The American Conservative's ...

... senior editor needs to take a few serious courses in actual history, policy and strategy--I omit here courses on operational art and operations, he will not get it--and try to write with at least a pretense of objectivity, when trying to portray Trump's sheer failure as some kind of "strategy" instead of kindergarten level hustling around SMO, trying to gain whatever could be portrayed as America's "victory" and DJT's "diplomatic triumph". I, of course, do not expect the author of this drivel to grasp the critical issue of COFM. 

Andrew Day posits:

Simply put, Washington doesn’t have big enough sticks to force Russia to stop the war—the “unipolar moment” truly is over. Fortunately, Trump has managed to engineer a large carrot that could help entice Moscow to make peace. In the opening weeks of the administration, the White House not only reestablished diplomatic contacts with the Kremlin but put on the table a grand U.S.-Russia rapprochement, which Putin seems to desire. In last week’s track II talks, the Russians conveyed a strong interest in better bilateral relations. Trump should continue to promote closer ties between Washington and Moscow but signal that failure to resolve the war in Ukraine would jeopardize this broader diplomatic project. He should also make clear—not only to Putin but to Russia hawks in Washington—that Moscow would get sanctions relief if it ended the war. If Trump, through wise deployment of carrots and sticks, manages to coax Putin to the negotiating table, he should use the peace talks not only to try resolving the current conflict but to probe Moscow’s intentions. This would require differentiating between Russian demands that arise from legitimate security concerns and those that bespeak nefarious designs. 

LOL. I like Andrew Day's insouciance and conviction that Moscow seeks:

1. Sanctions relief. No, make no mistake--this item is in the list of demands but Andrew Day should refer himself to this (barely a month ago): 

Пресс-секретарь российского лидера Дмитрий Песков призвал внимательно слушать президента России Владимира Путина в вопросе снятия антироссийских санкций. Об этом представитель Кремля сообщил в интервью журналисту ВГТРК Павлу Зарубину. «Вы знаете, если у вас возникают подобные вопросы, у меня один совет: слушайте внимательно Путина. Что сказал Путин, выступая на съезде РСПП? Никакие санкции не снимут. Санкции - это надолго, это постоянные меры по сдерживанию России», - подчеркнул политик.

Translation: The Russian leader's press secretary Dmitry Peskov called for listening carefully to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the issue of lifting anti-Russian sanctions. The Kremlin representative said this in an interview with VGTRK journalist Pavel Zarubin. "You know, if you have such questions, I have one piece of advice: listen carefully to Putin. What did Putin say when he spoke at the RSPP congress? No sanctions will be lifted. Sanctions are for a long time, they are permanent measures to contain Russia," the politician emphasized.

Russians are not naïve and know about the United States orders of magnitude more than the US knows about Russia. If people at TAC think that Russians expect any lifting of sanctions, especially from Trump, I have a bridge to sell them.

2. Restoration of a diplomatic dialogue between Russia and the US is not some kind of a goodwill gesture or carrot--it has EVERYTHING to do with:

a) Necessity of the two nuclear superpowers to stay away from escalation;

b) Trump's understanding of a pitiful state of the US military and military-industrial base;

c) A dramatic loss of the arms race by the US.

These are the main factors, together with current administration's course on (futile) preserving Ukraine as a future place d'armes against Russia, which drove DJT into his "peace" rhetoric. In some sense, Trump is just the more entertaining and coherent version of Biden and in terms of any kind of rapprochement with Russia is driven by weakness, not sincere desire to stop the bloodshed. Russians are keenly aware of that. And when Day speaks about this:

As for demilitarization, the U.S. should be open to demands that Ukraine relinquish long-range missiles, but it should resist any calls for Kiev to give up air-defense systems, land mines, and other defensive munitions. Washington might also propose to have offensive weaponry positioned in southeastern Poland for release to Ukraine only in the event of future Russian aggression.

He should learn first that all of Ukraine's "long-range missiles" have been supplied by NATO, and he also should recall this:

«Что происходит сегодня в принципе тоже понятно. По всей линии боевого соприкосновения наши войска владеют стратегической инициативой. Есть все основания полагать... Я еще совсем недавно говорил, что мы их дожмем, но есть основания полагать, что мы их добьем», — сообщил российский лидер во время беседы с моряками подводной лодки «Архангельск».

Translation: "What is happening today is also clear in principle. Along the entire line of combat contact, our troops have the strategic initiative. There is every reason to believe... I said quite recently that we will put the squeeze on them, but there is reason to believe that we will finish them off," the Russian leader said during a conversation with the sailors of the Arkhangelsk submarine.

Unlike Trump, Putin doesn't do theatrics, doesn't make grandiose statements and doesn't sell BS packaged as "achievement" and TAC people are advised to learn what "strategic initiative" is and what it all means for the United States and the Trump's Administration. This may get them some dose of much needed reality of the US sustaining a historic humiliating defeat. Defeated do not get to dictate conditions.

They Are Just Old.

I am talking about this, of course. And I mean old as in technology sense. 

The Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was “safely terminated” at 12:06am Pacific time, “due to an anomaly during a test launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California,” said the Air Force Global Strike Command. According to the US military, the missile nevertheless provided “vital data” and that the command “learns lessons from every test launch,” so it can ensure the “continued reliability and accuracy” of the Minuteman III. The command said it would form a Launch Analysis Group to investigate the cause of the anomaly, which will include representatives of the 377th Test and Evaluation Group, the 576th Flight Test Squadron, the Space Launch Delta 30 Safety Office and the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, among others. Wednesday’s test was announced by Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder in Tuesday’s press briefing, as a way to demonstrate the “redundancy and reliability of our strategic-deterrence system while sending a visible message of assurance to allies.”

Everyone gets things malfunctioning once in a while, this in and of itself is nothing special, but here is the issue--problems with the US ground-based nuclear deterrent are, however, not new. Let's recall this:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Just over half of the 183 nuclear missile launch officers at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana have been implicated in a widening exam cheating scandal, the Air Force said on Thursday, acknowledging it had “systemic” problem within its ranks. The cheating was discovered during an investigation into illegal drug possession among airmen, when test answers were found in a text message on one missile launch officer’s cell phone. The Air Force initially said 34 officers either knew about the cheating or cheated themselves.But Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told a Pentagon news conference on Thursday that the total number of implicated officers had grown to 92, all of them at Malmstrom, one of three nuclear missile wings overseeing America’s 450 inter-continental missiles, or ICBMs.

Yes, this was in 2014 and it is reasonable to assume that the problem was addressed but, read the whole piece--it explains institutional issues within US nuclear force and those are not easily addressed. And then, of course, there is this issue of technological development. Minuteman III has been around since 1970s with upgrades in 2010s, which included the replacement of the solid propellant, which do have the tendency to go bad over time. But, in the end, it is still an old missile. 

Compare this now to Russia's constant upgrade of her deterrent which includes such ICBMS as Topol-M (introduced in 1997), RS 24 Yars (introduced in 2010) and now RS-28 Sarmat which entered first line service this year. The difference cannot be starker. This is not to mention still serving RS-36M2 Voevoda (aka Satan II) introduced in 1988. I could continue the list, including 1975 introduced UR-100N Stiletto ICBM, which was now upgraded to carry Avangard hyper-sonic strategic vehicles and is in the first-line service now. So, it is not enough to just maintain but to constantly develop such a complex technology and at this stage it is clear that technology-wise the gap between Russia and the US grows and, in fact, accelerates. 

So, in this respect initial delays of two tests and now a failure of Minuteman III signify a rather precarious state which US deterrent finds itself in. In this particular case the failure was ironic since the stated goal was to send the message to allies. Well, they surely got the message. It is clear that there will be requests now for additional funding of the LGM-35A Sentinel--a replacement for Minuteman III, which should see first deployment somewhere in 2030s. Well, I guess will see if we live then, if this program will be able to lift off.

I Am Getting Tired Writing Posts With "No Shit" Or "Duh" Titles)))

Or, if you wish with "We told you so" titles. I wrote so much about US "intel" and how it is not really an intel that I don't have time to list all those occasions. But numbers of VSU (Nazi) losses during SMO which begin to circulate now give an impression on the progress of Russian operation in 404. Of course, all this info has a massive geopolitical impact, especially on the United States which, as always, came up with absolute BS narrative which is collapsing really fast. 

Well, NYT decided to start steering clear of this whole Russia "lost in Ukraine" BS it promoted together with neocon crazies, and begins this ever familiar tune of the "intel failure". Right. 

U.S. Lacks a Clear Picture of Ukraine's War Strategy, Officials Say

Hm, how about I put it bluntly--the U.S. never had clear picture on anything, especially on Russia, or, as a private case, SMO and completely bought into Ukie propaganda, which shows a complete incompetence of the "intel" in the US. 

Avril D. Haines, the director of national intelligence, testified at a Senate hearing last month that “it was very hard to tell” how much additional aid Ukraine could absorb. She added: “We have, in fact, more insight, probably, on the Russian side than we do on the Ukrainian side.” One key question is what measures Zelenskyy intends to call for in Donbas. Ukraine faces a strategic choice there: withdraw its forces or risk having them encircled by Russia.

Oh no, it is not "hard to tell", any person with a good professional military background and knowledge of Russia would have had no problems whatsoever forecasting the outcome. But those persons in the US are excluded from media and decision making circles and the US has NO serious strategic intelligence, period. Most what numerous US "think-tanks" produce is shit. 

“I’m not sure it’s in the interest of the American public or Ukrainian public to have Ukrainians be upfront about their losses if the result is it strengthens the Russian war effort,” Biddle said. “But that means we don’t really know both sides of the story.” The United States has better estimates of Russian casualties and equipment losses, a senior U.S. official said. The Defense Intelligence Agency, for example, estimates that the number of Ukraine’s soldiers killed in action is similar to Russia’s, but the agency has a far lower level of confidence in its estimate of Ukrainian losses.

No, Mr. Biddle, you don't. You never did, in regards to Russia that is. So this BS posturing about "strategy" is just that, a BS posturing of some "experts" who sense that their BS is about to be called, as usual, and they love their pseudo-academic and "intel" sinecures trying to promote themselves as professionals, which they are not whenever it comes down to real anything: geopolitics, war, economy, what have you. The issue is systemic, it is in the American education system which is completely broken  across the board, from K-12 to Ivy League and military academies, and it is really funny listening to "intel" from people who provided "intel" on Saddam's WMD, Iraq and Afghanistan. The closing paragraph says it all.

“Everything is about Russia’s goals and Russia’s prospects for meeting their goals,” Sanner said. “We do not talk about whether Ukraine might be able to defeat them. And to me, I feel that we are setting ourselves up for another intel failure by not talking about that publicly.”

No shit, pardon my French, but there is a serious doubt now in the competence of the whole governing machine in the US, and the practical results of such a governing provide a massive body of evidence to support such an assertion. Especially so in military-intelligence field where the United States moves from one disaster to another. The narrative on SMO, in reality, is dead and the failure is not being set, it already happened. It is a fait accompli no matter how one wants to put a lipstick on the pig. As per US MSM, it is a human and professional sewer, but, evidently, it is the only thing modern US governing is--shitty PR and propaganda. It is also a distillation of a severe butt-hurt and sore-loserism when seeing how real war is conducted by professionals. The numbers of 51,000 KIA and around 60,000+ of MIA of VSU seem correct (plus-minus) and we are not even talking about sanitary ones which create a grim (for 404) picture of utter rout, as well as a real failure of Western "technology". 

In related news:

Europe could be forced to start rationing energy this winter, starting with industrial uses of natural gas, especially if the winter is cold and China’s economy rebounds, the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, told the Financial Times in an interview. 

What can I say, maybe the West will learn finally the meaning of cause and effect, as well as the meaning of truly good intel, which, when done properly, would have told them that the combined West doesn't even know what it is dealing with. But not in my life time, I guess, if ever.

US Public "Education".

Quotation marks are on purpose and don't expect me to say anything new what hasn't been said before. James Kunstler wrote today a piece on the "decline" (it is actually an implosion) of US education. He writes, justifiably, sarcastically about the while scam of US university (higher that is) ed. 

I have news for you: the colleges and universities are going down hard and hardly just because Covid-19 has interrupted their business plan. Rather, because of the stupendous and gross dishonesty that higher ed has fallen into. The racketeering around college loans was bad enough but the intellectual racketeering around fake fields of study, thought-crime persecutions, and an epic sexual hysteria has disgraced the very mission of higher ed, turned it into something no better than a sick cult, and infected the rest of the culture by seeding many institutions and business enterprises with cultist graduates bent on subjecting the whole of American society to a never-ending Maoist struggle session.

Well, most modern "fields of study" in the humanities field are a complete scam and have a negative (not just zero) academic value which subtracts from already feeble set of skills of psychologically unstable but sanctimonious, nonetheless, legions of young people with applicable professional skills of a birthday party pony for a kindergarten girl, let's not go into the evaluating the number of prefabricated ass-holes among them who will never become anything but losers incapable of self-reflection. And here is THE issue: yes, one needs to be broadly educated and language and literature are an absolute must, but whatever one thinks on localism and getting back to roots, which I support wholeheartedly, let's be honest--one needs people who know how to build machines. No machines, no survival, period. 

I am not going to dwell too much on the "level" of STEM in American public schools. Unless we are talk about some fairly exclusive schools, real STEM education on the level of K-12 in the US is basically non-existent. I am not talking about Khan Academy which could be a good primer for kids who actually want to learn, but the issue is much deeper--it is the whole structure, approach to those crucial years, usually between 7th and 12th grades which lay down the foundation for any true talent to emerge and be ready to progress to become truly productive in the field which provides for true national competitiveness. One needs an environment saturated with sounds and symbols of classic math, physics and chemistry. US public school couldn't provide that for the last 40 years, now--it is over. Key interaction in those subjects both between students and competent teacher and students are already being removed, and this is just the tip of an iceberg.  

Here is an example from Khan Academy on simplest trig. identities. 

They are filthy simple and are not a nightmare for any student who actually, unknowingly, should have been ready for that in 7-8th grade when studying (that's the point--if they studied) basic forms of factoring which simply has to be, in the end, memorized, such as square of the difference/sum and difference of squares etc. But this is not how factoring is taught in the US. And then kids, even a well performing kids, encounter this (which is a regular fodder for entrance exams in Russia for any decent STEM) and implode:

These are really easy things, but they are easy when they are taught:

1) systematically with ramping up complexity;

2) when students constantly are reminded on WHY they need this both for:

  a) future professional activity;

  b) for development of synapses which are crucial. 

This has never been done on a systematic level in the US and instead of generation of people who know that knowledge is a hard labor and who want to create, we all have got the armies of "free thinkers" and poets, and Queer Studies majors, who constitute the core of (stealing from Kunstler) Maoist crowds attacking, on DNC buck and with its guidance, every single pillar on which civilization rests. You say trigonometric equations and ANTIFA debauchery are not connected? Think twice: differential equations or theoretical mechanics are hard, Queer Studies and Feminism are easy--hence the free time for rioting. Of course, Mohamed Atta example could be used as an exception, after all the dude was an excellent engineer, but we are talking about trends, not narrow particulars or separate data points. 

 

So, here is my point--what is happening in the US today is, of course, a manifestation of a critical phase of liberalism's collapse and, with it, of the economic and ideological structure on which it relied. But let's not forget, that the change is being moved by people and, in American case, very ignorant and badly educated people. Moreover, American BLM-ANTIFA cabal is an uprising of Kreakls. Recall who those are. It is a "revolution" of lumpen masses who are "not essential" and, in fact, dangerous. Looks like taking out of trash started, with federal agents disposing of an ass-hole who murdered Trump supporter in Portland. Bypassing corrupt DAs is also a great idea. Finally, something is being done. In related news, however, good public schools mean this: 

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's "Sputnik-V" COVID-19 vaccine produced an antibody response in all participants in early-stage trials, according to results published on Friday by The Lancet medical journal that were hailed by Moscow as an answer to its critics. The results of the two trials, conducted in June-July this year and involving 76 participants, showed 100% of participants developing antibodies to the new coronavirus and no serious side effects, The Lancet said. Russia licensed the two-shot jab for domestic use in August, the first country to do so and before any data had been published or a large-scale trial begun.

You see, very simple--stay in school, study hard and Lancet will write about you. Develop your synapses and see the purpose in life. Just some thoughts for Friday evening. I will try to finish a large chapter for my new book tomorrow.

For White Board MBAs.

Get this: 

(Reuters) - Boeing Co has abandoned a key automation system used to make fuselage sections for its 777 jetliners amid reports of reliability issues, and will instead partially switch back to mechanics, the planemaker said on Thursday. The company began to build 777 fuselages in 2015 in an upright orientation, with robots drilling holes and installing fasteners, an initiative known as fuselage automated upright build (FAUB). The world's biggest planemaker said it had stopped using the system which, according to industry sources, caused problems with reliability and rework issues. Boeing had faced delays last year when the FAUB machine was tried out on existing versions of the 777. Instead, the company will switch to "flex tracks" - an automated method to drill the holes along the circumference of the airplane that are then fastened manually.

Believe me, there is more to it than meets the eye. By far, I underscore it, by far not all things could be done by manipulators (aka industrial robots) and especially so in the aerospace industry where only humans can provide for a foreseeable future required input and actual quality control. Training, qualifications, education become a decisive factor. I will not disclose any secret that many companies in aerospace prefer human layup of aircraft composite parts to any "machine laying", granted that machines can do only few and less complex parts anyway. And then comes the issue of Quality Control. Yes, there are machines involved in it, many machines, some of them very sophisticated, but in the end it comes down to human supervision and decision making process that define if the aircraft flies or it fails. It is good news that Boeing made this decision--in the end, it is Quality Inspector who answers for the aircraft, not some machine which can do only so much. 

This brings a larger issue to the fore--naked numbers on "robotization" which all kinds of white board trained MBAs love to operate with, in no way defines the "strength" or otherwise of economy. Robots are useful and they will continue to be deployed but they are merely tools and sometimes can be harmful due to bad engineering and design. Boeing provided today an excellent example of that. It is one thing to drill a substandard hole in a car on the conveyor, totally another--to do so on a commercial or military aircraft. Lives of people who fly it, including those on the ground, depend on that and no amount of bookkeeping and abstract economic data can ever substitute ethical and professional attitude of people making planes. This is a real hi-tech I am talking about, not assembly of iPhones or CGI. Only designers, engineers and, in the end, production floor manufacturing specialists can have a decisive input on the production issues. 

Why? Would You Ask?

Very simple--embarrassment. 

MOSCOW, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Russia on Friday accused the United States of brazenly threatening it after a senior U.S. general said Washington had drawn up a plan in case it needed to destroy air defences in Russia's Kaliningrad exclave in Europe. U.S. General Jeffrey Harrigian said on Tuesday that "If we have to go in there to take down, for instance, the Kaliningrad IADS (Integrated Air Defense System), let there be no doubt we have a plan to go after that," the Breaking Defense magazine reported. Kaliningrad is a Russian region that lies on the Baltic Sea between EU members Lithuania and Poland. Moscow captured the region from Germany towards the end of World War Two. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova criticised the comments by Harrigian, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, at her weekly briefing in Moscow. "Firstly we consider this a threat. Secondly, we consider such statements to be absolutely irresponsible," she said. Russia's Ministry of Defence rejected Harrigian's assertion and said the region was well defended."The region of Kaliningrad is reliably protected from any aggressive 'plans' developed in Europe by U.S. generals passing through," it said in a statement.

Actually, the response in Russia was much harsher than reported and included this:

Поставленные в Турцию зенитные ракетные системы С-400 способны «десакрализировать» американские истребители F-35, заявили в Минобороны России. Ведомство заявило, что Калининградская область надежно защищена от любой агрессии, подчеркнув, что возможности системы ПВО «хорошо известны всем натовским пилотам, приближавшимся к воздушным границам РФ на Балтике», передает РИА «Новости».«В полной мере это касается и «невидимых», только для американских налогоплательщиков и зарубежных покупателей, американских истребителей 5-го поколения. Трепет и волнение Пентагона по поводу вероятной десакрализации истребителей F-35 турецкими же расчетами ЗРС С-400 небезосновательны», – отметило ведомство. 

Translation: "S-400 systems delivered to Turkey are capable to desacralize  American fighters F-35 was stated in MoD of Russia. MoD stated, that Kaliningrad Region is reliably defended against any aggression and underscored that capabilities of Air Defense System there are known to NATO pilots approaching Russia's air border over Baltic Sea, RIA News reports. In full measure this also covers "invisible", primarily for American taxpayers and foreign buyers, US 5th generation aircraft. Pentagon's trembling and worries about possible "desacralization" of F-35 by Turkish combat teams operating S-400 are not without justification."

But why such a spike of militant rhetoric? Here is why:

courtesy of Ria.Ru

The area of oil refineries had a complete radar field with excellent overlap (redundancy) by: Patriot PAC-2, PAC-3 and Aegis. Not a single missile was launched at relatively slow (subsonic) and fairly conventional drones. Not a single one! OK, I get it, I am not politically correct and I never hid my contempt for Saudi military and their modern war skills or, rather, lack thereof. But there was a number of modern detection and AD systems in the area which failed to react!!! How could this be? Russia MoD was flat out unemotional when stated yesterday (in Russian): because they do not match declared capabilities. And in English, here.  Attack on Saudi oil facilities became a dramatic confirmation of this fact. I can wax technical whatever I want here, including discussing dead (blind) zones on elevation for Patriots with 7 degrees on elevation above horizon, or about the fact that sector aiming is still needed to be performed, as opposed to Russian S-series AD systems where missiles are launched vertically and then take "a ride on the beam" towards target.  

Is this whole affair an embarrassment? Of course it is, especially when such people like Mike Pompeo begin to come up with technically illiterate lame excuses thus rubbing salt into already badly wounded ego. Can he at least shut up for a minute? Now, we are all not kiddies here, we all understand that ramifications are much greater that even rising risks of war in the Gulf Region, albeit give DJT a credit where the credit is due--he at least holds his ground, for now, in terms of attacking Iran. No, I am talking about the mid to long term ramifications for American military technology and, as an inevitable result, further acceleration of a departure form already lost to a large degree position of only superpower. So it is not surprising at all that Saudi Prince called Moscow immediately after the attack. Evidently General Jeffry Harrigian could not control his frustration and spilled the beans in a sense of classic Sun Tzu: paraded his weakness. Recall this great quote from Senator Fulbright: 

“It is simply not necessary for us to go around forever proclaiming: ‘I am the greatest!’ The more one does this sort of thing, in fact, the more people doubt it….”   

The doubt has turned into a strong conviction globally now and this has all signs of an impending and recognizable complete collapse of the remnants of Pax Americana.

Patriot's SNAFU.

Make no mistake, any complex military technology is usually very difficult to use unless one becomes a true professional and, as it is often the case, such complex systems are prone to failures. Such as S-300 here:

Yet, it seems US-made Patriot anti-missile system is unable to catch any break in terms of performance as of lately. First it failed to intercept ancient Yemeni SCUD, now this. The video is startling. 

I can only speculate on what made this missile "go back", but I experienced a friendly fire in my life and it is an incredibly unpleasant experience the moment you recognize that things get FUBAR really fast.  It was one of the closest (not the closest, though) brushes with death which I experienced as a military professional and it is definitely unique.  

This video is dramatic, indeed. As some news agencies report--one man was killed and several others were wounded on the ground in Riyadh because of this situation. So, one may then understand why both Saudis and Turks bought S-400. I have to, however, account for a recognized low standard of maintenance in Arab militaries in general and it seems with Saudis the pattern with Patriot system begins to emerge. 

In some sense this SNAFU and missile trajectory are emblematic of US foreign policy in a sense that Donald Trump and his national security people, obviously, have some bizarre understanding of the events outside the White House and if POTUS thinks that shutting down Seattle's Russian Consulate and sending 60 Russian diplomats out of the United States on a.. hm... trumped up charges in Skripal Affair are improving US-Russian relations, as he called for four days ago, one is forced to contemplate a possibility that those people in and around White House are indeed delusional. Obviously Russia's response will be symmetric and most likely US Consulate in Yekaterinburg or St. Petersburg will be shut down. There is even a probability, however low, that diplomatic relations can be completely shut down by Russia but we have to wait and see. Britanistan obviously wanted to feel in control and important when unleashing Skripal's false flag I see no harm for Russia in stopping any diplomatic relations with UK. In the end, British Defense Minister--Gavin Williamson--a guy with a vast military experience through his adult-life long managing a pottery and a fire-place manufacturing company, in a fine British tradition of Dickens' and Jerome K. Jerome's wit and elegance, demanded for Russia to "shut up and go away". I think Russia should do just that and break any contacts with UK. 

Sorting things out with the US may take longer but there is no doubt at this stage that Russian-American relations are damaged beyond repair and it would take a completely new crop of competent and non-corrupt American political leaders--a very remote perspective and prospect, if possible at all--to try to repair these relation. Trump is certainly not in this league, in fact no one is in the current American political top.  Russia, meanwhile, already did what Colin Powell wisely suggested for the US to do in 1990s--"We simply must nail a shingle to our door with the words "Superpower lives here". This is exactly what Russia did and that is why so much hysteria. But, as we all know, this too shall pass either by means of curing the patient or by means of patient's death. Looks like nobody in Russia gives a damn anymore what it should be.