Posted on 10/10/2016 11:10:22 AM PDT by Krosan
Late last week, Vladimir Putin went all-in and executed the brazen geopolitical move of transporting nuclear-capable ballistic missiles to Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea north of Poland that’s surrounded by NATO countries.
As I told you on Friday, the Kremlin’s deployment of Iskander missiles, what NATO calls SS-26s, into Kaliningrad is a direct challenge to the Atlantic Alliance, since it puts all of Poland and the Baltic republics into range for a sudden nuclear strike. An Iskander’s flight time from Kaliningrad to Warsaw is just two minutes, so NATO would functionally have no warning.
In military terms, this is a game-changer for the Baltic region. Politically, it’s deeply destabilizing too. It’s nothing less than a regional version of the Cuban Missile Crisis, with Moscow placing nuclear missiles close to the Western camp for strategic advantage. Why Putin would do this when Obama has just three months left in the White House is the key question—and answering it reveals disturbing truths. As I said on Friday:
This constitutes a direct challenge to Washington by Moscow—and by Vladimir Putin to Barack Obama, personally. The KGB officer in the Kremlin is seeking to get in one last, grand strategic humiliation for our president before he leaves office. And why not? Such reckless antics have worked well for the Russians so far, given Obama’s preference to avert eyes and hope for the best whenever Moscow misbehaves.
The Kremlin’s no longer hiding its actions, even when they are profoundly destabilizing to European security. Knowing that President Obama will do nothing, Moscow is now openly boasting of its Iskander gambit. Stating the move is “no secret” and just part of military drills, Kremlin media isn’t shying away from the story.
A Russian defense ministry spokesman on Saturday indicated that they want the Americans to know about this aggressive chess move. “Nobody made a big secret out of the transportation of the system onboard the freighter Ambal,” stated General Igor Konashenkov, who added that one of the Iskander-M systems had been left exposed on the freighter’s deck “on purpose” when the Russians knew an American spy satellite would be flying overhead.
Even for the honeybadger in the Kremlin, this is a brazen act, although officially Russia has portrayed its Iskander deployment to Kaliningrad as no big deal. Frants Klintsevich, one of the Kremlin’s top security officials (he was the person who publicly admitted in June that Edward Snowden is an agent of Russian intelligence), downplayed the whole thing. Neighboring states like Poland and Lithuania “should not fear” the move because it is “part of a drill” for the Russian military which, Klintsevich added, are “not at war” with anyone.
Warsaw and Vilnius, who know their eastern neighbor very well, are not reassured by such Russian pleasantries about their aggressive move on NATO’s doorstep. “The deployment not only increases tensions in the region, but also possibly violates international treaties which limit deployment of ballistic missiles,” explained Linas Linkevičius, Lithuania’s foreign minister. “We will use all channels available to not only raise this question, but to demand that international agreements are adhered to,” he added.
Poland’s defense minister, Antoni Macierewicz, was equally forthright in his statement regarding the Iskander deployment on his country’s border: “The Russian Federation’s recent actions give cause for utmost concern.” In private, Polish defense officials have expressed real worries, rejecting Kremlin excuses that this move is “just a drill.”
“Putin’s playing for real now,” explained a senior defense official in Warsaw, who indicated that his country’s military and intelligence moves in response to Putin’s Iskander gambit are “appropriate to the new situation.” The problem in Warsaw isn’t just Putin, whose bad behavior Poles now see as part of NATO’s “new normal” on the Alliance’s eastern flank—but President Obama, who is a no-show in this hour of crisis.
Indeed, four days into Putin’s Cuban Missile Crisis on the Baltic Sea, our president remains invisible. There has been no public statement on the Iskander deployment from either the White House or the Pentagon. The U.S. military has made some quiet moves in response to the Russian move, including flights by our spy planes over the Baltic to monitor Kremlin moves. However, the lack of any public support or demonstrations of NATO solidarity by Washington right now is deeply troubling to our allies in Eastern Europe, most of whom had minimal confidence in Obama’s courage even before his latest no-show.
Vladimir Putin is no madman, rather an opportunist. He will get away with what NATO and especially the United States—who in military terms are vastly more powerful than Russia—allow him to. Barack Obama seems to think that letting the Kremlin do whatever it wishes will bring peace and stability. Ukraine and Syria tragically demonstrate that Obama’s laissez-faire attitude towards Putin beings anything but peace, yet it seems highly unlikely that our president will grow a backbone with just three months left in office.
We are in a dangerous period between now and January 20, when the Russian bear feels—not unreasonably—that he can get away with whatever he wants, without consequence. That’s not true, of course. Privately, President Obama has expressed to our NATO allies facing Russia exactly where his “redlines” are vis-à-vis the Kremlin.
Our allies, however, scarcely believe Obama, and who can blame them? “We saw what happened with his ‘redline’ in Syria,” quipped a NATO senior official: “Putin won.” We can only hope that the Kremlin believes in Obama’s Eastern European “redlines” more than defense professionals in Poland and the Baltics do. Deterrence works, but only when it’s credible—on all sides. President Obama needs to get off the golf course—where he is today—and publicly reassure our NATO allies if we expect to prevent more of Putin’s dangerous antics.
Nuclear weapons have now entered Putin’s cat-and-mouse game that his Kremlin is waging for political control over Eastern Europe. Moscow’s Iskander dice-roll has opened up a new, dangerous phase of this potentially lethal match. News today that the mayor of St. Petersburg, Putin’s hometown, has approved bread rations in the event of war give a worrying indication of the Russian mindset right now. January 20 cannot get here soon enough.
John Schindler is a security expert and former National Security Agency analyst and counterintelligence officer. A specialist in espionage and terrorism, he’s also been a Navy officer and a War College professor. He’s published four books and is on Twitter at @20committee.
...it’s what happens when you have a juvenile mooslem in the white hut
Will this election even matter?
I bet he enjoyed it.................
I bet he enjoyed it.................
Nope, obama is in full “flexible” mode now.
Europe just loved Obama
and they meddled in our elections .
They will reap the consequences.
This world war they will not be able to count on the Americans they think are stupid to come save them.
#BESTELECTIONEVER
This is the sort of thing I was concerned about (and am more than ever) when I wrote this vanity (as Cuban Leaf) in early summer of 2014:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3170217/posts
Putin knows Obama is a fool who can be played like a cheap accordion. Or is he a fool? His refusal to stand up to our enemies and to defend America is infamous and this is just another example. Its no mistake, its planned.
Sounds like the kissyface honeymoon is over and the real world has set in for Obama. Once if Obama is feeling used. /sarc
Or maybe this development *is* peachy in Obama’s secret opinion?
In any good chess match, a skilled player always moves against the weaker aggressively in order to provoke a chaotic series of counter-moves that will result in the weaker player’s collapse.
Reagan did it in the 80s. Putin is doing it now.
Pooty isn’t muzzie
NATO is the military arm of the NWO - Putin knows it.
He’s kicked NWO and Soros and Rothschild out of Russia 0 has International arrest warrants on latter -
Putin stands in the way of the One Worlders - which is why all the negative - and mostly false crappola on Russia
And NOW, O’bummer all but declares WAR on Putin/Russia. The “Mother-of-all-Wag-the-Dog wars? (because Putin is preventing ISIS from taking over another country - Syria - from being handed over for the Caliphate - This is one we would NOT win!
Russia may save the world’s bacon - and ours... IF we get Trump in before O’bummer and the One Worlders start WW111.
Trump - (Us also) need to bring this video to the country’s attention -
Obama is a Muslim.
He knows that Putin knows how to deal with Muslim "problem people", You kill them.
Obama, like most good Muslims wants to see the next Caliphate, world domination by Islam.
To do this, the USA and Russia must be destroyed.
As a Muslim, he knows homosexuals are to be killed.
By putting a large number of homosexuals in our military, it both weakens the military and puts them in a position to be killed in a war between the USA and Russia, which also weakens or destroys both countries.
He gets everything he wants.
[[The are reaping the consequences now with the barbarian invasion. The USA should have let the Soviet Union conquer them all after WWII. They wouldn’t be living in the fantasy world they live in now. ]]
Oh yeah they are just starting to reap them.
And their delusional Pope is helping to set them up.
Those stupid anti God , anti Israel , anti bible European leftist think that they can control those muslims , they are doing same the idiots across Asia and the middle east did and they reaped the consequences too.
Europe will be going through another blood bath , they never learn.
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