Is Russia Still a Great Power?

Links are problematical & very slow due to Russia’s internet policy; just search for Russian Bureau of Statistics or Russian Federal State Statistics Service

https://t.me/s/MediaKiller2021/

"Russia is about to gain 70-80% of Ukrainian's GDP in war the Russians tried to avoid but the Biden regime was determine to start."

Russia tried to "avoid" invading Ukraine in the same sense as a drunken man tries & fails to "avoid" raping a woman who can't escape.

https://twitter.com/imetatronink

The “Demilitarization” of Ukraine

This has been precisely the Russian mentality in Ukraine. Their foremost objective, from the very beginning, as explicitly articulated by President Vladimir Putin in his historic speech of February 24, 2022, was to “demilitarize” Ukraine – to destroy its army.

When the war began, the most capable, experienced, well-armed, and well-positioned Ukrainian forces were NOT in Kiev, but in the Donbass and Mariupol. They had been positioning there for months, with the ultimate objective of retaking the Donbass and Crimea – a goal never far from the minds of Ukraine’s ideological and political leaders.

Indeed, they spoke of it openly and without qualification. They strongly believed the strength of their armed forces, after eight years of preparation, had reached a point where it was capable of actually achieving that objective.

Their benefactors in NATO encouraged them to believe this – for it was also NATO’s fondest dream to raise its banners over the naval base at Sevastopol, and thereby wield dominance over the entire Black Sea and the Bosporus.

Pursuant to this and many other geostrategic objectives – arresting Russian resurgence foremost among them – NATO had been providing arms to Ukraine for years, and those arms shipments were expanded and accelerated dramatically in late 2021.

Tens of thousands Ukrainian troops had been trained in the use of these NATO armaments. And, as was known to anybody paying even casual attention, thousands of western intelligence operatives, special forces, and mercenary contractors (predominantly American, British, and French – and lots of them) were embedded with front-line Ukrainian forces, where several have since been killed or captured, and a substantial contingent still remains.

Many of these western troops are there primarily to coordinate the reception, interpretation, and “actionable” use of highly prized and even more highly classified US/NATO “ISR” (Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance) data.

The Mother of All Proxy Armies

The army the US/NATO built in Ukraine, by the beginning of 2022, had swelled to become the largest and best-armed land force in Europe. By almost every metric, it was more potent than the combined armies of Germany, France, and Italy. (Chart at link.)

The Ukrainian military was purpose-built to serve the interests of the American Empire in its long-established goal to cripple Russia and prevent it from ever again being able to wield global influence; to effect its ultimate dismemberment and reduce it to a faint fragment of its former status and glory – to realize the geopolitical objective expressed in the popular cold-war-era board game RISK, which erased Russia from the world map.

The Russian decision to invade Ukraine in late February 2022 was motivated by and predicated upon all of these factors in aggregate, and was hastened by the widespread Ukrainian artillery strikes on the Donbass region that had commenced weeks previously.

To destroy this powerful “Mother of All Proxy Armies” which the United States and its NATO partners had methodically constructed on its borders was, logically and manifestly, Russia’s foremost objective.

There was no other.

The elimination of this substantial threat on their literal doorstep was understandably viewed by the Russians as an existential imperative.

Destroying the Mother of All Proxy Armies

And, in order to best achieve that objective, they effected a classic Russian stratagem to impede the possibility of the forces in northern Ukraine from reinforcing those in eastern and southern Ukraine once the fighting began.

THIS is why they conducted the elaborate “feint and fix” operation in and around Kiev.

And, all things considered, it worked perfectly.

That said, it is essential to understand that the greatest and most effective feints must be convincing. And, to be convincing, they very often risk being costly. The best feints are based on a cost/benefit analysis whose “benefit” often represents the foremost objective of a war.

In the case of the feint and fix operation in Kiev, there was a substantial cost – although it was not nearly as costly as western war propagandists have sought to portray it. This is because much of the feint consisted of demonstrations of intent, rather than concrete actions.

For example, after achieving air dominance in the first few days of the war, the Russians assembled a huge armored column, and casually drove it down the main highway from the north towards Kiev. Then they essentially just parked it there for many days, occasionally pretending to be heading in one direction or another, before eventually pulling back to their own borders, and sweeping around to join the forces preparing to launch the main offensive in the Donbass.

Everything it did north of Kiev was all for show. They didn’t break down; their troops didn’t run away; they didn’t run out of gas. It was just a big “feint-in-force”.

Even Belarus assisted in the theatrics by assembling troops and vehicles, moving them around aggressively just across the border from Ukraine, and making veiled threats to join the Russian assault on Kiev – which, of course, they never did, because no such assault was ever envisioned. And these aggressive Belarusian demonstrations ceased once the Russians concluded the feint operation and moved their forces to the southeast.

The result of this feint operation was that, over the course of several weeks, the Russians effectively “fixed” over 100,000 Ukrainian troops and their equipment in the vicinity of Kiev, took control of key transportation nodes and corridors between Kiev and the Donbass, and simultaneously conducted a major offensive to encircle and annihilate the 20,000-strong Ukrainian army group in Mariupol, a highly strategic port city on the coast of the Sea of Azov.

The forces in Mariupol included the notorious neo-Nazi “Azov Battalion”, whose arming and training had long been a US/NATO priority, and they were considered to be one of the most formidable components of the Ukrainian army.

The forces in Mariupol also included many dozens of NATO “advisors” (CIA, special forces, and so-called “contractors”). Also present were ~2500 foreign mercenaries, most of them NATO veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While potential reinforcements remained idle and immobile in and around Kiev, the powerful force in Mariupol was methodically surrounded and systematically annihilated in an operation I am confident will be studied in war colleges for generations as one of the most impressive prosecutions of urban warfare ever executed.

The Russians completely reversed the generally accepted casualty ratio between attacker and defender, and did so against an enemy shielded within massive and complex fortifications it had prepared for years inside the sprawling Azovstal steel plant.

While all of this was taking place, Russian forces and their allies from the Donetsk and Lugansk republics engaged in “shaping the battlefield” in the Donbass region in anticipation of the next and most important stage of the war.

Bear in mind, the Ukrainian forces in the Donbass had spent eight long years building an elaborate series of hardened fortifications in the region with the objective of resisting a Russian attack and inflicting severe damage upon them when they did.

Of course, the Russians knew all this, and they clearly planned out a course of action designed to overcome the advantages that accrued to the Ukrainians as a result of their fortifications and their reprehensible tactics of using civilians and their dwellings as shields.

As matters stand here in early July, it is now incontrovertible that the Russian operation in the Donbass has been an overwhelming victory. It is, in my estimation, the most impressive management of a quasi-urban battlefield in modern history. The original force, consisting of over 60,000 of the best-trained and best-equipped soldiers in the Ukrainian army, has been effectively destroyed. It has suffered catastrophic losses of its experienced, NATO-trained professional cadres. Its massive losses of personnel have been partially replenished by poorly trained territorial militia troops, but its even more massive losses of heavy weaponry cannot be replenished.

I described the Russian strategy and tactics in a previous post:

Here is a brief summation of the Russian tactical approach to the Battle of the Donbass:

Step #1: Advance reconnaissance units (often in force, with dozens or hundreds of drones overhead) to assess the situation; draw fire; relay to commanders raw video and geo-coordinates.

Step #2: With target-correcting drone swarms overhead, relaying real-time strike video, proceed to savage the fortifications with towed and mobile artillery, Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (in gradations of strength and precision), and even horrific thermobaric munitions for particularly suitable targets.

Let smoke clear.

Repeat Step #1.

Still something moving there?

Repeat Step #2.

Repeat Step #1.

Dead bodies everywhere?

Step #3: Send in tanks and infantry to mop up.

Move to next series of fortifications.

And so on and so forth …

This is why Ukraine now suffers hundreds of battle deaths every single day. And why, for months, the Russians have suffered very few casualties – at least a 1 to 10 ratio – and quite likely much lower.

The artillery (with occasional air and precision missile strikes) is doing all the fighting.

The Russian objective was NEVER to “take Kiev”. I’ve heard all the arguments and rationalizations to the contrary. They are demonstrably fallacious. The foremost Russian objective was ALWAYS to destroy the Ukrainian army, the most potent groupings of which were positioned in the Donbass and in Mariupol. And they have done so COMPREHENSIVELY.

I am likewise persuaded that “demilitarization” will continue to be the Russian objective in Ukraine until the Ukrainians beg to surrender, accepting whatever terms the Russians propose.

Only then will the disposition of territory be decided once and for all, and if the map includes at all a toponym for a sovereign Ukraine, it will likely look somewhat like this: (Map at site.)

We can only hope desperate #EmpireAtAllCosts fanatics in London and Washington don’t commit a fatal blunder in their futile attempts to retain hegemony in the face of a resurgent multipolar world.

Posted by William Schryver at 8:49 PM

No of course not

At best Russia is a second world country. Russians as people are not up to world class snuff. They are unequal’s dependent on others. That lack of innate ability is now very painful when imported goods and resources leave Russia to it’s incapable devices.

The Russian economy and state are withering on the incompetent vine

Natural resources.

Land.

Strategic alliances.

Nuclear weapons.

Russia is definitely NOT self-sufficient given their recent failed attempt to buy drones from Iran.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2022/07/15/what-drones-is-iran-supplying-to-russia-and-what-impact-will-they-have-in-ukraine/?sh=75bb594560fa

“Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world.”

No, they do not.

Russia’s Mayak nuclear weapons facility suffered a catastrophic event in 2017 that destroyed or contaminated most of the facility and rendered it useless. Since then Russia has not produced one single new nuclear weapon not have they reprocessed or rebuilt any existing nuclear weapons.

They were trying to build a new plant at the facility and that was stopped or significantly slowed down by sanctions after 2014.

In short, the number of functional Russian nuclear weapons will continue to decline as time goes by. Their claims of 4,000 to 5,000 devices is balderdash.

Russia tried to "avoid" invading Ukraine in the same sense as a drunken man tries & fails to "avoid" raping a woman who can't escape.

Really? Then, why did Russia come to us with their security concerns in December and try to negotiate in an effort to prevent this war?

All it would have taken to stop the war is a guarantee Ukraine wouldn't join NATO and the Minsk Agreement being implement to prevent the war. But, the Biden regime and "liberal world order" want this war to occur.

I bet, though, you don't even know what the Minsk Agreement is.

You're clueless. You're either spewing propaganda or lying.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/russias-gazprom-declares-force-majeure-gas-supplies-europe-2022-07-18/

Kotsnews
forwarded from
Komsomolskaya Pravda: KP.RU
The Ukrainian plane that crashed in Greece was carrying NATO weapons for sale to Hezbollah Recall that the

Ukrainian An-12 of the Meridian airline crashed on the evening of July 16 after a fire that broke out in the engine. According to the official, there were approximately 12 tons of “probably dangerous” cargo on board.

But no signs of remnants of chemical weapons or nuclear materials could be found. The An-12 was not carrying weapons of mass destruction, but not training mines, as official authorities said, but a completely different cargo.

According to information published in the well-informed Telegram channel NEZYGAR, the plane was transporting weapons that Ukraine resold from its stocks received from Western countries (stingers, javelins, AKs with ammunition, etc.) to the military wing of the Middle East Hezbollah through the Serbian organized crime group, by a long route through Syria and Jordan (to elude the attention of the Russian Aerospace Forces). The value of the contract is 9 million US dollars, of which 3 million have already been transferred as an advance to accounts in the UAE.

As NEZYGAR writes, the CIA shared information about the flight with weapons for Hezbollah with the Mossad. And then it was already a matter of technology for one of the most formidable special services of our time ...

It turns out that, firstly, Ukraine resells weapons to NATO, and secondly, the CIA has access to the deepest secrets of Ukrainian intelligence, including about these resales. It is possible that the United States themselves have a share in this, writes our journalist Alexander Grishin

More

https://www.kp.ru/daily/27419/4619181/?from=tg

July 18, 2022 3:40 am
Ukrainian plane that crashed in Greece was carrying NATO weapons for sale to Hezbollah

The crash of the An-12 suggests that Kyiv is not only selling weapons that the West supplies to it, but also clearly sharing profits with agents from the United States

With the Ukrainian An-12 transporter that crashed a couple of days ago in Greece, things may not be so simple. Although Serbian officials have stated that Belgrade has not been supplying any weapons and ammunition to Ukraine for several years, and the plane’s route ran from this Balkan country to Jordan, the Ukrainian trace in this whole story could be very significant. Like the trace of a couple of special services of the countries of the “Western world”.

UKRAINIAN MILITARY INTELLIGENCE PROVIDES…
Recall, the An-12 cargo plane of the Ukrainian airline “Meridian” crashed on the evening of July 16 in Greece, about 12 kilometers from the small town of Kavala. According to the official, there were approximately 12 tons of “probably dangerous” cargo on board. In any case, the Greek rescuers who arrived at the scene were at first not allowed to carry out work, limiting their presence to at least a kilometer to the nearest flaming hearths, due to the secondary detonation of the cargo residues, and after the secondary detonation they were dressed in airtight just in case suits. What terrified both the locals and the world press. But no signs of remnants of chemical weapons or nuclear materials could be found. Which is not surprising, since the An-12 was not carrying weapons of mass destruction, but not training mines, as the authorities said,

According to information published by the well -informed NEZYGAR Telegram channel , the plane was carrying weapons that Ukraine resold from its stocks received from Western countries.

“More than a hundred Nlow ATGMs, 55 Stingers and about a hundred more Javelin ATGMs, as well as 500 Kalashnikov assault rifles and BKs for them,” NEZYGAR said. According to him, all these weapons were sold on June 28 by a representative of the military intelligence of Ukraine (GUR) on the direct order of the head of the GUR, Kirill Budanov, to the military wing of the Middle East Hezbollah. The deal went through a Serbian organized crime group, which specializes in weapons smuggling. The cost of the contract, including the goods themselves, their transportation and commissions to Serbian smugglers, amounted to 9 million US dollars, of which 3 million were already transferred as an advance to accounts in the UAE.

Why such a route, why left hand right ear? Why was it necessary to smuggle the entire consignment first to Serbia by ground smuggling, and then fly from Serbia to Jordan, so that Hezbollah representatives there could pick up the purchased weapons and smuggle them to Palestine through their smuggling corridors? Wouldn’t it have been easier for Ukraine’s military intelligence to load the aircraft somewhere in their own country, where they can ensure complete confidentiality and guarantee the absence of interest and potential third-party observers? The answer is simple. Ukrainian planes cannot now fly over the territory of Ukraine due to a special operation carried out by Russia, and, accordingly, every takeoff, even from an airfield in western Ukraine, is monitored by Russian Aerospace Forces in real time. But just a plane of a Ukrainian company, if it flies not to Ukraine, no one is particularly interested. Airlines from Ukraine now fly all over the world, except for their home country - because of the above reasons, trying to make money on anything.

LONG ARMS OF “MOSSAD”?
But what appeared to be the strength of the deal turned out to be its main weakness. According to the Telegram channel, Biden’s current visit to Israel played a fatal role for the An-12 pilots and those behind the deal. His team concluded a strategic cooperation agreement between the American CIA and the Israeli Mossad. And, most likely, it was after this (or for this) that the Americans, according to NEZYGAR, shared information about this delivery with the Israelis. Well, then it was already a matter of technology for one of the most formidable intelligence services of our time, one of the main specializations of which is precisely the fight against Hezbollah.

If this is so, then the Israelis, of course, are a little underdeveloped. It would be better for all participants in the transaction and the action if the plane simply disappeared over the Aegean Sea, over which it was flying at the time of a malfunction (fire) in the engine. But the crew really wanted to live and they almost managed to save themselves and the plane itself. And now, after the “black boxes” have been found, the public and the media will demand disclosure of information, investigations, etc.

But now a very interesting moment is revealed. Even two.

The first is that Ukraine resells the weapons it receives from NATO on an industrial scale. Air flights.

And the second - if American intelligence shared such information with the Mossad, then Budanov’s entourage is simply stuffed with CIA employees or agents who have access to the deepest secrets of Ukrainian intelligence and the Ukrainian president’s team. And this means that US agencies have all the information on the arms trade carried out on a wholesale scale by the Ukrainian military. By the way, it is possible that with the sanction or blessing of the American special services and with the direct participation of representatives of these special services. Maybe for a “small share” and personally for himself a gesheft, maybe “in the interests of the state.” Moreover, similar stories have already been in the history of the United States. We can recall, for example, the scandal with the Iran-Contra deal. She left the “black zone” after how in October 1986 an American military transport C-123 was shot down in the sky over Nicaragua. The US Secretary of Defense, one admiral and the US Deputy Secretary of State were even involved in that scandal, who was even convicted for this combination, but was pardoned by President Bush. As for the CIA, there were simply dozens of Agency agents involved in the program.