Better To See Once...

.... than hear and read about it. Zvezda  elaborated on Russian-Chinese naval exercise taking place now in the Sea of Japan and yes--this is not your regular exercise, which, indeed, attracted USS Chafee. In Russian, starting from 5:30 through 9:00. 

Nope, these are not your traditional "international naval exercise" with maneuvering and saving distressed people in the water. The scope of tasks Russian and Chinese fleets fulfill: 

1. Formation of the joint Ships Search-Strike Group (KPUG);

2. Joint ASW activity including KPUG's search and destroy of "enemy" submarine;

3. Setting up and engaging joint Air-Defense of the group, including target and targeting data distribution within group (Netcentricity, hello!);

4. Joint launching (electronic) of anti-shipping missiles by the group;

5. Other combat tasks such as counter-mine and gunnery.

This is how military ALLIES train. This is how they integrate their forces and, boy, we can only speculate now at what stage of integration those forces are. I am sure it is in advanced stage. 

In related news, Russians, with sarcastic laughter, noticed (in Russian) that Hadley Gamble didn't listen to many Putin's answers during recent moderating of Russia's Energy Week and was merely trying to look good while asking questions. No shit! The whole core idea of US media and politicos is how to turn anything being about precious me, me, me. It is narcissism taken to eleven. LOL. Apart from the obvious fact that many of them are simply dumb and badly educated to grasp even simplest of the responses.  Can you imagine trying to explain how Operational Sweep in Northern Atlantic against heterogeneous forces of Russian Navy has a direct influence on geopolitics to Hadley Gamble or... ahem, David Axe. Good luck with that.  Same wish of good luck goes to Turkey (another LOL) who tries now to return her $1.4 billion of down-payment for F-35s, while Washington offers Erdogan (his words)...F-16. You literally cannot make this shit up. 

"There is the payment of $1.4 billion we have made for the F-35s and the US had such a proposal in return for these payments," Erdogan said. "We have said we'll take whatever step is needed to meet our country's defense needs," the Turkish leader added.  The Turkish government's purchase of S-400 defense systems from Russia caused diplomatic tensions between the US and Turkey, who are both members of the trans-Atlantic NATO alliance. The US has sanctioned employees of Turkey's Defense Industry Directorate and warned Ankara against purchasing further equipment from Russia. Erdogan said last month Turkey is planning to purchase more S-400 systems from Moscow. "In the future, nobody will be able to interfere in terms of what defense systems we acquire, from which country at what level," Erdogan told US media outlet CBS News. 

Good luck, Turkey, getting your money back. Turkey may expect down the road offers to buy M-4 Sherman tanks and P-51 Mustangs, and why not? F-16 is an excellent combat plane for... the war against countries with no viable air forces in 1990s. It is 2021 today. But even more stunning was this, three days ago--I posted it on the discussion but give it a minute to take in what is being said: 

Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Under Secretary for Economic Affairs Jose Fernandez met today with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksey Overchuk to reinforce the United States’ commitment to a stable and predictable bilateral relationship.  Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John F. Kerry separately met with Deputy Prime Minister Overchuk today and repeated his call for Russia to take more robust action on climate. Deputy Secretary Sherman called on Russia to do more to ensure European energy security while also echoing Secretary Kerry’s call for it to submit a strengthened nationally determined contribution under the Paris Agreement by the time COP 26 meets on October 31.  Deputy Secretary Sherman and Under Secretary Fernandez urged Russia to ensure fair treatment for U.S. companies in its marketplace and to resolve U.S. concerns about Russia’s trade and investment climate.  Deputy Secretary Sherman also underscored continued U.S. commitment to freedom of expression online.

Just think about it. This is not some BS think-tank in D.C. These are people with actual power and policy-setting positions. Polish press went apoplectic on this:

Cynizm czy odrealnienie? Podsekretarz stanu USA poprosiła Rosję o... zapewnienie Europie bezpieczeństwa energetycznego

Translation:  Cynicism or unreality? The US Undersecretary of State asked Russia to ... ensure energy security for Europe. 

I have news for Polish politicos and media personalities. Read my lips--second or third tier powers, such as Poland (for all my love for Polish culture), trying to interject themselves into the big guys game always ends up bad for such powers as Poland. Recall 1939? It is a cold hard fact of life. The US needed Poland as a front window for Western "capitalism" in the wake of the Soviet collapse and then as a pro-American spoiler in messy European affairs, including as a saboteur for Russia's energy projects, to be thrown out as used condom later. Now, this time has come for a simple reason, the United States tries to coral all her, by far not infinite, in fact very limited, resources to meet Chinese and Russian "challenges" and Poland, despite her active and fairly influential US diaspora, is not that important in the larger scheme of things. 

The times when Poland had a respectable industry from extraction to massive shipbuilding and even consumer electronics capacity are long gone, and Poland today is primarily a FIRE economy--EU made sure that Poland will be primarily a consumer, not a supplier. So did the US. After all, Germany and France (or Netherlands)--they have their own working class to feed and to do so they have to have high value added physical economy staying home. So, there you are. The United States is too busy making a killing at the hotter than hot Asian energy market and Polish LNG facilities can wait. Come on, guys, nothing personal, just business and the business is good for the United States in Asia.  And that is just one factor, there are many more. Big powers always think about themselves first--it is an axiom. It is about time Polish political class recognized it. Words are worthless, especially when they involve such terms as "common values", "democracy", "human rights", "freedom of speech" etc.  Russians, meanwhile, are still trying to figure out who among US elites (groups, clans, mafias etc.) has at least some capability to govern and with whom one can have a meaningful dialogue. This is a tall order.