Posted on 02/14/2018 10:43:50 AM PST by firebrand
It was inevitable. Russian “mercenaries” attacked a forward base in Syria where they knew American advisors were stationed. It was a test. And our military passed.
Let’s hope the administration passes, too.
The most important thing about this attack on our troops is that it couldn’t have happened without Vladimir Putin’s personal approval. Nye vozmozhno.
The core of the attacking force came from the Wagner Group, Russia’s version of the American thugs who worked for the company formerly known as Blackwater. But while the media refers to the Russians as mercenaries, the Wagner Group functions as an auxiliary of the Russian military — it previously gave command performances in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. It exists to give Moscow (barely) plausible deniability.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
The way that Russia might be seeing it, Iran crossed several “red lines” by deceiving Moscow’s decommissioned servicemen into undertaking a de-facto “suicide mission” in order to provoke an interstate conflict with the US and “Israel”, all the while attempting to “poach” Russia’s Syrian partner out from its “sphere of influence” in order to “exploit” it as Tehran’s “cat’s paw” for carrying out this operation. Moreover, Iran’s implied intent of “hacking” the upcoming Russian elections through what may have been its secret attempt to influence the vote by engineering this scandalous scenario won’t be forgotten by President Putin, no matter how much his Foreign Ministry shrewdly deflects blame for the “Wagner” reports to “anti-government militants” in order to thrown Tehran “off the trail” of what it’s truly thinking on this matter.
http://www.eurasiafuture.com/2018/02/15/wagner-syria-iranian-tail-trying-wag-russian-american-dog/
Comment: This author, in a Russian deza magazine, is saying that Wagner PMC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagner_Group was again tricked by Iran. If that is the case Russia has a very big problem. On the other hand if Wagner PMC did this with the blessing of the Russians, that normally is the case, it is as well a big problem for Russia.
We will read much more about this later.
Last year, the Associated Press obtained a contract between a Wagner-linked company and Syria’s state-owned petroleum corporation, which promised a twenty-five-per-cent cut of the profits from oil and gas production at fields captured from militant control.
Complicating all of this is the fact that, at least technically, private military companies are illegal in Russia, and previous attempts in parliament to draft the necessary legislation to formalize their status have gone nowhere. “We’re at crossroads,” Ivan Konovalov, a defense analyst and the author of a Russian-language book on private military companies, said. “Either we’ll see the winding down of the operations of such companies or the passing of legislation to regulate their activity.” One deputy in parliament this week called for exactly that. Konovalov hopes a law will soon appear. “Without it, there’s no mechanism to deal with such situations, no one knows what to do,” he told me.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/putins-shadow-army-suffers-a-setback-in-syria
A video 18 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaeDMOWkCwU
According to Girkin 644 KIA
https://twitter.com/GirkinGirkin/status/962411040322605056
The important info in this WaPo article is:
The reports indicated an increased tempo of communications between Prigozhin and Kremlin officials during the same period, including Putin chief of staff Anton Vayno and deputy chief of staff Vladimir Ostrovenko, but the content of those talks is not known. The communications continued until Feb. 5 and resumed the day after the attack.
U.S. Special Forces at the base and overhead reconnaissance had seen the attack force mobilizing west of the river at least a week before the attack, according to Mattis and Lt. Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, commander of U.S. Air Forces Central Command. They notified the Russians at that time and warned that the base would defend itself. Asked in a briefing with reporters last week to characterize the conversations, Harrigian said only that they “remained professional.”
On the night of the attack, Mattis said, “the Russians profess that they were not aware when we called about that force that had crossed, and it came closer. They were notified when the firing began,” and the Americans were told “there were no Russians there.”
When the attackers, using tanks and artillery, began firing in their direction, Harrigian said, the Americans struck back.
As is the normal case in Russia a lot of rumors are floating around that someone (no names) in Kreml betrayed Wagner etc. For sure Russia has lost many of their special forces. Bombing hospitals and civilians is one thing but attacking forces that can fight back is something else.
More info about Yevgeny Prigozhin and Wagner group:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43167697
2 min video https://vimeo.com/ondemand/138903
He writes that the objective was not the Conoco oil installation, but the US SF that were embedded there. If they had succeeded with it it would be a blow to the US prestige in the region and would result in the withdrawal of US forces like in Lebanon 1984 and Somalia 1994.
Russian Army build a bridge. but on February 6, the water level in the Euphrates suddenly rose by several meters, and the speed of the current increased two-fold.
The next day the bridge was demolished, and the Wagner Group was cut off, but still started the operation.
The Russian military believes that the discharge of water originated from the reservoir of El Tabbah HPP upstream, that is controlled by the SDF units.
The Russians started the attack in the evening when it was dark believing that US forced would be unable to discriminate between friends and foes and refrain from counter attacking. In other words they assume that the situation was similar to the eastern parts of Ukraine.
All communications to and from the Wagner groups were suppressed by http://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104486/ac-130u/ and the result could only be one.
Colonel-General Alexander Zhuravlev will have a tough time explaining what happened and the battle has diminished the morale of the Russian forces with big consequences.
https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2018/02/20/75571-razgrom
Wagner group consists of more than 3600 persons, and the running cost (no definition of what that is) is 17.4 billion rubles.
It started 2013 as Slavonic Corps Ltd. in Hong Kong and offered salary of $5000 and were first opposed by the Russian State and FSB arrested their leaders. But soon Kremlin understood the value in having such a group and there were engaged both in Syria and in Donbas / Ukraine.
The fighters were transported by the 76th Airborne Division, Pskov Region, to Syria.
https://newizv.ru/news/politics/21-02-2018/uzhe-ne-tayna-stalo-izvestno-skolko-boytsov-v-chvk-vagner
Quoting Girkin/Strelkov, see above. But read the comments after the article:
it wasn’t just five Russians killed in the American raid – it was 218. (US officials have said about 100 pro-regime fighters were killed, without specifying whether they were Syrian army, Russian or other forces.)
However, the paramilitary chief said only 150 bodies have so far been recovered.
“There are 150 people in refrigerators on the Wagner base” back in Russia, he said. “Their state? ‘Minced meat’ is how they described them to me.”
Even so, the chief doesn’t feel much sympathy for those who died; he believes it is a fate they chose.
http://www.france24.com/en/20180223-russia-fighters-syria-exclusive-interview-mercenary-wagner
The next article is asking the typical Russian reaction: “Who is responsible”, and how it can be used by Putin.
http://censoru.net/24865-nashi-russkie-zhirinovskiy-progovorilsya-o-gibeli-vagnerovcev-v-sirii.html
According to the next article it was actually Russian SF and 257 are KIA.
https://www.segodnya.ua/world/russia/zavalili-kadrovyh-volonter-na-primere-razgroma-chvk-vagner-obyasnil-ischeznovenie-putina-1116623.html
An example of a deza article:
Actually it was Americans that died in Syria and it was due to our new Su-57: http://g-news.am/%D0%BC%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8C-%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%B3%D0%BD%D0%B5%D1%80-%D1%81%D1%83-57-%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%88%D0%B8%D1%82-%D0%B3%D1%83%D1%82%D0%B5-%D1%87%D0%B2%D0%BA/
Head of the 8th Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia, Lieutenant-General Yuri Kuznetsov ordered to suppress cellular signals (2G and 3G) in the territories of two Russian bases in Syria - Khmeimim and Tarus.
The document was signed on February 2, and its operation should be provided until March 30, 2018.
http://censoru.net/24985-rossiyskih-voennyh-otrezali-ot-mira-v-sirii-chto-sluchilos.html
A detailed description
Uh, I clicked that link. I guess Mueller will be all over my ass tomorrow. ;^)
As for Wagner itself, the next steps are unclear. Moscow will certainly seek to rein in the group, likely by redeploying elements from the area of the February 7 incident to the outskirts of Damascus, where a major regime offensive is looming.
Wagner is also likely to become more involved in Idlib Province in Syria’s northwest, now becoming a focus of combat between the regime and surviving rebel groups. The revelation that Prigozhin effectively used Wagner as a tool for his personal enrichment in conjunction with Syrian officials, even if sanctioned to a degree by the Kremlin, demonstrates an unsettling and heretofore unknown potential for escalation. The United States gave Wagner a substantial bruising sure to make its commanders think twice before attempting such a stunt again—but the precedent of the group fighting U.S.-backed forces has nonetheless been set.
For Putin, this attack appears to be just the latest in a series of unwelcome escalations in a country where he declared victory just two months ago—and proof that proxy forces such as Wagner can backfire in an unintended fashion.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/syria/2018-02-26/russias-mercenary-debacle-syria
12 video
Our (24France) Russia correspondent Elena Volochine travelled to the Svedlorsk region, in Siberia, where she met families in mourning.
She also investigated paramilitary organisations in Ekaterinburg. One of its leaders, speaking on condition of anonymity, made some surprising revelations. This is her exclusive report.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eka_Jn9K_HU
the operation was led by a Russian citizen Sergey Kim, a former Marine officer with the military ID number M-0971.
“It was he who masterminded the failed operation and coordinated it with his command from Russia’s official military contingent,” the community said on Feb. 19, referring to insider information provided by “Ikhtamnet_m0209”, an open-source intelligence group with sources close to Wagner.
Der Spiegel (gives a lower number of KIA):
It will take some time until the info is in the public domain.
Interview with 3 from “PMC Wagner”.
No anti-venom available for snakes etc.
https://www.svoboda.org/a/29084090.html
The Wagner base in Molkino close to Krasnodar:
87 people were killed there and a lot of missing people - more than 100 people.
- Missing?
- Without a trace. They were torn to pieces in it, meat was collected in the field and sent here.
What the TV says is nothing but lies! Bastards! No Russians ever beat anywhere, son, they divide oil. On the blood of children these fagots earn money! For whom these oil rigs - for me, for you, can?
- And in Ukraine, why such a mess?
- Donbass - is that, in your opinion? This is coal, the entire main industry of Ukraine is there. Now we are already deep in the ass and even further into it ¤%&! The whole world has already turned against us, on whom are they hoping in this Kremlin? Okay Chechnya was - it was our territory and we can not allow this to happen to us. In this Putin was right, I do not mind.
https://www.znak.com/2018-03-05/kak_vyglyadit_lager_chvk_vagnera_v_krasnodare
An interview with the mother of a 25 year old member of the Wagner group:
Syria - was it Alexander's first combat experience?
- No, he fought for five years. First in Ukraine - in Donbass and Lugansk, then, the last one and a half years in Syria.
https://rus.azattyk.org/a/29089955.html
A long and informative article
https://thickpolicy.media/banda-putina-chvk-vagnera/
Ksenia Sobchak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ksenia_Sobchak is participating in the Russian presidential election.
She has a site https://mbk.sobchakprotivvseh.ru/ and today it was an interesting article there about a dead member of Wagner:
The participant in the battle says that the “storm squads” of the Wagnerites “(who sometimes were called mercenaries in the circle of mercenaries) were not companies in the general military sense of the word: the number of each detachment was not 121 people, like the company of the charter, but 350. Support for these assault teams was provided armored group with Soviet-made T-72 tanks and artillery with 122 mm M-30 howitzer of the 1938 model. Also the attacking group had BRDM (armored reconnaissance and sentinel machines armed with machine guns) and antiaircraft installations on a truck.
Interrogated Polynkovym soldier spoke about the incredible power of American artillery fire and bombardment, as well as about the highest accuracy of hits: on his eyes the missile directly hit destroyed BRDM with everyone who was inside the car and on the armor. According to the estimates of this source, only more than two hundred people were killed in his detachment.
https://mbk.sobchakprotivvseh.ru/suzhet/brat-pogibshego-bojca/
and this from a speech by Lev Shlosberg, Yabloko, is from 27 Feb:
Twenty days ago, on February 7, near the small Syrian city of Darezor one of the units of these unofficial armed forces of Russia fell under the fire of the US armed forces. And in the column, where there were about 600 people, according to retired officers, in particular Victor Alksnis, at least 334 people were killed. At the same time, the Ministry of Defense officially stated that among the dead there are no servicemen of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
When the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, was asked whether the national mourning would be declared in connection with the mass death of Russian servicemen, he replied: “I did not understand the topic. In this connection, mourning should be declared? “.
Meanwhile, judging by the information leaked to the journalistic studies and the veterans of the armed forces, the soldiers of the reconnaissance battalion of the GRU special forces are among the dead, this military unit 92 154, according to Alksnis, and the military unit 43 292, is the special purpose headquarters. That is, the so-called private military company Wagner, which certainly does not exist and can not exist under Russian law. This is an illegal armed formation. It is at least partially formed of servicemen of the armed forces of the Russian Federation.
In connection with all that is happening, it must be recalled that in the Russian budget 17% of expenditures are classified. Only indirectly, this is data on the cost of weapons, which are involved in military operations in Syria formally, Russia spent more than 4 years in Syria for almost 4 billion dollars. This is about 250 billion rubles. This is 10 annual budgets of the Pskov region.
https://mbk.sobchakprotivvseh.ru/region/lev-shlosberg-nelzya-nadev/
This https://putinism.wordpress.com/2018/03/02/wagner/ is a long article about Wagner (In Russian)
Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated five entities and 19 individuals under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) as well as Executive Order (E.O.) 13694, “Blocking the Property of Certain Persons Engaging in Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities,” as amended, and codified pursuant to CAATSA.
“The Administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyber-attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure,” said Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. “These targeted sanctions are a part of a broader effort to address the ongoing nefarious attacks emanating from Russia. Treasury intends to impose additional CAATSA sanctions, informed by our intelligence community, to hold Russian government officials and oligarchs accountable for their destabilizing activities by severing their access to the U.S. financial system.”
....
Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin (Prigozhin) provided material assistance to the IRA. Specifically, Prigozhin funded the operations of the IRA. OFAC previously designated Prigozhin under E.O. 13661, “Blocking Property of Additional Persons Contributing to the Situation in Ukraine,” on December 20, 2016.
...
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm0312
as well as “owner” of the Wagner Group
About time! *MUCH* left to do...not just with regard to sanctioning Russian oligarchs, but also: finally standing up to the Chinese, removing our foreign aid to anti-Jerusalem countries in the U.N...it’s not “too little too late” if we push back and fight hard ASAP.
And in the meantime beef up our country again from the inside, which means draining the swamp.
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