Strategic Culture Foundation...

 ... editorial board wrote a magnificent piece for Victory Day. I suggest you read it all, but here is a very important paragraph:

The contribution to defeat Nazi Germany by American, British and other volunteer soldiers from Western nations was not insignificant. But the “second front” that opened with the Normandy Landings in June 1944 is ridiculously overblown by Hollywood and self-serving Western narcissistic propaganda. The long-delayed D-Day landings were a relatively supplemental part to the massive damage that the Soviet people had already inflicted on the Eastern Front beginning in June 1941. Between 80 and 90 percent of German military casualties were incurred from numerous phenomenal battles, from Stalingrad to Kursk, Odessa to Kiev, and many more. The defeat of Nazi Germany was not just an incredible military triumph, it was a victory over death, and not just for Russians, but for humanity as a whole. World War Two was the greatest, most heinous event in recent centuries, if not the last two millennia. The industrialized genocide of millions of civilians, the carpet bombing of cities, and the dropping of atomic bombs on innocents, all produced up to 70 to 100 million deaths. The destruction of life was unprecedented. Arguably, World War Two can be said to be the most catastrophic, evil event in human history. 

The reason I post this is because Colonel Macgregor yet again, at Judge Napolitano's podcast, referred to one of the most rabid falsifiers of Russian history such as Solzhenitsyn and, especially so, of the Great Patriotic War. This is one of the major reasons why Solzhenitsyn's mediocre writing has become a part of CIA's ops and his pseudo-philosophical drudgery was given wide circulation in the West. Why does Colonel constantly refer to all kinds of second-rate if not a-historical sources such as Anthony Beevor, clownish propagandist Norman Davis or completely ignores what Glantz and House had to say after 2010, is understandable. The editorial from SCF nails it, because it exposes West's propaganda which served only one purpose--to self-aggrandize and scare the shit out of own population with the myth of those Russkie barbarians who kill "tens of millions" of people in GULAG, who execute "one million" of own soldiers because of the retreats at the center of which is Nazi propaganda, which was used by... Solzhenitsyn himself, through concoctions of "professor" Kurganov (Koshkin)--a Nazi sympathizer and propagandist who found a safe haven in the US. How... expected. 

So, Macgregor, obviously, doesn't serve his reputation well, when he begins to discuss the subject which requires at a minimum a great knowledge of Russian language, literature, culture, idiosyncrasies and... real statistics which can easily be obtained in the Central Archive of Armed Forces of Russian Federation in Podolsk. I know, it is difficult to face realities of our times, but you see--I survived, and I lost way more than Macgregor can even imagine. So, vilifying, if not utterly dehumanizing Russian history and Russian people by repeating caricatures and Nazi propaganda is not going to remove the meeting with the reality and a historic mirror which the United States is afraid to look into.      

The defeat of Nazi Germany was not just an incredible military triumph, it was a victory over death, and not just for Russians, but for humanity as a whole. World War Two was the greatest, most heinous event in recent centuries, if not the last two millennia. The industrialized genocide of millions of civilians, the carpet bombing of cities, and the dropping of atomic bombs on innocents, all produced up to 70 to 100 million deaths. The destruction of life was unprecedented. Arguably, World War Two can be said to be the most catastrophic, evil event in human history. Thus, by the same token, the victory over the perpetrators should also be elevated to the honor of the most important liberating event. And never should it be forgotten that the Soviet people hold the honor of largely securing that victory for humanity.

But yes, it is, of course, Stalin who killed most Russians... in accordance to Solzhenitsyn. And no, Putin is not his follower, Putin was Director of FSB and he knows all too well who Russian "intelligentsia" and "dissidents" have been and are. He used Solzhenitsyn as a prop when political expedience dictated it--not to scare the shit out of Russian oligarchs, many of who loved Solzhenitsyn's scribbles--no, by far not all of them have been of Jewish ancestry--before Russian state recuperated and started getting back what rightfully belongs to Russian people. Most importantly--their historic memory in which Solzhenitsyn rightly occupies the place of traitor and vlasovite.  

A View From The White House. Larry's Take.

And I quote:

This week marks, as you all know, the anniversary of the — of the end of World War Two in Europe and the victory of the United States and Allied forces over fascism and aggression on the continent.

This is today's press briefing. Make your own conclusions. But Larry makes an important observation:

Who remembers? The nations and peoples who paid the most blood and who endured the most pain, that is who. Between China and Russia, as many as 56 million of their soldiers and civilians perished in that conflict. At least 26 million Russians at the hands of the Nazis while as many as 30 million Chinese were exterminated by Japanese soldiers. Those are staggering numbers and Americans simply have nothing in their experience to be able to grasp the magnitude of such losses. That is why Russia remembers and the grand children and great grandchildren of Soviet soldiers still march once a year carrying placard with the photos of their courageous ancestor. War on the scale experienced by Russia between 1941 and 1945 made an indelible tattoo, carved with blood on the soul of all Russians. The failure of American politicians and the average citizen to understand this profound fact helped create the war in Ukraine. 

Exactly. Read the whole thing at Larry's blog.

When It All Became Clear...

I wrote about it in my first book. This concert in 2015 was a message. No, it was NOT about Russia trying to "restore" USSR--Russians don't want this. But it was about remembering one's history. And when those kids came out with the background of the banner which means so much for anyone who lost many in he family, as my family did--we are typical--this is when people recognized what was told to them. 

Very few media events have such an impact--this one is among the strongest in a century. It was and is about Russia staying Russia.

"We liberated them... and they will never forgive us for it..."(c)

This famous Zhukov's quip was prescient. It all came true. Germans hate Russians because they sustained a crushing defeat in 1945. Western "democracies" hate Russia, Soviet Union being a historic Russia, because they know who actually defeated Axis forces, and because West's military mythology has its roots in stolen valor claims that it was the US who defeated Nazism. They continue to rewrite history, today, on the eve of May 9 Victory Day. Here is Konrad Adenauer's fund. Some Ph.D. from Germany writes:

Am 8. Mai 1945 wurden nicht nur ganz Europa, sondern gerade auch die Deutschen von der Tyrannei des Nationalsozialismus befreit. Auch die Sowjetunion war an der Befreiung beteiligt, anders als die Westalliierten hatte sie allerdings nicht den Liberalismus, sondern einen neuen Totalitarismus im Gepäck. Angesichts des russischen Überfalls auf die Ukraine zeigt sich nun, dass auch der vermeintliche Sieg des Liberalismus 1989/90 nicht von Bestand war. Die außen- und sicherheitspolitischen Versäumnisse des Westens und besonders auch Deutschlands seither lassen sich damit nicht mehr beiseiteschieben. 

Translation: On May 8, 1945, not only the whole of Europe, but also the Germans in particular were liberated from the tyranny of National Socialism. The Soviet Union was also involved in the liberation, but unlike the Western Allies, it did not bring liberalism with it, but a new totalitarianism. In view of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is now clear that even the supposed victory of liberalism in 1989/90 was not to last. The foreign and security policy failures of the West and especially Germany since then can no longer be brushed aside.

 

Ah, yes, those side-show Rooskies subhumans who ALSO took part in "liberation" by destroying 80% of creme de la creme Axis power and demolishing German National-Socialism nightmarish slave and death machine. But who cares. You can read this pseudo-academic schizophrenic piece by this Ph.D. Matthias Oppermann and it will give you a good understanding why there is nothing to discuss with the West. What can one possibly discuss with people influenced by "history" from Anthony Beavor, Anne Applebaum or this German "defender" of liberalism. That is why the desire to spoil for Russians the Victory Day Parade at the Red Square is so irresistible--the combined West is sustaining, as I type this, the handing of its ass on the platter in Ukraine, it happens in Syria (US pilots now turn their targeting complexes on trying to spook Russian pilots with "lock on" in Syria) and elsewhere and the desperation is palpable. 

But it is the Victory Day Parade at the Red Square which hurts them the most, because it is the day when Russia demonstrates and states unequivocally who and how defeated German National-Socialism and why this is being done for the second time on a global scale, this time defeating yet another iteration of the totalitarian ideology known as globalism and its concentrated expression through Pax Americana much of whose mythology is built around stealing the credit for the defeat of Hitler. This time, however, it is different--never again the foot of Russian soldier should step on the European soil, even when they will scream, and they will, for help--let them deal with what's coming themselves. If they die, Europe was dead already for decades spiritually, physical death will be the only natural outcome. 

 

Meanwhile, I congratulate you all with Victory Day and want to remind you that the history of WW II in the West is not a history, with some notable exceptions, but primarily a field for falsifications in order to justify on-going ugly mutations of modern "liberalism". In the end, there is very little difference between war criminals in Washington in 2023 and war criminals in Berlin of 1941.   

Contributions and Costs.

This is not my headline, it is the title of the major concluding chapter in classic Glantz and House's Great Patriotic War history work: When Titans Clashed: How The Red Army Stopped Hitler. This book by two honorable US Army officers and scholars is of such power, that it continues (since its first edition in 1995) to serve as a holy water poured in buckets over the devil of Western "revisionism" and rewriting the history of the WW II.  Here is Larry Johnson's very much similar take on Victory Day. 

Russia is still celebrating their victory over Nazi Germany. 9 May is the day the Germans surrendered to the allies with the Russians at the table. Why do you suppose that this is still a hallowed event in Russia while the vast majority of Americans ignore the end of Nazi Germany as something worth commemorating? The answer lies in history. If you ask an educated American who has some grasp of history about the bloodiest battles U.S. troops have fought, the top three are the Battle of Gettysburg (i.e., the American Civil War), the Battle of the Bulge and Iwo Jima. But I believe that 99% of that lot do not know how many actually died in battle. I think you will be surprised by the number of fatalities:

• Battle of Gettysburg–3,155 Union and 3,903 Confederates killed in action.
• Battle of the Bulge–19,276 killed.
• Battle of Iwo Jima–6,821 killed.

The bloodiest campaign in any war for the United States was Normandy, which started on 6 June 1944 and terminated on 25 August 1944 with a total of 29,204 killed in action. Raise your hand if you are surprised by the relative paucity of fatalities. Count me as one of the dumbfounded. I am not suggesting that these are meaningless numbers. If one of those who died in these battles was a member of your family the cost cannot be measured. But the reality is that the number of United States military personnel killed in action in the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War combined pales in comparison with the losses the Soviet Union (i.e., Russia) suffered in World War II.

Larry then justifiably goes into comparisons. And yet, Vladimir Putin who, as we all know is about to succumb to cancer, Parkinson's, dementia, HIV, COVID-19 and whatever other illnesses are out there, in accordance to human trash aka Western MSM journos, in his speech to Parade and the nation at the Red Square yesterday said:

Meanwhile, the West seems to be set to cancel these millennia-old values. Such moral degradation underlies the cynical falsifications of World War II history, escalating Russophobia, praising traitors, mocking their victims’ memory and crossing out the courage of those who won the Victory through suffering. We are aware that US veterans who wanted to come to the parade in Moscow were actually forbidden to do so. But I want them to know: We are proud of your deeds and your contribution to our common Victory. We honor all soldiers of the allied armies – the Americans, the English, the French, Resistance fighters, brave soldiers and partisans in China – all those who defeated Nazism and militarism.

Well, too bad Western elites have no concept of class and honor. But then again, sore losers who know price of everything and value of nothing are all like that.  

This is Russian ambassador to Poland Sergei Andreev during laying the wreath at the Red Army cemetery in Warsaw. 

He was doused with red paint by the protesters. Here is how Fox reported on that. Read the comments under that. That gives explanation to why Russia is not talking to the West anymore. But that is not what is remarkable about this whole thing. No. It is the fact that Poland's Minister of Internal Affairs (Interior Minister)--in Europe these are ministers of police and internal security--Mariusz Kaminski actually justified this attack. 

“The gathering of opponents of Russian aggression against Ukraine, where the crime of genocide takes place every day, was legal,” Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski added. “The emotions of Ukrainian women taking part in the demonstration, whose husbands are fighting bravely in defense of their homeland, are understandable.”

Well,  what can I say. Just repeat what I said above--they don't know what class is. 

In related news, Dmitri Rogozin put this boy Elon Musk in his place when responded to his bragging about Space X satellites being used against Russia and Musk's "ideas" about Nazism. As Rogozin wrote in his TG:

«Выходец-миллиардер из ЮАР, чья семья сделала свой капитал в годы апартеида, хочет объяснить мне, сыну фронтовика, гражданину страны, потерявшей 27 миллионов только убитыми во время войны с фашистами, смысл слова НАЦИЗМ»

Translation: The native of South Africa, whose family accumulated its capital during Apartheid years, wants to explain to me, the son of a veteran of the front, the citizen of the country which lost 27 million people just killed alone during the war with fascism, the meaning of the word Nazism.   

As I said: you cannot buy class and honor, they don't sell it in Ivy League schools or at the Wall Street. You either have it or you don't, Western elites don't. 

In other news, however, as always, Western MSM got a huge shit-cake on their faces, again, since, as was expected, no "mobilization" was announced by Putin (it is absolutely not necessary), everybody seem to be in good spirit and healthy and, of course, apart from completely losing Popasnaya, VSU ran away from and abandoned Lisichansk and Russia organized a bloodbath for VSU at Zmeinnyi Island. To demonstrate what a sewer US MSM are, here is a snippet from May 8:

The usual contingent of Rosvgardia forces will be absent, Forbes reported, as many are fighting in Ukraine. The number of Russian infantry fighting vehicles, or Kurganets-25, participating in the parade has been cut by 50%, the media outlet said. Fewer tanks will be on display, according to The Moscow Times, likely because Ukrainian has destroyed hundreds of them.

Well, evidently cretins from Forbes missed Rosgvardia marching at the parade. But then again, what do you expect from lower forms of life.  

They will never understand.

Russia Celebrates The 76th.

I don 't know if you saw an officer from Air Defense taking his grandad (photo) to parade while driving in the AD complex on the Red Square--you can see it in the Parade video, but Russia celebrates. This is Moscow few hours ago. 

But the events near Rzhev yesterday were really remarkable. This was Russian youth doing what they needed to do because it is their calling (in Russian). 

This is the NEW generation of Russians, and they are the future. It is a good one. 

 

Israel (yes, yes, I know) also knows how the whole thing went (in Russian). In Israel 9th of May is a national holiday. 

The Victory Day Is Coming.

And I want to refer to RT's Op-ed on this issue. Its title speaks volumes. 

27 million Soviet citizens lost their lives fighting the Nazis, Westerners comparing USSR to Hitler's Germany insult their memory

It has to be stressed that those insults will not stop, they will only increase in numbers because people who hurl them have no relation to the events of WW II and, either sotto voce or openly, are upset with the fact that Third Reich didn't win and was annihilated by USSR. Enough to take a look at Ukraine and US activity there to have all answers. The hatred towards Soviets (and especially Russians) for breaking the neck of European invasion, led by the Third Reich, of the Soviet Union is easily explained and I did it not for once and each celebration of Victory Day in Russia, each march of the Immortal Regiment are having same effect on globalists as holy water sprayed on the devil. Good, that's the point. I am sure Hillary Clinton or Vicky Nuland's parents fought and died at Stalingrad or around Rzhev, so they know what they are talking about. Remember? It was Hillary who compared Putin to Hitler, but then again, for a survivor of Nazi death camps such as Hillary the criteria for comparison to Hitler are extremely clear. After all, these were Western Allies who defeated Nazism, right? 

For normal decent people around the world, however, I congratulate them with the 76th Anniversary of Victory over Nazism and conclude with this quote from RT Op-ed:

Look, you don’t have to be a communist or a Russian to admit obvious historical facts and refute blatant lies pushed by Nazi-adjacent radicals. To quote legendary American writer Ernest Hemingway, “Anyone who loves freedom owes such a debt to the Red Army that it can never be repaid.”

Happy Victory Day, friends. Or as it will be repeated both in Russia and around the world in many localities: "Nobody is forgotten, nothing is forgotten." Not my grandads for me who fought and died at the fronts of the Great Patriotic War.  

In related and less solemn news. As was predicted long time ago: 

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is working on strengthening its military base in Tajikistan and will do all it can to support the former Soviet republic amid rising tensions in Afghanistan, the RIA news agency cited President Vladimir Putin as saying on Saturday. Tajik President Imomali Rakhmon, at a meeting with Putin in Moscow, said the situation in neighbouring Afghanistan had escalated since the United States' announcement last month that it would pull out its troops, with President Joe Biden promising the withdrawal of all troops by Sept. 11. "I know you are concerned about this situation. It goes without saying, it is a valid concern," Putin said.

Yes, it is a valid concern and things will get "warmer" fairly soon in the region. I don't think Kabul government has any chance once the US is gone from Afghanistan as a coherent military force. I don't mean contractors.  

Sadly, Only In Russian.

The Victory Day is coming and Russia welcomes American and French veterans and remembers common Victory. Here is NTV with report. A very touching report about participants of the project Stalingrad-2021. 

American Charles Norman Shay was on the Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, where, being medic, he tried to save his friend who was wounded into stomach. He still remembers that day, who wouldn't--going through hell at Omaha Beach. Russian Night Witches veterans recall how French pilots from legendary Normandie-Niemen squadron would cover them from the above, with French pilots telling them in broken Russian:"Girls, don't worry, we will cover you."  

 

Veterans visited Volgograd and Charles Norman Shay, being Native American, performed Indian rituals honoring the fallen in Volgograd. 

Laurent de Gaulle also was in delegation. I don't need to elaborate on his relations with Charles de Gaulle. You can read people's comments to the first video on Youtube to understand what it all means to Russians. For them these people, be them Americans, French or Russians are simply heroes and veterans.

I Couldn't Miss That.

These are Russian girls who are military cadets from academies after their match on the Red Square at the Parade on the 24th of June. The video is extremely telling in terms of fundamental, increasing, difference in idiosyncrasies between what is known as West and Russians. Especially in relations between girls and guys. I think, that apart being easy on the eyes, it is a very representative sample of a huge cultural difference between West and Russia. This difference is what plays to Russia's strength. 

That is why US Embassy in Moscow flying the LGBT flag was received by overwhelming majority of Russians as a public self-humiliation by the US. In Russia, these girls and guys are real elite. 

Construction Of Russia's Armed Forces Main Catherdral Is Finished.

David Hackett Fischer makes an interesting observation about Cathedral at Chartres:

The great cathedral was both a religious and economic institution. At the same time it was vital to its community in another way. Every great work of architecture is a cultural symbol. Chartres was a case in point. The beautiful cathedral perfectly symbolized an era that Charles Homer Haskins called the Renaissance of the twelfth century. 

Renaissance, as in revival, rebirth, and spiritual come hand in hand and there is no event in Russian history over a thousand years which can compare in its impact and formative power than Great Patriotic War. This war is a litmus test, it is a defining characteristic which separates truly Russian person from the rest. Today, on May 9th, 2020 a final attempt to truly immortalize this war and what has been achieved and what and who were lost succeeded and it is beyond the word spectacular, it is breathtaking. Sergei Shoigu, I think knew that he was also leaving a memory of himself when starting this construction. Just take a look--every real Russian knows now where the place of true pilgrimage in Russia is. Even if you are an atheist you heart will beat faster when entering this holy site. I know, mine will. 

Just recall how truly great Russian mind defined the victory--not just in material terms--but primarily spiritual ones.  

Not that sort of victory which is defined by the capture of pieces of material fastened to sticks, called standards, and of the ground on which the troops had stood and were standing, but a moral victory that convinces the enemy of the moral superiority of his opponent and of his own impotence was gained by the Russians at Borodino…The direct consequence of the battle of Borodino was Napoleon’s senseless flight from Moscow… and the downfall of Napoleonic France, on which at Borodino for the first time the hand of an opponent of stronger spirit had been laid"(c)

I think new Cathedral embodies this spirit. Happy Victory Day all.  

It Is Victory Day In Former Soviet Union Today.

27 million Soviet Citizens, most of them civilians, more than 11 million Red Army soldiers and officers died freeing the world from the scourge of Nazism. But not according to Pentagon, whose history is a bit fuzzy and whose "historians" today placed the "milestones" about VE-Day with a single mentioning of the USSR in it--like this:

I am not going to discuss a deliberate lie about the start of the WWII, but I can assure Pentagon's "historians" that none of them has biographies such as my or millions other Russian and, in general, Soviet families, who had half of the families, especially male parts wiped out by the war on the fronts of what is generally known in the West as Eastern Front. Pentagon, which can show very little for its military "successes" resorted to a normal modern Western practice of rewriting the history and stealing  the valor. Sadly, there is no Stolen Valor Act in international relations but what Pentagon's "historians" do not understand that not only they have very weak basic arithmetic behind their numbers, they also expose themselves as ignoramuses who have zero understanding of military history by "splitting" Eastern Front from the Western one, where no VE-Day could have occurred if not for 80% of cream of the cream of Axis troops annihilated in the East. But then again, when all "victories" happen only in media space, it is not surprising that such excrement of a "history" appears on Pentagon's site. 

Maria Zaharova already commented on this pathetic attempt to rewrite history (in Russian). Including quoting today's article in Der Spiegel by Germany's Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and historian Andreas Wirshing that it was Germany alone who, by attacking Poland, unleashed WW II. But never mind, I knew that rewriting of history is the main task of US Mini-true in a desperate attempt to hide the truth about the single formative event of our present world we all live in, the event from which the United States profited greatly on the ruins of the post-WWII world. It is disgusting to see this, especially at the 75th Anniversary of the Victory and it is paramount to hold, which is the plan, Victory Parade at the Red Square followed by the massive marches of Immortal Regiment. Due to Covid-19 epidemic, millions of people in Russia today will be putting photos of their relatives who fought in that war on the fronts and in the rear in the windows of their houses and apartments--these are the numbers which are beyond the grasp of Pentagon's "court" historians who have no clue about proportionality and scale of the effort to defeat the most powerful military machine in history. So, my best wishes and congratulations to my friends all over the globe with the 75th Anniversary of Victory in the most horrific war in human history. 

Austria's Federal Chancellor asked Putin to address Austrian nation on this 75th. Unprecedented. 

Putin In His Own Words.

About Trump making it to Moscow on 9 May, 2020. 

Do not forget to turn on English Caption. But what is remarkable about this short comment from Putin is the phrase that he suggests that for Trump being in Moscow on May 9th is actually a very good move in his re-election campaign. This is a remarkable statement from Putin, knowing what kind of shit is unfolding now in the US with a sham of "impeachment hearings" and US media going hysterical. Knowing who Putin is and assuming, correctly, his excellent briefings and situational awareness of the state of the affairs in the US, this suggestion could have come only if he would be sure that it will not damage Trump's position. While, of course, expecting inevitable psychotic reaction from US media. As I stated, the best way to arrange that would be not just Trump standing together with Putin at the Red Square podium, but US Armed Forces battalion marching in this Parade. The rumor has it, that Macron is now planning being in Moscow in the same time (in Russian), especially after being snubbed by combined West at Paris Peace Forum which just concluded a couple days ago. 

Judging by one of few real fighters in GOP, the man who effectively killed Russiagate, Devin Nunes, he has a lot to say about this whole sham by Democratic Party today. 

I think we didn't hear the last from this real fighter, who, for all my indigestion from GOP, is one of few men who has right words about this seditious treason Democrats and their lapdog whores, aka, mainstream media are trying to commit. So, who knows, this May 9th Celebration of 75th Anniversary of defeat of Nazism with Trump and, hopefully, Allies' troops may not be too far fetched. But we need to be patient and, as they say, prepare for the worst, while hoping for the best.   

A Teeny-Weeny Bit Of News From Germany.

I respect Germans, not the perverts from the so called German "left", but real Germans who understand who they are and have ideas about Germany other than guidelines dictated from the swamp of the modern political creatures at the service of globalism. But even globalist shills understand that if Germany has any chance to survive in whatever shape and not be consumed by the United States against which Germany's very high energy cost manufacturing is a very weak hand, Germany needs affordable energy. Bundestag obviously understands that:

Berlin (AP) - The Bundestag has cleared the way for the controversial gas pipeline Nord Stream 2. With the votes of the coalition parliamentary groups CDU / CSU and SPD as well as the FDP the conversion of an EU gas guideline into national law was decided. This should provide legal and planning certainty for Nord Stream 2. The Greens raised sharp criticism. A proposal for a decision on the draft law that has now been adopted is concerned with the addition of a time-limit until when exceptions to certain provisions of the Directive are possible. It is now said that "all circumstances" of the individual case must be taken into account. The amendment to the EU Gas Directive adopted in April stipulates that in future EU energy rules will also apply to pipelines that run from third countries to the European Union. According to this, the production of natural gas and the operation of the pipeline must not be in the same hands - unlike before in Nord Stream 2. 

The only issue I have with this is that Nord Stream 2 is called "controversial". Well, for European Greens who are primarily an open-door asylum for mentally disabled people it is "controversial", it is, of course, controversial for the United States. But then again, everything Russia-related is controversial for the United States, including down right embarrassing maneuvering around Turkish S-400s. 

WASHINGTON, Nov 10 (Reuters) - The United States is very upset about Turkey's purchase of Russian missile defense systems and could impose sanctions on Ankara if it does not "get rid" of them, White House National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien said on Sunday. "Turkey will feel the impact of those sanctions," O'Brien told CBS's "Face the Nation" in an interview, referring to penalties under the U.S. law known as the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which he said would pass Congress with "overwhelming" bipartisan support.

This will continue across the whole spectrum of the American foreign so called "policy" issues but it will not change couple of facts "on the ground" which became clear for anyone with half-a-brain observing American behavior in the last 5 or so years. 

1. Nord Stream 2, of course, never was about US "concern" about "security" of Europe's energy supply. It was always about opening European market for American expensive LNG while simultaneously providing a double-whammy by raising costs of European, especially German highly energy consuming, manufacturing thus reducing competitiveness of Germany's products. This, and then, of course, Russia--since 1970s the United States were in constant opposition to any Soviet/Russian supply of Europe with affordable energy. Soviet Union then and Russia today were not and are not supposed to benefit from selling energy and, while doing so, establishing better economic relations which served as an impediment to any war plans against Soviet/Russian "threat". 

2. This pathetic charade about F-35 (or F-22) should really be dropped by now. Not only they are seen by S-400s, they are seen by S-300s, and especially are seen by integrated Air Defense using normal sensor-data-fusion techniques across the whole spectrum from optical to radio. They are also seen by the radar or OLS of such aircraft as SU-30SM, SU-35C and SU-57. Even the latest butt-hurt BS propagated by all kinds of tabloids such as The National Interest pushing some lame rumors about supposedly S-500 being "tested" in Syria is yet another link in this long chain of BS claims to save "reputation" of one of the most embarrassing military programs, or rather failures, in the history of humanity. 

But in all of this, one can easily see machinations and desperate attempts to save what Obama Administration and its so called Intelligence Community thought would be a sure thing--to lure and then lock Russia in with the shithole both US and EU helped to create in Ukraine. When it became obvious that Russia didn't take the bait and forestalled the United States first with Crimea and, secondly, in Syria it became clear that the only value of the Ukrainian madhouse for the United States and the Belt of Stupid (US lapdogs from Poland and Baltic States) is in trying to coerce Russia to continue to finance Nazi low lives in Kiev through the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine. "Smart" plan--making Russians pay for the chaos near their border. Well, considering ignorant petulant infantiles populating US "analytical" circles, this master plan was calculated well in advance and all necessary steps were taken.  You all know the story--I call it a Revelation Mode and, in fact, I may reiterate again (and why not?), the emergence of a new TOOD (Theater Of Operation Denial) Doctrine. All this happened in an instant when looked at it in historic terms. I had this discussion with Paul Craig Roberts and others not for once: compare the start-state and the end-state, between 2014 and 2019. We all live in a completely different world than it was in 2014. I mean completely, it is already unrecognizable for those who have an attention span longer than the time between commercials in SitCom and who opened their minds to seeing obvious things. 

Here is the deal. The way I see it. Hopefully by that time this pathetic show with "Impeachment" will be over and many people (if to believe that AG Barr and DOJ have any balls and integrity left) who are today omnipresent in US media will be locked away. That time is being May 9, 2020--the 75th Anniversary of the defeat of Nazism. Russia already issued invitation to Donald Trump to attend the undeniably grandiose parade in the Red Square. If the seditious treasonous coup is squashed early next year, Trump has a choice, an enormously powerful choice--if he goes to Moscow he may get along with himself a unified battalion of the US Armed Forces for it to march at the Red Square at the Parade. The precedent was set in 2010. After all, USSR and the United States were big allies. Who knows, suddenly UK and France may "reconsider" (wink, wink). But we'll see how it plays out. But yes, it will take draining of the swamp, but can you imagine the power of such a message? In the end, there are always American and British flags present every year in a massive river of humanity walking in an Immortal Regiment March. I think that is more important, even if for a day, than any geopolitics.     

About Immortal Regiment Again...

The whole world marches--from Russia, France, USA, Israel, Serbia, Great Britain, Ukraine... When this will be grasped....

 

To Understand Russia...

No translation needed here. I saw today in Immortal Regiment March not only all ethnicities of Russia and former USSR, but children and grandchildren of French heroes of the legendary Normandie-Niemen regiment, there was even British MP with the photo of her grand-dad--a veteran of Allied Convoys, there were Americans, Serbs, you name it. The scale of it is massive (more than one million in Moscow alone), the geography--too. And youth, everywhere, they are--the future of Russia. 

 

Victory Day "Wrap Up".

One photo (among few below) which struck me this Victory Day was not from Moscow, which recorded 850 000 people, biggest ever,  marching in Immortal Regiment, nor even St.Petersburg (Leningrad, of course) with its mammoth 700 000 march. It was expected from Volgograd (Stalingrad), Sevastopol. But it was Vladivostok which really did it for me. 

   

  

You are not Russian if you don't know your Kalashnikov

Each year, more and more youngsters join this and each year, one can sense how, despite all efforts, all those "rukopozhatnye" (hand-shaking capable--meaning uber-liberal so called "intelligentsia") cringe and squeal as a devil at the sight of a cross, you can hear how Solzhenitsyn rotates in his grave, how all those who denigrated Russian history of the 20th Century are going apoplectic. Arctic Fox beautifully put it in one of the Sal's Blog threads about new mythology being born in Russia. I do, however, have a slight correction--it was always there, it is just that it was buried in 1990s under the layer of lie, propaganda, hatred and outright russophobia by the so called  new Russian "elites". If there is a sign of a complete break from 1990s it is this Immortal Regiment. Does Putin understand what he had started? I think he does, hopefully this understanding will manifest itself in what overwhelming majority of Russians wait from him, and it is better be soon. 

   

Victory Day

It has been 72 years but for Russians those events remain as close as ever. A generation who missed its grandfathers (and grandmothers) due to Great Patriotic War is still around. Yours truly is from this generation. Those granddads (somebody's fathers) and grand-moms (somebody's moms) died in millions on the fronts of the bloodiest war in human history, they were also herded and shipped to Nazi Germany--many to concentration camps, others as slaves to the superior race, which wanted to keep about 14 million of Slavic untermensch alive, as slaves, raise to the ground Moscow and Leningrad and annihilate of move beyond Urals other 100 millions. Russians, and other nations of Soviet Union, rejected this fate. 

Barbarossa was not just Nazi Germany's quest for the thousand year Reich, it was, yet again, West's crusade on historic Russia, that time known as Soviet Union. As with 1814, with Russian Army marching into Paris, in 1945 the Red Army took Berlin and the new world, we all still live in, was born. But those who control the past control the future and West's propaganda machine was working overtime for this: 

        

Speaks volumes, while tomorrow millions of Russians, Ukrainians, Belorussians, Kazakhs, Tatars, Bashkirs, you name them, will march in Immortal Regiment columns wearing portraits and memorabilia of those who fought at the gates of Moscow, at Stalingrad, at Kursk, fought for Leningrad, those who took Berlin and who demolished Wehrmacht and SS. 

Those who care and who know, I wish you a happy Victory Day, including Soviet Union's valiant Allies who fought bravely. They are remembered always. I hope to see them at Red Square in the stands during parade and in Immortal Regiment march. 

Victory Day (День Победы).

To everyone who still holds dear historic truth and civilization--with  Victory Day. Eternal memory for those who demolished Nazism.

With Unified Strike

A very touching story (in Russian). Recently deceased veteran of Allied Convoys to USSR, Peter Skinner left his battle awards to Murmansk school children. 

Immortal Regiment

It has been three days since the end of celebration of the 70th Anniversary of Victory in Great Patriotic War in Russia. A lot has been already written about a magnificent parade and what happened after it. I decided to take several days to come to terms with what really happened. Here are some of my thoughts.

The parade was magnificent and so is the hysteria in Western media. In fact, it is enjoyable. In the culture dominated by shallow appearances, manipulation of perceptions, which somehow is called political "science" and "journalism" (one may even get Ph.D in these "fields") and with the lack of substance, Moscow's parade was a sight to behold precisely for its substance, not, however magnificent, appearance. I will omit here the obvious geopolitical impact of political leaders, representing about the half of the planet's population, being present on the Red Square--so much for "isolation"--I want to concentrate on other signs. 

1. "Armata". The bad news for West's "hawks" (most of them--chickenhawks, who never served a day in any armed forces) are next:

a) "Armata" platform and T-14 Armata Main Battle Tank is not about some appearances, albeit the tank and family of Kurganets and Armata-platform vehicles do look futuristic, but about what Russian Armed Forces were working on since mid-2000s--Net Centric Warfare (NCW). The NCW concept is a brain child of brilliant late American Admiral Cebrowski disclosed to the military world in late 1990s and it is evolving ever since. The idea of nodes, constituting a network, whose value is proportional to the number of nodes (Metcalf's Law) and their interactions, sensor and data fusion, issues of information superiority are immensely powerful ideas capable to define the outcome on the future battlefield. 

For those interested, a superb summary by Alberts, Garstka and Stein:

NETWORK CENTRIC WARFARE : Developing and Leveraging Information Superiority  

 Well, T-14 Armata is it. The tank has an unprecedented array of sensors, including AESA radar, which makes it possible to create a whole coverage over battlefield and be both a node and a command node fully integrated into the network. Tank is also capable of operating unmanned, as a drone. Throw in here all those other pesky things like the system of defense and countermeasures and you get the picture. It is the future. But Russia, is not supposed to be able to field more than several prototypes because its economy is "shredded to pieces" (c) and sanctions are about to destroy it?  Right? Wrong! 

b) During Putin's meeting with military-economic block in Sochi today it was revealed (drum roll) that Russian Armed Forces are financed fully and, in fact, the tempo of modernization only increased. 

Meeting in Sochi (in Russian--Ria.RU)  

 c) So, all those "analysts" who are going apoplectic at their, yet another, failure to predict anything (it will happen to you once you begin to trust Russian "liberal" sources and US NGOs in Russia), understand what is going on as much as I understand the rules of blernsball from Futurama. 

Obviously, not all of those US "Russia specialists" are dumb as f.cks (most are, however), Roger McDermot of US Army Staff College certainly recognized (within the wrong framework, though) what was going on long before T-14 rolled out to the Red Square.

Russian Perspective on Network-Centric Warfare

So, basically, Russia rolled out a completely NCW capable armored force and with it, Russia defined the future of the warfare as based in the combined arms operations by large formations. Remember COIN? Big continental powers are not defined by COIN capability, they are defined by the ability to sustain standing armies capable of large scale operations. Russia simply reclaimed its status, she also presented the best weapons available for the job of being independent and militarily mighty nations which will not take sh.t from anyone, including US and NATO. The hysteria in the West (and especially in US) ensued. Ah yes...T-14 and Armata-platform vehicles look...gorgeous and sexy. 

d) If the decision to resume production of TU-160s turns out to be a practical decision, and there are no reasons to believe otherwise so far, considering Russia's arsenal of cruise missiles this could be a very bad news for proponents of Prompt Global Strike since Kh-101 missile is a true stand off weapon which could be launched way beyond the reach of US interceptors. 

2. But it was the Immortal Regiment march of 12 million all over Russia (500 000 in Moscow alone) which did what no military technology is capable of. On May 9, all over Russia, spirits of Borodino and Stalingrad, Kursk and Battle of Moscow were present. Because, as Tolstoy stated in the greatest prose ever written:

"But all the general and soldiers of [Napoleon’s] army…experienced a similar feeling of terror before an enemy who, after losing half his men, stood as threateningly at the end as at the beginning of the battle. The moral force of the attacking French army was exhausted. Not that sort of victory which is defined by the capture of pieces of material fastened to sticks, called standards, and of the ground on which the troops had stood and were standing, but a moral victory that convinces the enemy of the moral superiority of his opponent and of his own impotence was gained by the Russians at Borodino…The direct consequence of the battle of Borodino was Napoleon’s senseless flight from Moscow… and the downfall of Napoleonic France, on which at Borodino for the first time the hand of an opponent of stronger spirit had been laid"(c)

Tolstoy, War And Peace.  

Russia finally found its spiritual pivot, and the totality of an immense Russian culture and history finally fused together in the midst of those millions of people who carried photos of their relatives who defeated Naziism. That, the historic memory of people, the immense shared historic experience, can not be erased and it will not be erased. That is the victory which the whole world, some with joy, others spewing bile, observed on May 9. And that was way more important than any parade or an advanced military technology, which are the derivatives of the national spirit, which finally found the way out. 

    

Victory Day

May 9th is approaching--it is a solemn day, it is also a day which honest, decent people around the world will remember forever. The day, when humanity's historic singularity ended. It ended in the ultimate destruction of Europe, especially its Eastern part, it also saw a horror of warfare in Asia. But it was the carnage of the Eastern Front which defies imagination. In the moment of rare clarity, Washington Post, today, published a piece which could have been a title of this post:

Don’t forget how the Soviet Union saved the world from Hitler 

Festivities in Moscow are coming and, of course, there will be Red Square military parade. The praises to Allies will also sound from the Presidential podium. This celebration, however, will be without Western Allies' stately presence. They are "offended" and "insulted", well it is their loss. In the end, the ultimate destruction of Wehrmacht, in battles without parallels in human history, happened on the Eastern Front. The meaning of that destruction was not what one of the Obama's "femme fatales", UN Ambassador   Samantha Power dared to cynically promote in her abhorring UN General Assembly speech, by quoting Tanya Savicheva's diary. The destruction of Nazi military machine was NOT about some "principles" Power implied. It was for survival of humanity and sanity, and the scale of this sacrifice by all those 27 million Soviet people will remain incomprehensible for her, no matter number of worthless Ivy League degrees in humanities she, or people who lit the current world on fire, accumulate and whom she so passionately serves by lying, will ever understand. 

But it is Victory Day in Russia and my intentions are simple: I praise the heroism and sacrifice of tens of millions Soviet people who demolished Nazism, I also praise and bow in gratitude to Western Allies, who did their duty heroically--we, Russians, always remembered. I will raise the toast today, also, for my three (yes, my grandma remarried) grandfathers-all three fought, one survived. The only one grandfather I knew and still love deeply. For every Russian it is always personal. So, with the Victory Day!

С Днём Победы!