Illustration.

For those who still don't get it and do not want to see the reality of SMO. This is Torfyanovka border crossing facility at Russian-Finnish border. 

We crossed it twice--once on the way to St. Petersburg from Helsinki, once--other way around. There are busses between St. Petersburg and Helsinki. Nice, comfortable (with the toilet) busses. Every single vehicle stops both on Finnish and Russian check points, people disembark and go through customs and passport control. In Russia it is run, naturally, by Border Guards of FSB RF. Checks are thorough. And here is this illustration: once we all disembarked on Russian side (for entry) we, as American citizens, have been singled out (the only people from G-7 on the bus) and pushed ahead of everybody in the line. It was expected and FSB spoke to us for about 20 minutes while everyone was getting checked. After that and thorough check of our phones we have been let go.

And here is illustration: the only other non-Russian citizen persons who have been pushed even ahead of us have been a young mother and her son of about 10 years. Both had Ukrainian passports. Well, guess what--after 15-20 minutes of questioning they have been led inside service facilities and, as a result, they have been taken from the bus. Why, you may ask. Well, the explanation is filthy simple--under this "brotherly people" BS premise Russia, together with millions of genuinely displaced people allowed into the country a huge number of Ukies who hate Russian guts and continue their both passive and active "resistance"--a euphemism for sabotage and terrorism--against Russia. FSB has its hands full with detecting and eliminating a huge number of sleeper cells run by SBU and GUR under control of MI6, CIA and others on Russian territory and this involves, and you have guessed it by now, a large number of mid to short range drone operators who constantly try, and sometimes succeed, to attack Russia's infrastructure. 

Many people still cannot wrap their brains around the fact that Russia's European part ALONE--the territory where 80% of Russians live and work--is almost 4 million square kilometers or 1.5+ million square miles. To give a proper comparison--it is almost the area of a whole European Union. So, make your own conclusion what it means to control such a territory (including newly added administrative subjects of 404)--even the best ISR means (and Russia DOES have best ISR means) do not guarantee detecting a group of saboteurs who can move into the launch area with hidden prepositioned or simply carried 10-12 drones and launch them at any target. Even modified 45 minutes endurance commercial drone with about 0.5 kilo of explosives attached to it gives you a range of about 40-50 kilometers. Let's recall middle school geometry: A=3.14 x 50^2 = 3.14 x 2,500= 7,853 square kilometers one must search and detect.  

If we re talking about drones with the range of 100 kilometers it gives you, consequently, the area of 31,400 square kilometers to control and search and here we are talking about equivalent of the territory of... Belgium. So, good luck opening the Theory of Search, together with the Theory of Probability, Statistics and the math and physics of modern ISR means and there you go--you may finally understand that technology alone is NOT enough, especially in the country covered with forests. One MUST have a superb human intel on the ground and the network of informants. In case of Russia we are talking about thousands upon thousands possible and highly probable Ukie saboteurs who are... drum roll--Russian citizens. Russia IS NOT going to do American Japanese "thingy" of 1940s. 

And now that you know these very simple facts you may appreciate the issue of Operational Sweeps, Probability Density Maps, sensor fusion and human intel, among many other things, which may help to understand the scale and the scope Russia's military-intel community faces in mitigating 404 (NATO's, really) threats. THERE WILL BE leakers, the sabotage will continue such as attacks on Pskov or Moscow, or Rostov-on-Don et al, and some will get lucky--it is inevitable in case of the scale of the events unfolding in a front of our eyes. It is simple as that. And that is why this Ukrainian woman and her son have been taken off the bus and have been led for thorough check. We learned later that after the checks have been completed she and her (now identified and confirmed) son have been put on the next bus to Russia. 

Meanwhile, one of the last remaining European statesmen, Viktor Orban notes what I am writing about for many years now:

The administration of US President Joe Biden “misunderstands” Russians if it expects economic sanctions and frontline losses to erode support for President Vladimir Putin, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has claimed. The focus of Western politics is on “how to provide more freedom to the people,” while for Russians the top priority is national unity, Orban told US journalist Tucker Carlson in an interview published on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday. “This creates a kind of military approach [by Russia]… always on security, safety, buffer zone, geopolitical approaches,” the Hungarian prime minister explained, arguing that this attitude was “legitimate” considering Russia’s history. “They misunderstand the Russians,” Orban said of the US leadership. “It is a difficult thing, especially when you have an ocean between you and Russia.”

As I am on record ad nauseam--people who run US degree mills for the "elite", they have no tool kit for grasping what it means being on the grounds of this, now beloved by Russians, cathedral:

And why the names of Alexander Nevsky, Mikhail Kutuzov and Zhukov with Rokossovsky, among many others, present today the unbreakable stream of Russia's 1,000 + years long history and why when you pass on the highway by Lakhta Center you see this grandiose sight:

And that is why the feeling of a calm confidence is palpable in Russia. Something clicked in such a way in Russia that US decision makers simply cannot understand. This is what Tolstoy called a "latent warmth of patriotism" among Russian Army personnel on the eve of Borodino Battle. So, one or two "successful" attacks by Kiev criminals change absolutely nothing and they know it. I warned long time ago that Russians are wrong people to fuck with but they never listen.

PR, Again.

Knee jerk "discussions" on "war on Russia" after attacks on Moscow residential areas is just that--knee jerk media fodder. I reiterate again--Russia is at war with NATO whose proxy, a Nazi Kiev regime, is based on "Ukrainstvo"--a concept discussed so many times that I am not even going to bother. Russia is filled with refugees from 404 and among those people there are very many who are fanatical Ukies and SBU/GUR/CIA/MI6 assets. Judging by the look of those drones (see the video where S1 Pantsir takes one out) those are relatively small short range drones launched either inside or slightly outside of Moscow. 

Tuesday’s failed drone raid on Moscow was an attempt at payback by Kiev for Russia’s latest airstrikes on a Ukrainian decision-making center, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has claimed. This comes after the Russian Defense Ministry reported that eight plane-type UAVs were shot down near the Russian capital. “It is clear that we are talking about the response of the Kiev regime to our very effective strikes on one of the decision-making centers. This strike took place on Sunday,” Peskov told journalists after the attack. President Vladimir Putin later confirmed that Russian forces struck Ukraine’s military intelligence headquarters in Kiev “two or three days ago.” Peskov stated that he was not aware if the drone launch sites had been determined, but argued that the attack “once again confirms” the need to continue the military operation in Ukraine until its goals are achieved. The spokesman also said the authorities and military personnel in Moscow and Moscow Region had carried out their duties properly and that the air defense systems also “worked well.”

It is pure terrorism (see definition of terrorism) which is directed against civilian targets and civilians. It is MO of the 404 special services "trained" by CIA/MI6 and some other foreign "special services" who excel in matters of terrorizing civilian populations. I guess when one consistently gets its ass handed to it, this is the only thing which is left to do. In general, and it is axiomatic, the terrorism is a weapon of the weak. And when one looks at such specimen as Lindsey Graham, who is a certified supporter of terrorism, among many others who exist in the corridors of power in the West, one gets to know everything one needs. I reiterate--the only war combined West is capable of conducting is PR. Terrorist actions are the part of this war and have a tacit support among Western political "elites" and media. And yes, they are desperate.

Following the raid, Putin stated that “Kiev’s attack on civilian targets in Moscow confirms what method Kiev uses,” calling Tuesday’s incident “terrorist activity.” Russian officials have suggested that the goal of the drone raid was to spread panic in Moscow. “Ukraine and its Western handlers would certainly like to see lines of cars leaving Moscow, closed shops, and demonstrations,” the deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Defense, Aleksey Zhuravlev, said, noting that Kiev had ultimately failed to achieve its goal of spreading panic and that the attack has not affected life in the capital in any way.

Everything one needs to know. I have nothing more to add. Now it is a matter for FSB and MVD to deal with the issue, but since Russia allowed millions of 404 refugees, such actions will continue, because NATO cannot fight and win at the real battlefield. Knowing who runs modern West--I am not surprised.

The Oldest Trick In The Book.

POLITICO laments, via RT:

If tensions with China over Taiwan spirals out of control, it may come with the cost of US support for Ukraine against Russia, officials in the EU reportedly fear. A switch of Washington’s hostile attention from Moscow to Beijing would be the “worst-case scenario” for European NATO members, Politico cites a European diplomat as saying. At the moment, the rhetorical confrontations between Washington and Beijing over a possible visit to Taiwan by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is not a NATO issue, but “it could easily escalate,” the diplomatic source said, according to the article published on Monday. The outlet spoke to several EU sources about how the European economic bloc perceives the tensions over Taiwan. Politico noted that up until recently most EU member states were cautious in their public comments about Taiwan and US rivalry with China, a major trading partner for the EU.

The reason Pelosi adventurism with the "visit" to Taiwan is so in focus--we don't know yet if she will get there--is simple. Anything, up to the escalation to the brink of the conflict with China, but to cover up these two things:

1. The economic catastrophe unfolding in the US;

2. The desperate attempt to turn attention away from the lost cause in 404. 

The oldest trick in the book, especially with contemporary US "elites" who are good only at two things: reelecting themselves and PR. As Bernhard of MoA quotes Cynthia Chung:

In October 2019, Jake Sullivan, who became U.S. National Security Advisor in 2021, stated in an interview that the U.S. needed a clear threat to rally the world and play the role of saviour of mankind and that China could be that organizing principle for U.S. foreign policy. In the 2019 interview, he acknowledges that the problem was that people were not going to believe that China is a global threat, that their view of China is too positive and that the United States would need a “Pearl Harbour moment,” a real focusing event to change their minds, something he calmly stated that “would scare the hell out of the American people.” 

At that time Sullivan taught... at Yale Law School (good Lord!) and you can read the whole interview here. Being a consummate neocon, it is only natural to expect from his ilk the PR-driven solutions to inevitable clusterfucks neocons create in everything they touch due to their sheer incompetence and malice. 

The other clear signal that Washington begins to feel the burn is the fact that Biden (and those puppeteers who have their hand up his ass) in a typical thuggish manner declared:

Washington has expressed its readiness to negotiate “a new arms control framework” with Russia to potentially replace the landmark New START, or Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. US President Joe Biden made the remarks on Monday in a statement ahead of the tenth Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference. “Today, my Administration is ready to expeditiously negotiate a new arms control framework to replace New START when it expires in 2026. But negotiation requires a willing partner operating in good faith,” Biden said. At the same time, the US president claimed that Moscow “has shattered peace in Europe” with its “brutal and unprovoked” military operation in Ukraine, which became “an attack on fundamental tenets of international order.” “In this context, Russia should demonstrate that it is ready to resume work on nuclear arms control with the United States,” he stated. Biden also called upon Beijing to take part in talks on nuclear disarmament.

I have news for Biden, Blinken, Sullivan and the rest: Russia is "not ready" for two reasons:

1. Russia is not going to squander a dramatic and increasing advantage over the US in strategic (and non-strategic) weapon systems, because there are no Gorbachevs in Kremlin anymore;

2. Russia is not going to talk to this Administration other than engaging in the substance of the Act of Capitulation by the combined West, because the United States is non-agreement capable and are, essentially, ungovernable.  

There are many more factors, but these two are the most important. In fact, Russia will continue to strangle EU, thus denying the US its only collection of the lapdogs and the market where the US can theoretically compete with China. Theoretically, that is. Poor French now cannot even take it, that Russia 1 Channel openly mocks Europe when discussing methods of "saving" energy such as, but not limited to, urinating while taking a shower.

Yes, they have boo-boo in France. How about they wake up and look around and recognize that overwhelming majority of Russians have neither respect nor admiration for the combined West (especially Europeans) anymore. Only contempt. Rephrasing Mikhail Kutuzov reacting to Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812, who stated that "I will make them (French) eat horse meat", the task he fully succeeded at, Russians either say or think today:"we will make you urinate in your showers".

And Again: Not That I Didn't Warn About It.

Payne: Second quarter data suggests we are in a depression, not a recession. No, Payne is wrong--the US was sliding into DEPRESSION way before any "second quarter" data was released. 

They only can do PR. None of them, from "Left" to GOP can run a fucking paid public restroom, let alone county, not to speak of a country, especially such as the US. But don't worry: it is all double plus good. Rima was great when noted that we can get, in celebration, additional 4 grams of chocolate. 

On A Lighter Note. LOL.

You already know that Dmitry Medvedev went full hawk since the start of SMO and let himself finally break from the "diplomatic" niceties and started speaking his mind in terms of attitude to the West.

Explaining the harshness of his posts in his TG to TASS, he didn't mince words: "I hate those bastards and degenerates" who wish death to us, and want to annihilate Russia. He also promised until he is alive to do everything to rid planet off them. So, Russians immediately came up with the meme, LOL)))

 

Ramzan now has a worthy competitor, LOL, who doesn't give a shit about political correctness, which, under the circumstances, is the only way to conduct foreign policy. 

In related news, some loser hack "journo", blames "barbaric Putin" for price hike. No shit. 

The Putin price hike is real — and huge

Of course he does. Having zero competencies in real governance or whatever is real out there, the blame game and CYA (cover your ass) starts, because that's the only thing they are good at. It also has a generic name of PR. But even in that they are not that good anymore being one-trick ponies, who do not have a concept of personal responsibility. 

There Is Very Little Intelligence In House Intelligence Committee.

Especially when we are talking about its chair Adam Schiff who in normal country would have been removed and prosecuted for his role in Russiagate. I know, I know, he is still hard at work trying to finish his "investigation" into Russia "subverting" US democracy. 

Russia is “very likely” to invade Ukraine and might only be deterred by “enormous sanctions”, the chair of the US House intelligence committee said on Sunday. Adam Schiff also said an invasion could backfire on Moscow, by drawing more countries into the NATO military alliance. “I also think that a powerful deterrent is the understanding that if they do invade, it is going to bring NATO closer to Russia, not push it farther away,” he said.

It is obvious by now that US politicking is conducted only in PR space and for the "benefit" of the gullible public, especially when dealing with foreign relations, but in case of Adam Schiff there is no denial that his only claim to anything related to "intelligence" is his persecution of some FBI guy, or, following famous layman's analogy--he understands music because his father was a piano mover. In other words, apart from useless degree in political "science" and him, more useful, being a lawyer, Adam Schiff wouldn't know the difference between, as I often say, LGBT and BTG. So, at this stage he is nothing more than a purveyor of the rumors and a peddler of utter strategic and operational BS for the benefit of a larger agenda rooted in partizan politics in D.C. and which has no relation to the actual national interest of the United States nor the majority of the Americans. 

In other words, apart from being a person of a lowest moral character, a fanatical neocon, he is also a pathological liar, which factors greatly in his "character". While Schiff's traits are the dominant traits of America's elites as a whole and I am on record that many of those people are sociopaths and some are outright psychopaths. So, this creature now "expects" Russia "invading" Ukraine. Under the "very likely" (rings the bell?) term it means that, if to assume that he, indeed, conveys some rumors percolating inside the US "intelligence community",  I have to admit that there is very little intelligence in this community. Judging by the "stellar" results of actions of this "community" ranging from Iraq, to Afghanistan to Syria, among many other places, one has to start questioning not just competence, of which is very little there, but sanity of people who continue to destroy the country. Adam Schiff is an Exhibit A of a complete degeneration in human and professional terms of the American political class.

But in the end, the United States is so desperate to both unload 404 on Russia and use any pretext to unleash "sanction of death", which for Russia will be nothing more than temporary inconvenience at the worst, that any means are used to make Russia invade the territory Russia has no use for nor desire to take on her balance. At least not now, or in a foreseeable future. In related news:

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is hoping to turn a page in relations with Moscow, and expects to meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin by the end of the month, according to a report from Berlin's top tabloid. On Monday, Bild claimed that Scholz sees relations with Moscow as a top-tier foreign affairs priority in spite of calls from some members of his governing coalition for a more confrontational approach to Russia. The newspaper said that the 63-year-old is aiming for a "qualified fresh start." However, Berlin has officially yet to confirm any top-level meeting of this type, with the German Embassy in Moscow also unable to verify the report. What is known, however, is that the chancellor’s foreign policy adviser will meet his Russian and French counterparts this week. Scholz’s reported attempts at a new détente with Moscow may prove unpopular with his coalition partners, particularly the Green party, which is strongly pro-US/NATO and hostile to Russia. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Economy Minister Robert Habeck are known to want Berlin to adopt a more hardline anti-Russian stance.

My personal opinion is that the new Germany's government is nonfunctional from the outset and some people in it are downright insane and utterly incompetent, but that is the trend across the whole combined West and it is very pronounced. 

P.S. I am currently sick as a dog, initial thought was that it is Covid, but my daughter tested negative twice. I think it is a very nasty cold and today I felt slightly better to type this post. 

Another One .

You know that I am on record, in fact I am explicitly on record, forcefully and with emphasis, that  US "Russia Study" field from the very political top, up to a level of POTUS, to the very bottom of a food chain populated with graduates of all kinds of useless programs and pseudo-sciences who do "research" on Russia by communicating with Russia's cultural, political and ideological rabidly pro-Western fringes because it is the only environment where these pseudo-scholars and allegedly "intelligence" people can get what they WANT to hear, not what is needed to be heard, is a wasteland. In general, American field on Russia is populated with people who literally have no clue. Such as Thomas Graham from Yale and from good ol' Henry Kissinger snake oil org dealing in BS in allegedly "geopolitics", business and other useless consulting. 

I never hid the fact that US skills in foreign policy in general, and towards Russia in particular, are those of the third world nation and I know many third world nations whose diplomatic and analytical skills are still better. I pointed out not for once, and I am writing the third book on this issue, that US problem, far from being ignorant of the outside world, is, in fact rooted in a complete lack of self-awareness by US political class which exists primarily in an echo-chamber of shoddy "scholarship", mediocre thinkers, if that, and in an absence of a reliable understanding of real power. They simply have no method, period. The reason they don't have this method is because they place money at the center of any "analysis" without understanding of how real economies work and because of a rather weak grasp of the actual history. In general, as I stated not for once, it is next to impossible to explain humanities-"educated" (Graham has BA in "Russian Studies" and Ph.D in Political "Science", which means he wasted years studying BS) product of US Ivy League humanities madras how Russia really works, starting from economy to military, to political culture. Being a product of US "political culture", that is to say show-business, Graham wrote a piece two day ago which is very US political class, obsessed only with own appearances, symptomatic.  

                           Oil Crisis Tests Putin’s Skill to Project Strength

Projection of whatever sells as an illusion of competence, power and electability is, actually, a very American thing. In fact, it is the foundation of the election theater known as American "democracy". This is not to say that Putin doesn't "project", he surely does, but this projection is nowhere near in its falsity, superficiality and staging than it is the case with now running non-stop US election-campaigns. In this case Graham exhibits a very American political idiosyncrasy which puts forward appearances not the content. He surely confirms this immediately:

NEW YORK: Russian President Vladimir Putin refuses to yield under pressure. That is a matter of pride for Putin himself and a key aspect of his appeal to Russian elites and the public alike. The trick is preserving that reputation in the real world, where leaders routinely miscalculate and pivot while remaining loathe to admitting mistakes. The plunge in oil prices because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the collapse of the OPEC+ agreement on production cuts provide the most recent test.

Graham is butt-hurting and it shines through his traditional for US policy-making craft, and resorting to a traditional making shit up, which one would expect from a middle-level former bureaucrat in W. Administration well-known for fvcking it up majorly both for the world and the US. Graham lies, of course, because increase (and, most importantly, dynamics) of Russia's gold and currency reserves clearly indicated in Bank of Russia statistics, that Russia was in reserves' mobilization mode well before any actions at Vienna's OPEC meeting in March this year. 

One can easily go to the site of Bank of Russia and apply filter say from April 2015 through April 2020 to see a dramatic growth of reserves, such as three fold growth of gold reserves alone. For Graham, obviously, it is not of any value since he doesn't understand the state of mind of majority of Russians who DO understand that they are in the existential struggle with the combined West led by the United States and the only thing Putin MUST project is a commitment to finish this fight. Russia was mobilizing for this fight since Munich Speech in 2007. Well, Graham, being a manager of Kissinger's org, should read his own boss' admission in 2015 where good ol' Henry stated (or accidentally dropped) the truth which majority of Russians (no, not the Russians Graham knows) are keenly aware of:

"Kissinger: If we treat Russia seriously as a great power, we need at an early stage to determine whether their concerns can be reconciled with our necessities. We should explore the possibilities of a status of nonmilitary grouping on the territory between Russia and the existing frontiers of NATO. The West hesitates to take on the economic recovery of Greece; it’s surely not going to take on Ukraine as a unilateral project. So one should at least examine the possibility of some cooperation between the West and Russia in a militarily nonaligned Ukraine. The Ukraine crisis is turning into a tragedy because it is confusing the long-range interests of global order with the immediate need of restoring Ukrainian identity. I favor an independent Ukraine in its existing borders. I have advocated it from the start of the post-Soviet period. When you read now that Muslim units are fighting on behalf of Ukraine, then the sense of proportion has been lost.

Heilbrunn: That’s a disaster, obviously.

Kissinger: To me, yes. It means that breaking Russia has become an objective; the long-range purpose should be to integrate it."

I will omit here Kissinger's complete lack of any foresight in regards to "integration", but Graham surely knows that there are no any altruistic intentions of the West towards Russia. Russians, being people well-conditioned by real wars, of which Graham has no real knowledge, exist in a different political and cultural reality to which US "methodology", fraudulent as it is, does not apply in principle. It is a complete different cultural and geopolitical thinking reality. The only people who do have at least some connection to this Russian reality are those from actual military and intelligence community who have to deal with tangibles, which, as it turned out, US political class ignores due to inability to understand them.  As a result Graham arrives to this:

But Moscow did not anticipate the Saudi reaction to its refusal to agree to further cuts. The Saudis’ threat to open the spigot and offer steep discounts on their oil exports pushed oil prices down to lows not seen in decades. The price war had begun, even if only the Saudis were prosecuting it robustly: The Saudis had the capacity to add 2.5 million barrels a day, the Russians, 300,000. True to form, Moscow was defiant. Despite Russia’s dependence on oil for two-thirds of its export earnings and 40 percent of its budget revenue, the Ministry of Finance announced that Russia could withstand prices as low as $25 a barrel for up to ten years. It would draw on its $150 billion National Wealth Fund to cover gaps in the budget, currently based on an oil price of $42 a barrel. That was certainly an exaggeration, and the Russian oil industry itself would suffer significant damage in the short term if wells had to be capped. Still, the ministry sent the unequivocal message that Moscow would not back down.

Ah, no. It was anticipated, because unlike W. Administration of which Graham was a part of, such as "planning" some shit, I guess how to lose the war and bankrupt the United States in the process, Russia (Putin) operates on a completely different plane of a strategic planning and as the track record of the US and Russia in the last 10 years are compared, well let's speak in broadsides here, US "record" is that of a dysfunctional country incapable to even govern itself, let alone achieve any tangible political objectives abroad. Simple as that. What Russia may not have anticipated (and even that is a question) was an unfolding of Covid-19, but that is the whole other story altogether. Moreover, as latest data from bank of Russia shows in terms of drawing on Russia's gold-currency reserves, Russia, indeed, can sustain this oil war for many years. So, why Graham arrives to the conclusion that it is an "exaggeration" remains  mystery known only to "analysts" such as him and, as I already stated above, their abilities are centered mostly around handling appearances, aka PR, and not operating with actual data and facts on the ground. If that would have been otherwise we would have had by now a stream of the American first-rate geopolitical and strategic thought. Instead what we have is a feeble exercise in chimeras, simulacra and demagoguery ranging from Fukuyama and Brzezinski to even late Huntington's attempts to make sense of the unfolding world which American self-proclaimed "intellectual" class largely is utterly unprepared. Graham is not an exception. 

Here is a fact which Graham cannot face, that is why he continues to make shit up, when writing about oil wars:

US President Donald. Trump gave Putin the opening he sought. Trump initially greeted the price collapse as a “big tax cut,” but by the end of March, he changed his tune under pressure from the domestic oil sector. He set about trying to persuade the two strongmen he had cultivated since assuming office, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Putin, to agree to major production cuts.On March 31, Trump called Putin to discuss the novel coronavirus crisis and oil markets. Kremlin statements routinely note who initiates the call when Putin talks to foreign leaders, and the Kremlin readout makes it clear that Trump made the call – the inference was that Trump, not Putin, urgently needed relief from the price war and the pandemic.

This is a loaded (with utter butt-hurt) statement which reads like lament. For starters most countries, to the best of my knowledge, disclose on whose initiative phone calls are made between the heads of state. And, actually, if Mr. Graham would have followed events of the last couple of weeks he would have understood that it was and still is Trump who desperately needs anything, something which would save now wrecked US shale oil. There are NO inferences, there are only facts on the ground: Russia can ride this crisis out, the United States cannot and Texas Railroad Commission will meet on April 21 to discuss desperate cuts. Hey, don't look at me, just read the titles:

"If the Texas Railroad Commission does not regulate long term, we will disappear as an industry, like the coal industry," said Scott Sheffield, CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources, referring to the state agency that oversees oil and gas production. "The Commission really does not have any wiggle room to do nothing in the unprecedented, disastrous circumstances of today."

This was Russia's position from the get go and it was explicitly articulated by Putin on a number of occasions: Russia was ready to cut ONLY if the United States takes part in those cuts.  

Russia may be willing to reduce its oil production by as much as 1 million bpd, or a little under 10 percent of its March average but only if the United States joins the cuts, Bloomberg has reported citing sources it said were familiar with the dominant sentiment in the industry.

This was repeated so many times, on so many occasions, that I don't know how Graham has missed that. Moreover, Russia's main long term objective is to attach the United States to a newly emerging Cartel and to restrain US attempts to pull blanket on itself. Moreover, this whole event shows Russia's even bigger goal for setting up what was already dubbed as Yalta 2.0 where new world order would be formalized.  Today, against the background of mounting empirical evidence of the American collapse and departure as self-proclaimed hegemon, new arrangements between superpowers are an utter necessity. United States may continue with its incessant propaganda and pretense that it is what it thinks it is, but the era of the American "dominance" across the board is over, it was over for some time now. United States still remains a superpower, but it is a superpower among few others and the better this fact is internalized and more humble attitudes are developed before getting to the negotiating table, the better it will be for all parties involved, including the United States herself which is in dire need of putting its own house in order for a long time. But don't expect "expertise" from such people as Graham to be of any use for that, not only spinning, a euphemism for lying, is the only skill they have but the fact of being sore losers only compounds their inability to face reality. 

I Always Fought In My Life For Everything Good Against Everything Bad.

Exactly like Donald Trump who, yet again, proposed to get rid off nuclear weapons. 

Donald Trump has called on the US, Russia, and China to reduce their nuclear arsenals amid reports that his administration is planning to propose a landmark arms control deal with Beijing and Moscow. In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, the US president said that he welcomed Russia’s efforts to help denuclearize the Korean Peninsula – but that more must be done. “We want to get rid of the nuclear weapons, we all have to get rid [of them]. Russia has to get rid of them, and China has to get rid of them,” Trump stated.

I agree--great idea. While at it we might as well negotiate the treaty on limitation of food allergies, teenage boys masturbation and conclude comprehensive international agreement on preservation of unicorns. Why not? But here is this teeny weeny problem, which RT and, actually, Russian Foreign Ministry (I omit here the Russian MoD which is only now recovering from hours of Homeric laughter upon hearing Trump's proposal), define clearly:

Trump may also struggle to convince the international community that Washington will honor any new arms control agreements. His decision to unilaterally pull out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran angered many US allies, and sparked accusations from Tehran that the US is incapable of keeping its word.

Ahh, yes, this credibility issue. Grandiose statements are easy, keeping the word--is a completely different game, it is hard, much harder than PR tricks. Trump's Administration has a rather underwhelming record in this field of international relations, you know, like sticking to treaties. When even Professors of uber-liberal pro-Western madras such as Higher School of Economics in Moscow calls these Trump's appeals a complete BS (in Russian), one can assume with a very high degree of probability that US level of trust in Russia is not just zero, it is in negative territory. As per China, her nuclear arsenal, even if one considers deliberate deflation by China, is still dwarfed by those of Russia and US. So, nominally, China can not be a party to any reduction efforts, before Russia and US cut their arsenals dramatically to get within Chinese levels. 

So, after Trump's grandiose and totally, as usual, hollow statement, I have only one suggestion to him--to start with unilateral reduction of the numbers of war-mongering lunatics in his Administration before we all get to the point that reduction of nuclear arsenals may, indeed, happen by means of their actual use against actual targets. In general, however, the United States is not a treaty-worthy party, whose signature on any international treaty is useless and guarantees exactly zero. So, what's the point then? PR, nothing more. Meanwhile bi-polar John Huntsman, who just couple days ago was waxing  militaristic with "200, 000 tons of diplomacy",  suddenly recalled that on the 25th of April 1945 Allied and Soviet troops linked at Elbe and that dialog between Washington and Moscow is necessary (in Russian). I wonder what will he say tomorrow? This routine by now is so tiresome and so beaten to death as Trump's TV Show that no one takes United States seriously anymore. Maybe we should just wait for the lineup for the next season, whenever this season arrives.  

UPDATE: LOL!! Not that this treaty is so important or infringes on gun owners rights within the (nation)states--Second Amendment is a very good amendment. But still, the trend and MO of throwing treaties out of the window is obvious. 

US President Donald Trump has announced his administration will stop ratification of the UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) and withdraw from it, calling it “badly misguided” and a threat to American freedoms.The UN will soon receive “formal notice that America is rejecting this treaty,” Trump said on Friday, speaking at the National Rifle Association (NRA) convention in Indianapolis, Indiana.“I will sign right now, in front of a lot of witnesses, a message asking the Senate to discontinue the treaty ratification process, and to return the now-rejected treaty to me, to the Oval Office, where I will dispose of it.”

How about not signing such treaties in the first place?