dude, zhydomasonbanderovcy paid very well in pure gold and brilliants

Putin's Secret Weapon

Russia's swashbuckling military intelligence unit is full of assassins, arms dealers, and bandits. And what they pulled off in Ukraine was just the beginning.



There are two ways an espionage agency can prove its worth to the government it serves. Either it can be truly useful (think: locating a most-wanted terrorist), or it can engender fear, dislike, and vilification from its rivals (think: being named a major threat in congressional testimony). But when a spy agency does both, its worth is beyond question.

Since the Ukraine crisis began, the Kremlin has few doubts about the importance of the GRU, Russia's military intelligence apparatus. The agency has not only demonstrated how the Kremlin can employ it as an important foreign-policy tool, by ripping a country apart with just a handful of agents and a lot of guns. The GRU has also shown the rest of the world how Russia expects to fight its future wars: with a mix of stealth, deniability, subversion, and surgical violence. Even as GRU-backed rebel groups in eastern Ukraine lose ground in the face of Kiev's advancing forces, the geopolitical landscape has changed. The GRU is back in the global spook game and with a new playbook that will be a challenge for the West for years to come.

Recent years had not been kind to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff, the Glavnoe razvedyvatelnoe upravlenie (GRU). Once, it had been arguably Russia's largest intelligence agency, with self-contained stations -- known as "residencies" -- in embassies around the world, extensive networks of undercover agents, and nine brigades of special forces known as Spetsnaz.

By the start of 2013, the GRU was on the ropes. Since 1992, the agency had been in charge of operations in the post-Soviet countries, Russia's "near abroad." But Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to have seen it as increasingly unfit for that purpose. When the Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia's domestic security agency, was allowed to run operations abroad openly in 2003, one insider told me that this was because "the GRU doesn't seem to know how to do anything in our neighborhood except count tanks." (It may not even have done that very well. Putin regarded the GRU as partly responsible for Russia's lackluster performance in the 2008 invasion of Georgia.) There was a prevailing view in Moscow that the GRU's focus on gung-ho "kinetic operations" like paramilitary hit squads seemed less relevant in an age of cyberwar and oil politics.

Political missteps also contributed to the GRU's diminished role. Valentin Korabelnikov, the agency's chief from 1997 to 2009, seemed more comfortable accompanying Spetsnaz assassination teams in Chechnya than playing palace politics in Moscow. His criticisms of Putin's military reforms put him on the Kremlin's bad side too. Korabelnikov was sacked in 2009 and replaced with soon-to-be-retired Col. Gen. Alexander Shlyakhturov, who, within two years, was rarely seen in the GRU's headquarters due to his bad health. In December 2011 the GRU welcomed its third head in nearly three years, Maj. Gen. Igor Sergun, a former attaché and intelligence officer with no combat experience and the lowest-ranking head of the service in decades. By the end of 2013, the Kremlin seemed to be entertaining the suggestion that the agency be demoted from a "main directorate" to a mere directorate, which would have been a massive blow to the service's prestige and political access.

In many ways, a demotion for the GRU seemed inevitable. Since 2008, the GRU had suffered a savage round of cuts during a period when most of Russia's security and intelligence agencies' budgets enjoyed steady increases. Eighty of its hundred general-rank officers had been sacked, retired, or transferred. Most of the Spetsnaz were reassigned to the regular army. Residencies were downsized, sometimes even to a single officer working undercover as a military attaché.

What a difference a few months can make. What the Kremlin had once seen as the GRU's limitations -- a focus on the "near abroad," a concentration on violence over subtlety, a more swashbuckling style (including a willingness to conduct assassinations abroad) -- have become assets.

The near-bloodless seizure of Crimea in March was based on plans drawn up by the General Staff's Main Operations Directorate that relied heavily on GRU intelligence. The GRU had comprehensively surveyed the region, was watching Ukrainian forces based there, and was listening to their communications. The GRU didn't only provide cover for the "little green men" who moved so quickly to seize strategic points on the peninsula before revealing themselves to be Russian troops. Many of those operatives were current or former GRU Spetsnaz.

There is an increasing body of evidence that the so-called defense minister of the separatist Donetsk People's Republic, Igor Strelkov, whose real name is Igor Girkin, is a serving or reserve GRU officer, who likely takes at the very least guidance, if not orders, from the agency's headquarters. As a result, the European Union has identified him as GRU "staff" and has placed him on its sanctions list. Although the bulk of the insurgents in eastern Ukraine appear to be Ukrainians or Russian "war tourists" -- encouraged, armed, and facilitated by Moscow -- there also appear to be GRU operators on the ground helping to bring guns and people across the border.

    It was only when the Vostok Battalion appeared in eastern Ukraine at the end of May that the GRU's full re-emergence became clear.

It was only when the Vostok Battalion appeared in eastern Ukraine at the end of May that the GRU's full re-emergence became clear. This separatist group bears the same name as a GRU-sponsored Chechen unit that was disbanded in 2008. This new brigade -- composed largely of the same fighters from Chechnya -- seemed to spring from nowhere, uniformly armed and mounted in armored personnel carriers. Its first act was to seize the administration building in Donetsk, turfing out the motley insurgents who had made it their headquarters. Having established its credentials as the biggest dog in the pack, Vostok began recruiting Ukrainian volunteers to make up for Chechens who quietly drifted home.

Alexander Khodakovsky, a defector from the Security Service of Ukraine, subsequently announced that he was the battalion's commander. But this only happened a few days after the seizure of the Donetsk headquarters. The implication is that the battalion was originally commanded by GRU representatives. Vostok appears intended not so much to fight the regular Ukrainian forces -- though it has -- but rather to serve as a skilled and disciplined enforcer of Moscow's authority over the militias if need be.

The Vostok Battalion makes Moscow's strategy clear: The Kremlin has no desire for outright military conflict in its neighbors. Instead, the kind of "non-linear war" being waged in Ukraine, which blends outright force, misinformation, political and economic pressure, and covert operations, will likely be its means of choice in the future. These are the kinds of operations in which the GRU excels.

After all, while Moscow is not going to abandon its claims to being a global power, in the immediate future Russia's foreign-policy focus will clearly be building and maintaining its hegemony in Eurasia. These are also the areas where the GRU is strongest. For example, in Kazakhstan, whose Russian-heavy northern regions are a potential future target for similar political pressure through local minorities, the GRU is the lead intelligence provider, as its civilian counterpart, the SVR, is technically barred from operating in Kazakhstan or any of the countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States by the 1992 Alma-Ata Declaration.

The combination of these factors means that the GRU now looks far more comfortable and confident than it did a year ago. Kiev outed and expelled a naval attaché from the Russian Embassy as a GRU officer, and Sergun, the GRU's head, made it onto the list of officials under Western sanctions. But neither of these actions has done the agency any harm. If anything, they have increased the GRU's prestige.

Talk of downgrading the GRU's status is conspicuously absent in Moscow circles. The agency's restored status means it is again a player in the perennial turf wars within the Russian intelligence community. More importantly, it means that GRU operations elsewhere in the world are likely to be expanded again and to regain some of their old aggression.

The GRU's revival also demonstrates that the doctrine of "non-linear war" is not just an ad hoc response to the particularities of Ukraine. This is how Moscow plans to drive forward its interests in today's world. The rest of the world has not realized this now, even though Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov spelled it out in an obscure Russian military journal last year. He wrote that the new way of war involves "the broad use of political, economic, informational, humanitarian, and other nonmilitary measures … supplemented by military means of a covert nature character," not least with the use of special forces.

This kind of conflict will be fought by spies, commandos, hackers, dupes, and mercenaries -- exactly the kind of operatives at the GRU's disposal. Even after the transfer of most Spetsnaz out of the GRU's direct chain of command, the agency still commands elite special forces trained for assassination, sabotage, and misdirection, as Ukraine shows. The GRU has also demonstrated a willingness to work with a wide range of mavericks. In Chechnya, it raised not just the Vostok Battalion but other units of defectors from guerrillas and bandits. The convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout is generally accepted to have been a part-time GRU asset too. The GRU is less picky than most intelligence agencies about who is cooperates with, which also means that it is harder to be sure who is working for them.

NATO and the West still have no effective response to this development. NATO, a military alliance built to respond to direct and overt aggression, has already found itself at a loss on how to deal with virtual attacks, such as the 2007 cyberattack on Estonia. The revival of the GRU's fortunes promises a future in which the Cold War threat of tanks spilling across the border is replaced by a new kind of war, combining subterfuge, careful cultivation of local allies, and covert Spetsnaz strikes to achieve the Kremlin's political aims. NATO may be stronger in strictly military terms, but if Russia can open political divisions in the West, carry out deniable operations using third-party combatants, and target strategic individuals and facilities, it doesn't really matter who has more tanks and better fighter jets. This is exactly what the GRU is tooling up to do.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/07/07/putins_secret_weapon_military_intelligence_gru_ukraine

Sweden hunts damaged Russian sub: report

BREAKING: A Russian mayday call prompted Sweden's hunt for "foreign underwater activity" in the Stockholm archipelago, newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) reports.

 Swedish signals intelligence officials first heard an emergency call on Thursday evening, the newspaper said. Fourteen hours later, around midday on Friday, a foreign vessel was spotted in the Stockholm archipelago.

Sweden intercepted further communications after it began its military operation in the waters off Stockholm, as encrypted messages were relayed between transmitters in the archipelago and the Russian enclave Kaliningrad, SvD said.

More to follow

http://www.thelocal.se/20141018/sweden-hunts-for-damaged-russian-sub-report

^ Kremlin troll detected 

Soldiers' rights activist jailed in Russia

MOSCOW (AP) - A veteran activist who investigated the deaths and disappearances of Russian soldiers in Ukraine has been jailed, an advocacy group said Saturday.

Ten Russian troops were captured in August in eastern Ukraine amid fighting between pro-Moscow separatists and Ukrainian troops after weeks of Moscow denying involvement in the Ukrainian conflict. Authorities insisted the captured soldiers got lost while patrolling the border, and the deaths were accidental and happened in Russia.

The Soldiers' Mothers of St. Petersburg, a highly respected non-governmental organization with a long history of working to defend the rights of soldiers, said Saturday that its colleague in southern Russia who was investigating the deaths and disappearances was detained on Friday.

The group said Lyudmila Bogatenkova, 73, was charged with fraud and ordered to be jailed.

"Human rights activists consider the detention and jailing of Lyudmila Bogatenkova as an act of reprisal connected to her activities," the group said in a statement.

Law enforcement officials in the Stavropol region weren't immediately available for comment on Saturday.

Bogatenkova and other activists have collected data about dozens of Russian servicemen who were killed in recent months and sent it to investigators, pushing for an inquiry. In August, the presidential human rights commission published an open letter demanding an investigation into the deaths of nine members of a motorized infantry brigade also sent to the southern Rostov region for military exercises.

Similar questions were raised by families of other Russian servicemen about unexplained deaths and missing or captured soldiers who were said to be on military exercises.

Lev Shlosberg, an opposition activist from the western region of Pskov, was attacked by unknown assailants and sustained brain damage in August shortly after he published an investigation about the death of the Pskov paratroopers.

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_307122/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=pRYHi4zQ

Russia puts Crimean political prisoners on terrorist list

Rosfinmonitoring (Russian Federal Service for Financial Monitoring) has put several Crimean political prisoners on its list of terrorists and extremists – Ukrainian film director Oleh Sentsov, activist Oleksandr Kolchenko and historian Oleksiy Chirniy. Russia has accused them of preparing terrorist attacks in annexed Crimea.

This list was posted on the Rosfinmonitoring website.

It includes another Crimean, 30-year-old Dmytro Storozhenko, who was born in Simferopol. It is not known whether he is linked in any way to the criminal case brought against Sentsov and the other Crimean political prisoners.

Russian media report that any person placed on Rosfinmonitoring’s list cannot conduct banking operations in Russia. There are more than three thousand people on this list.

In May, Russian police officers arrested Oleh Sentsov, Oleksandr Kolchenko and several other citizens of Ukraine in Simferopol. They were accused of preparing terrorist attacks.

The defense lawyers believe that there are no grounds for detaining their clients. They think that the investigation will be completed in January and the case of the ‘Crimean terrorists’ will then go to court.

copyright and source:
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
translation by EuromaidanPress - Christine Chraibi
http://ru.krymr.org/content/article/26634218.html
http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/10/13/russia-puts-crimean-political-prisoners-on-terrorist-list/

Crimeans given three months to voluntarily hand in banned literature

Crimeans have to hand in the books which are on the federal list of banned extremist materials within the next three months, reported head of the Republic of Crimea Sergey Aksionov on Tuesday.

Earlier Muslim families from several districts of the peninsula turned to Aksionov with the complaint that their homes had been searched with the goal of confiscating religious literature. The collision arose out of the fact that an entire list of literature which was allowed in Ukraine, is considered banned in Russia. The list of banned religious and extremist books never reached the Crimeans. On Monday Aksionov stated that the measures to search and confiscated banned literature in Crimea have been suspended temporarily.

“We are conducting explanatory work, we need to give them a period to adapt: three months. During this period we will calmly carry out educational measures via television, a list of literature which is banned for use today on the territory of the Russian Federation will be published in media,” said Sergey Aksionov.

He also emphasized that starting January 1 all the procedures for confiscation of banned literature will be carried out in accordance with Russian legislation.

[sic] Crimea became a Russian region after the referendum held in March, at which the majority of the population expressed their will to join Russia. The interim period for Crimea’s integration to Russia will end by January 1, 2015.

copyright and source:
RIA Novosti
translation by EuromaidanPress - Mariya Shcherbinina
http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/10/17/crimeans-given-three-months-to-voluntarily-hand-in-banned-literature/
http://ria.ru/society/20141014/1028313133.html

Russian media started demonizing Crimean Tatars. What is their goal?



Lately, the Russian media have more and more frequently started publicizing articles on the fact that Islamist radicals are ready to begin combat in Crimea. For example, on October 8, Nezavisemaya Gazeta published an article titled “Islamists are planning something in Crimea,” in which, based on the statements made on social networks, conclusions are drawn that there is a high possibility of the emergence of an armed camp in Crimea on part of the biggest group of local Muslims, the Crimean Tatars.

The website of the Russian Center for the Study of National Conflicts and the Federal Expert Network published a prognosis regarding the situation in inter-ethnic relations in Russian regions, Crimea in particular. According to the experts at the Center, the main problem on the peninsula is the “destructive” activity of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, and according to their prognosis, “a serious incident may provoke massive conflict.”

The Crimean Tatar public is currently suffering through the recent events surrounding the disappearance and mysterious deaths of Crimean Tatars. Meanwhile, the Crimean Tatar society has no aggression or calls for war. This was confirmed by Human Rights Watch expert Yulia Horbunova, who spent the last weeks doing research on the peninsula.

“The general mood of the people is quite crestfallen, however I did not hear any militaristic or hostile statements. On principle, Crimean Tatars do not want confrontation,” the international human rights organization representative noted.

One of the missing, Edem Asanov, was found hanged in an abandoned building on October 6. According to official reports, the 25-year-old man committed suicide. Earlier head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov warned that the investigation would insist on the non-violent nature of Asanov’s death.

Mejlis: events in Crimea are reminiscent of the ‘Chechen scenario’
Head of the international communications department at the Crimean Tatar Mejlis Ali Khamzin emphasizes the fact that events in Crimea are now unfolding according to the ‘Chechen scenario.’

Such activity on part of Russian media is very reminiscent of what happened during the armed conflicts in the Caucasus, Chechnya in particular. First kidnapping and disappearance of people, spreading information about radicalization and creation of groups of mercenaries and, as a consequence, heightened activity on part of the Russian army against a certain group of people.

Meanwhile famous Russian journalist Maxim Shevchenko, who is considered to be close to the Kremlin, during his visit to Yalta shared his thoughts on Crimean Tatars and noted their love for peace.

“They are a good, hard-working people who, if treated with respect, may be a friend, a brother, and build our common Crimea together. I speak a lot to Crimean Tatars and do not feel any hostility neither to the Russian nor the Ukrainian population of Crimea, non-Crimean Tatar, so to speak. This is the first nation within the Russian Federation, besides the Chechens, however, there was war there, which may boast that they had a special discussion with the President of the huge Russian Federation, which includes another 194 nations, about the problems of their people,” said the Russian journalist in a comment to Radio Liberty.

Mejlis asks Crimean Tatars not to leave Crimea
Meanwhile the Mejlis is asking not to leave Crimea and not give in to provocations, despite the psychological pressure.

“We have to remain in Crimea in the name of the Motherland and the principles we preached, to return at any cost. We have a powerful form of countering in the shape of the global community, and we have to take advantage of this. The Kremlin should finally understand that we have no logical reasons to take up arms and fight,” emphasized Ali Khamzin.

Earlier national leader of Crimean Tatars Mustafa Dzhemilev also addressed his compatriots with the petition not to leave the peninsula.

According to the UN, the number of forced migrants from Crimea to continental Ukraine has increased to almost 18 thousand people.

copyright and source:
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
translation by EuromaidanPress - Mariya Shcherbinina
http://www.radiosvoboda.org/content/article/26629624.html
http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/10/13/russian-media-started-demonizing-crimean-tatar-what-is-their-goal/

Crimes of pro-Russian militants against civilians in Donbas: kidnapping, looting and executions

The level of violence against civilians on Donbas in September remains on approximately the same level as it was in August: before the ceasefire announced on September 5. Such are the results of a study done by the Center for Social and Labor Studies. According to it, besides attacks, the main threats to the citizens of the region are kidnapping and robberies. Law enforcement instead talks of the instances of arrest of those under suspicion of crime in Donbas, however, they note that “the most active criminals” are hiding outside of the country.

Over 300 instances of violence against civilian residence of the conflict zone in Donbas were documented during a monitoring in August-September done by experts at the Center for Social and Labor Studies. The observations were made on the basis of reports from Ukrainian and regional media.

Despite the ceasefire, the number of such documented instances in not very different: 161 instance in September with 174 in August, says deputy head of the Center Volodymyr Ishchenko. According to him, the most frequent are reports of robberies, which are ascribed to either separatist groups or unidentified armed individuals, who may be representatives of the local criminal contingent.

“The victims of such violence are usually ‘regular citizens,’ which is how they are described: 87 instances out of 355, also a big number of violent acts is directed against private companies, against the representatives of local government in Donbas (meaning the official Ukrainian government, not the self-proclaimed one), state-owned companies, and, in September especially, there were many instances of violence against representatives of educational institution administrations,” Ishchenko says.

Meanwhile, he notes the significant number of reports on arrests of civilians on part of Ukrainian law enforcement for “propaganda of terrorism” on these territories: 52 instances in two months, with only 14 in September.

Legal expert: data on the number of hostages may be too low
About 1500 people were freed from the terrorists, and about 500 remain hostage still, said spokesman of the Chairman of the SBU Markiyan Lubkivsky to Radio Liberty. These included servicemen and civilians. According to him, Ukraine is trying to carry out the exchange of “all for all,” however, the other side is slowing down the transfer process.

In contras, the databases of East-SOS and Donbas-SOS have data about approximately 400 civilian hostages, says East-SOS activist Anna Mokrousova. However, according to her, this is because there has been no communication with Luhansk for a long time, to verify the information, the registry needs an update. According to Mokrousova, currently the exchange of servicemen for servicemen is going well, however the freeing of civilian hostages is less active.

Official data on the people who were taken hostage by separatists may be significantly lowered, assumes lawyer Yevheniya Zakrevska. According to her, she has 20 cases belonging to people who were taken hostage and tortured. Almost each of them says they witnessed the arrest of between five to ten people, who were never mentioned anywhere, Zakrevska notes. Besides torture, according to the lawyer, some of the hostages were subject to the death penalty.

“Not just murder under any circumstances, but the imitation of a court process with a mix of employed norms of law in the form of Ukraine’s Criminal Code and the 1941 martial law order, which prescribed, essentially, the death penalty and military tribunals,” Zakrevska says. “There are instances when this is documented, there are instances, I think, when it is not documented.”

Besides, according to the lawyer, the suspects are being arrested, but the cases go no further: these people continue to be considered hostages during the exchange.

Rechynsky: the most active criminals are hiding outside of Ukraine
Criminal investigation groups, from Kyiv in particular, are investigating the Crimes in Donbas, they work in Mariupol and the liberated cities, says advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs Stanislav Rechynsky.

“The local separatists that did not flee in time are arrested, however, naturally, the most active criminals are hiding outside of Ukraine. There have been no courts yet,” says he.

Rechynsky confirms the instances of execution of Ukrainian hostages and civilians by the separatists. According to him, the death penalty was introduced by Igor Strelkov (Girkin) in Sloviansk.

Meanwhile President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin at a meeting with the Presidential Council for the development of civil society and human rights, stated he witnessed ‘double standards’ regarding the evaluation of crimes against civilians in the southeast of Ukraine, to which, according to him, “international human rights organizations turn a blind eye.”

copyright and source:
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
translation by EuromaidanPress - Mariya Shcherbinina

http://www.radiosvoboda.org/content/article/26637279.html

http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/10/14/crimes-against-civilians-in-donbas-kidnapping-looting-and-executions/

  Washington: RF increased investments in US government securities to $ 118 billion

http://tass.ru/ekonomika/1513879

  
Preparing for War Against the US on All Fronts—A Net Assessment of Russia’s Defense and Foreign Policy Since the Start of 2014

Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 11 Issue: 183
October 16, 2014 05:15 PM Age: 7 hrs
By: Pavel Felgenhauer



In a series of recently published interviews, President Vladimir Putin (kremlin.ru, October 15), Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (Interfax, October 15) and national security council secretary Nikolai Patrushev (Rossiyskaya Gazeta, October 15) have outlined Moscow’s strategic vision of the world after the Ukrainian crisis, Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the Moscow-inspired proxy war in the southeastern Donbas region of Ukraine, and resulting punitive sanctions imposed by the West. The view from Moscow is uninviting—A new cold war with the West is in the making; Russia is under attack and will use all means at its disposal to resist, including the nuclear option. Putin accused Washington of deliberately provoking the Ukraine crisis by supporting extreme nationalists in Kyiv, which in turn ignited a civil war. “Now they [the United States] accuse us of causing this crisis,” exclaimed Putin, “It is madness to blackmail Russia; let them remember, a discord between major nuclear powers may undermine strategic stability” (kremlin.ru, October 15).

Under mounting Western pressure this year, Russian leaders have been repeatedly and unambiguously reminding the West of the ultimate weapon at Moscow’s disposal—nuclear mutual assured destruction. The Russian military is also rearming and conducting massive exercises, preparing for a possible global war. The consensus view in Moscow within the political, military and intelligence community is that relations with the United States are beyond repair and, quoting Medvedev, there is no possibility of any new US-Russian “reset.” Moscow has come to believe that there is no possibility of any genuine détente with Washington until 2020 at the earliest. Indeed, National Security Council Secretary Patrushev’s interview in the official government-published Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper has the title: “Second Cold War.” Patrushev openly describes the US as Russia’s eternal foe and accuses Washington of planning for many decades to fully isolate Moscow and deprive it of any influence in its former dominions in the post-Soviet space. Patrushev announced (which seems to be an officially held policy opinion) that the US is today fulfilling a strategic plan to marginalize and destroy Russia—a strategy that he says was initiated in the 1970s by Zbigniew Brzezinski, the then–United States National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter.

The US is now seen in Moscow as irredeemable and determined to destroy Russia, which must resist by reinforcing and rearming its military, investing in technological independence (the so-called import replacement or “importozamescheniye”), and by building a world-wide anti-US alliance. To that effect, over the past year, Moscow has been strengthening its ties with Beijing. In particular, Russia has been opening itself up to Chinese investment, seeking much needed hard currency liquidity in the Chinese banking system, as well as looking for Chinese technologies (including civilian, double-use and maybe eventually military) to replace those technologies, materials, components and investments that are not forthcoming from the West because of punitive sanctions. Patrushev, in his interview, confirmed that Russian strategic planners see in the future a divided multipolar world with increasingly scarce natural resources (oil, gas, food, clear water) where Russia could dominate resource-poor Europe (see EDM, October 9). Moreover, Washington is believed to have deliberately provoked the Ukrainian crisis to reinforce the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and blackmail its allies into full submission. As Patrushev argues, Russia, in turn, must build alliances with non-European emerging powers like China, while working to undermine the Transatlantic link to liberate Europeans from US domination.

Patrushev spells out what most of the Moscow ruling elite believes: Europeans, as well as misguided Ukrainians will soon inevitably see reason and understand that without Russia and its supplies of various natural resources, they cannot survive; whereas, Russia can do without them thanks to its warm strategic embrace with China. Moscow will not withdraw from Crimea and will not give up on its attempts to prevent Ukraine from moving closer to NATO or the European Union. Actual fighting in the Donbas region may die down as the ceasefire line of control continues to be slowly and painfully established, but the overarching new cold war with the US will endure and Ukraine shall be a major battleground—though not the only one. Therefore, the Kremlin is preparing to fight the United States on all possible fronts to push back US attempts to “contain” Russia. In line with the plans reiterated this year, additional Russian forces will be deployed in the Arctic to fend off a possible US assault. Moreover, dozens of Cold War–era military bases and airfields will be reinvigorated across the whole of the Russian Arctic; troops will be deployed together with bombers and MiG-31 interceptors. In addition, new or reinforced military garrisons will be deployed in Crimea, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan (Rossiyskaya Gazeta, October 15).

Thanks to months of sanctions and falling oil prices, the ruble is sliding against the dollar and euro. The Russian economy has continued to stagnate and may go into recession in 2015. A contraction in household income is also expected. The finance ministry is considering cuts in budget spending, but it seems defense expenditures will continue to grow. The defense budget in 2015 is planned to reach an all-time post–Cold War high of 4.2 percent of GDP or 3.3 trillion rubles ($81 billion). In 2012, defense spending was 3 percent of GDP; in 2013, it reached 3.2 percent; and in 2014, it was 3.4 percent (Interfax, October 16). Overall federal budget spending to finance Russia’s massive intelligence services and other militarized services is almost as big as the defense budget per se. And as the new cold war–type standoff widens in scope and the Russian economy flounders, the Russian people will be increasingly paying for guns instead of butter.

But the population, which has continued to be fed vicious state propaganda—especially after the Ukraine crisis began to escalate—seems to agree with the Kremlin. According to the latest poll by independent pollster Levada Center, a majority believe Western sanctions are designed to punish the overall population, but the majority have not yet felt any sanction effect. Furthermore, some 60 percent agree that the property and assets of Western companies in Russia may be confiscated as a practical reply to sanctions, and 58 percent agree with a possible boycott of foreign produce. Fifty-nine percent believe that Western punitive sanctions and Russian countermeasures like the ban on Western food will, in fact, enhance Russia’s economic development. And the vast majority of Russians—79 percent—are against giving up Crimea (Interfax, October 16).

During all of 2014, Russia’s rulers and most of the population seem to have been living together in a daydream. Consequently, Russian defense and foreign policy plans as well as the country’s decision making apparatus have, for months, been based on little more than strange fantasies and outlandish assumptions. Yet, these fantasies are backed up by a formidable military machine, billions of petrodollars and a nuclear superpower arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. And this is a truly dangerous mix.

http://bit.ly/1sYYRcD]

ruSSian thugs groups clash over resources from Russia

ruSSian thugs groups in the east of Ukraine have been fighting between themselves over the distribution of material resources from Russia, Head of the Information-Analytical Center of the National Security and Defense Council Andriy Lysenko said at a briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.



REUTERS “There are acute conflicts between the terrorists of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic,” Lysenko said. “The Donetsk terrorists accuse those from Luhansk of taking most of the resources for themselves,” he said. According to the National Security and Defense Council, the number of clashes between militant groups is on the rise. “There’s a definite trend of an increase in the clashes between illegal armed groups as they struggle for control over certain property complexes,” Lysenko said. "In particular, the leaders of various DPR factions have stepped up their personal protection because they fear they will be physically eliminated by other gangs," Lysenko added. He said that the confrontations between the militants had reached such an intensity that several groups formed of residents of Crimea were refusing to take part in further engagements and planned to leave the Donbas soon. As noted on Thursday by the head of the Information Resistance Center of Military-Political Research, Dmytro Tymchuk, the insurgents are actively recruiting volunteers in the areas they control because they are short of manpower


Read more on UNIAN: http://www.unian.info/politics/996860-rebel-groups-clash-over-resources-from-russia.html

Oil price hits a new low of $79.88 today 

Word is #DAP_CYBORG's defending #Donetsk airport R ready to give it up... in return for #Moscow airport   

Titles evolution on Rambler.ru from March to October 

Putin Intimidation Tactics Kill Entente Hope for Finnish Premier

Less than two months ago, three incursions by Russian planes into Finnish airspace caused the government in Helsinki to put its F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets on alert ready to intercept foreign aircraft. Finland has published all airspace violations since 2005, after Russia breached the border 11 times without owning up. The diplomatic freeze between the two countries is worse than ever, Aaltola said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-14/putin-intimidation-tactics-kill-entente-hope-for-finnish-premier.html

In Crimea started the action "burn Ukrainian books"

Russian ultra-right organizations have initiated action in the Crimea "burn Ukrainian books." The first place of the event, Russian fascists chose one of the schools of the peninsula.



http://freejournal.biz/article5261/index.html

^ "Where books are burned, in the end people will be burned too." Heinrich Heine

Russia to open airbase for fighter jets in Belarus in 2016

The airbase will be established in eastern Belarusian city of Babruysk and deploy Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jets



KAZAN, October 15. /TASS/. Russia is due to establish an airbase in Babruysk, in eastern Belarus, in 2016 and deploy Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jets, Russian Air Force Commander-In-Chief Colonel General Viktor Bondarev said on Wednesday.

“The airbase of the Russian and Belarusian Air Force will be created in 2016. Su-27 fighter jets will be based there,” Bondarev told reporters during his three-day visit to the facilities under construction.

The Russian aircraft will be stationed at a military airfield, which is expected to be reconstructed.

Russia decided earlier this year to send 24 Su-27SM3 fighter jets to Belarus’s Baranovichi airfield to be used to provide inviolability of the airspace of the Union State of Russia and Belarus.

The Su-27 Flanker is a twin-engine supermaneuverable fighter jet, which can be used to perform various combat operations, including reconnaissance and interception of enemy aircraft.

http://en.itar-tass.com/russia/754464

Russian TV Published Propaganda About MH17 That Actually Disproved The Kremlin's Main Theory


Anyone who has been following the debate over the downing of MH17 will know one point of contention is which weapon was used to down MH17. On one side you have people who say it was mostly likely a missile launched by a Buk missile launcher, and on the other people claiming it was cannon fire from a jet. Generally the former claim is used to link the separatists to the downing of MH17, while the latter is used to claim the Ukrainian government was responsible.

Russian television will today broadcast a special report, previewed on Dmitry Kiselyov‘s Вести недели (News of the Week) programme on October 5th. Dmitry Kiselyov is very well known in Russia, and was last year appointed by Vladimir Putin as head of the new official Russian government owned international news agency Rossiya Segodnya.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6HDR32KEAns

Presented by Arkady Mamontov, a Russian journalist who last year linked the Chelyabinsk Meteorite incident to gay activism, it promises to explore the downing of MH17 in depth, and in the preview they demonstrate the lengths they’ve gone to in their investigation by arranging to have a live fire exercise to test out cannon fire on aircraft.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gzw363q1N3o

Anyone who has been following the debate over the downing of MH17 will know one point of contention is which weapon was used to down MH17. On one side you have people who say it was mostly likely a missile launched by a Buk missile launcher, and on the other people claiming it was cannon fire from a jet. Generally the former claim is used to link the separatists to the downing of MH17, while the latter is used to claim the Ukrainian government was responsible.

Russian television will today broadcast a special report, previewed on Dmitry Kiselyov‘s Вести недели (News of the Week) programme on October 5th. Dmitry Kiselyov is very well known in Russia, and was last year appointed by Vladimir Putin as head of the new official Russian government owned international news agency Rossiya Segodnya.

Presented by Arkady Mamontov, a Russian journalist who last year linked the Chelyabinsk Meteorite incident to gay activism, it promises to explore the downing of MH17 in depth, and in the preview they demonstrate the lengths they’ve gone to in their investigation by arranging to have a live fire exercise to test out cannon fire on aircraft.

First we’re shown the entry holes created by the cannon fire, several holes of a consistent size and shape.



Next, the other side of the aircraft, where along with the larger exit holes we also have much smaller holes of various shapes and sizes





So here we have a pattern of damage established, consistently shaped and sized entry holes and the same shaped exit holes surrounded by smaller exit holes of various shapes and sizes. There’s even a comparison shot of the MH17 wreckage to demonstrate how closely the damage matches.



However, there’s been many photographs of the wreckage of MH17 posted online, and some of these show clear examples of the initial damage done to MH17 when it was first hit. This panel, from above and behind the flight deck windows (discussed here at length), shows clear examples of entry holes coming from outside the aircraft.



It’s clear that unlike the entry holes in the Russian video, these holes are a wide variety of shapes and sizes. This image shows the full panel with many more points of penetration.



It’s also worth noting that many of the 30mm cannon scenarios involve the attacking aircraft coming from below, generally from behind, yet the above images clearly show the impacts coming from above the flight deck.

Another example of MH17 entry holes comes from ANNA News, a Russian language news channel embedded with separatists in Ukraine. In this video they are given a tour of the wreckage by separatists, where they are shown part of the aircraft it is claimed was hit by cannon fire. Here’s a image from the video showing the entry holes.



We get a sense of the size of these holes in this image.



This is what’s claimed to be entry holes from cannon fire, but as we can see, compared to the Russian TV piece on the damage done to MH17 there’s a significant size difference.



It’s been possible to ascertain that the panel in the ANNA News video was positioned above the flight desk windows, on the starboard side of the aircraft (details here), so, as with the earlier example, this shows cannon fire from below and/or behind the aircraft could not have caused this damage.

Thanks to the Russian channel’s work we now have a rare chance to compare the damage from cannon fire on aircraft to the damage done to MH17. Based on the Russian channel’s own tests it seems clear that the entry holes visible in the above examples do not match what’s shown in the Russian channel’s own tests. It seems that rather than prove MH17 was shot down by cannon fire as they claim, they’ve inadvertently provided evidence that it wasn’t.

http://www.businessinsider.com/russian-tv-inadvertently-published-propaganda-about-mh17-that-disproved-the-kremlins-main-theory-2014-10