Now EU Wants To "Descalate".

Obviously it doesn't work like this, but then again Western political "elites" are nothing more than a collection of petulant children. Plus, it is Vladimir Putin's inauguration tomorrow. 

МОСКВА, 6 мая/ Радио Sputnik. Евросоюз призывает Россию прекратить эскалацию, заявил официальный представитель внешнеполитической службы ЕС Петер Стано. Так на брифинге в Брюсселе он прокомментировал предстоящие ракетные учения ВС России. "Мы призываем Россию прекратить эскалацию, безответственную риторику и безответственное поведение", – приводит РИА Новости его слова. В понедельник, 6 мая, в Минобороны сообщили, что президент России Владимир Путин поручил начать подготовку к учениям по применению нестратегического ядерного оружия.

Translation: MOSCOW, May 6/ Radio Sputnik. The European Union calls on Russia to stop the escalation, said EU foreign policy spokesman Peter Stano. Thus, at a briefing in Brussels, he commented on the upcoming missile exercises of the Russian Armed Forces. “We call on Russia to stop the escalation, irresponsible rhetoric and irresponsible behavior,” RIA Novosti quotes him as saying. On Monday, May 6, the Ministry of Defense reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the start of preparations for exercises on the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons.

Poor, poor dears, they still don't get it what game they got themselves into.  Eight years ago I wrote this:

These are, so called, five guiding principles of the EU policy towards Russia.  If there ever were any doubts about EU being run by imbeciles, after these remarks they should be completely dispelled. Things, and people, should be called their proper names. It is not enough for Europe to be reduced to the status of Turkish whore, now it wants to outdo itself in dealing with the last real ally this emasculated geographic appendix of Eurasian land mass can possibly have before being turned completely into "multicultural" cloaca. To be sure, Europe is heading this way, but, what is most important, it doesn't have any tools of dealing with this situation, among many other problems it faces.  

Europe is Tabaqui to America's grossly diminished Shere Khan, which is a euphemism for expendables. Today Russian Foreign Ministry using fingers (British "elite" is underdeveloped and doesn't understand situation explained in normal language) explained to UK Ambassador that next time Russia will destroy UK's military objects (installations) not just in 404 but in other places--other places ranging from Royal Navy's ships anywhere in the ocean to Cyprus air base Akrotiri. Evidently the same was told to France's Ambassador who also was called to Foreign Ministry in Moscow. The algorithm is extremely simple: you don't want to talk to Lavrov, you will talk to Shoigu. 

Remarkably, Russia's nuclear exercises are... NON-STRATEGIC nuclear exercises. That means Russia is going to exercise strikes on Europe by such nuclear means as Kinzhals, 3M22 Zircon and 3M14 Kalibr which DO NOT fall under the umbrella of strategic nuclear weapons. Any carrier of P-800 Oniks, as an example, such as nuclear powered submarines or surface ships, not to speak of carriers of those nasty 3M14M which could be launched without leaving the waters near base--all of it will be demonstrated to Europe. Especially UK and France, whose facilities where terrorism against Russia is conceived and initiated, and which are defenseless against modern standoff weapons, will be "targeted". Recall HMS Defender.   

Western nations were warned about repeated appearances of their vessels inside Russian waters last summer after the British destroyer HMS ‘Defender’ violated the country’s maritime border near Crimea. In the aftermath of the incident, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov stressed that further incursions would increase the risk of conflict. He made it very clear that Moscow would not stand for continued violations, stating that offenders would be treated “very directly and objectively.”“It must be explained to them why, next time, that they’d be better off leaving their provocations aside and not coming here because they will get a punch in the nose,” the deputy minister warned.

This time they will. It has been 42 years since the Royal Navy got bloodied at Falklands. But Russia is not Argentina, in the end, if shit hits the fan Russia can simply wipe UK off the map. Together with France... and the US. I will be talking about technical aspects of that scenario in my video.

Entirely Predicable.

As was expected and predicted, a new truce in Idlib was agreed upon by Russia and Turkey and it couldn't have been otherwise.  

A six-kilometer-wide security corridor is to be established in the area, with the militaries of the two countries given a week to agree all the details. Russian and Turkish troops will also be carrying out joint patrol missions along Idlib’s M-4 highway. The document, signed after the negotiations, underlined that both Moscow and Ankara remained committed to maintaining the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Syria. Both leaders acknowledged that the conflict in the country has no military solution and that it was up to the Syrians alone to decide the fate of their country. It was also agreed to facilitate efforts to prevent the humanitarian crisis in Idlib, while also creating conditions for the refugees to return to their homes.

I will remind you, all my online buddies and readers, again, through Deng Xiaoping's rephrasing of Clausewitz' dictum: "diplomacy is a continuation of the war by other means". You win on a battlefield, you get more at the diplomatic table, period. SAA in the last couple of weeks, granted with some help from Russia's VKS and SSO, handed Turkey its ass on a platter, showing that Arabs, after all, can do combined arms operations and SAA definitely dispels this long living (and often justified) stereotype that Arabs cannot fight modern war. Syrian Arab Army sure as hell learned a lot and, hopefully, when all this will be over, I cannot imagine how many Syria's heroes and military leaders will have, justly so, monuments erected in their honor. 

Erdogan could not, as some "experts" predicted, "dictate" anything to Putin for a simple reason--Russia has a damn good satellite constellation and SIGINT capabilities and can, and most likely did, point to Erdogan when, how and how many of his troops joined forces with Al-Qaeda outlets, thus also stating not only the obvious fact that Sultan is directly culpable in supporting Islamic Jihad, but also was given a description of what kind of casualties Turkish Army (nobody counts jihadists) will sustain if it continues to do what it did in the last couple of weeks. As I state non-stop for a long-long time, often contradicting even real Russian experts, who, actually MUST know better, Russia's first salvo of stand-off weapons would be enough to completely "switch off" Command and Control structure of a corps size force. Simple as that. All this even before any Russian VKS aircraft get busy blowing the shit out of those who think that they are smarter than everybody else. So, it is good that deescalation was agreed upon, let's see now how Erdogan will deal with the reality of his XXI century version of Ottoman Empire going down in flames. In the end, it is, indeed, only up to Syrians alone to decide what to do with their country.