Is US-NATO Preparing to Wage War on Russia? The Wales NATO Summit in September has set the stage.
Several military initiatives directed against the Russian Federation have been launched in the last few months including the conduct of war games in Eastern Europe, military training and the deployment of special forces in Ukraine.
These military initiatives are led in coordination with media propaganda and a program of “economic terrorism” consisting of disruptive economic sanctions, the freeze of monetary and trade transactions, the fraudulent manipulation of the oil and currency markets, etc. The media campaign consists in presenting war as a humanitarian undertaking.
The endgame is to weaken the Russian Federation, undermine its institutions, impoverish its population.
Meanwhile, the US Congress has passed enabling legislation which provides a de facto green light to president Obama to declare war on Russia.
Reports have also confirmed that Washington is contemplating “regime change” in the Russian Federation with a view to installing a more compliant government in the Kremlin. According to President Vladimir Putin:
“We see the tragic consequences of the so-called color revolutions and ordeals survived by the peoples of the states that faced these irresponsible experiments of covert and sometimes even… overt interference into their lives…
This is a lesson and warning for us and we will do everything possible to prevent this from happening in Russia.” (quoted in Sputnik, November 20 2014)
Military threat combined with “economic warfare” are intended to create social and economic instability in the Russian Federation. Cyber warfare is also an instrument of intervention directed against an enemy’s communications systems.
The US-NATO military exercises conducted in recent months in Eastern Europe and the Baltic States were explicitly directed against Russia. According to Moscow, they consisted in “increasing operation readiness” as well the transfer of NATO “military infrastructure to the Russian borders”.
In mid-December, General James Stavridis, former commander of Nato in Europe called upon the Atlantic Alliance to”send arms and military advisers to Ukraine to help it fight Moscow-backed separatists.”
“I think we should provide significant military assistance to the Ukrainian military. I don’t think we should limit ourselves to, non-lethal aid. I think we should provide ammunition, fuel, logistics. I think cyber-assistance would be very significant and helpful, as well as advice and potentially advisers.
“I don’t think there needs to be huge numbers of Nato troops on the ground. The Ukrainian military can resist what’s happening, but they need some assistance in order to do that.” (quoted in the Guardian, December 14, 2014)
And on December 18th, President Barack Obama signed the Ukraine Freedom Support Act which allocates up to $350 million in military aid to Ukraine in support of its military campaign in Donbass.
In addition to the granting of military aid, the US military is directly involved in the process of military planning in close coordination with Ukraine’s Ministry Defense.
While US involvement is officially limited to training, the sending in of special forces and support to Ukraine’s National Guard, mercenaries and private security operatives on contract the Pentagon and NATO have also been deployed within the ranks of the Ukraine military and National Guard in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine.
In late November, the US State Department confirmed that it “will continue to send special teams to Ukraine to provide security assistance”, namely advising and military training.
As part of this program of security assistance, Brig. Gen. John Hort, chief of operations, U.S. Army Europe was dispatched to Kiev together with “his staff and members of the U.S. Office of Defense Cooperation, located at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv”, Ukraine,
participated in a Global Security Contingency Fund — Ukraine planning requirements meeting with Ukrainian National Guard officials, here, Dec. 8-9, 2014.
The purpose of the requirements meeting was to identify Ukraine’s National Guard Unit organization, training readiness and unit end state conditions after training completion. U.S. Army Europe, Ukraine defense officials share lessons learned
Brig. Gen. John Hort (at easel), with his staff and members of the U.S. Office of Defense Cooperation, Training Session at US embassy with representatives of the Ukraine Military and National Guard. Source US Army
The Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC): Subsidiary of the Pentagon at the US Embassy in Kiev
US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt, in liaison with Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, plays a key role in coordinating the activities of ODC-Ukraine. Defense officials at the US Embassy are in turn in liaison with the Pentagon. The activities of the ODC broadly defined consist in:
- The deployment of US military personnel inside Ukraine;
- Military training and advisory functions;
- The sale and procurement of US weapons systems;
- Support to Ukraine’s National Guard through a protocal agreement with California’s National Guard
On Friday, December 12, a Russian military jet has allegedly been involved in a near-mid-air- collision with a civilian airliner in Swedish airspace. Scandinavian and Russian officials have since been engaged in a barrage of claims and counterclaims. Some Scandinavian media provide detailed and sensationalized reports. Calls to Copenhagen Airport and the Danish and Swedish air traffic controllers led to the conclusion that these reports, in the absence of evidence, must be considered as being fabricated. Are some Scandinavian journalists and media complicit in a NATO propaganda campaign aimed at implementing a no fly zone for Russian military planes over the Baltic to further encircle Russia?
The Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hulquist responded to the alleged near-mid-air-collision on Swedish television. Hulquist accused the Russian Air Force for an alleged near-mid-air collision with a civilian airliner that had entered Swedish airspace immediately after takeoff from Kastrup airport, located near the Danish capital Copenhagen. Finland’s Transportation Minister Paula Risikko told Finland’s news agency STT on Sunday, that there was a need to discuss the Russian military planes and air safety over the Baltic. Hulquist would add that the Swedish Air Force has identified the Russian jet
The Swedish daily Aftonbladed would quote the Swedish flight-leader and press spokesman Roland Sandelin as saying that the Russian plane was near invisible because it had turned off its transponder and that this suggested “secretiveness”. Denmark’s television channel TV-2 would quote Swedish Air Force Chief Micael Bydén as saying that the two planes would have come pretty close to each other had one of them not changed course. TV-2 would publish a sensationalized report on the TV-channel’s website, claiming that there were no more than 90 meters separation between a Scandinavian Airlines SAS jet and the Russian military jet.
The spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov refuted the allegations. The Russian Tass news agency quoted Konashenkov as saying: “No prerequisites existed for an accident related to the flight of a Russian war-plane in the international airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday, December 12. .. The flight was strictly in compliance with international air space rules, not violating borders of other countries and at a safe distance from traffic routes of civilian aircraft. … Flights of NATO war-planes which have become more than threefold more intensive in the last few months are always made with switched-off transponder.” Later Russian reports would add that a NATO surveillance aircraft had flown between the civilian airliner and the Russian military jet.
It is noteworthy that the alleged near-mid-air collision incident comes against the backdrop of NATO’s increased presence in Poland, the Baltic and the Scandinavian countries as well as NATO’s eastwards expansion in Ukraine. Earlier this year NATO decided to increase its patrol flights over the Baltic. Considering the strategic vulnerability of Russia’s port and naval base in Kaliningrad, Russia has, much to the discomfort of the Scandinavian countries and NATO, increased its air patrols too. The political tensions and the strategic posturing does, indeed, pose an increased risk to civilian air-traffic in the region. Sensationalized reports about “invisible planes” and “no more than 90 meters separation” appear to be fabricated propaganda aimed at creating the political context for the implementation of a no fly zone for Russian military planes over the Baltic in violation of international law
German companies doing business with Russia are suffering from the weak ruble, as one in three companies will have to fire employees or cancel its projects, the managing director of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce warned.
“The crisis of the Russian economy leaves behind an even deeper brake track in Russia-based ventures of German businessmen,” Volker Treier said in an interview with Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
The managing director of International Economic Affairs at the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) revealed that “one in eight companies is considering withdrawing from Russia. So the breach in so many business relations is imminent.”
According to Treier, the weak Russian currency is hurting German businesses. Ten percent of German companies have said that their long-term Russian partners are turning away from Europe toward Asian markets.
“Thirty-six percent of companies assume that they have to cancel their projects,” he cited the results of the poll, recently carried out by the German Chamber of Commerce in Russia among almost 300 German companies.
This data was backed up by Eckhard Cordes, chairman of Germany’s Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations. “At the moment, I expect a 20 percent fall of German exports to Russia by the end of 2014,” he told Handelsblatt newspaper Friday.
Cordes added that things are unlikely to improve next year. "I generally cautioned against Schadenfreude,” he said, referring to the notion of taking pleasure at someone else’s misfortune.
In neighboring Austria, views on the current economic situation are quite similar – and there is little support for the further tightening of sanctions against Russia.
“I cannot agree with the euphoria of many in the EU about the success of sanctions against Russia,”Österreich newspaper cited Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann as saying Sunday. “I see no reason for celebration. I do not know why we should be glad when the Russian economy collapses.”
“The weakening Russian economy is going to hurt primarily Europe, which trades quite heavily with Russia and it’s going to hurt smaller manufacturers and farmers - … the common person,” Gerald Celente, publisher of The Trends Journal and economic analyst told RT. “And who’s slowing down the most? It’s Europe. They have negative interest rates in Europe. That’s how bad it is.”
Also see:
China Tests Nuclear ICBMs, U.S. Analyst Warns "Arms Control Is Failing To Increase American Security"
OH my...we just won't stop poking, will we? Do those guys in DC realize we're on the short end of all the chess pieces....and the moral high ground here?
ReplyDeleteIm starting to believe we are acting out of desperation as much as anything else. With various collapses looming. The key will be the support or lack of support by the EU imo
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