I Had A Very Good ...

 ... exchange today with Waqas Ali. 

Exactly One Year Ago ...

 ... the Director of SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service) Sergei Naryshkin gave interview to National Defense (Natsional'naya Oborona) Magazine. First, the title of this interview speaks volumes: Sergei Naryshkin: "The formation of the Eurasian security architecture is the most sensible way out of the impasse of nuclear war, to which the Euro-Atlantic elites are pushing the world".

Here is an excerpt (machine translated). 

- One gets the impression that in the West the quality of political elites and their professional qualifications are declining, intellectual degeneration is underway, and blatant inadequacy is being demonstrated. Do these processes affect Western intelligence services? 

- The confusion in the mind, which you rightly point out, is not observed, strictly speaking, among the elite. We see the professional degradation of the bureaucratic stratum, which for many years has been successfully passing itself off as the ruling class in the West. This is especially true of the leading countries of Europe, where a string of presidents, prime ministers and chancellors of all stripes invariably ensures the interests of globalist capital. These interests, as can be seen, over the years are increasingly at variance with the state welfare and the needs of the population. For example, it is necessary to explain to the average European voter every now and then that there is no greater happiness for him than to live in poverty to save the environment, to give up his job to a migrant in the name of tolerance, and to die in Donbass for Ukraine. Only ignoramuses or scoundrels are capable of participating in such a cynical political spectacle. As for the Western special services, I can assure you that the ignorant are denied access to them due to strict qualification requirements.

Naryshkin, of course, as it is proper for a man of his statue, maintains a degree of decorum, including towards his "counter-parts", but his words speak volumes. But it is the title which speaks volumes. 

Glenn Diesen and Yours Truly ...

 ... today. 

Neutrality Studies Interview.

 My conversation with Pascal the day before yesterday. 

Joseph Does A Wonderful Interview ...

 ... it is also profound. It also explains partially why I still can live in the US, while I will never be able to live in Europe. 

Why America Loses Wars 2.0.

Pentagon is militarily incompetent so is CIA, we now know how. President-elect himself confirms it in his interview to Time magazine:  

But it has happened. So the question people want to know is, Would you abandon Ukraine? 

It makes it so bad. And I had a meeting recently with a group of people from the government, where they come in and brief me, and I'm not speaking out of turn, the numbers of dead soldiers that have been killed in the last month are numbers that are staggering, both Russians and Ukrainians, and the amounts are fairly equal. You know, I know they like to say they weren't, but they're fairly equal, but the numbers of dead young soldiers lying on fields all over the place are staggering. It's crazy what's taking place. It's crazy. I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia. Why are we doing that? We're just escalating this war and making it worse. That should not have been allowed to be done. Now they're doing not only missiles, but they're doing other types of weapons. And I think that's a very big mistake, very big mistake. But the level, the number of people dying is number one, not sustainable, and I'm talking on both sides. It’s really an advantage to both sides to get this thing done.

This is what happens when the only thing you know is how to blow up shitty incompetent militaries. US has been exposed as militarily backward and they have to constantly engage in palliative psychological therapy when facing the reality of the warfare for which no US officer or soldier are qualified. So, they suck on 404 propaganda trying to avoid the reckoning with their new and radically diminished status. After all, these were them who planned this whole disaster in 404. PR and making up numbers, while residing in alternative universe, is no substitute for major combined arms operations. I will remind about The Real Revolution In Military Affairs:

Mikhail Kovalchuk Interview.

A very important interview to Ria. Who is Mikhail Kovalchuk? He is the President of the National Research Center Kurchatov Institute. Who is Igor Kurchatov? Well, he is the father of the Soviet A-bomb. So, you do understand now how immensely important this Institute is for fundamental science and national security of Russia. Here is its President talking.

Россия перестала "оплодотворять" мир мозгами — ученые из других стран теперь сами едут к нам за открывающимися возможностями, говорит президент Национального исследовательского центра "Курчатовский институт" Михаил Ковальчук. В интервью РИА Новости он рассказал, в каких сферах российская наука сохраняет лидерство, как ЦЕРН охотится за российскими физиками, от которых сам же избавлялся, чем Курчатовский помогает СВО, почему нашей стране так важно развивать свою технологическую повестку, а также поделился планами по освоению Луны и созданию атомного подледного газовоза и объяснил, зачем Курчатовскому институту заниматься виноделием. Беседовали Владимир Сычев и Диляра Солнцева.

Translation: Russia has stopped "fertilizing" the world with its brains - scientists from other countries now come to us for the opportunities that are opening up, says Mikhail Kovalchuk, president of the National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute". In an interview with RIA Novosti, he told us in which areas Russian science retains its leadership, how CERN hunts for Russian physicists, whom it itself got rid of, how Kurchatov helps SVO, why it is so important for our country to develop its own technological agenda, and also shared plans for the exploration of the Moon and the creation of a nuclear-powered subglacial gas carrier, and explained why the Kurchatov Institute should engage in winemaking. Interviewed by Vladimir Sychev and Dilyara Solntseva. 

Read the whole thing (Google Translate will do) and pay attention not only to the arrogance of Europeans, but to this thing: 

They really do work on this monster--360 meters long and 180,000 tons of displacement. Well, this is not new, there were some propositions for converting legendary monsters of pr. 941 Akula (not Typhoon--it is NATO designation) into liquid gas carriers.

 

The problem--one has to have fully autonomous (robot) nuclear reactor. They do work on it.  So, read the interview and you will get some ideas.

Radio Liberty...

 ... learns the first-hand what Kursk adventure means for NATO. Radio Liberty human herpes, aka "journos", have been taking interview of VSU but something went wrong. 

Now, I am all for freedom of press and journalism, when it is responsible, the problem here is that Radio Liberty is not journalism as is not most of MSM in the West. They are propaganda outlets, with Radio Liberty in particular being a front for CIA. So, are they "journalists"? No, average journo of any MSM is a whore, sometimes a whore as an asset of intel services. So, RL boys and girls wanted to see real war--they got it. What happens at Kursk is the death of 14 brigades of VSU, together with a truck-load of all kinds of "volunteers". There is a group of Latin American (Colombian et al) "fighters" pinned down in Kursk cauldron and they beg for medevac and withdrawal--not happening, they all will die now. The atrocities committed by all kinds of "volunteers" against Russian civilians are that of SS level atrocities. This is how NATO fights... Not a single bitch from NYT, WSJ or Financial Times will report that--because they are participants and enablers of this. Hence--they are war criminals. All of them.

Ah, Yes.

 Trump, the military strategist. 

Бывший президент Дональд Трамп сообщил, что угрожал российскому президенту Владимиру Путину нанести удар по Москве, он сделал это заявление в интервью The Wall Street Journal. «Я сказал: «Владимир, если ты будешь гоняться за Украиной, я нанесу тебе такой сильный удар, что ты даже не поверишь. Я нанесу тебе удар прямо в центр гребаной Москвы». Я сказал: «Мы друзья. Я не хочу этого делать, но у меня нет выбора», — утверждает Трамп.

Translation: Former President Donald Trump said he threatened Russian President Vladimir Putin to strike Moscow, he told The Wall Street Journal. "I said, 'Vladimir, if you go after Ukraine, I'm going to strike you so hard you won't believe it. I'm going to strike you right in the middle of fucking Moscow.' I said, 'We're friends. I don't want to do it, but I have no choice,'" Trump said.

Yep, that's Trump, alright. In fact, classic Trump who cannot live without self-aggrandizing and BSing for a minute. Not that the cackling idiotress is any better, in fact she, or rather those who are behind her, is much worse, but that is how US "options" look like today. That's statesmanship, or what passes for it in today's US. Sad picture, really...

It Is More Than That...

Larry wrote a good size and good piece on Daniel Davis interviewing Ben Hodges. Enough to read that Ben Hodges calls Russians "animals" to understand that this general suffers with debilitating case of both exceptionalism having a cognitive fight with a severe complex of inferiority, because Hodges wouldn't be able to pass exams into Russian Academy of General Staff, where his combat record would be laughed at. Not openly, of course. But here is one point (correct one) Larry makes:   

Scott Ritter, Doug MacGregor, Ray McGovern and I (along with a few others), wrote and spoke widely at the time that the counter offensive would fail because, as Hodges conceded, Ukraine had no air power to provide close air support. Here is Hodge’s failure — he refused to incorporate the fact of Ukraine’s deficit in air power into his analysis at the time. He knew it then. That is why I maintain he is incompetent as a military analyst. He chose hope over facts. A pattern he repeats throughout the interview with Danny. Danny then presses Hodges to recount if there were any conversations at the time about what Ukraine needed to succeed in its counter offensive. 

But there is more to it than just that. I wrote about it before, but it becomes clear that most US top brass has no understanding of the modern air defense. It is not surprising for the military force which is being shaped by largely confabulated US military history and never conducting SEAD operations against REAL modern air defense. Here is Yuri Selivanov noting a few days ago, what I wrote four books about:

Надо только быть немножко в курсе, из чего состоит так называемая «военно-воздушная слава США». А состоит она из таких специфических «подвигов», которые полностью  объясняют  все нынешние неурядицы с подготовкой украинских пилотов на Ф-16. Дело в том, что ВВС США, а заодно и всех остальных натовских стран все свои предыдущие войны, конца 20-го – начала 21-го веков, вели в настолько сказочно-комфортных условиях, что они могли там летать даже на метлах, причем с хорошими шансами выполнить боевую задачу.  Все те страны, которые они намечали в качестве объектов для своих бомбардировок в последние тридцать лет, были очень разными. Но в одном все как на одно лицо.У всех этих стран либо вообще не было никакой противовоздушной обороны, либо даже она была, но в таком количественном и качественном  состоянии, что её хватало очень  ненадолго.  А дальше, после подавления этой почти символической ПВО, начиналось форменное избиение младенцев. Так было дважды в Ираке, однажды в Югославии,  и, наконец, в  самом беззащитном Афганистане.В последнем случае ПВО отсутствовала от слова совсем, что, во-первых, позволило бомбить эту страну абсолютно безнаказанно. А во-вторых, отправить туда для проверки боевых качеств новейшие палубные ударные истребители Ф-35Б.

Translation: You just need to be a little bit aware of what the so-called "US air force glory" consists of. And it consists of such specific "feats" that completely explain all the current troubles with the training of Ukrainian pilots on the F-16. The fact is that the US Air Force, as well as all other NATO countries, fought all their previous wars at the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st centuries in such fabulously comfortable conditions that they could even fly there on brooms, and with a good chance of completing a combat mission. All those countries that they designated as targets for their bombing in the last thirty years were very different. But in one thing they all look the same. All these countries either did not have any air defense at all, or even had it, but in such a quantitative and qualitative state that it was enough for a very short time. And then, after the suppression of this almost symbolic air defense, a real massacre of the innocents began. This happened twice in Iraq, once in Yugoslavia, and finally in the most defenseless Afghanistan. In the latter case, there was absolutely no air defense, which, firstly, allowed bombing this country with absolute impunity. And secondly, sending the newest F-35B carrier-based strike fighters there to test their combat capabilities.

The problem with the US CAS (Close Air Support) on the modern battlefield of the 21st century is that it is not survivable against immediate frontline distributed AD based on a staggering plethora of advanced and networked hardware such as S1 Pantsir, Tor M2, Buk-M2-3 and AD artillery systems such as Tunguska et al. It will also be severely jammed and denied accurate approach in the absence of GPS. The whole idea that the USAF will be defeated even before it even takes off and then defeated before completion of the mission doesn't sit well with US generals whose combat record even against supremely inferior enemy is dismal. This is not an exaggeration, it is  hard cold reality and that is what drives these sore losers like Hodges into the arms of sheer delusion. Then, let it be no surprise in observing Ben Hodges and his "colleagues" such as Keane, Petraeus and others resorting to the name calling and offering military "advice" which no responsible competent military leader would ever give, especially when having no clue about Russia and her historic warfare experience which dwarfs that of the United States. USMA at West Point used to be a decent engineering school. Not anymore...

Fiorella Interviews Me.

 A couple of days ago. 

 

Here Is What Happens...

 ... when one is uneducated hack. Thanks to Alexander Rogers who dug this up from Foreign Affairs. A classic case of one cretin BSing another one on May 26, 2022. Which demonstrates what US higher education in strategic sphere is--a collection of morons with humanities degrees selling their ignorance as expertise. 

The "lecture" should be called How Stephen Kotkin Has No Idea About Anything. This shyster, BTW, teaches in Princeton--yet another degree mill for people unable to understand Operations and REAL military history, forget about systems integration and modern C4ISR. This shit didn't age well, but no worries, this "academician" will be back at BSing everyone in no time, he has all required credentials.

As If Trying To Prove...

... my point with Nima about once great Britain:  

The former MI6 big honcho decides to demonstrate why my point is valid and UK is nothing but military-economic chihuahua. 

When it comes to the U.K., Dearlove identifies a gap between words and actions, between warnings — like Secretary of State for Defence Grant Shapps’ stating Britain needs to decide “whether to surrender to a sea of troubles or do everything we can to deter the danger”— and actually taking effective steps to be prepared. “If you stopped anyone in the street here in the U.K. and asked them whether they thought Britain is at war, they’d look at you as if you were mad,” Dearlove said. “But we are at war — we’re engaged in a gray war with Russia, and I am trying to remind people of that.” ... But the former MI6 head does draw some comfort from what Central European and Baltic nations are doing, praising Poland in particular for reaching a record-high level of defense spending within NATO. Poland is now spending nearly 4 percent of GDP on defense, and just this week, President Andrzej Duda warned that “Russia’s imperialistic ambitions and aggressive revisionism are pushing Moscow toward a direct confrontation with NATO, with the West and, ultimately, with the whole free world.”

Dearlove is a poor poor dear who still cannot resign himself to the fact that UK cannot do anything BUT to be at "gray war" with Russia, because the only thing UK can do "militarily" is terrorism and pray that the "gray war" doesn't turn a real one. Dearlove, having no real education--a feature, not a bug--and spending some time as MI6 head during Iraq invasion where he was cooking "intelligence", because modern MI6 cannot intel anything, is utterly unqualified as are most of UK "analytical" institutions ranging from MI6 to RUSI, to Chatham House, to have even remotely objective picture of the outside world of the XXI century warfare and economies. This is a gene in UK, it is its cultural DNA to view herself as important and believe all kinds of BS just to insulate themselves from a cruel reality of UK being reduced to a largely shithole with good football stadiums. 

UK may increase her defense budget whatever--2-3-5%--it would make no difference whatsoever because she can produce next to nothing which really matters on the modern battlefield. Let alone sustain it for... two days. The degeneration, the precipitous decline of Britain and her media-political class in the last 20 years is astonishing and there is no coming back from it because it is a result of steady accumulation of the critical mass of shitty higher education, grabbing onto a chimera of past greatness, which is not there, and of debilitating bitterness, which went critical. Well, just to demonstrate deep running incompetence, now a tradition, of British, here is from great Correlli Barnett who documented British "intel" on the eve of the WW II. 

How typically British--to grossly overestimate oneself and grossly underestimate Russia. They never learn. But then again, I am on record--Oxford or King's College, bar STEM and maybe law, are degree mills.

Colonel Baud And Me Talking Today.

This is a pleasant surprise I talked about recently. Colonel and I discuss the issue of Russian military art and how Russian Armed Forces conduct operations in SMO. We also discuss a shocking incompetence of Western militaries that SMO exposed. 

Just to demonstrate--here is one such clown out of many. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn't really want a conflict with NATO because in that scenario Russia would quickly lose, the head of the UK's armed forces said on Tuesday.  Speaking at an event in London, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said that "the inescapable fact is that any Russian assault or incursion against NATO would prompt an overwhelming response." He said that "the biggest reason that Putin doesn't want a conflict with NATO is because Russia will lose. And lose quickly."

This is what inbreeding and studying "military shit" in King's College does to you, you become an imbecile, who invents threats and then responds to them. 

Let The Meltdown Begin...

 ... Tucker says it as it is. 

There is a meltdown now in D.C. and among presstitutes.
 

The Moment I Stated...

 ... that with Tucker as VP and Douglas Macgregor as National Security Adviser for Trump as POTUS US may have a chance...

Mr. Lavrov should step in and ruin the whole thing for me, LOL))

Ties between Moscow and Washington are unlikely to improve, even if Donald Trump wins the upcoming 2024 US presidential elections, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told CBS in an interview that aired on Tuesday. The former US president had previously repeatedly boasted about his good relations with Vladimir Putin. America’s general approach towards Russia has not changed over the past decades, Lavrov said, adding that Washington itself had ruined its relations with Moscow by dismantling all the “confidence-building” mechanisms and eroding mutual trust. The minister pointed in particular to the decision by former US President George W. Bush to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty) in 2002. The key arms control agreement signed by the US and the USSR in 1972 limited the number of ballistic missile defense systems each side could have and was designed to de-pressurize the arms race between the two Cold War rivals.

Sadly, yes. Trump being a hot air balloon as he is, got played like a doofus by neocons and, indeed, DID become the most anti-Russian POTUS. In fact, he boasted about it. Closing ALL Russian consulates in the US is one of his many "achievements". Read the whole piece from RT, it is short and to the point, as usually Lavrov is. There are now "rumors" in Western media (e.g. in Czechia) that NATO is getting ready to partition 404. Well, that may be true, but victors do not negotiate with loser--they dictate conditions. So, there will be no negotiations as the US wants now. Nope, only conditions imposed by Russia. Even Asia Times admits:

There is little doubt that Russia will be successful. While the Ukrainian army may be able to delay the Russians, it lacks any ability to stop them cold. If Ukraine tries to bring in extra forces to bolster its chances, it will open itself up to Russian threats elsewhere along the line of contact. Avdeevka, no matter its importance, is just an excuse for Zelensky. He needs loyal people around him as his situation becomes more precarious. His European and American allies, who still say they want to give him what he wants in arms and financial aid, understand that Ukraine can’t stand up to Russian military pressure. That is why Europe is now in a panic and Washington is searching for a new policy. Europe believes that if Russia wins in Ukraine, as now seems likely, then Europe will be threatened by Russia, for which it is not prepared. 

Russia doesn't care how Europe thinks, because it is a done deal. Especially when even the clown in chief of NATO admits today:

NATO sees no threat from Russia toward any of its territories, the US-led bloc’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Tuesday during a press conference in Brussels. That’s as several alliance members, including Germany and the Baltic states, have raised concerns of a potential future Russian attack.

This is the question which is answered--why would Russia need Baltic statelets or anything from Germany? The fate of these nations is to die out, then--who knows. As Asia Times suggests, the remnants of 404 should simply move capitol to Lvov. Sure, let Poles deal with this issue. 

Larry Wilkerson's Most Lucid...

 ... with our dear Nima (I should be talking to Nima on Monday). And he finally admits the real, very not impressive US military capability, despite putting too much faith in US Navy's carrier battle groups which today are more liability rather than asset against any opponent with serious cruise missile capability. But invoking his conversations with his military colleagues is important, as is important remembering Ike and his speech when leaving the White House in 1961. Remarkably, my good remote friend Tom Lipscomb and I spoke about this for years it seems. Finally Larry Wilkerson talks a good talk. 

Agree, this is the worst US I've ever seen.

Something About British Military...

 ... again. Douglas Macgregor finds a very appropriate term for British Armed Forces: lilliputian. Actually, it is the best I heard from Colonel, albeit he still doesn't understand Soviet period and who Bolsheviks were. Still, great talk by true American patriot. I am also glad that he has no illusions about Trump. 

Enjoy.

Nima And I Talk.

Enjoy if you will. 

Meanwhile, RT publishes yet another BS from the guy with journalism" degree. I'll quote just one phrase:

Unless Ukraine suddenly collapses to the point where it can be defeated with the forces available, we are looking at months, if not years, of trench warfare – but it is not random or aimless.

Sergey Poletaev, obviously, has no idea what trench warfare is. I guess military history for this Moscow State University graduate journo turned "military analyst" is not his forte. Especially when one considers the number of fire cauldrons the remnants of VSU have been lured in by Russian forces. Ah yes, even when you are attacking and reach your objective, the first thing you do after that--you, and you may gave guessed it, dig in. You trench around. And Russians have been advancing steadily along the whole front, with the exception of Kherson. Like today--strong advance at Bogdanovka, 1 kilometer advance in Novomikhailovka. Especially when you have kill ratio roughly 1 to 10 in your favor. Some trench warfare, I say.

Nima And Me.

Yesterday.