I woke up early today because the moon is full and I have been promised a 'Russian invasion'.
The sky was clouded, no moon to see, and the 'invasion' is for some reason way less bloody than anticipated.
Not all hope is lost though. It may still be coming:
The 3am time (1am GMT) when US intelligence sources suspected a Russian attack came and went without incident last night as Putin continued to keep The West guessing.
Cold clear skies over capital Kyiv - where locals had braced for an aerial blitz - remained silent save for passing commercial flights.
But tension remained high before dawn on the day American officials had said Putin’s invasion force would be unleashed on Ukraine.
I wonder why the map accompanying The Sun screed has four of the five arrows showing a 'possible Russian advance' plus all those artillery cannons and tanks point towards the east.
What is this supposed to say?
Anyway, let's have a happy 'Russian invasion' day.
Posted by b at 7:02 UTC | Comments (56)
https://www.moonofalabama.org/
The Big White House Plans Behind Its 'Russian Invasion' Scam
As the 'Russian invasion' scam reaches new heights it is time to look at the motives behind it.
The noise has become deafening.
US warns war could be ‘imminent’ in Ukraine - Politico, Feb 11, 2022
> The U.S. intelligence briefing included specific reference to next Wednesday, February 16, as a start date for the ground invasion, three officials — based in Washington, London and Ukraine — told POLITICO. <
Russian invasion could begin at any time, White House says - Reuters, Feb 14, 2022
'Could' is doing a lot of work in those headlines.
Can we get it a bit more precise?
DAWN RAID Russia set to invade Ukraine at 1AM tomorrow with massive missile blitz and 200,000 troops, US intelligence claims - The Sun, Feb 15, 2022
Russia will order invasion of Ukraine at 3am tomorrow, sources say - Coventry Telegraph, Feb 15, 2022
1am or 3am?
Which is it?
And in what timezone?
And 200,000 troops? Yesterday there were only 100,000. How can those have doubled over night?
There is also the question of why.
Why has the Biden administration created an artificial 'crisis' about a Russian invasion of Ukraine when such an invasion is neither planned nor likely to happen? Why is it claiming that a Russian invasion of the Ukraine is 'imminent' when Russia as well as the Ukraine deny that any will be coming.
Why does it distribute misleading satellite pictures of allegedly deployed tanks when those are directly next to the barracks where they belong? Why does it hype a 'Russian buildup' when that is something that is claimed each and every year?
Jack Matlock, the last U.S. ambassador to the USSR, has one answer:
Maybe I am wrong – tragically wrong – but I cannot dismiss the suspicion that we are witnessing an elaborate charade, grossly magnified by prominent elements of the American media, to serve a domestic political end. Facing rising inflation, the ravages of Omicron, blame (for the most part unfair) for the withdrawal from Afghanistan, plus the failure to get the full support of his own party for the Build Back Better legislation, the Biden administration is staggering under sagging approval ratings just as it gears up for this year’s congressional elections.
Since clear "victories" on the domestic woes seem increasingly unlikely, why not fabricate one by posing as if he prevented the invasion of Ukraine by "standing up to Vladimir Putin"?
Actually, it seems most likely that President Putin’s goals are what he says they are – and as he has been saying since his speech in Munich in 2007. To simplify and paraphrase, I would sum them up as: "Treat us with at least a modicum of respect. We do not threaten you or your allies, why do you refuse us the security you insist for yourself?"
Alastair Crooke points to a different motive:
The authoritative Global Times in an editorial warns that the U.S. is instigating conflict in Ukraine in order to tighten bloc discipline – to corral European States back into the U.S.-led fold. No doubt, China makes the connection that Ukraine provides the perfect pivot for shepherding Europe towards America’s next stage of requiring a united front with the U.S. for the later task of barricading-in China, behind her borders.
In play, therefore, are key decisions that will define Europe for the future. On the one hand, (as Pepe Escobar noted some two years ago), “the goal of Russian and Chinese policy is to recruit Germany into a triple alliance locking together the Eurasian land mass à la Mackinder into the greatest geopolitical alliance in history – switching world power in favour of these three great powers, and against Anglo-Saxon sea power”.
And on the other hand, NATO was conceived, from the outset, as a means of Anglo-American control over Europe and more precisely for keeping Germany ‘down’, and Russia ‘out’ (in that old axiom of western strategists). Lord Hastings (Lionel Ismay), NATO’s first Secretary General, famously said that NATO was created to “keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down”.
This mindset lingers on, but the formula has acquired today a greater import, and a new twist: To keep Germany ‘down and price uncompetitive’ versus U.S. goods; to keep Russia ‘out’ from being Europe’s source of cheap energy; and to keep China ‘fenced out’ from EU–U.S. trade. The aim is to contain Europe firmly within America’s narrowly defined economic orbit and compelled to forgo the benefits of Chinese and Russian technology, finance and trade – thus helping towards achieving the aim of barricading China within its borders.
I find both explanations, the domestic one and the foreign policy one, very plausible and a combination of them is the most likely motive behind the plan for is affair.
The Washington Post explains how the campaign was hashed out and directed from the White House. Its headline though is misleading:
Inside the White House preparations for a Russian invasion
A “Tiger Team” of administration officials has spent the past several months preparing a clear series of responses, gaming out scenarios from cyberattacks and limited intervention to an invasion of Ukraine.
A more correct headline would have been "Inside the White House preparations of the 'Russian invasion' scam".
Lets look into that:
As fears grow of potential Russian aggression against Ukraine, a “Tiger Team” led by the White House is quietly gaming out how the United States would respond to a range of jarring scenarios, from a limited show of force to a full-scale, mass-casualty invasion.
The White House team has staged two multihour tabletop exercises — including one with Cabinet officials — to bring the scenarios to life and assembled a playbook that outlines an array of swift potential responses, starting with Day One and extending through the first two weeks of an envisioned Russian invasion.
The effort, senior administration officials said, has not only helped them anticipate possible complications, but has also prompted them to take actions ahead of time, such as exposing Russian information warfare before it’s carried out to blunt its propaganda power.
The team preplanned their daily propaganda releases step by step:
The “Tiger Team” — a term referring to a diverse group of experts who are tackling a specific problem and that suggests alertness and a readiness to pounce — was created after National Security Council officials last October detected troubling signs of a massive Russian troop buildup on the Ukrainian border.
NSC officials readily admit they may be unable to precisely anticipate the moves of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his military leaders. But the exercise and robust planning is still worth it, they said.
“The reality is that what the Russians may end up doing is not likely to be a 100 percent match for any of these scenarios,” [Jonathan Finer, deputy national security adviser to President Biden,] said. “But the goal is for them to be a close enough facsimile of what they end up doing that the plans are useful in terms of reducing the amount of time we need in order to respond effectively. That’s really the whole goal.”
The 'massive Russian troop buildup on the Ukrainian border' has never happened in real life. Most of the Russian troops are hundreds of miles away from Ukraine.
It was the Washington Post which on October 30 2021 was the first to publish the claims by 'anonymous officials' of a 'Russian buildup'.
(Side remark: The name 'Tiger team' or 'Tiger squad' was also used for the Saudi group that killed and hacked up a Washington Post opinion writer Jamal Khashoggi. Funny that the Washington Post piece does not mention that fact.)
Back to the 'tic toc' the WaPo provides:
The Tiger Team was officially born in November, when national security adviser Jake Sullivan asked Alex Bick, the NSC director for strategic planning, to lead a planning effort across multiple agencies. Bick has brought in the Departments of Defense, State, Energy, Treasury and Homeland Security, along with the U.S. Agency for International Development to look at a possible humanitarian crisis.
The intelligence community is also involved, gaming out various courses of action the Russians might pursue and the risks and advantages of each, officials said.
While the official launch of the 'Tiger team' might have been in November it is clear that the whole operation started earlier when the Ukrainians were asked to take part in the sham:
Simon Shuster @Shustry - 8:29 PM · Feb 14, 2022
Source close to Zelensky told me the U.S. first warned his team of a Russian invasion last fall, putting the chances at 80%. The Ukrainians didn't buy it, but they saw an opportunity -- "more aid, more attention" -- and played along. Now they have regrets. Too much attention.
The CIA has flown paramilitaries from Ukrainian Nazi groups to the U.S. to train them:
While the covert program, run by paramilitaries working for the CIA’s Ground Branch — now officially known as Ground Department — was established by the Obama administration after Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014, and expanded under the Trump administration, the Biden administration has further augmented it, said a former senior intelligence official in touch with colleagues in government.
By 2015, as part of this expanded anti-Russia effort, CIA Ground Branch paramilitaries also started traveling to the front in eastern Ukraine to advise their counterparts there, according to a half-dozen former officials.
The multiweek, U.S.-based CIA program has included training in firearms, camouflage techniques, land navigation, tactics like “cover and move,” intelligence and other areas, according to former officials.
These groups will be the forces to use when the U.S. decides to launch some false flag 'Russian attacks' on Ukrainian civilians.
As you watch it consider that every move in this is preplanned:
The playbook itself goes far beyond battlefield scenarios, looking at questions like how to address Ukrainian refugees who might stream into Poland and Romania, how to secure the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, exactly what sort of sanctions to impose on Moscow, and how to fight back against a sophisticated cyberattack.
The playbook — which synthesizes nearly three dozen papers and intelligence assessments commissioned by the team from various agencies — has been distributed to the various officials, including military and civilian leaders at the Pentagon.
The playbook also considers “second order” consequences, such as Russian retaliation for any penalties.
Those 'sophisticated cyberattacks' will most likely come from the National Security Agency which is part of the Pentagon. When the White House will claim that it has evidence of a 'Russian cyberattack' on Ukraine, which it is likely to do, keep in mind that anyone who claims to be able to find the real source of such an attack is selling snake oil.
Along the playbook the White House also released disinformation which claims that Russia will use such:
Among the Tiger Team’s top concerns is a Russian effort to promote the false narrative that it is Ukraine, aided by the West, that is preparing to launch an offensive in eastern Ukraine, and that Russia is the victim.
In recent weeks, the U.S. government has declassified intelligence about such efforts, including a potential “false flag” plot in which Moscow would stage an explosion that kills ethnic Russians in Ukraine or in Russia itself, and then blame it on Kyiv as a possible pretext for an invasion.
The White House has declassified nothing that anyone was allowed to see. As the NYT correctly remarked:
For all the disclosures, the Biden administration has provided no evidence of the disinformation plots they say they have uncovered.
The 'Russian invasion' scamp was approved from the top:
In December, the Tiger Team held two virtual tabletop exercises to road-test various scenarios and responses. The first brought together deputy secretaries and the second involved Cabinet officials. Biden has reviewed the playbook and was briefed on the results, officials said.
“It’s one thing to consider each of these problems — energy, sanctions, military posture — in isolation. It’s quite another to put them all together and execute a plan on all of them,” the NSC official said. “What I saw over the course of this planning exercise was, including at the most senior levels, lightbulbs go on about the way the pieces fit together.”
The plan is integrated enough to allow for aims and achievements in multiple fields.
That is why I believe that both, Matlock and Crooke, are right in their guesses of the motives behind the 'Russian invasion' scam.
There are domestic aims and there are foreign policy aims and the pieces of the plan fit them together.
But that is only so if the whole thing does not unravel. In real life no battle plan survives the first contact with the enemy.
Zelensky's much criticized unwillingness to play his part of the show may just be one of the elements that will let it all fall apart.
Then there is Russia which is always good at creating real surprises. I bet that its security demands and the draft treaties it provided where not foreseen in the playbook. They already succeeded in pressing Biden into concessions the U.S. had previously been unwilling to make. More surprises in different areas will follow. As soon as the Olympics are over China may also come to play a role in this.
Big plans make for big failures.
Posted by b on February 15, 2022 at 17:13 UTC | Permalink
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/02/t ... .html#more
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A Ukrainian serviceman patrols along a position at the front line with the eastern rebels not far from Avdiivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine. Fears have mounted of an escalation of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where government forces have battled the rebels since 2014. Photo: AFP
U.S. needs Ukraine crisis to harm European economy, and legitimize its military presence
Originally published: Global Times by Yang Sheng and Xu Keyue (February 13, 2022 ) | - Posted Feb 15, 2022
As the Ukraine crisis becomes ever more complex, with the U.S. claiming that Russia is planning for an imminent invasion while Moscow continuing to deny it and accusing Washington of spreading fear via disinformation, Chinese analysts said Washington needs the crisis to remain heightened even if Russia has no intention of using force.
Chinese analysts said Sunday that keeping the crisis intense will benefit the U.S. in several fields: legitimizing its military presence in Europe by demonizing Russia and poisoning Russia-EU ties, increasing uncertainties and concerns to harm the eurozone economy so there will be more capital flight from the continent to the U.S. and thus easing the U.S. inflation pressure, and using the tension to stir up trouble for China-Russia ties.
Combat crews of the S-400 air defense system taking up combat duty during joint exercises by Russia and Belarus on February 9, 2022 which center around “suppressing and repelling external aggression” amid Western claims that Moscow is plotting a major escalation of the conflict in Ukraine. (Photo: AFP)
Therefore, the U.S. is using all means to maintain the heightened tension, including spreading disinformation and strengthening military deployments to provoke Russia – in other words, the U.S. is sacrificing Ukraine’s security to serve its own strategy to compete with Russia, experts said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had telephone conversations with French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday, TASS reported on Sunday. Conversations were held at the request of Paris and Washington.
Putin reminded his counterparts that “the West does not do enough to force Ukraine to perform the Minsk Agreements” and said “the Russian response to the U.S. and NATO answers on security guarantees will be presented shortly.”
Paris said after the conversation that they do not believe that Moscow “is preparing an offensive” against Ukraine, while Washington stated that it is still unclear whether Russia plans to achieve its goal diplomatically or “by way of using force.”
Analysts said no party can bear the consequence of the situation out of control totally, and if conflict breaks out, the U.S. would not be the losing party, and could even benefit if the conflict remains limited. In this scenario, it would harm Ukraine and its neighbors, so Washington is the one that potentially welcomes a conflict, not Moscow, Kiev, Paris or other parties.
Be calm, stay alert
The Chinese embassy in Ukraine released a notice on its WeChat public account Friday to urge Chinese nationals in Ukraine to “pay close attention to” changes in the local situation, as the U.S. and several other Western countries asked their nationals “to evacuate immediately” amid so-called warnings of an imminent invasion by Russia.
The notice said “the epidemic situation is worsening in Ukraine, and it caused multiple cases of Chinese nationals getting infected in Ukraine or found to be infected after returning to China. At the same time, the Ukraine-Russia tensions have drawn attention from many parties, and different types of contradictory information have emerged.”
The embassy urged Chinese nationals in the country to strengthen epidemic prevention and pay close attention to “the changing situation” of Ukraine crisis.
Some other countries are not as calm as China. Following the U.S. and the UK, many Western countries, including Australia, Italy, Israel, the Netherlands and Japan have told their citizens to leave Ukraine. Some have evacuated diplomatic staff and their families.
Jin Canrong, associate dean of the School of International Studies at the Renmin University of China, said the Chinese embassy notice is probably based on concern over the U.S. to further meddle in the situation by creating chaos, rather than echoing the Western estimation over Russia’s military operation against Ukraine.
“It’s totally unnecessary for Russia to invade Ukraine at this stage unless Ukraine launches attacks against Crimea or the Eastern Ukraine regions first. But Washington continues to pay great efforts to hype the information about ‘Russia’s invasion’ in the past few months, even though the information sounds very unrealistic and it’s harmful for the situation. So the U.S. is doing this for its own reasons,” Jin said.
The most reasonable analysis is that a worsening situation could force European capital flight for safe havens in the U.S., and this could ease U.S. pressure on inflation, as the U.S. has done such things before, said Li Haidong, a professor from the Institute of International Relations of China Foreign Affairs University.
But the European capital is mature, and there are no signs of large capital transfers to U.S. market, so perhaps this is why the U.S. is making efforts to ramp up the tensions, Jin said.
Li said that keeping a military deterrence but not attacking Ukraine is the best choice for Russia at the moment because Moscow needs to make NATO feel the risks and does not want Ukraine to join NATO. A hot war will ruin everything and neither Moscow nor Kiev can afford such an unpredictable scenario.
“It’s possible that if Moscow and Kiev both keep calm, the U.S. would use its proxies, such as NGOs or agents in Ukraine to create new troubles or to spark conflicts between Russia and Ukraine. This is what we need to pay attention to, rather than worrying about a so-called ‘Russian invasion’ hyped by the U.S.,” Jin noted.
What China can do?
On Sunday, Australia followed the U.S. to urge China to help them push Russia, with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison calling on China to not remain “chillingly silent” on the crisis. On Thursday, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said “We would hope that the Chinese would play a role in encouraging the Russians to do the right thing.”
Chinese analysts said the attempt is clear, as Washington wants to create a trap for China – if China does what they say based on their information about Russia’s invasion, then China-Russia ties would be harmed, but if China does not act they can accuse China of remaining “chillingly silent.”
Chinese Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun responded on his Twitter account on Thursday immediately that “Our message is consistent and clear: Resolve any differences through diplomacy. Stop hyping up the tension. Russia’s legitimate security concerns should be seriously addressed.”
Yang Jin, an associate research fellow at the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday that “Australia’s accusation is totally nonsense. Zhang’s remarks prove that China didn’t remain silent.”
China is not a main actor on the crisis, and if there is anything China could do to mediate, the relevant parties need to bring the negotiation to the UN Security Council, however it seems like the U.S. and NATO do not want to solve the problem through the UN platform but prefer talking to Russia directly, Yang said. “So how could they expect China to get involved in such an issue deeply?” Yang noted.
Jin said China does not need to take U.S. or Australian officials’ remarks seriously, as they just want to stir up trouble for China-Russia relations. China needs to keep close watch, oppose any act to hype up tensions by spreading fear via disinformation, and urge relevant parties to solve the problems via diplomacy.
https://mronline.org/2022/02/15/u-s-nee ... -presence/
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Russia announces end of exercises and withdrawal of troops from Crimea
Russia indicated that the military contingents returned to their detachments. | Photo: 8digital.com.ar
Published 16 February 2022
Despite Moscow's announcements, the US and its European partners are still awaiting proof from Russia that it is not planning a military intervention.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday the end of the military exercises and the departure of part of its troops from the Crimean peninsula, where the presence of the soldiers fueled fears of an invasion of Ukraine.
"The units of the South military constituency that concluded their participation in the tactical exercises in the polygons of the Crimean peninsula are going by rail to their permanent locations," the Russian military entity said in a statement.
According to the Defense Ministry note, a train with heavy weapons crossed the bridge that connects Crimea with mainland Russia.
On Tuesday, Defense announced the beginning of the return to their barracks of some of the military units at the end of their participation in the scheduled exercises in the regions bordering Ukraine.
Despite Moscow's announcements about the withdrawal of its troops from the vicinity of Ukraine, Europeans and Americans are still waiting for evidence from Russia that it is not planning a military intervention.
US President Joe Biden on Tuesday insisted on the theory that a Russian invasion of Ukraine is clearly possible, despite announcements from Moscow about the withdrawal of some of its troops.
Biden's remarks came hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that his country had decided to partially withdraw troops, and Russian military officials noted that some of the forces on the Ukrainian border were sent back to Russia. their garnishes.
Despite frequently expressed fears, Putin never threatened to reabsorb the Baltic states or claim any of their territories.
https://www.telesurtv.net/news/rusia-fi ... -0005.html
Google Translator
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*******************************Aaron Maté@aaronjmate·Feb 14.@NBCNews Chief Foreign Correspondent @RichardEngel promotes media stunt staged by neo-Nazi Azov Battalion. Looking forward to NBC senior “disinformation and extremism” reporter @oneunderscore__ calling this out. https://twitter.com/markamesexiled/stat ... s=21…QuoteTweetRichard Engel@RichardEngel · Feb 13Ukrainian great grandmother, Valentina Constantinovska, on an Ak-47, training to defend against a possible Russian attack. “Your mother would do it too,” she told me.
Biden dials back belligerence toward Russia
Posted Feb 16, 2022 by M. K. Bhadrakumar
Originally published: NewsClick.in (February 14, 2022 ) |
The White House readout of U.S. President Joe Biden’s conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday conveys the impression that its leitmotif was Washington’s threat of sanctions against Russia if it attacked Ukraine. But it is a hackneyed message that wouldn’t have taken more than a minute or two to convey. Yet, the conversation lasted “a bit over an hour.”
The Kremlin readout is still to be released, but Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov gave a briefing to the media last night itself. Ushakov revealed that the conversation took place at an urgent U.S. request that was conveyed in writing and citing fears of an allegedly imminent “invasion” of Ukraine by Russia. The call was originally scheduled for Monday, but the Kremlin brought it forward.
As Ushakov put it,
The conversation came amid an atmosphere of unprecedented hysteria by U.S. officials over Russia’s supposedly imminent ‘invasion’ of Ukraine.
Indeed, the U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan had given a special briefing just the previous day where he made the famous apocalyptic prediction, which shook world capitals, that a Russian invasion of Ukraine “could begin during the Olympics, despite a lot of speculation that it would only happen after the Olympics.”
Ushakov said Putin took exception to such hysterical allegations, which, taken together with the massive quantities of military equipments pouring into Ukraine, would only serve one purpose, namely, “conditions are being created for possible provocative actions by the Ukrainian armed forces.” Putin also spoke about Kiev’s “destructive policies” to “sabotage” the Minsk Agreements and pointed out the West’s failure to put pressure on the Ukraine leadership.
However, the most interesting part of Ushakov’s briefing was that Biden’s reference to sanctions, etc. was actually not even the main part of the conversation. To quote Ushakov, “Joe Biden mentioned possible anti-Russian sanctions, which was expected, given the tense situation around Ukraine. At the same time, this issue was not at the centre of the fairly long conversation,” which, all in all was constructive and “businesslike.”
According to Ushakov,
The two presidents agreed that Moscow will carefully study the views that Biden expressed and if possible, take them into account when working on a reaction to the documents on the U.S. and NATO’s positions.
Putin also informed Biden that Moscow had almost completed the “interagency consultations… on the possible steps and an announcement will be made in the near future. We will soon inform our partners and the public of our reaction.” This was while referring to the U.S. response to Russia’s demands for security guarantee.
Ushakov said Putin put in perspective the history of Russia’s relations with the U.S. and NATO, pointing out that in the 1990s, “we seemed to be friends, though even then, the policy that the U.S. and NATO pursued towards Russia was far from constructive.” However, since then NATO’s expansion continued and “the alliance came close to Russia’s borders.” As a result, the security situation has “dramatically deteriorated” and NATO expansion now concerns Russia’s security.
Ushakov said Biden in turn recalled that the American and Soviet leaders did everything in their power to avoid the disaster of a major conflict between the two countries, and although “our two great powers are still rivals now, they must do their best to maintain stability and ensure security throughout the world.”
Biden emphasised that it was necessary to do everything possible to avoid the worst case scenario in the current crisis around Ukraine. “The presidents agreed on further contacts at different levels on all the issues discussed by the phone today… As Joe Biden said, he wants interstate relations between Russia and the United States to be built on the foundation of mutual respect,” Ushakov said.
Overall, Ushakov’s briefing conveyed a positive drift. On its part, White House too has since followed up with a background press call highlighting that the discussion between the two presidents was “professional and substantive.” The briefing acknowledged that “the stakes of this are too high not to give Russia every chance to avoid an action that we believe would be catastrophic.”
Importantly, it eschewed the belligerence that Sullivan had showed just the previous day and his apocalyptic predictions. The senior U.S. official said Biden prefers “a mode of problem solving and finding solutions that are in our interest, the interest of our partners and Allies, and that can address at least some of the concerns that Russia has raised.”
The senior official admitted that the White House has no information whatsoever that Putin had taken a decision to attack Ukraine. He clarified:
We are basing this assessment on what we are seeing on the ground with our own eyes, which is a continued Russian build-up… beyond that, that, I don’t think we have any real insights to offer.
Plainly put, the White House has distanced itself from Sullivan’s fiery rhetoric and irresponsible allegations on Friday. Something seems amiss here. Of course, there is a long history of wheels within wheels in the U.S.-Russia relations where elements within the U.S. establishment plugged own agenda.
The infamous Steele Dossier during Hillary Clinton’s campaign against Donald Trump in the 2016 election is a case in point. By the way, Sullivan, as foreign policy advisor to Hillary Clinton was a key figure peddling the Trump-Russia “collusion” narrative. And, Hillary Clinton blames Putin personally for her defeat in 2016.
Can it be a coincidence that the British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told Sunday Times today that there is “a whiff of Munich in the air”? The point is, although it is entirely conceivable that Europe will condemn Russia in the event of any military attack on Ukraine, it does not lend credence to the war hysteria in Washington.
In fact, French President Emmanuel Macron also spoke to Putin on Saturday and reports from Paris said later that they did not believe that Moscow “is preparing an offensive” against Ukraine. To be sure, there is also the gnawing doubt in the European mind about the consistency of U.S. policies amidst such acute polarisation in its domestic politics.
Interestingly, Politico reported on Friday–the same day as the release of the White House document “Indo-Pacific Strategy”–that the European Union and Chinese leaders are set to hold a virtual summit on April 1 after repeated delays, which is “a high-stakes diplomatic effort to calm the recently escalating trade and geopolitical tensions between the two… Many in the EU institutions have raised concern about too much focus on systemic rivalry with China in recent months, hoping to give the two other elements in EU-China relations—partnership and economic competition—more attention.”
Clearly, it is important to note such undercurrents hinting at growing unease about the U.S.’ transatlantic leadership and where all these cascading tensions, especially the haunting spectre of a war in the continent, are leading to at a time when Europe’s economies are struggling. Significantly, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba revealed today that due to opposition from European countries, the delisting of Russia from the SWIFT international payment system is not being considered.
Ushakov’s account of the “constructive and business like” conversation between Putin and Biden does convey the impression that the latter too is conscious of the complexities of the current impasse and the urgent need to rein in the tensions with Russia.
Thus, the White House readout on Biden’s call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier today steers clear of making any allegations of an imminent Russian invasion as such, in a marked departure from the U.S. pronouncements lately. Zelensky himself has been lately voicing frustration over the contrived war hysteria in Washington.
https://mronline.org/2022/02/16/biden-d ... rd-russia/
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US, NATO Positively Responded to Russian Initiatives They Have Been Rejecting for Years, Lavrov Says
© Photo : Russian Foreign Minisrty / Go to the photo bank
The alliance and the US both rejected key security proposals forwarded by Moscow in December of last year to soothe the tensions around Ukraine. These proposals included the non-inclusion of Ukraine in NATO and withdrawal of the alliance's troops, which Moscow views as a security threat, to their 1997 boundaries.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has stated that in their response to Moscow's security proposals the US and NATO reacted positively to some of the initiatives that they have been rejecting for years. He namely referred to the bloc's readiness to discuss arms control treaties for Europe.
The minister recalled Russia declaring a moratorium on deploying short- and intermediate-range missiles in Europe, following the demise of the INF Treaty with the US (due to Washington's unilateral"The swiftness with which NATO has changed its position suggests that not everything is lost in relations with this bloc; [It indicates] that they can admit the obvious when they really want it", Lavrov said.
withdrawal from it) in 2019. However, no one wanted to "hear us out" back then, when we offered to discuss new arms control measures, Lavrov said.
The foreign minister also expressed optimism regarding a planned dialogue with NATO on Moscow's less pressing security proposals, like the aforementioned arms control in Europe.
Lavrov said that Russia will continue the dialogue with the West to find out how determined they are to reach real agreements on security. He specifically said that matters of indivisible security, short- and intermediate-range armaments, as well as reducing the risks of war will be discussed during these negotiations."I think that, thanks to the efforts in all these areas combined, a very good package can be worked out as a result", the minister said.
<snip>
Lavrov went on to reject the foreign pressure on Moscow to withdraw its troops, once again stressing that redeployment of the armed forces is Russia's sovereign right, including to hold military drills. He added that the latter will be conducted as planned and that the recent withdrawal of a portion of the forces from the Ukrainian border following the end of war games was also scheduled.
(more...)
https://sputniknews.com/20220215/us-nat ... 49875.html
Strike the circus tent, pour some Gatorade on Coach Joe, this movie is winding down. Mission Accomplished! Of course the climb down must be conducted carefully, so as not to alert the public that it was much ado about nothing in the first place. But it is time, perhaps past time, as more and more doubts are creeping into the narrative, especially from Ukraine itself. Be it their president blowing off the whole thing or too much attention getting paid to the US proxy Nazis there it is best just to move on.
We can anticipate a bit more drama for effect followed by some real muddying of the water as some sort of agreement, which will likely meet some but not all of Russia's terms, will be spun into The Greatest Thing Since The Cuban Missile Crisis. Items 'left on the table will be addressed later, by quiet mutual agreement.
"You can fool some of the people some of the time..." As for the rest the Dems still pray for another Trump run cause as George The First found out Desert Storm wasn't enough when the rest of your agenda and luck are in the shitter.
