No, It Is NOT ...

 ... in British waters, you lying sacks of shit:  Russian spy ship enters British waters and points lasers at RAF pilots. 

It is NEAR the edge which is allowed by maritime law. 

The Saker's Blog. Pepe Penned An Excellent Piece.

The article is posted at The Saker's Blog, which we, sadly, will not have soon. I understand Andrei's position being a guest of the United States and difficulties he may experience with expressing his honest opinions on the state of the affair inside the US. In the end, people must take care of themselves and their families first, and Andrei's decision, however difficult, is fully justified, especially against the background of the unfolding existential struggle between shrinking, in every sense of the word, combined West and the rest of the world. But that relates directly to Pepe's piece in which he nails down the "mood" of the deep state and it is panic. 

A panicked Empire tries to make Russia an ‘offer it can’t refuse’

I deliberately do not introduce a snippet here in order to not misrepresent the main thrust of Pepe's excellent piece, so read it in full. It also preserves this piece's thunder with excellent conclusion.

Per this. 

Allegations that Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson with a missile strike are “a lie,” Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Monday. Johnson’s accusations have emerged in a new BBC documentary about the crisis in Ukraine. Recalling a telephone call with Putin on February 2, 2022, just over three weeks before tensions over Ukraine escalated into full military action, Johnson claimed the Russian leader “threatened me at one point.” “He said, ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you but, with a missile, it would only take a minute’ or something like that… jolly,” the former PM told the British broadcaster. “There were no missile threats,” Peskov told reporters on Monday. “When he explained challenges to the security of the Russian Federation, President Putin remarked that if Ukraine joins NATO, the potential deployment of NATO or American missiles at our borders would mean that any missile could reach Moscow in mere minutes.”

Modern British "elites" are nothing more than a tawdry tabloid trash with no class, no ethics and no morals. BoJo is a perfect representation of a complete degeneracy in London. Lying is an official Bachelor of Arts program in elite UK universities, who "prepare" British "elite". People deserve government they elect. Simple as that.

Here We Go Again!

Make no mistake, I get it--it hurts being a sore loser, but we may state with absolute certainty now that most what US "senior military officials" know about real war is derived from blowing the shit from unarmed civilians. They lack serious skills in strategic and operational planning and I expressed myself on this issue not for once, especially when commenting on the modern day academic standards or, rather, lack thereof in the USMA in West Point. But here we go again.

Russia is running low on ammunition as its Ukraine invasion careens toward the one-year mark, and it may soon be forced to use older, unreliable rockets and artillery shells -- some built decades ago, according to a senior U.S. military official. The new ammunition, what the Pentagon calls "fully serviceable," could be used up by early next year as the war continues despite the winter weather, said the official, who briefed the press Monday on the condition of anonymity. Russia also appears to be running low on precision-guided munitions. 

Of course, this official is "anonymous" because who would like to parade oneself as a military amateur and ignoramus. Wasn't Russian Army supposed to run out of ammo and cruise missiles like what... in March or April? One has to ask a question--these "anonymous officials", have they ever commanded anything larger than the squad or have they ever won anything in their life in real war? We can confidently say no, because Pentagon's "record" is abysmal, with the US losing its wars left and right against grossly inferior technologically but determined enemies. Now, to conceive that somebody, who "studied" military economy from the "text-books" penned by financiers and stock brokers from Wall Street, who still think that the US is the "largest economy in the world", will understand what Russian military industry is, is down right risible. They have no intellectual apparatus to grasp it--they haven't been taught it. I omit here my many years long contention that the understanding of Russia in the West is that of a kindergarten petulant child, but this is the issue of the Western humanities "education". 

Of course, the other possibility should not be discounted too--US "journos" simply made this shit up--their MO, basically--and "reported" it in accordance to ideological imperatives of the moment, those imperatives being an extremely acute necessity to cover up the collapsing front of VSU (NATO really) around Bakhmut and those severe strategic ramification which this collapse entails for not just Zelensky regime, but for its handlers. And we know his handlers are in London and Washington. Not to be outdone, of course, is London's The Economist--a collection of pompous imbeciles, "consulted" by MI-6 and "byproducts" of Sandhurst--who continue to spread utter pseudo-military BS and propaganda and quote today... Zaluzhny.

Ukraine has enough men under arms—more than 700,000 in uniform, in one form or another, of whom more than 200,000 are trained for combat. But materiel is in short supply. Ammunition is crucial, says General Syrsky. “Artillery plays a decisive role in this war,” he notes. “Therefore, everything really depends on the amount of supplies, and this determines the success of the battle in many cases.” General Zaluzhny, who is raising a new army corps, reels off a wishlist. “I know that I can beat this enemy,” he says. “But I need resources. I need 300 tanks, 600-700 IFVs [infantry fighting vehicles], 500 Howitzers.” The incremental arsenal he is seeking is bigger than the total armoured forces of most European armies. Ukraine’s partners are speeding up efforts to repair and refurbish old and damaged equipment to return it to the field faster, in part by teaching Ukraine to fix it as close to the front lines as possible. They are also accelerating the manufacture of weapons to meet growing demand from Ukraine and their own armed forces.

Yeah, sure. He forgot to mention, of course, that VSU had more, much more, than that in February, but then encountered Russian force three times smaller and all those numbers simply evaporated. Or, as Russians say, if the grandmother had the balls, she would have been the grandfather. But Western BS peddlers with zero knowledge of operations (I doubt they teach that in Britain anymore) and operational planning as related to real war have only that tool left for them--BS. But The Economist's drivel is symptomatic of the UK's state in general, that one is of a complete economic, moral, intellectual and military degradation. At least, Ron Jeremy for all his hilarious appearances had a large cock, UK has only the former left and is reduced to nothing more than Tabaqui.  

And so we go, the vicious circle of BS and PR actions, lies, expose' of stupefying incompetence across the board continues. Meanwhile Russian industry--you know, the real economy--continues to churn out military materiel and equipment in, ahem, industrial quantities and preparing for yet another "defeat", like retaking all of Donbass and then... Who knows what then.

Eastbound supplies of Russian natural gas will continue to grow and could hit almost 90 billion cubic meters by the end of this decade, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday at a meeting of the Strategic Development and National Projects Council. He said the development of port and pipeline infrastructure to the south and east would be an important step to mitigate the impact of Western sanctions and other “hostile actions” against Russia.“Implementation of such projects as the Kovyktinskoe Field, the Power of Siberia 2 and the Far Eastern route will make it possible to increase gas supplies to the east to 48 billion cubic meters by as early as 2025 and to 88 billion by 2030,” Putin said. This would actually amount to more than 60% of gas supplies to the West in 2021, he noted.

And dedollarization continues to accelerate. As someone noted today in Russian segment about Putin's meeting with Council on Strategic Development--the West is completely absent from a discussion. But then again, do you care about doormats? Only when the time comes to throw the old one out and get a new one to the threshold of one's home.

A New (Old) Normal.

Obviously the recent scandal in Dutch Kingdom with its Foreign Minister lying about Putin (and Russia) in 2006 didn't make huge headlines and this is the way it is supposed to be since it is normal.  

Dutch foreign minister Halbe Zijlstra has admitted lying about attending a meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin as he prepares for his first visit to Russia as a member of the government.Mr Zijlstra has issued a statement confirming the admission he made in an interview published in the respected Dutch daily De Russia, Volkskrant. He has in the past said he was present as an employee of energy giant Shell at Mr Putin's country retreat in 2006, when the Russian president said he considered Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltic states as part of a "Greater Russia". In a written statement, Mr Zijlstra said that he was not present at the meeting, but heard a story from somebody who was there. He said he considered Mr Putin's statements so geopolitically important that he spoke about them publicly and took credit for hearing the comments as a way of protecting his source."The manner in which I wanted to protect my source and underscore my message about Russia was not sensible, that is crystal clear," Mr Zijlstra said.He is due to fly to Moscow for a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.

You see? No biggie. I don't know what kind of bacteria killing hands sanitizer will Lavrov use after shaking hands with this Dutch loon, but it is patently clear that BSing about Russia long ago became a Modus Operandi for Western media and political "elites". In fact, as this blog documented for years now, it is a new (or old) normal. This is the only way it is supposed to be. As an example, let's say I want to become Newsweek or NYT Russia "expert". How can I do this? Easy! I need to write an "analytical" material on how I had an access to top secret KGB (GRU, FSB, MVD... whatever) general who told me about plans to subvert US Presidential Elections... oh, wait--it has been done already. I am sure Christopher Steele met very many "top" Russian generals from all those organizations and they told him about Russians interfering in the elections. 

But jokes aside, this is not new in the West. As was noted in 1988 by Whitman Bassow in an openly apologetic work for a drab, at best, US journalism in the USSR, The Moscow Correspondent:

"Thirty years ago as UP correspondent, I met a middle-aged Florida couple in Metropole dining room who were astonished that the average Russian seemed so well dressed.  "Why," exclaimed the woman, "they even wear fur hats!" The American scolded me for not reporting such important news. I countered that I frequently wrote features on women's styles, clothes, and shopping in Moscow but that not a single editor on the thousands of newspapers served by the agency would print a story, if I did write one, that a quarter million Russians walked down Gorky Street today wearing shoes. Americans, I said, should have learned in high school, not from the pages of their local newspaper, that Russians wear coats and hats." 

So, the proud tradition of lying about Russia and Russians didn't go away with the end of the Cold War, it only reinforced itself and, in some sense, it is good, since leaves no illusions about kind of people who today define West's foreign policy. For Lavrov, meanwhile, I would suggest this brand--inexpensive and "kills 99% of germs and bacteria". 

Only $ 15.88 for a pack of four.

Yet, until there are still people like this Dutch farmer in beautiful Holland, who knows, maybe not everything is lost... yet.  One may only hope. 

UPDATE:  I'll be damned--he resigned!

In conclusion, the thing which absolutely got me going was this in his BS:

The official claimed that he heard Putin talk about a “Great Russia” which included “Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltic states,” while “Kazakhstan was nice to have” as well.

Overwhelming majority of Russians not only do not consider Baltic States a part of "Great Russia", but do not want to have anything to do with them. As bypassing their ports recently proves beyond any shade of a doubt. As long as they respect rights of Russians living there nobody gives a damn about them--let them eat their EU and NATO membership.  

Boston Globe Is Right On The Money.

I write constantly about the parallel universe in which US main-stream media live when dealing with, well, just about anything and, especially so, Russia, but some of the brain farts produced by a bunch of hacks working for US media machine do deserve to be singled out. Here is a today's pearl from Boston Globe:

Putin’s Russia is a poor, drunk soccer hooligan 

Granted, mind you, that it is Scott Gilmore's "opinion", which usually implies that a rag which publishes "opinion" may or may not endorse it. All of it--mostly smoke and mirrors. I would have skipped the review of usual mental excrement of aggression and outright lies by another ignorant hack with degree in nothing and having no applicable skills to benefit society but one phrase caught my eyes. 

"According to the International Monetary Fund’s most recent data, the Russian economy is approximately the same size as Australia and slightly smaller than South Korea. As an exporter, it is now less important than Belgium, Mexico, and Singapore."  

It is only natural for a graduate of such madras as London School Of Economics (that is the "school" which barely touches reality in any meaningful way) to refer to IMF, an organization directly culpable in creating number of economic crises globally, as a reliable source of info on Russia. Indeed, what can one expect from the organization which excludes Russia from the list of advanced economies but includes there Lithuania.  

So, let's catch our "opinionated" boy economist and diplomat on pure lies. For that we will go to... IMF. Here is the the IMF data on Australian and Russian economies and, as Mr. Gilmore suggests showing Russian economy to be, and I quote:"the Russian economy is approximately the same size as Australia"(c).

 Here is Australian IMF data 2015-2016:

  

And here is Russia's for the same time period:

Anyone with a common sense, forget good understanding of the economics, which is not really a science, knows that absolute GDP measured in constant dollars is a misleading number. That is why anyone with the brain--from serious economists who abhorre all those BS monetarist, detached from real life, theories to serious intelligence and analytical organizations, use much more (still inaccurate) accurate metric--GDP based on PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) which does reflect what is, so to speak, real depth of the economy. Even a brief look at PPP comparisons between Russia's and Australia's economies show a peculiar number which tells us that, rephrasing our "specialist" and "diplomat" (a diplomatic tour in Indonesia surely makes one competent on Russia, wink-wink) "the Russian economy is approximately three times the size as Australia", in reality--much larger. Well, if we also concentrate on the last underlined row at the very bottom of the both tables we will see that shares of Global GDP based on PPP also relate to each-other as approximately 3.1 to 1 in Russia's favor. 

But all these numbers, which clearly show Mr. Gilmore to be what he really is--a frustrated BSer and a liar with no clue on the issues of real economies and power--do not reflect what real economy IS from which REAL both economic and military power derive. I wrote about this many times, I will repeat it again--Number of Enclosed Technological Cycles. This metric puts most of current monetarists out of their misery and suggest to them to go and do something really useful and contributing to society--such as tending cows on farms or working 5-axis CNC at some manufacturing plant. Let them try their pathetic "theories" in real life.  Now that we understand that this piece of "opinion" in Boston Globe is pure propaganda and that Mr. Gilmore is as qualified to speak on Russia as I am qualified to perform open heart surgery, we may concentrate on the issue at hand and here are some news that even Bloomberg people begin to take note. 

Russia Retools After Crash as Post-Oil Economy Takes Shape 

While Russian economy's recovery from both internal issues (and there are plenty of those, to be sure) and sanctions takes time and effort, retooling is ongoing and to a certain degree it influences global processes. As could be seen, while such "industries" as finances were contracting in 2015, the actual manufacturing was and is still growing. 

Most remarkable is the growth in machine-building sector which continues to grow at a very respectable 5+ % and it is there, together with broadly defined chemical industry and some other fields, where real power is manufactured. 

I like Ozzies--mostly simple folks, hard working, generally decent people, obviously suffering from the same malaise which afflicted whole of Anglo-sphere, but still--the guys and gals I would like to get together for a beer and talk about life, I did it before. So, I do not want any Ozzie who reads this blog to take anything personally. But here are the facts. There is no denial that Australia is a highly developed nation with extremely high standard of living but even the brief look at the Australia's GDP structure betrays what can only be described as total deindustrialization--only 21% of Australia's economy is industry. Compare this with 36.3% of Russia's share of industry in her GDP, with agriculture it rises to 40.3%. That is, in purely percentage expression Russia produces almost twice more than Australia. In absolute numbers? I would go on a limb here and will say that Russia's industrial (that is manufacturing) sector is much larger than Australia's whole GDP in whatever iteration it is going to be looked at. Consider these simple facts: 

Russia produces civilian jets from R&D stage to full production (including avionics, composites, aggregates what have you), Australia does not. Russia produces a variety of space vehicles, from parts of the International Space Station to different rockets. Australia does not. Russia produces own microprocessors. Does Australia? Never heard of it. Russia is a manufacturer and operator of only other truly global position system--GLONASS. And the list goes on and on, and on. Russia produces railway rolling stock, both on her own and in cooperation, such as with Siemens, including some cutting edge heavy pullers. Both Russia and Australia export crude, steel and other low processed products, but here where commonality ends. As it should when one compares a nation with 150 million population to one of barely 23 million people. 

And then comes this sensitive issue of Russia maintaining the second most powerful military of the world. This is where all those "economic" comparisons and indices break down completely. Russia can produce and does produce state-of-the-art submarines, fighter-jets, air defense complexes and other extremely hi-tech things. Obviously, graduates of London School Of Economics together with their professors, whose world view of hi-tech is limited by the latest model of iPhone produced in China, have no clue what goes into all that but I do. Research & Development, Design, then manufacturing and procurement of such weapon systems as S-400 or fighter-jet of SU-35 type, as an example, require academic, scientific, industrial and other resources which are beyond the reach of overwhelming majority of nations, can not be merely expressed in some economic numbers. A single state-of-the-art SSGN of Severodvinsk-class, project 885 (Graney-class) requires a cutting edge industry to be designed and produced: from advanced materials, advanced radio-electronics industry, scientific and academic school, research institutes,  shipbuilding industry with highly trained personnel to a modern machine building complex capable to build everything from radar and sonar to combat information control systems (combat computers), to nuclear reactors to...the list is colossal and currently there are only two nations in the world capable to completely on their own do so, and you may have guessed it already--these are Unites States and Russia. The rest of the world is not even in the same league when dealing with quality and quantity of these kind of systems.  Moreover, working in these industries requires a constant inflow of specialists with extremely high level of STEM education. These people are taught at top national colleges and universities and those are, believe me, world-class and tough to graduate from. And then, there is national military educational system. Guess where Russian system of military education is in terms of reputation and quality? Granted, of course, that one should discard all kinds of propaganda crap.

Lack of knowledge, however, doesn't prevent Mr. Gilmore from sharing his "insights" on military issues by stating:

"According to data compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Institute, Russia’s defense budget is still less than China, and Saudi Arabia. It is roughly on par with India, France, and the United Kingdom. And it is nine times smaller than the Pentagon’s budget. The fact is, if it wasn’t for Syria, the Crimea, and some ageing warheads, Russia would get as much global attention as Slovakia or perhaps Wales" (c).

I already elaborated on the issue of military budget's size but the pearl about "aging warheads" is really something. Obviously, yet again, they don't teach anything of related to the reality in London School Of Economics but last time I checked, Russia possesses the most advanced nuclear arsenal in the world which ranges from the latest SLBMs Bulava carried by the state-of-the-art newest SSBN of Borei-class (3 hulls completed, 4 are being built) to a whole range of other both conventional and nuclear deterrents ranging from brand new RS-28 Sarmat ICBM, railroad complexes Barguzin to newest long-range cruise missiles of Kalibr and X-101 (102) class. One has to ask then, why Boston Globe gives a word to a guy who obviously is driven by feverish Russo-phobia and is utterly incompetent in just about any field he mentions in his drivel passed as an "opinion". It is an "opinion", alright, and it carries the same weight as my opinion on the issue of proctology or gynecology. The only difference between me and Mr.Gilmore--I do not speak on the subjects I have no clue about. I, as well as many other normal people, consider this to be uncultured and arrogant. But Gilmore is not alone here--he is a typical representative of North American so called "intellectual elite", which is neither intellectual nor elite but whose "opinions" are pushed on unsuspecting public as a noteworthy analysis. 

Make no mistake, Russia is no angel here either, Russia has her own share of "specialists" and "intellectuals" who do exercise their freedom of speech in all kinds of media outlets. But what is also true, and it is especially true for Russia's establishment media, Russians are on the order of magnitude more aware and knowledgeable about US (and Canada) than it is the other way around. Sure, one may see an opinion piece on the US which will be less than flattering (and often deservedly so) but it will not be filled with hatred towards American people, let alone with open bullshit and outright lies presented as a fact. In this sense, visceral hatred of North American "educated" class towards Russia and Russians is unique and borders on a paranoia and a very popular liberal delusion that thoughts may create a reality. But as old Oriental proverb goes: it will not get sweeter in the mouth by repeating the word sugar one hundred times. Russia is not going to collapse from depicting her as what she is not. Russophrenia is a cruel illness.

We all know that US "journalism" is dead. Hence the rise of the alternative media. Today this US "journalism" field is populated by ego-maniac hacks who decided that they are the ones who have the right to manipulate rather than inform and they seem totally content with the fact that most of them are human and professional failures in any human field which requires talent, knowledge and dedication--activities which lead human to what we all live for in the end--the pursuit of the truth since there is no happiness without it. Moreover, they get paid, often very handsomely, for spreading the lies and BS and in this case Boston Globe is right on the money--it delivered what it was paid to do: an opinion of a plumber on gynecology. I, meanwhile, am off to Russia, which, as we all know, is about to collapse and is crude drunk hooligan. Hey, that's partially true, Russians suck at football but, boy, they sure as hell know how to put up a fight.         

Parts Of Moscow. Sure Looks Like A Third World City;-))