Russian "Talk Shows" Are Just That ...

 ... shows--as in any talk show in the West the main task is to create a shouting match between the guests and not to find the truth. Those hosts, from Solovyov, to Skabeeva with her hubby, to others are complete hacks who have been exposed by SMO as people who are not in complete agreement with their heads and also played a significant role in promoting a 404 fifth column (ask not why RT suddenly deleted 29 articles by officially designated extremist and terrorist Tatiana Montyan who they published often) in Russia, while in reality giving a vehicle to either outright or shadow assets of SBU and other intel orgs. Enough to mention a coward and self-promoter, militarily illiterate hack like Rybar (one of the main pushers of 404 propaganda), let alone outright 404 propagandist like Yuri Podolyaka. But that is a whole other story. 

But why did I mention these Russian "talk-BS-shows"? Well, our good friend Peter Hanseler from Switzerland explains, again, why Mr. Gilbert Doctorow is NOT Russia "expert" and never was and why he gets his "opinions" primarily from such "sources" as Solovyov, Skabeeva with Popov and other similar latent pro-Western "liberal" Russian talk-show media. You can access the piece by following the link to Larry's blog. 

Dr. Doctorow from Brussels is not just anyone. He describes himself as an expert on Russia, having spent almost his entire professional life in the Soviet Union. Everyone has their own experiences and opinions based on them. But when he went so far as to compare President Putin to Gorbachev and claim that the “elites”—nota bene, without describing them—were preparing to remove Putin from office, we intervened to set the record straight. This is what happened in our article “When an ‘expert’ loses his footing.”

So, as I repeat ad nauseam--to pass judgements on issues of strategy one must have a background and a grasp of issues. This applies fully and even more so to Russia. As Sir Bernard Pares wrote about Russia 90 years ago:

"And knowledge alone is not enough without understanding, which is much more hardly won. To no country does this apply more than to Russia....This gap has to be filled, or will it cost us dear."

So, Doctorow may pretend that he has the knowledge, but he doesn't and he certainly doesn't have it, let alone has understanding, when it comes to military-political proceedings in Moscow. For that, one must have a grasp of warfare fundamentals and Russia's strategic culture, which he does not have. And Peter Hanseler makes an astute observation, when speaking about such people as Scott Ritter and Larry Johnson:

One gets the impression that Gilbert Doctorow simply envies his colleagues and attacks them—unsavory.

That is what in the foundation of Doctorow's rage. But then again, trying to go toe to toe with heroic major of the USMC and intel officer or former CIA analyst and the US State Department anti-terrorism expert ... yeah, to do so you need a really serious pedigree in national security and defense fields, which Doctorow doesn't have. And here we are ...