Russian economy is in terrible shape and that is why combined NATO shits its pants while thinking about why it is outproduced by order magnitude, especially in terms of SMART high-precision weaponry.
Russians are basically fighting now with their backs to Kremlin and the population pickles last hedgehogs from Russian forests. Fact is, I think the US should immediately replace last competent American officers and intel people from Pentagon and CIA with Ukrainian generals and terrorists from GUR and that will guarantee that next American wars will be all won. At least in theory.
Translation:MEXICO CITY, July 2 – RIA Novosti.The naval strike group of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy entered the port of the Venezuelan state of La Guaira, a RIA Novosti correspondent reports.
It consists of the nuclear submarine Kazan, the frigate Admiral Gorshkov, the rescue tug Nikolai Chiker and the supply tanker Akademik Pashin, which entered the port first.The group is commanded by the head of the operational department of the Main Headquarters of the Navy, Vice Admiral Mikhail Neupokoev.According to the press service of the Northern Fleet, during the stay the crews of Russian ships will be able to relax and get acquainted with local attractions.It is clarified that the business call will last several days, after which the ship group led by the frigate "Admiral Gorshkov" will continue to carry out its assigned tasks in the Atlantic Ocean, including: demonstrating the flag and ensuring a naval presence in operationally important areas of the far ocean zone.
Keep in mind that in this particular case the "flag" consists of a mix of 48 missiles of Kalibr, Onyx and Zircon variety. Add here Venezuela, Caribbean and shit and you get the picture. For now, Kazan is logging more surface hours demonstrating, indeed, that there could be something else underwater. Now get the load of this, and I mean THE load.
Translation:It is expected that “the submarine will test launch the Zircon hypersonic missile from surface and submerged positions,” another agency source said earlier.KRONSTADT, June 26./TASS/.The nuclear submarine "Irkutsk" of project 949AM of the Pacific Fleet (PF) after repair and modernization entered factory sea trials.A source in the shipbuilding industry reported this to TASS on the sidelines of the International Naval Show (IMMS) Fleet-2024.“The repair and modernization of the Irkutsk nuclear submarine at one of the Far Eastern plants is almost complete. The boat has entered factory sea trials,” he said.
The funniest thing about deeply modernized good ol' pr. 949A lovingly known in the fleet as Loafs, and in NATO as Oscar-II, is that nobody knows the exact number of missiles it carries now. It is clear it is way more that 30 but how many? The base number is 48 but is it more? Some say it is 72. Well, look at those lovely Loafs...
This is K-132 Irkutsk before modernization. This is the worst nightmare of any surface fleet and shipping.
But here is West's worst nightmare. Although I speak about for years, let me rub this in again:
1. Russia is beginning to live better than most EU countries. Soon Russians will live better than ANY EU country and will be on average reaching the US, allowed for climatic and geographic peculiarities.
2. This is the worst one: while definitely capitalist, Russia is very social and, in fact, a mixed economy which is performing amazingly and that is the key--Russian economy is NOT neo-liberal economy and that drives globalist types insane.
Well, what can I say--too bad, they should have studied real economics and history instead of wasting their time in Ivy League degree mills. Try to explain to any economics Ph.D from Harvard what real war is and how it shapes humanity for tens of thousand of years. But I repeat myself.
Absolutely wonderful news (for Russia) and congratulations to Mikhail Iosifovich Mishustin. No fancy talk, no BS, no PR just hard work of keeping an accelerating locomotive of Russian economy on track. A consummate technocrat with strategic vision. Now to Belousov--another brain behind Russia's explosive economic growth.
That's the WSJ for ya and the "level" of their coping. I would suggest them to visit Kensington Ave or Skid Row and ask "locals" for their expertise in geopolitics.
In related news, as was expected, Russian Air Defense started to intercept yet another American wunderwaffe:
Read my lips--I repeat it--for Tor-M2 and S1 Pantsir GJSDB and similar munitions are STANDARD, typical that is, targets. Tor M2 just recently shot down a few Excalibur rounds. Yes, Russian AD is that good, I dare to say it is the best in the world and by a gigantic margin. That is why Washington today stated that 404 doesn't need US fighter planes at this time. Sure. Just some points for this Tuesday.
Which is a defining feature of the US so called "journalist corps". In his utterly delirious piece in the American Conservative he waxes geopolitical and continues to spread all kinds of beaten to death cliches about Russia. For starters, he repeats a tiresome Wall Street claptrap about Russian economy.
Obviously because Depetris is an American "journalist" and it automatically means that he has no tools for operating with facts on the ground and it can come as a surprise to him that Russia's GDP actually dwarfs that of Italy and is already larger than that of Germany. Even IMF agrees on that, not Depetris, of course. Somebody forgot to inform Depetris about this teeny-weeny fact but, be patient, Depetris is not alone in his economic delusion--he is, actually, very typical of US punditry whose defining characteristic is ignorance.
But by far the most astonishing in all this is Depetris' delusions is the title of his piece:
You see? So simple! OK guys, it is over now let's get better relations. He even proposes:
The report is also a plus for the country—not only because Washington
won’t be consumed with a constitutional crisis anytime soon, but also
because it provides the Trump administration with its first opportunity
to settle on a Russia policy without the risk of an extreme political
backlash.
Life is so easy, you see? Of course, I have news for optimistic (a euphemism for delusional) Depetris:
1. Yes, Trump Administration "settled" Russia policy will be (already is) all out, short of hot, war on Russia and this war is already proceeding in earnest. Things will get even worse, much worse, than they are now. This is not to mention the fact that Trump is not very smart geopolitically and his "team" of foreign policy "experts" is a laughing stock of the world--a bunch of aggressive exceptionalist neocons.
2. Patrick Armstrong yesterday when posting his Russia SitRep provided this astonishing piece of data. Just think about it for a second:
I know that Depetris has no clue on that but I have to inform him that EU for Russia, strategically, economically, culturally is on several orders of magnitude more important than the United States. In fact, the only real importance, diminishing daily, of the United States for Russia is the fact that US tries to sabotage (unsuccessfully) Russian economy. But if Russia gave up on the EU, what's so important for Russia in the US? US doesn't even factor in economically here.
This, however, doesn't prevent Depetris from continuing with his delusion:
But with the investigation complete, the report submitted, and the
conclusions made, the Trump administration may now have a chance to at
least explore whether the Russians are open to collaboration on fair
terms.
No, Mr. Depetris, Russians are "not open" to "collaboration on fair terms" and the only things Russia is going to discuss with the US are strategic arms limitations and the terms on which US economy will be landed. Russia doesn't want it to be a global economic catastrophe but a slow and relatively soft landing. In general, people who keep the gun to your head do not "collaborate", they usually dictate conditions, but I am sure Daniel Depetris knows all about it--sarcasm is intentional. He also is not aware of a simple fact of the United States committing final act of cultural suicide in Russia. If Depetris doesn't comprehend that, nothing will prevent him from continuing to write a delusional rubbish such as his piece in TAC.
UPDATE: Masha Zakharova explains as eloquently as always (Skabeeva's shoes are always top) things which Depetris obviously doesn't understand.
