Meanwhile At United Nations Security Council.

U.S., Britain, France block Russia bid to blacklist Syria rebels

Rebels, aka "moderate terrorists", aka "unicorns" are a hot commodity as of lately. Even Reuters is forced to admit: Ahrar al-Sham is an ultra-orthodox Salafist group and has fought as part of a military alliance including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, which was not part of a cessation of hostilities agreement brokered in February. Ahrar al-Sham, whose late leader fought alongside Osama bin Laden, last year denied sharing al Qaeda's ideology or having organizational ties to the group.

Sure, by this logic a rapist who just raped helpless victim can deny sharing ideas of rapists. Hey, how about this: a cynic murderer doesn't share the ideas of murders committed by himself before committing next ones. Why not? Yet, perverted and criminal as it is, there is a certain logic in US covering up for terrorists. 

1. US foreign policy as of now is completely in the hands of neocons, whose Israel-first bias is not a secret. After sustaining a major strategic defeat in Syria by the virtue of not having Bashar Assad removed as the leader of Syria, they are desperate to support anyone, yes, including the most despicable lowlifes in last desperate attempts to prevent secular and potentially developed Syria demanding Golan Heights back. Israel would rather deal with potential terrorist enclave at its borders. 

2. Obama is a petulant child who painted himself in the corner with his "Assad must go" and now, still, naively, thinking that he has any face left he is desperately trying to save one. 

3. The Saudi influence in D.C. is massive. Next to AIPAC crowd, this is another cancer growing. Massive influence by this Saudi sh.thole in D.C. is bought by vast cash inflows into all kinds of lobbyist firms and think-tanks. Assad and, as follows, Iran behind him are Saudis' worst nightmare. They would rather have Salafist and other takfiris nut-jobs running a house of horrors on Syria's territory than allow Iran to have its way. 

4. Larger picture, however, is even simpler. Russia's dramatic interference in Syria and its geopolitical impact make, to be frank, US look..well...not good. Allowing Russia having it all in Syria, despite the fact that it is already clear that the main Russian objective of having Assad and secular Syria preserved has been achieved, is unacceptable for US. US views Syria's situation through the prism of own humiliation, real and perceived, and is ready to do anything, including support for "moderate" terrorists as long as it impedes Russia taking full credit for destruction of ISIS. If it is Al Qaeda and its affiliates who can help US to do so, so be it. After all, US does have a long and "successful" history of supporting all kinds of Islamic "freedom" fighters, that is...ahem..jihadists and terrorists. 

      

 So, here it is. Yet, there is one detail here that is missing and that is a very important one. As a real ME scholar (who would eat for breakfast any "expert" from Brookings or any other pseudo-think-tank) Evgeniy Satanovsky points out, all this relative terrorist calm in the US is mostly due to...well, I'll quote:

"Причина отсутствия резонансных терактов в США – негласный договор между Саудовской Аравией и Катаром, основными спонсорами джихадизма. Штаты решено не трогать, чтобы не рисковать повторением афганского и иракского сценариев ”

The reason for the absence of resonance terrorist acts in the USA is a mute agreement between Saudi Arabia and Qatar who are the main sponsors of jihadism. It is decided to not touch the US in order to avoid the risk of repeating Afghan or Iraq scenarios. (c)  

I may add--for now. Neither Europe, nor United States are really ready for jihad. They never were, no matter what kind of BS false "studies" from RAND or any other think-tank were produced in this regard. The lessons of 9/11 tragedy have not been learned and US (and its lapdogs France and UK, and, of all places, mighty Ukraine) continue down the slippery slope of supporting the most despicable enemies of civilization in feeble hope that it may somehow stop the march of history and what expects us all.  

   

These Are Darlings Of State Department.

Inhuman lowlifes "courageously" attacked a mother and her daughter on May 9th in Kiev, just because they wore St. George ribbons. The police didn't intervene. These are people who, with massive US help, committed atrocities all over Ukraine and in Donbass. US State Department loves SS and all kinds of excrement like this. This is "democracy" Victoria Nuland, enabler of neonazis, continues to promote in Ukraine.

   

              

    
                

            
This is what Ukraine has become. "F..k EU" Vikki Nuland can go and F..k herself, Nuremberg-2 is coming.

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. 

150th Motor Rifle Division And Much Much More Military Power Related-I (Reformated)

I don't recall from the top of my head who was it, Dmitry Gorenburg, Mark Galeotti or whoever poses today in the Western media and think-tankdom Parnassus as "Russia's military experts", but I remember the phrase about declaration of the return to the Division structure in the Russian Army as "purely symbolic" by one of these "experts". By now this whole list of those "experts" is so mixed up that I barely remember what corner of this "expert" community another round of rubbish comes from. Truth is, Russia restores, dissolved in 1946, Order Of Kutuzov 150th Idritsk-Berlin Motor Rifle Division. 

New Division Is Forming (In Russian) 

The division will be stationed in Rostov Region and the construction of the quarters for it is in a very active phase. In fact, First Deputy Defense Minister Ruslan Tzalikov already inspected facilities of the newly reborn division and they are really nice accommodations, both for personnel and for officers. The division will have around 10,000 of personnel in six regiments: 3 motor rifle, 1 tank, 1 self-propelled and 1 air defense regiments. Division's HQ will be located in Novocherkassk, which is very close to Rostov-on-Don--a major urban center in Russia's Southern Federal District. But the point is not in that, however remarkable, fact. The point is much larger and deeper. 

In 2013, "reformed" into the utter submission, that is reduced to the brigades, 5th Tamanskaya Motor Rifle "Brigade", as well as brought from the verge of being completely disbanded, 4th Guards Tank Kantemirovskaya Division are back in the game and not as "brigades" but as full blown divisions. In fact, these two divisions, together with two, one tank and another motor rifle, brigades, are the core of newly reconstituted 1st Guards Tank Army of the Western Military District. 

In all, three new divisions, in words of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, will be re-formed: 2 in the Western Military District, 1-in the Southern.

The question here is next: what happened with this much touted  (mostly in the West) "brigade" structure of the "reformed" Russian Army, why return to divisions? The answer is extremely simple and...complex--almost a catastrophic failure of Anatoliy Serdykov's and his minion, former Chief Of General Staff Makarov's, "reforms" of Russian Armed Forces. In the end, the fresh title from one of the major Russian media outlets Vzglyad reads exactly like this--To Defend Against NATO One Needs Larger (than brigade) Units. Welcome to the reality. But the issue here is not just with Serdyukov--a no clue, corrupt imbecile who surrounded himself with coterie of his clueless bimbos. After all, it was none other than Putin who appointed this tax and furniture "specialist" to head Russian Defense Ministry. The issue here is HOW could this "reform", which almost cost Russian Armed Forces the loss of operational control, have happened at all? A large part, the root, of the answer is found in influential SVOP (Council On Foreign and Defense Policies), one of the representatives of which, namely Karaganov, was featured in media (and this blog) very recently. One of the brains and ideologues of that "reform" was late Vitaly Shlykov, GRU Colonel, whose biography reads like a spy novel and whose ideas,  later, when Shlykov became Deputy Minister Of Defense of Russian Federation and founded this SVOP, which I mentioned above, played a crucial role in this "reform". It is customary in Russia to follow a very famous proverb: about deceased--either only good or nothing at all. But we are not going to discuss here the personality of late Vitaly Shlykov, who, undeniably, was a Russian patriot and a man who wanted only best for Russian Armed Forces. That is a given. We have to take a look at his ideas. What is also a given is this--spies do not necessarily make good military leaders, in fact, they seldom do. Vitaly Shlykov's ideas are the best proof of that, because they were generated by the person who was by an occupation...drum roll--economist with the slight leaning towards military economics. He graduated famous (or infamous--depends on the point of view) Moscow Institute Of International Relations (MGIMO) with degree in International Relations. This is a red flag immediately. Make no mistake, it is a red flag insofar as any military operational experience goes, for a spy this could be, actually, an advantage. In the end, Shlykov graduated Military-Diplomatic Academy but here is the first major problem with his military education (rather lack thereof) since Shlykov's ideas on the training of officers instigated a disaster of a massive proportion with officer corps of Russia's Armed Forces. It matters a great deal, in fact it is a decisive factor, that Shlykov never went through real system of higher military education which lead to his very bizarre ideas on officer training. Later, that would contribute to almost successful demolition of the system of officers' training in Russia and not that only. After all, SVOP, of which Shlykov was one of the founders and a big shot in SVOP's military-analytical "wing" likes to point it out. In the end, none other than pro-government Rossiiskaya Gazeta (Russian Gazette) published a obituary after Shlykov's untimely death in 2011, which stated that Shlykov's ideas, aka Shlykov's List, were in the foundation of Russian Armed Forces' "reform".  And they were, since Shlykov joyfully applauded the appointment of furniture "specialist" ( and a moron, I may add) Anatoly Serdyukov to the position of Defense Minister. It was Shlykov who stated that:In Russian: Здесь не нужен человек со специальными военными знаниями, для этого у президента в подчинении полно генералов(c)In English: There is no need for this position to have a man with special military knowledge, for President has enough generals under his command (c) Needless to say, a lot (MOST???) of Shlykov's ideas have been drawn from US and European military "experiences" (actually, he is overbearing with his references to US Armed Forces) and, actually, found a lot of positive response (still do) from  Western "experts". The problem? Shlykov forgot that he wasn't on a spy mission in Switzerland, he was pushing homicidal (or suicidal)  principles on one of the greatest armies in human history and he had no experience whatsoever of commanding a platoon, let alone an army, to his credit. In fact, he had zero field experience. Do you remember how Hippocratic Oath goes? I, certainly, remember what Varlam Shalamov told a darling of Western propagandists Solzhenitsyn, while giving him his notes--in whose hands will your literature end up? Well, guess what, according to Solzhenitsyn I should have been born in GULAG and all my relatives should have been executed and I...shouldn't have been born at all, since, well, hundreds of millions (nay, billions) of Russians have died in GULAG. Guess what, Solzhenitsyn didn't spend a day in GULAG (he worked in Sharaga), while Shlykov never commanded anything in his life. Sounds familiar? 

To Be Continued.......... 

Some 25-Year Old Soviet Pop From Car-Men;-)

Some lyrics:

London Goodbye,
London Farewell, I am an alien here.....

So Much For Trump's New Foreign Policy Outlook.

I guess that speaks volumes. 

“And if that doesn’t work out, I don’t know, you know, at a certain point, when that sucker comes by you, you gotta shoot,” Trump said. “You gotta shoot. I mean, you gotta shoot. And it’s a shame. It’s a shame. It’s a total lack of respect for our country and it’s a total lack of respect for Obama. Which as you know, they don’t respect.” 

Evidently The Donald is not well acquainted with decades' long practice of both Soviet/Russian and NATO planes doing this to each-other. 

US P-3 Orion Making Passes Over Soviet Project 57 Destroyer, 1970s.

 

But then again, what can one expect from the guy who knows how to build casinos but, I am pretty sure, knows very little about what he will do if Russian intelligence plane will fly near US air space. In my military life in 1980s I was flown over by F-104 Star-fighters of Luftwaffe, was harassed by Dutch minesweepers in Danish Straits, saw Swedish Viggens doing really crazy things and...well, too long to list all of it. Militaries do it all the time. If Donald wants to shoot at Russian planes (or ships) on any instance of US planes or ships being slightly "harassed", I don't think his presidency (granted, he gets the nomination and wins general election) will last very long. In general, as the truism goes--patriotism grows in direct proportion with the distance from the battlefield. 

That is why, instead of blowing every instance of contact out of proportion and getting hysterical, it is a good idea to start thinking in terms of real national interests and how they will be best served by toning down propaganda and concentrating on finding a resolution to what is shaping to be a very dangerous second issue of Cold War. 
    
         

This Is Very Fresh. P-3 Orion Over Russian Naval Ship.

I sucked as a photographer, but below is French Breguet-Atlantic doing its thing in 1984 Biscay. 

     

 
 Or that:

                     

This Is Not My Photo.

Somebody, and I know US Air Force and US Navy have vast numbers of top notch professionals, please, give Mr. Trump some briefing on how serious militaries interact in their respective operational zones.  This may come really handy if Mr. Trump will try to "make a deal" with Russia, which, I am sure, is nothing more than a hollow campaign promise.  But at least he will not start WW III--a real, hot one. 

                

        
    

Christ Is Risen

It is Orthodox Pascha (correctly--Paskha) and these are Arab Orthodox Christians from Beirut singing Christ Is Risen in Arabic. Absolutely stunning. 

Христос Воскресе, for those who have faith....Happy Easter.