Desperate Times--Desperate Measures.

Saker nails it:

The terrorist attack on NS1 and NS2, combined with all the threats and hysterics prove that the entire leadership of the West is both suffering from major butthurt AND in a full panic mode.  The blowback from all this crass stupidity will be nothing short of absolutely huge. And if the AngloZionist are dumb enough to want a shooting war, Russia will oblige, I have absolutely NO doubts about this whatsoever.

Reality is, the US was in the damage control mode for a long time now, and terrorism against pipelines is a clear sign of a desperation and is primarily reaction to decisive results of referenda. You just cannot spin anymore the fact that Russia returned to herself a territory one and a half times larger than that of the whole of Benelux, which also happens to be the producer of 80% of (former) Ukraine's GDP. You just cannot spin this with clogging media with useless and meaningless tactical minutiae of VSU "capturing" some village or town, or two, without any real prospects of holding those for long. So, you lash out in desperation, frustration and panic. And, of course, one needs to continue to spew BS. 

As I already pointed out--blowing the pipelines should not obscure the real situation:

Russian natural gas exports to Europe have dropped by more than 82% in one year, according to Spain's Energy Transition Minister Teresa Ribera. "In just a year, the flow of gas from Russia fell by more than 82%. In fact, in January 2021, supplies from Russia accounted for about 40% of the gas consumed in Europe. At the moment, this figure does not reach 10%," Ribera was quoted as telling a Spanish broadcaster on Friday.Spain, which does not depend on Russia for gas supply, has sufficient resources to help its closest neighbors, France and Italy, the Spanish minister added.

The dynamics was obvious for a while. Russia is simply shutting EU off because EU is an open enemy of Russia, plus it stole Russian money. So, in overall economic terms it is not unexpected for Russia and necessary measures have been taken. Now EU will have to live without Russian gas and that means a final blow to Germany's, grossly overrated and overvalued, economy and it will also fail to produce any tangible benefits for the US economy, since the US economically right now is a complete mess. Interesting times we live in. Per pure geopolitical and military effect--wait for the developments in Ukraine and I believe it was Scott Ritter who described the outcome for the US in Ukraine as Afghanistan 1.0 but on steroids. I, honestly, expect nothing less, but something tells me that it will be more.

Pepe's Excellent Take.

 On the situation, including all those calls from Austin and Milley. 

It’s now confirmed by one of my top intel sources. The call was a direct consequence of panic. The United States Government (USG) by all means wants to scotch the detailed Russian investigation – and accumulation of evidence – on the US bioweapon labs in Ukraine, as I outlined in a previous column. This phone call happened exactly after an official Russian statement to the UN Security Council on May 13: we will use articles 5 and 6 of the Convention on the Prohibition of Bioweapons to investigate the Pentagon’s biological “experiments” in Ukraine. That was reiterated by Under Secretary-General of the UN in charge of disarmament, Thomas Markram, even as all ambassadors of NATO member countries predictably denied the collected evidence as “Russian disinformation”. Shoigu cold see the call coming eons away. Reuters, merely quoting the proverbial “Pentagon official”, spun that the allegedly one-hour-long call led to nothing. Nonsense. Austin, according to the Americans, demanded a “ceasefire” – which must have originated a Siberian cat smirk on Shoigu’s face. Shoigu knows exactly which way the wind is blowing on the ground – for Ukrainian Armed Forces and UkroNazis alike. It’s not only the Azovstal debacle – and Kiev’s all-around army breakdown.

I do have some purely technical issues, however, with Pepe's take on Western Ukraine and mobilization and training of the VSU there. Read the whole thing at The Saker's blog. A good friend of mine also sent me some of his economic gems and I will try to incorporate some of them (the full piece is behind paywall) in coming days--it is a necessary discussion under current circumstances.

About (Russian) Government. Fast Thoughts.

MOSCOW, May 8. /TASS/. The Russian government will consist exclusively of highly-qualified professionals, Acting Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. He stressed that the objectives for the future Cabinet set by the president had been enshrined in the Executive Order on Russia’s National Goals and Strategic Objectives to 2024 signed on Monday. When asked whether the new Cabinet, which is expected to consist of those deputy prime ministers who had previously held senior positions, will be able to fulfill these goals, Peskov noted that the government had not been formed yet. "You haven’t heard (the candidates for) the ministers, wait (until they are appointed)," he said.

It seems that there is a lot of panicky and gloomy mood about re-nomination of Dmitry Medvedev as Russia's Prime Minister and speculation about new (old?) Cabinet configuration. For those who are in such a mood, read below:

Any Russian Government will do whatever Vladimir Putin and Russia's National Security Council tell it to do. 

Dmitry Medvedev is a technical Prime Minister, literally—a caretaker and he was such for a very long time now. He knows his bureaucracy better than anyone, despite the fact that he can sometimes be clumsy and underwhelming. But some preliminary info on the Vice PMs is not bad and appearance of, as an example, Yuri Borisov in such a position is a very good sign. Unlike Dmitry Rogozin, who is a journalist by the education, Borisov offers an immense command, scientific-engineering (Doctor of Sciences) and industry background. In the end, it was him, not Rogozin, who really ran Russia's Military-Industrial Complex and we all know what this complex can do. The same positive goes towards removal of Shuvalov and Dvorkovich from Cabinet. Now, this rumor about Kudrin—he is not going to be, if he appears at all, in any position of power to formulate any policy in government, not to mention nationally. Certainly not as a liaison for negotiation of "surrender" to the West as some suggested. People sometimes simply forget that in modern day Russia it is Putin and his immediate team who formulate policies. I see no signs of him "surrendering". Quite opposite, actually.

My main interest is who will become (if rumors are true) a new Defense Minister instead of Shoigu—that is a huge one. And, of course, one has to ask the question if Lavrov comes back. These questions are by far more important than some speculations on Kudrin. Let's face the cold hard fact—Russia is not building communism. For all nostalgia about those times, overwhelming majority of Russian people do not want a complete return of that system. Taking best form it—and there was a lot of good in it—absolutely! Deal with oligarchs and return stolen wealth? Sure! But the times of total state-control, and ownership, are gone and Russia's reproach with socialism this time around is already very different—it is a way of evolution towards real social state and it is inevitable, Russian culture and history considered. So, my suggestion—just calm down and simply observe actions, not words. In the end, there are many (in fact, very many) tangible successes in the last 4 years—hardly a sign of people not knowing what they are doing, especially with West waging a very real war against Russia. Just buckle up.