/
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Aug 2015...

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Russian build-up in Syria part of secret deal with Iran’s Quds Force leader

September 11, 2015
Jennifer Griffin, Lucas Tomlinson
FoxNews.com

As the Pentagon warily eyes a Russian military build-up in Syria, Western intelligence sources tell Fox News that the escalated Russian presence began just days after a secret Moscow meeting in late July between Iran’s Quds Force commander — their chief exporter of terror — and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Fox News has learned Quds head Qassem Soleimani and Putin discussed such a joint military plan for Syria at that meeting, an encounter first reported by Fox News in early August. ...”

The Quds Force is the international arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, involved in exporting terrorism to Iran’s proxies throughout the Middle East including Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. ...”

Officials who have monitored the build-up say they’ve seen more than 1,000 Russian combatants — some of them from the same plainclothes Special Forces units who were sent to Crimea and Ukraine. Some of these Russian troops are logistical specialists and needed for security at the expanding Russian bases.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/09/11/russian-build-up-in-syria-part-secret-deal-with-irans-quds-force-leader/

[ETL]

Russia doing what they're doing now is like the mafia taking over your business after they drove away the local punks who were threatening you. Punks that they themselves sent after you as part of a Mafia-like "protection" scheme. Not a perfect analogy, but close enough...
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From Aug 23, 2015:

"a recent investigation conducted by Novaya Gazeta, one of the few independent newspapers left in Russia, complicates this cozy tale of counterterrorist cooperation. Based on extensive fieldwork in one village in the North Caucasus, reporter Elena Milashina has concluded that the “Russian special services have controlled” the flow of jihadists into Syria, where they have lately joined up not only with ISIS but other radical Islamist factions.

In other words, Russian officials are adding to the ranks of terrorists which the Russian government has deemed a collective threat to the security and longevity of its dictatorial ally on the Mediterranean, Bashar al-Assad."

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/23/russia-s-playing-a-double-game-with-islamic-terror0.html
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Understanding Provocation [Provokatsiya]

March 29, 2014

One of the most powerful tools the Kremlin has in its secret arsenal of Special War is provocation, what they call provokatsiya.

While Moscow cannot claim to have invented this technique, which has existed as long as there have been secret services, there’s no doubt that Russians have perfected the art and taken it to a whole new level of sophistication and deviousness. At times, it can become a strategy all on its own (not always, mind you, with edifying results).

Provokatsiya simply means taking control of your enemies in secret and encouraging them to do things that discredit them and help you. You plant your own agents provocateurs and flip legitimate activists [in this case, dupe actual Jihadis -ETL], turning them to your side.

When you’re dealing with extremists to start with, getting them to do crazy, self-defeating things isn’t often difficult. In some cases, you simply create extremists and terrorists where they don’t exist. This is causing problems in order to solve them, and since the Tsarist period, Russian intelligence has been known to do just that.

While this isn’t a particularly nice technique, it works surprisingly well, particularly if you don’t care about bloody and messy consequences. ..."

http://20committee.com/2014/03/29/understanding-provocation/
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In other words, it's like starting a fire, or pouring gasoline on a fire, in order to be the 'big hero', being first on the scene to put it out. Except in this case, you get to grab control over the buildings and town you helped 'saved' from the fire you helped to start.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Send your sons.

[Tau Food]

If you are correct that Putin wants to restore the old Soviet Union and if you are correct that Obama (as “an anti-American communist POS”) supports the restoration of communism in the world, do you conclude that they are secretly pursuing the same strategy and that they are just feigning a disagreement?

[ETL]

Exactly that. At least that is what I suspect is going on.