Enjoy.

 No, really (in Russian). 

I love how Borisov explains nuclear deterrence;)) As for lasers and those wedge engines Russians make work, as I say, expect big news. Those are things which are beyond comprehension of modern Western "elites". They have zero points of reference.

"We Bear Heat And Light"(c)

No, it is not Gazprom or Rosatom's motto in the headline. The motto in the headline, although a joke and a meme, is the motto of RVSN, aka Russian Strategic Missile Forces. Hey, it is a proper one, indeed a variety of missiles and MIRVs RVSN operates do, indeed, provide a lot of heat and light upon delivery. Behind the stream of news from 404 we all, understandably, forgot that life in Russia didn't stop. RVSN today launched, successfully, new ICBM RS-28 Sarmat, which is about to enter IOC. 

That thing can carry pretty much any munitions, including hyper-sonic Avangards, which brings us to other related news which may slip unnoticed in the informational bacchanalia in Western media. 

As TASS reports, Amur Shipyard already laid down first sections of the third serial production corvette of the Pr. 20385 (in Russian). Four of those 3M22 Zircon carriers are planned for the Pacific Fleet and are surely to change the whole concept of naval warfare in the Western Pacific. 

They are nice looking ships and now that we know the actual range of Zircons (1,500 kilometers), together with Gorshkov-class frigates (also Zircon carriers) it may explain why Borisov was stand-offish on carriers in his interview a couple of days ago.

As for aircraft carriers, such questions are often discussed at defense meetings in Sochi. In general, the development of high-precision and hypersonic weapons sometimes renders aircraft carrier groups useless, overshadowing their potential. And besides, the US may need a powerful aircraft carrier group, since they are far away and need to cross the ocean before they reach any theater of operation on this continent. Russia, on the contrary, has always pursued a defense strategy, so the need for these types of vessels is debatable. But I think that you can’t just stop using this type of naval equipment altogether, you must think about it all the time. But this costs a lot of money.

Now that Shoigu confirmed yesterday a radical increase in the speed of targeting information exchange between ISR and high-precision weapons carriers, which include Zircon carriers (in Russian), the carriers issue for Russia really becomes a moot point, albeit it is clear that with the commissioning of large amphibious assault ships such as project 23900 Russia may (don't quote me on that) bring to the sea some version of STOVL aviation. In all, Russian Navy does not completely abandon carrier aviation plans but in real war the utility of modern CVNs is really questionable, especially for the astronomical expenditure and high psychological significance attached to these beautiful and mighty looking, but fast becoming obsolete, ships. 

So, Russia continues to build her weapons and, while Mikhail Mishustin admitted that Russian economy "sagged somewhat", that sagging was expected under well-known circumstances and the growth will return starting this year. But here is my beaten to death point: combined West grossly miscalculated in terms of the size of Russian economy. No, it is not just the matter of crucial Russian exports ranging from energy, to metals, to food, it is about the actual size of Russian economy. And by size I mean, of course, real, physical economy which produces real products. Just one look at Russia's aerospace industry, both commercial and military, should have given a hint to Western "economists" but they failed, naturally. 

Netflix shares plummeted to their lowest point since January 2018 as investors reacted to the streamer’s first subscriber loss in more than a decade — bringing years of booming growth to a screeching halt. The stock was around $222 per share in midmorning trading Wednesday, down 36% from the previous closing price and sinking to a more than four-year low (its lowest since shares ended at $220.46 on Jan. 19, 2018). The latest tumble came after Netflix posted a Q1 loss of 200,000 subscribers and projected that it will lose another 2 million subs in Q2, prompting a wave of analyst downgrades. Netflix shares have shed more than 60% of their value over the last six months.

In related news: Netflix is "valued" more than Gazprom. I mean "shares". That explains why Russia doesn't care anymore about all those BS "rating agencies" and IMF and World Bank "projections"--the idiots live in a virtual world of virtual money. The new Russia's strategy for participation in WTO in metallurgical sphere  should be ready by June 1st, and Vladimir Putin was very clear today that behavior of the West towards Russia will not change (in Russian). It will be very interesting to see this strategy and how defense of the domestic producers will be reflected in it. Expect new developments in the extraction sphere because Russia has ALL critical resources ranging from Uranium to Titanium to what have you in industrial volumes and the only reason that Russia was not developing those deposits was because it was somewhat cheaper to buy them from other countries.  Circumstances changed dramatically, and Russia has enough cash to do it all. 

In SMO news, Patrick Lancaster is finally getting the recognition he deserves, with  more than 400,000 subscribers. I believe it is two days old report.

The dude has the balls of steel and is a real war reporter, old-fashion, down and dirty but that what real war is. Patrick has to stay safe, together with his gutsy cameraman. There are some reports of VSU simply abandoning villages and towns and the stream of POWs continues. Many of them do not even look like military men anymore: completely warn down and broken down, many say that the stream of surrendering VSU would have been even larger if not for many trying to surrender being shot in the back by Nazis. Well, we knew that from the get go, didn't we? 

Larry Johnson On Intel Matters In War. Plus Some Other Quick Observations.

Excellent historic introspective from Larry about deception operations in real wars and some historic lessons as applied to SMO today. 

Unless you are a student of the history of World War II, you probably do not appreciate the role that DECEPTION operations played in pinning down German forces and the relevance of such operations to what is going on in Ukraine.

Read the whole thing. Larry arrives to the conclusion which is very solid:

Well, looks like Russia was feeding the western allies a big load of bullshit.

And you already learned by now, I guess, that "intel" US and other media were spewing about Shoigu having "artificial heart attack" or some 20-odd Russian generals "arrested" turned out to be..of course, a complete BS. Obviously, Shoigu just yesterday held a Ministry of Defense Council (Kollegia) being in perfect health and a good mood and spoke about both State Defense Order (GOZ) and about dramatic (orders of magnitude) increase of the speed of targeting exchange for Russia's stand off high precision weapons such as Kailbrs and Kinzhals (in Russian). 

Meanwhile, the great German strategist, reincarnation of Erich Von Manstein and Schlieffen in one body, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz delivered his military wisdom:

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday said the Russian armed forces shouldn’t be allowed to win in Ukraine, APA reports citing TASS. He made the statement at a news conference following talks that Western leaders held by video link. The leaders included presidents Joe Biden of the US, Emmanuel Macron of France, Andrzej Duda of Poland, Klaus Iohannis of Romania, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, European Council President Charles Michel, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

As you can see, this statement was made in the company of people (Western leadership, really) who never served a day in any armed forces and wouldn't know shit from shinola, or LGBT from BTG of BCT. Scholz dealt Russians a severe damage because of the deadly bouts of the hysterical laughter they had upon hearing about intentions of Germany not to allow such a victory. Right. In related news, Germany and EU should reject all Russian hydrocarbon contracts and concentrate completely on powering their industries by electricity from the wall sockets, because this is where real electricity (which is clean energy) resides--it is so easy, just plug in and voila'. Just ask Greta Thunberg or any Hollywood celebrity, they nailed this plan to the minute details. 

In other related news, a technical and military genius, first Vice-Premier Yuri Borisov explains why Russia is not running out of high precision weapons. English WiKi gives totally abrogated bio on him, but Borisov graduated both military academy with focus on Radio-electronics of Air Defense Systems and then graduated Moscow State University, the department of Applied Mathematics and Cybernetics (in Russian). What a loser, he should have gone to study marketing or journalism, or become a lawyer as the last resort, but no-o-o, those stubborn Russians prefer this type of people running their crucial industries. How they can run anything when they don't even have a Tik-Tok accounts and don't follow Sean Penn, what a bunch of losers. 

Anyway, here is Borisov verbatim on why Russia will not run out of high precision stand-off weapons. 

From as early as 2011, all our defense procurement programs have focused on the production and deployment of high-precision weapons. All this time, we have also been building up our manufacturing capacities. As a result, today, we can fully meet the demand of Russia’s armed forces for precision weapons.

Recall Bismarck: "A Russian makes a plan when even going to a toilet." So, there you are--you plan (of course based on this proverbial OODA, which the West cannot and doesn't use for a number of reasons), based on situational awareness, execute, check the process of the execution, make adjustments if needed, correct the mistakes, get the desired result. Obviously, for carrying out such plans one needs very many good professionals on all levels, but especially at the top, decision-making, circuit. EU government in general, and Germany's in particular are opposite of that, and that is why they still believe in Ukraine's "victory".   

As they say, hope dies last. Somebody show those leaders these well-known facts:

Europe is desperate to replace Russian gas, which has driven the U.S. to export as much LNG as it possibly can.

12 new LNG projects in the U.S. have already been approved, but they are unlikely to all be completed due to long-term uncertainty.

While Europe is currently desperate for natural gas, its long-term goal is to move away from fossil fuels, which means some of these projects aren’t economically viable.

Pitch-forks times in the combined West, especially Europe, are coming--I omit here issues of food altogether--but the process of economic and cultural suicide at this stage is very robust and probably is not reversible in Europe by merely peaceful means. But that is the separate topic in and of itself.

Reasonably Satisfied.

Ah, hell with it, I am pretty satisfied with a new Russian Government of Mishustin (in Russian).  It is a good government. 

1. Remember Andrei Belousov? Now he is in government as First Deputy PM. Do I need to go deeper into importance of this man? Excellent.

2. As was expected, brilliant Yuri Borisov retained his post as Vice-Premier responsible for Military-Industrial Complex. Top, absolute top. 

3. Mishustin brought with him a number of his own people from his remarkably effective Federal Tax Service. Very good decision, excellent specialists in uncovering all kinds of fraud and squeezing fat cats into proper sharing of benefits or ending up behind bars. Good news.  

4. Minister of Industry and Trade, Denis Manturov, retained his post. Those who followed Russia's industrial development will understand why. Very good news.

5. Siluanov, he is liberal but he is a very good financial specialist and I totally expected him back to this post.  

Ah, yes, Shoigu and Lavrov retained their posts. Anybody expected a different outcome? I did exercise for a second a possibility of Masha Zakharova being offered this job ahead of Ryabkov, purely out of stunning femininity and brains factor, but she is still young and she will need to get through Russia's Rep. at the United Nations before being offered this post. Hey, few more years of Lavrov's memes and trolling, who would decline that? It is a very good government, overwhelming majority of it are what can be defined as Gosudarstvenniki (Statehoodniks) and people with excellent pedigrees in their respective fields. It is a COMPETENT government. It is a government which is charged with unprecedented plan of Russia's development, not seen since Stalin's Industrialization, and hysterical screams and depressed whining (in Russian) from both "left" and "liberal" wings because they understand that if this plan succeeds, they will be permanently removed to the most remote fringes of Russia's political life, where they truly belong, only confirm the correctness of choice. Will this plan succeed? I guess we'll see, but preparation for these events started few years back, when it became obvious that integration with the West is not only not-possible but highly undesirable. Russia did reasonably well (nah, I am being facetious--she did incredible job) against the background of actual and economic warfare the combined West unleashed against her. Keeping this in mind, one can totally conceive that new objectives will be attained, because Russia can either exist as a superpower or not at all. The social demand for this change of country's course has formed in Russia long time ago, now it is being satisfied.  

BTW, useless Oreshkin got kicked out. Good riddance. He may serve yet as Putin's errand boy, he may do well at this position;))   

About (Russian) Government. Fast Thoughts.

MOSCOW, May 8. /TASS/. The Russian government will consist exclusively of highly-qualified professionals, Acting Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. He stressed that the objectives for the future Cabinet set by the president had been enshrined in the Executive Order on Russia’s National Goals and Strategic Objectives to 2024 signed on Monday. When asked whether the new Cabinet, which is expected to consist of those deputy prime ministers who had previously held senior positions, will be able to fulfill these goals, Peskov noted that the government had not been formed yet. "You haven’t heard (the candidates for) the ministers, wait (until they are appointed)," he said.

It seems that there is a lot of panicky and gloomy mood about re-nomination of Dmitry Medvedev as Russia's Prime Minister and speculation about new (old?) Cabinet configuration. For those who are in such a mood, read below:

Any Russian Government will do whatever Vladimir Putin and Russia's National Security Council tell it to do. 

Dmitry Medvedev is a technical Prime Minister, literally—a caretaker and he was such for a very long time now. He knows his bureaucracy better than anyone, despite the fact that he can sometimes be clumsy and underwhelming. But some preliminary info on the Vice PMs is not bad and appearance of, as an example, Yuri Borisov in such a position is a very good sign. Unlike Dmitry Rogozin, who is a journalist by the education, Borisov offers an immense command, scientific-engineering (Doctor of Sciences) and industry background. In the end, it was him, not Rogozin, who really ran Russia's Military-Industrial Complex and we all know what this complex can do. The same positive goes towards removal of Shuvalov and Dvorkovich from Cabinet. Now, this rumor about Kudrin—he is not going to be, if he appears at all, in any position of power to formulate any policy in government, not to mention nationally. Certainly not as a liaison for negotiation of "surrender" to the West as some suggested. People sometimes simply forget that in modern day Russia it is Putin and his immediate team who formulate policies. I see no signs of him "surrendering". Quite opposite, actually.

My main interest is who will become (if rumors are true) a new Defense Minister instead of Shoigu—that is a huge one. And, of course, one has to ask the question if Lavrov comes back. These questions are by far more important than some speculations on Kudrin. Let's face the cold hard fact—Russia is not building communism. For all nostalgia about those times, overwhelming majority of Russian people do not want a complete return of that system. Taking best form it—and there was a lot of good in it—absolutely! Deal with oligarchs and return stolen wealth? Sure! But the times of total state-control, and ownership, are gone and Russia's reproach with socialism this time around is already very different—it is a way of evolution towards real social state and it is inevitable, Russian culture and history considered. So, my suggestion—just calm down and simply observe actions, not words. In the end, there are many (in fact, very many) tangible successes in the last 4 years—hardly a sign of people not knowing what they are doing, especially with West waging a very real war against Russia. Just buckle up. 

"Strategy".

About "strategy"--the term so abused in pop-media that people simply lost the meaning of strategy as means of attaining desired objective in general, and of the political objectives of a war in a military sense. Allow me to quote my poor dear self (I know, not the ethical thing to do). Here it is, from my piece from last year:

Size does matter and so does range and speed whenever anyone talks about weapons. It seems that there is a great deal of confusion which perpetuates itself in regards to a relatively small Russian military contingent in Syria. The most popular indicator of this confusion is a never ending discussion of a possible American attack on the Russian forces in Syria, primarily on the air base Khmeimim. Can such an attack, once one considers the size of forces US can deploy against Russians, succeed in “defeating” them? ... At issue here is not the fact that Russia is a nuclear superpower—everyone knows that. Even the most rabid American Russophobes know this and can grasp, however slightly, the concept of their poor dears turning into radioactive ash pretty fast if they do the unthinkable, such as attacking Russia proper with nuclear weapons. Syria, however, is a bit different—the escalation to a nuclear threshold could, indeed, be controlled by those who hold a decisive advantage conventionally.

This was written long before Vladimir Putin's speech on March 1 this year. Things changed drastically since then. Against the background of USS Harry Truman CBG doing its thing allegedly against IS targets in Syria, Russia, whose main objective in the area is not to allow the mess there go out of control and deter any suicidal desire to unleash wider conflict made her point today.  

  

Ten MIG-31 fighter jets fitted with Kinzhal air-launched missiles on test combat duty. 

"It is a cutting-edge weapon, namely a hypersonic long-range missile capable of overcoming air and missile defenses. It is invincible, having serious combat might and potential. The MIG-31 is its carrier as the jet is the most fitted for accelerating this missile to required speeds," he said. "In support that it is not something exotic, [I’ll say] today ten jets have gone on test combat duty and are ready for use depending on the situation," Borisov said.

This is a clear cut warning against doing anything stupid since Russia here does control escalation (God forbids) in a precisely conventional (that is non-nuclear)  way--any surface asset of any navy today is simply defenseless against single, not to speak of ten, hyper-sonic Kinzhals' salvo. It is one thing to demonstrate force, totally another--having counter-force capable of defeating any combination of demonstrator's forces. That is precisely the case here with Eastern Mediterranean and Russian bases in Syria. As long as the parties involved understand the strategic score, everything should be fine, otherwise we may be in line for a rather dramatic demonstration of the weapons which already completely redefined  naval warfare and nobody in their own mind wants this demonstration. My feel (hopefully correct) is that American side on a political level (the one which only matters in a decision making process) finally begins to get the "message" from people who do understand real ramifications and that is what was needed from the get go. Russia doesn't want to fight the US and her strategy works. With increasing number of hyper-sonic weapons of Kinzhal or Zircon capabilities being procured the outcome of purely conventional war in the Eastern Med is very easy to predict but I hate to even venture there. 

Over Moscow

Just a small visual representation of the kill-zone with the range of 900 miles being covered with possible drop points for two Kinzhals with Mach=2+ capable Mig-31s launching from immediate readiness from some airfields in Crimea and Krasnodar. It would take roughly 10 minutes to reach a drop zone and then with Mach=10 Kinzhals with their speed of 2+ miles per second having about 900/2=450 seconds, or 7.5 minutes to reach targets in Eastern Med. In all--17-20 minutes to respond. I do not imply anything here--I merely wanted to demonstrate the order of magnitude of ranges and speeds involved. In any possible conflict I don't think that Kinzhals will attack CVN itself. Enough to "peel off" Aegis carrying destroyers and cruisers. That is basically what Borisov said today.