Europe's "Iron And Clay" Mixture, Russia Warns That They Are Ready To Repel Any Nuclear Strike

"And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay"

Daniel 2:43

PIIGS Go To War: Spain, Portugal Slam Tsipras' Accusations Of 'Conspiracy Plot' To Overthrow Greek Government

Just when things seemingly couldn't get any stranger in Europe, we open a whole-new bizarro chapter. 

Back on February 1, when the negotiations, or rather posturing, surrounding the Greek bailout extension was at its peak, we reported something peculiar: of all the countries in Europe, it was none other than France, seemingly tired of walking in Germany's shadow, that announced it was "prepared to support Greece" in its debt negotiations.  "France is more than prepared to support Greece," French finmin Sapin said, adding that Greece’s efforts to renegotiate were "legitimate." Sapin urged a "new contract between Greece and its partners."

Of course, this quickly led nowhere because as everyone knows, France is irrelevant in Europe and only Germany's opinion matters: Germany, which only agreed to a Greek bailout extension, when all of Syriza's demands were crushed, and the Tsipras government is not merely a shell of its pre-election promises, and in many ways, just a continuation of the previous Samaras regime. As such, the Frencsh support of a Greek debt writedown, understandable since it is none other than France whose socialists will one day sooner or later require a comparable debt negotiation, was duly noted... and promptly ignored:

Yesterday Tsipras made clear his displeasure with the betrayal of what were formerly his socio-economic insolvent equals quite well-known, when he accused Spain and Portugal on Saturday of "leading a conservative conspiracy to topple his anti-austerity government, saying they feared their own radical forces before elections this year."

As Reuters reports, in a speech to his Syriza party, Tsipras turned on Madrid and Lisbon, accusing them of taking a hard line in negotiations which led to the euro zone extending the bailout programme last week for four months.

"We found opposing us an axis of powers ... led by the governments of Spain and Portugal which for obvious political reasons attempted to lead the entire negotiations to the brink," said Tsipras, who won an election on Jan. 25.

"Their plan was and is to wear down, topple or bring our government to unconditional surrender before our work begins to bear fruit and before the Greek example affects other countries," he said, adding: "And mainly before the elections in Spain."

Rajoy went to Athens less than a fortnight before the Greek election to warn voters against believing the "impossible" promises of Syriza. His appeal fell on deaf ears and voters swept the previous conservative premier from power. 

Portugal will also have elections after the summer but no anti-austerity force as potent as Syriza or Podemos has so far emerged there. In an interview published before Tsipras made his speech, Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho denied that Portugal had taken a hard line in negotiations on the Greek deal at the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers.

It's bad, but the very next day both Spain and Portugal rushed to cry in Brussels, when both nations demanded that the EU "arbitrate" and respond to Tsipras' allegations, in the process essentially validating his accusations. The same EU which orchestrated the entire farce to begin with.

To be sure, none of this will result in either government retracting its statements (especially since Greece now only has rhetorical "conquests" to fall back on having given up all leverage to German by admitting it is unable to quit the Eurozone, i.e., the biggest trump card, and bluff, it may have had), but it will lead to even more animosity, only no longer between the European "North" and "South", but among the Peripheral nations themselves, as the political bickering redirects anger from Merkel and the ECB, and toward other Mediterranean countries. Perhaps just as Merkel wanted from the beginning.

Russia Ready To Repel Any Nuke Strike, Retaliate - Missile Forces Command Chief

Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces are ready to react to any nuclear strike even if it is lightning fast, SMF Central Command chief said. A retaliatory strike would take place in all circumstances, “without hesitation,” he added.

“If there’s a challenge to repel a lightning-fast nuclear in any given conditions – it will be done in fixed time, that’s dead true,” the Strategic Missile Forces Central Command’s chief, Major-General Andrey Burbin, told Russian News Service on Saturday.

Russia’s strategic missile forces are positioned geographically in such a way that no global strike can knock them out completely, Burbin said.

In case an order is given to carry out a nuclear strike, Russian nuclear weapons operators will fulfill it, he added.

If pooled data indicates that Russia has suffered a nuclear strike, the system launches special missiles that travel through national airspace, sending launch signals to all surviving strategic nuclear missile complexes. In this case a retaliatory missile strike is launched without human input.

Nationwide war games of Strategic Nuclear Missile Forces were conducted in February, with 30 missile regiments training in 12 regions of Russia.

Missilemen performed ultimate combat operational readiness, counteraction to subversive groups and perfected defenses against airborne precision weapons.

On any given day, over 6,000 servicemen are maintaining the operational readiness of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces.