Kay Bailey Hutchison Has Issues.

She is not very bright and not for once was noted to speak on issues of which she has zero understanding, including suggestions to bomb Russia into oblivion. They really do grow (some of them) dumb in Texas. She is a raging Russophobe, American exceptionalist and she is the US ambassador to NATO. Her latest? Let's start WW III. 

NATO earlier announced plans to take steps to ensure Ukrainian vessels’ safe passage through the Kerch Strait and expand the scope of aerial reconnaissance in the Black Sea region. A statement to this effect was made by US Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison. She told reporters at a press briefing on Tuesday that NATO foreign ministers were expected to endorse that package of measures at a two-day meeting in the US, which is beginning on Wednesday.

This is a very good demonstration of my theorem that lawyers do not make good military thinkers or leaders. In this sense she is no better than other "strategist" Dr. Blank who really needs some basic course in navigation and naval geography, which may provide some basic understanding of what Black and Azov Seas really are in a larger scheme of things, including, apart from overwhelming missile salvo Russia can provide against any combination of surface targets, such teeny-weeny problem for NATO as these seas being part of Russia's Southern Military District which, accidentally, has those wicked MiG-31Ks armed with hyper-sonic Kinzhals on combat station precisely around Black and Azov seas. If Hutchison wants to start World War Three, she may as well start it with a major Kaboom, or...just hear me out...why doesn't she ask for a personal participation, preferably on board of NATO's flag ship, and be there in person when "ensuring safe passage" for Ukrainian vessels. I think her wish will gladly be granted by NATO's naval group sent to Kerch Strait to teach those arrogant Russkies. 

But we have been through this before--appointing ignorant and unprofessional people to important public positions is a fine tradition of American governance especially in XXI century, especially when talking about any diplomatic positions which are occupied by people with zero skills. Oh, come on, look at Michael McFaul, an alleged Russian "scholar" or at a general "level" of US Department of State. But Hutchison is just a symptom of a serious illness which afflicted American politics which can not produce anymore anyone other than aggressive ignoramuses who may, at some point of time, help to unleash hell. The only upside of that will be that together with us, deplorables, those jerks will vanish too. In fact, they might be first to do so.

Michael Pence Is A Dangerous Ignoramus...

Which one would expect from one-dimensional, not very bright, colorless Christian Zionist such as Trump's VP. When even Bloomerg is forced to publish some rather stunning revelations, one must ask--how degenerate US "elites" are?

The U.S. leaned on German Chancellor Angela Merkel last month to conduct a naval maneuver in Russia’s backyard aimed at provoking President Vladimir Putin, according to three people familiar with the talks. At a Feb. 16 meeting at the Munich Security Conference, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence urged Merkel to send German warships through a narrow channel between the Crimean peninsula and mainland Russia to show Putin that Western powers won’t surrender their access to those waters, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The German leader refused, they said, citing reservations from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. A spokesman for the chancellor declined to comment.

You see, guys, here is a dude with "education" in, ahem, law and who is born-again Evangelical so called Christian which is a euphemism for largely Israeli-firsters who update their geopolitical views in Sunday Schools through sermons of illiterate clergy--a most vocal group in US electoral politics which is in the foundation of neocons' dominating US aggressive and mindless foreign policy. So, here is the level of US "elites", folks, who are firmly in the deep pockets of what...well, why don't we listen to Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson who knows about this on the order of magnitude more than I do.

Listen to the end, with Wilkerson making a conclusion much harsher than even I would make. In this Pence's "plan", however, the funniest (no, really--it is funny) part is how the United States wants to "fight" Russia to the last German, French, Arab, what have you. I already described one idiot from Foreign Policy Council, who passes there as a "Russian scholar", Pence seems to be in the same league of morons who are too lazy to:

1. Study basic facts about Azov Sea;

2. have no idea how this will look militarily. 

Granted, of course, they do not need to do so, since the main objective of this whole insanity is:

The vice president’s meeting with Merkel at the Bayerischer Hof hotel in the Bavarian capital came just after her most spirited defense of the global order yet. Drawing a standing ovation from senior security officials, she lambasted Trump’s threats on imposing tariffs on European cars as a matter of national security, pledged Germany would reach the NATO spending goal at its own pace, and stick to the Iran accord. The German leader had also observed with alarm an aggressive and coordinated U.S. diplomatic push to halt a Russian gas pipeline, Nord Stream 2. According to people close to her, that was one factor that led her to double down at Munich.

Colonel Wilkerson asks emphatically, if the well of US national security "talent" is so shallow that specimens such as Abrams, Bolton, in the end Pence himself are constantly in the orbit or coming back time after time as go to "national security" people? Yes, Colonel, it is--US has no competent national security and foreign policy specialists at the highest political level, all of them products of the Ivy League degree mills and are utterly unqualified, lack of any human integrity and utter corruption apart, to run pizza parlor, forget foreign policy of the United States. But, in general, this latest snafu from Trump's Admin is just another sign of a level of intellectual degeneration and the danger people in power in D.C. present to the remnants of the Republic and the world at large.     

41 US Senators Declare War On Russia.

And why not. I really like it when people with degree in accounting, such as US Senator Ron Johnson, are calling on fighting the fight which they expect to observe on TV, far away from the theater of operations. 

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senators Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), and 39 of their colleagues introduced a resolution calling for a prompt multinational freedom of navigation operation in the Black Sea and the cancellation of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in response to Russia’s recent aggressive actions in the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov. “The United States and our allies need to rapidly counter Russia’s military aggression in the Kerch Strait with strong and resolute action,” Sen. Johnson said. “Assembling a multinational freedom of navigation operation in the Black Sea to help ensure safe passage into the Sea of Azov, combined with cancellation of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is exactly the kind of response Putin needs to see.”

If you are interested, you may read the whole thing here. My question is: how do esteemed senators envision this "operation"? No, really. I am fascinated with this whole idea, not to mention utter incompetence, if not outright imbecility, of these "people's servants", who obviously came up with this idiocy out of both stupidity and desire to earn points by pretending to be tough on Russia, of course, granted that someone else will do the dying, not precious them poor dears. I have a better proposition--why not deploy all 41 of signatories of this hysterical "resolution" on board the ships which will take part in such an "operation" in Russia's vicinity and territorial waters and see how resolute those senators will become once missiles start flying. Not gonna happen, of course, but still good to think about it.  

Ukrainian "Navy".

Poroshenko needs desperately some kind of force majeure to cancel elections and stay in power, Ukraine desperately needs a bloody nose to get support from the combined West: US, Germany, France, you know real West, which in Ukraine means people with money (Poland needs not apply). Ukraine needs it to preserve gas transit from Russia through her rusting GTS by means of shutting down Nord Stream 2. This may happen, especially when one considers who runs Germany, but for that Ukraine needs to provoke Russia. Hence:

MOSCOW,December 19. /TASS/. The next passage of Ukrainian ships through the KerchStrait, announced by Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Secretary Alexander Turchinov earlier, will be considered as a new irresponsible provocation, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated during Wednesday’s briefing. "This is just an announcement of a new provocation,which has the same provocative nature," the diplomat said. "It is absolutely irresponsible. It is only meant to make the situation worse." "Many Ukrainian partners are trying to defuse the tensions in this situation, and are actually working on finding ways of de-escalation," Zakharova noted."To make such a statement in the context of these attempts made by several states, including EU member countries, is to confirm that provocations are the calling card of the current Kiev regime." Earlier today, Turchinov stated in an interview with the BBC that Ukraine has no plans to cease the passage of its military vessels through the Kerch Strait, and did not rule out the possibility of eliminating the Crimean Bridge. He added that Ukraine is ready to invite representatives of the OSCE, NATO and other international organizations to be present at the Ukrainian vessels.

Obviously, Ukrainian "Navy" is such an "impressive" force, that no one in their mind would consider spending even a single anti-shipping missile on the Ukrainian floating bathtubs once they will try to "breakthrough" Kerch Strait into the Azov Sea, but what  is the most fascinating here is the fact of yet another statement (highlighted in yellow) from the Ukraine's political top calling on, basically, terrorist act on Russian territory. Hm, I wonder how the US or Germany will react if Russia's political top called on blowing up some serious infrastructure in US or Germany? Do I hear condemnation of Turchinov's reckless (on the advice of his American instructors) statement from D.C., Berlin, Brussels? Crickets, crickets...

Of course, even more serious provocation may be conceived by a desperate and, most of the time, drunk Poroshenko. No, I am not talking about attacking LDNR. There is a probability, however not very high now, that Ukrainian Army may try to even attack Russia proper and, again, I am not even talking about Crimea, albeit it is in the contingency plans of Ukrainian General Staff. No, I am talking about Russia, such as attack on the Kharkov-Belgorod axis. There is only 40 miles between them. Obviously such an attempt will be stopped and whatever Ukrainian forces could be committed to such an act will be annihilated with massive Ukrainian casualties, but the damage will be done. After all, hapless Ukrainian sailors and SBU thugs who supervised them last time during their pathetic attempts in the Kerch Strait have been sent by Poroshenko with the idea that they will die clashing with Russian Coast Guard.  They even photoshoped additional hole from who knows what caliber gun.

Arrow shows photoshoped hole.

Now, Ukraine needs bigger blood, bigger than even them shooting down Malaysian MH-17. Anything dramatic which either allows Poroshenko to declare himself a real (sort of) war president or will give him some justifications for escaping aggressive Russians and their hordes of Buryat-driven T-90s and T-72BM3s to some Western European paradise to live out on his stolen riches. The more the blood, the merrier. The US would love this scenario, in fact people like Kurt Volker (a US governor in Ukraine) work hard for this scenario to materialize, despite publicly expressing displeasure with Poroshenko's "state of war". 

Here is Putin's conundrum--he promotes (granted with some justification) Ukrainians as a relatives of Russia who, in the end, will come home. Moreover, Sergei Lavrov was explicit two days ago in his interview (in Russian) to KP that Russia is interested in a whole, stable and prosperous Ukraine and that is why does not recognize LDNR. Was Lavrov bluffing? Very well could be, in the end, it was Lavrov who a week ago described the scale of Russophobia in Ukraine as unprecedented and being an official policy of the state. He is absolutely right here. Does Russian political top consider a scenario when it will be forced to annihilate Ukrainian troops trying to provoke Russia? Absolutely. Does Russia have plans of, indeed, disposing of banderite regime in Kiev? Yes. But there is also an important factor playing into these considerations--overwhelming majority of Russians doesn't really view Ukrainian nation as it formed in the last decade as friendly or relative. So, what is at stake here? Russians do not want to denazify, which is tantamount to de-ukrainiization, of this hell hole in the middle of Europe. But it very well might be that at some point Russia will simply have no other option but to finish-off this Western freak-show next to her borders and will try to mobilize some competent and courageous forces within Ukraine (LDNR is a first candidate for this) for a complete reconstituting of the Ukrainian State as normal, more-or-less prosperous nation friendly to Russia. But that is a separate discussion which involves the fate of the so called Ukrainstvo as anti-Russia as such.

Poroshenko's Gambit.

I know, some people are waiting for my response to Ukraine's Azov Sea provocation. OK, here it is--Poroshenko, whose approval rating in Ukraine is about, what, 10% or so, got his wish and declared a Martial Law. LOL. Ukrainian "democracy" in a full swing and, most likely, no elections. Not that they mean anything in Ukraine. The rest? Sergei Viktorovich, help, please. Because I am not interested in discussing the abyss which separates Ukraine's "fleet" and competencies, quality and capability of Russian Coast Guard and other forces around Azov Sea. It is akin to comparing VW Beetle with T-90 tank. The result of clash is easily predictable. 

Update: Another wannabe idiot economist from Atlantic Council pretends that he is Chester Nimitz or, the least, Arleigh Burke.

A senior fellow at the pro-NATO Atlantic Council has said the US should send naval ships into the Sea of Azov to guarantee it stays open after a skirmish between Russian and Ukrainian ships. Only problem is, that would be illegal.

Since when all those amateurs, such as blank Blank or this Aslund guy who has zero qualifications to control a freaking 10-foot row boat, have competencies to call for any military responses? Can they, Goddamn, get back under their pretentious useless "humanities" degrees stones and continue to pretend that they have valuable skills. I wonder, how this Aslund creep imagines this whole US Navy "sending ships" to the Azov Sea. I omit, of course, a larger issue of the aviation of Russia's Southern Military District. Imbecile. That's, my friends, is the "level" of American think-tankdom and academe.  

Small Bypass.

Disqus seems to be under attack today and as a result comments simply do not post because the client freezes. So, I decided to make a short bypass and expand a bit upon this Ukrainian "buildup" (in Russian) around Azov Sea and the transfer there of their mighty and scary Gurza-M armored cutters, produced, of course, on Petro Poroshenko's own wharf. So, before going into this purely tactical matter let me explain why VSU (Armed Forces of Ukraine), which are, allegedly, among the five strongest armed forces in Europe, exist. Read attentively. VSU exist for only two purposes: 

1. To suppress unrest at home;

2. Most importantly--to launch a major provocation against Russia and perish while doing so.   

I have been through this on different forums and other platforms for five years now and communicated a lot with Ukrainian "patriots" and military "experts" who, especially around 2014-15 still lived, many still do, in this delusion that VSU are capable to resist Russian Armed Forces, which, allegedly they fight in Donbas. It goes without saying that for VSU any real fight with Russian Armed Forces can end only in two outcomes: very-very bad for VSU or a complete annihilation of VSU as a force with catastrophic casualties. It also goes without saying that Russia doesn't want to do this, while she is absolutely capable to simply demolish present Ukrainian terrorist state in a very short time. 

But back to Azov Sea. I already expounded on this Azov matter here and here. So, operationally and tactically appearance of two Ukrainian floating coffins (that's what they are) in Azov Sea changes absolutely nothing except for Russian FSB Border Guards slightly tweaking their tactical procedures (they are described in Tactical Manuals, such as defunct Top Secret NSPK-72, or TRPK) which do provide excellent guidance for prevention of any possible provocation of these two Ukrainian boats against commercial shipping. I know that crews of those brave Ukrainian sailors, unless they are on some serious drugs, should feel rather shaky in case of following orders of their superiors to do some stupid thing. Those orders may come but here is the deal. At this stage Russia can both prevent provocations or if one succeeds--Russia doesn't care much about the fact that US is desperate for any Casus Belli to unleash a massive (even more massive and even more hysterical) anti-Russian campaign. 

The ways to prevent VSU from doing the nasty are numerous and they may include, and are already being done as I type this, both aggressive patrolling of the neutral waters next to Ukraine's territorial waters, thus, in effect blocking any attempts to intercept commercial fishing and marine traffic by Ukies, to organizing escort corridors which is not that difficult really. How can VSU know that there is an axe over their head? Simple: those scary boats have emission detectors (I am sure) and they will know when the weapon systems are locked onto them and that is rather unnerving moment when one knows that it being tracked by not just radar but by the radar in lock and tracking (soprovozhdenie) mode. So, there are always many ways to send a signal. After all, behind USS Donald Cook situation, now universally, wrongly, assigned to SU-24 EW systems, was, realistically, a lock on by the radar of a very different system. In the end, suppressing those boats sensors and communications is not such big of a deal. Russia has vast experience of doing this since 1950s till today. VSU, actually, was on a receiving end and Ukies and their foreign curators didn't like it. 

In other words, Russia has a whole spectrum of technical, tactical and operational means to prevent any provocations and, if need be, to simply "correct" Ukrainian "threat" in Azov Sea. In the end, Russian fire power in the area is simply overwhelming. 

UPDATE: Today, just to demonstrate what I was talking about when mentioned aggressive patrolling without any violation of any rules. Here is a snippet of it. All whining by Ukrainian side that they are being intimidated...well, too freaking bad--one do not commit acts of piracy in violation of the spirit and the letter of a bilateral agreement and then complain. Typical svidomy logic (or rather lack thereof)--Us? What for? Let them be grateful that for now these are just light forces. They really do not want to face heavy cavalry.