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Is This Putin's Ukraine Strategy?
"The West is afraid of a major war and Putin is exploiting that," says one former Kremlin adviser, adding that "his end goal is a Ukraine that is a buffer state between Russia and the West." After the recent rebel offensive, it's now militarily possible to gain full control of Donetsk and Luhansk and to create a 'land bridge' to Crimea, and "without help, Russian troops can roll ever-deeper into Ukraine." As Bloomberg reports, Vladimir Putin will continue his shadow war until he's created quasi statelets in Ukraine’s easternmost regions with veto power over the country’s future, five current and former Russian officials and advisers said.
As Bloomberg summarizes, Putin's strategy appears to be...
[He] won’t settle for less than broad autonomy for Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, including the right to reject key decisions at the national level such as joining NATO, according to the people.
Putin is willing to wait until November, after Ukraine elects a new parliament and the heating season starts, to ensure his goals are met, in part by extending a natural gas cutoff to force a compromise if needed, one official said on condition of anonymity after speaking with Putin last week.
...
“Putin’s goal is to force Ukraine to its knees,” said Stanislav Belkovsky, a Kremlin adviser during Putin’s first term who heads the Institute for National Strategy in Moscow. “He wants a federal structure to put part of the country under Moscow’s informal control and block NATO membership.”
Last week, Putin warned against any “aggression” toward Russia, noting the country remains “one of the world’s biggest nuclear powers.”
“The West is afraid of a major war and Putin is exploiting that,” said Belkovsky, the former Kremlin adviser. “The point is to frighten the West and Ukraine into thinking he’ll take Kiev and change the map of Europe unless he gets what he wants. He’s bluffing.”
Bluff or not, Putin’s strategy is clearly working, according to Dmitri Trenin, head of the Carnegie Moscow Center.
“A cease-fire is an important victory for Russia,” Trenin said by phone. “If it actually goes through, Russia will be bargaining from a position of strength. Putin’s strategy is evolving. His end goal is a Ukraine that is a buffer state between Russia and the West.”
However, both the U.S. and the EU have ruled out military intervention in the current conflict.
That and the failure of sanctions to influence Russian behavior has given Putin a “free hand,” according to Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, a New York-based political risk research and consulting firm.
“For Putin, you have to feel that you’re not going to be challenged seriously,” Bremmer said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Aug. 28.
The endgame?
Because of that, Ukraine’s only way out is to admit defeat, said Arbatov, the former deputy chairman of the Russian parliament’s Defense Committee.
“The longer Ukraine waits, the more territory it will lose and the harsher demands it will face,” Arbatov said.
* * *
So that's all very ominous for the West. However, there is a different side of this coin...
From Grandmaster to Grand Farce (via Gavekal's James Barnes)
At first glance, Vladimir Putin’s strongman status was confirmed by the release of a seven point peace plan yesterday that reputedly had him call for Ukrainian troops to withdraw from areas of their own country. Such a demand followed Putin’s demand over the weekend that Kiev begin independence talks for southeastern Ukraine. These are the new realities that NATO leaders must chew over during a summit that starts today and is being billed as the most significant in 25 years. However, we would demur at the notion of a new leviathan in the Kremlin. In reality, Putin’s hugely risky escalation in eastern Ukraine was driven by a realization that his proxies had failed and Russian prestige was set for a battering.
Flushed with the glow of easy success in Crimea, Putin openly backed separatist rebels who were both militarily incompetent and enjoyed scant sympathy among most of eastern Ukraine’s population. His biggest mistake was concluding that Ukraine would cease to operate as a unitary state and so lack the will to fight. All this explains why the separatist rebels were on the brink of defeat ten days ago, resulting in a hastily arranged Russian invasion. Having cast himself as defender of the greater Russian Volk, defeat in Ukraine would have fatally weakened Putin’s credibility.
Putin may have staved off an immediate defeat, but the stakes have undoubtedly been hugely raised. As we see it there are three broad scenarios that could play out in the next few months:
Scenario #1: Moscow and Kiev reach a comprehensive peace agreement that provides autonomy for eastern Ukraine and protection for Russian speaking citizens, while at the same time allowing the country to pursue a closer economic relationship with the European Union. Membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would be explicitly ruled out.
Scenario #2: The status quo holds and Russian soldiers advance no further. A frozen conflict develops akin to the situation in South Ossetia or Transnistria. Small scale fighting aimed at consolidating Russian gains may flare up, but this does not escalate into a larger conflict.
Scenario #3: A full invasion of Ukraine by Russia with the army operating openly to establish, at a minimum, an independent buffer region.
For the moment, Scenario #1 seems highly unlikely. Both sides would need to make major concessions and with Ukrainian parliamentary elections being held on October 26, President Petro Poroshenko will face intense pressure not to give an inch to the separatists. It is also unlikely that Putin would countenance deeper economic integration with Europe as this would frustrate his Eurasian Customs Union.
Scenario #3 also seems unlikely, for despite bellicose talk of taking Kiev in two weeks a full scale Russian invasion would be ruinously costly in blood and treasure. Despite Moscow’s claim that international sanctions will be ineffective in swaying domestic opinion, it should be remembered that Putin’s popularity has been built on rising living standards and sound economic management which followed the chaotic Yeltsin years. For all the talk of becoming a “war time” president, we doubt that Putin will abandon the promise of a Russian dream of rising middle class prosperity.
The most likely outcome is an inconclusive Scenario #2 with the emergence of an unstable buffer region in eastern Ukraine, blighted by low intensity conflict. To be sure, this is a more difficult conflict to contain than others in the Caucasus since Kiev has more capability to project force and the frontline is not contiguous or divided neatly by terrain features. However, the deterrent effect of huge costs for both sides in the event of a full-scale conflict should be enough to avoid Armageddon.
Longer term, the situation looks worse for Putin. Russia may have already lost the Ukrainian people; as recently as 2011 84% of the population held a favorable view of Russia with only 11% holding a negative one. As of a few months ago, 60% of Ukrainians viewed Russia badly with only 35% having a positive view. Considering that Ukraine is the birthplace of Russian civilization, Putin looks to have lost the PR war.
Russia may also face a resurgent NATO. Already NATO has said it will open bases in former Warsaw pact countries. A greater risk is that Russia’s actions in Ukraine finally shakes Europe out of its defense lethargy and induces rearmament. Despite the eurozone’s malaise, this may trigger realization that liberal states cannot rely on the US defense shield forever.
Most damagingly for Russia, its ‘special’ relationship with Germany may have ended. Since the Berlin Wall fell the integration of Russia into western economic, political and social norms has been a cornerstone of German politics. Now, however, Berlin is taking the tougher line over Ukraine, even while other European states vacillate over the economic fallout. Angela Merkel seems to have decided that a long-term stand on values is more important than short-term economic pain caused by sanctions. The German-Russian relationship seems to have ruptured and the impact on Russia’s economic modernization will be high.
* * *
In the meantime, US and Europe are agreeing on more sanctions for Russia
- *RHODES: U.S. IS WORKING ON PACKAGE FOR NEW RUSSIAN SANCTIONS
- *U.S. CONSULTING WITH EUROPE ON NEW RUSSIAN SANCTIONS: RHODES
- *U.S. WORKING ON NEW SANCTIONS 'FOR SOME TIME NOW,' RHODES SAYS
- *HOLLANDE SAYS EUROPE TO GIVE DETAILS ON SANCTIONS TOMORROW
So more costs for Europe...
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.......it would really suck if Putin outplayed Obomya......
...... AGAIN!!!
Just cut the gas off for a week in late November, demand surrender and then if the West says "Boo-Hoo!", charge in gold.
And close the fucking MickkieD's so no more Royales!
Unless the gas is cut off or gold "only" payment, the Europeans will NOT proceed to an armed conflict.
Obie might like to push for a distraction, but no European armed conflict.
France: Call up the troops! But sir, they're on parade! Oh merde!
"By my count #ALL #Ukraine Army brigades have been destroyed
Only territorial bats remain + #Zakarpattia 128th "
http://acloserlookonsyria.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Ukrainian_Armed_Forces
What about the Nazis? Crossing my fingers . . .
Merkel taking a "long term stand on values"...you mean like coup d'etat's from Mossad/CIA, shelling civilian's whos elected leader was overthrown in said coup and placing missiles on Russia's border?? Yea, great job Merkel, way to go for human rights and democracy.
Which rag wrote this crap?
Putin openly backed separatist rebels who were both militarily incompetent and enjoyed scant sympathy among most of eastern Ukraine’s population.
The above is absoolute bullshit.
The rebels managed to hold off the incompetent Ukraine Army, lure it into cualdrons and then defeat it piecemean. This both decimated the Ukraine troop strength and provided the rebels with a singnificant trove of captured equipment that they have turned against its former owners.
There are numberous videos which depict the suffering of the people of east Ukraine and the lives lost due to indiscriminate government shelling of city centres and apartment buildings with no military targets present.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE18iPQ1Euk
The above links to an hour and 20 minute video of ordinary citizens expressing their sentiments over being placed under military attack by "their" government. The baboon who wrote the opening quote should study the images of the destroyed lives, the citizens cut down by Ukrainian military GRADs, bombing and heavy shellfire.
The other element which seems to escape everybody is that over 400,000 people have sought refuge in Russia. Among that number there are likely a large number of men who have sought training to return to east Ukraine and fight for their homelands. This, plus the significant amount of captured UAF military equipment, is the primary reason for the present strength of the rebel forces. If the rebel were stronger they would be free to move on Kiev itself but they presently lack the manpower to do so.
There are a great many videos on the web which provide detail of the fighting in Ukraine. Most of the rebel fighters appear to be 40 to 50 year old men. Pudgy men. Overweight men. Men with ragtag bits of uniform borrowed from anywhere. They certainly do not look like a Russian military formation.
If Russia had invaded this conflict would have been over in four days, Kiev would be occupied and NATO would be staring into the barrels of Russian tanks just over the border.
This is a real war being fought by people defending their homeland against Nazi vermin who have vowed to exterminate them like cockroaches. When they finally win I hope they proclaim FUCK THE USSA and launch war crimes trials for the coup, the Maiden killings, the Odessa murders, the MH17 killings and all of the unnecessary civilian deaths which are due to wealthy oligarch toadies trying to suck the West's dick.
Article = Thursday night dose of neocon blah-blah.
Putin is trying to re-inflate a bubble. The Soviet empire bubble. But all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't put communism back together again.
TTIP-TAFTA asshole.
No, just a relentless blog pimp. Ignore it.
More bs is the "special relationship with Germany" being an issue. How about the Germans freeze and starve if they don't kiss the Russians bottoms? The real issue is when the Germans roll over and tell the US/NATO to piss off.
If you thought the EU economy was is on the edge today (exception Germany) than just wait until November when the gas deliveries are interrupted.
My favorite scenario. Muslim extremists from (fill in the blank) blow up the gas transfer hubs in November. Gazprom doesn't break their contracts, Russia is the victim once again, and the terrorists are to blame. Meanwhile we see the absolute cratering of the EU economy, across the board. Only then, once the EU is finally forced to turn on the spigot, does Russia demand payment in gold.
Of course only after they find those spare parts to fix the pipelines.
Muslim extremists from (fill in the blank)
Muslim extremists from a US training camp
Unfortunately most people have no clue what this is all about, let alone fine points like who is actually fighting. Telling them that people are fighting for their homeland and survival is not as sexy as terrorists together with the Russian army are fighting Ukrainian liberators. Trying to explain that Putin has a multi-party government that fights him at every step, results in but, but, but Putin is all-mighty Czar. To make thing more difficult, western MSM spews out endless propaganda-disinformation while Russia virtually has no English MSM to support their side. And then, geopolitics is not something that people learn in high school. As a result, what is actually going on would be viewed by most as wild conspiracy BS.
Here is one take on the negotiations…
http://www.reddit.com/r/worldtoday/comments/2fdpmb/putins_7_point_plan_b...
A lesson in geopolitics most Americans and some ZH authors believing in the thesis that Russia was escalating things, would need:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cQ2ddv4qQU
" To make things more difficult, western MSM spews out endless propaganda-disinformation while Russia virtually has no English MSM to support their side."
I just had to mention here that I am a regular viewer of RT on my Roku. For some reason I have been unable to get enough bandwidth on this channel to support streaming without extremely long spooling times. Is this a deliberate act of .Gov to limit how much news I get from "their side"?
@ Boscovius
Any chance for you to install a satellite receiver system at home to get the RT and Press TV broadcast?
It's just one time installment expense with no monthly cost, provided you're living on the ground.
Alternatively, you may try to get a proxy service to reach their webs.
I imagine it's very shitty thing to live in a place where all the news broadcast are maintained by the organs of The Ministry Of Truth with no other viable option.
Some other Russian news services:
http://en.rian.ru/ - RIA Novosti
http://en.itar-tass.com/ - ITAR TASS Russia News Agency
http://english.pravda.ru/ - English pravda.ru: Russian news and analysis
Some news sites covering the Southeastern Ukraine / Republic of Novorossiya:
The Vineyard of the Saker - http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/
Colonel Cassad (in English) - http://cassad-eng.livejournal.com/
Voice of Sevastopol - http://en.voicesevas.ru/
Novorossiya News Agency - http://novorossia.today/
BUT this one is controlled by The Cabal: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/ - The Moscow Times | Russia's only daily English-language newspaper
Putin even asked the separatists not to hold the referendum. Which btw. showed a dramatic support for unification with Russia. Putin even ignored the international law of self determination of the Russian Ukrainians.
Gladly he is avoiding every provocation, tapping not into their traps.
But that increases the probability of another false flag operation!
Putin was against Crimean independence because it’s a geopolitical trap. If junta should subdue the rebels, junta promised to take back Crimea, i.e., they will start a war with Russia. Now Ukraine would not last a week against Russia, but that’s irrelevant. All they need is to provide an excuse for NATO to step in and settle permanently in Ukraine, like they have in Kosovo.
I don think you just send in an Army of Occupation here. Ukraine ain't Estonia. The ruble has gotten annihilated and you might see Romania agitate to annex "Moldova."
Konigsberg ain't Russian either.
If XOM goes into Poland...well, let's just say they have huge silver deposits in Poland.
Siberian separatists. "Angry Mongols." People in that "little Empire" that ain't all skittles and unicorn farts. Thanking the Kazahks for sticking it too the oil majors? They want to have that oil 'bout now actually.
Don't think ISIS is serious about "caliphating Russia"? Think again!
My understanding Is unlike this article the reason formal Russian Army units are ready to take out a City of 800,000 is because they have no way of resupplying their Crimean Catastrophe.
Those folks are digging in...and this time Russia will be doing the shelling.
This whole thing looks to be unplanned from the beginning...and as both Von Moltke's noted "no campaign suffers greater than from a bad plan to begin with."
So events turn against Russia on the ground..."which now leads to bad plan number two." If Russia ends up having to take Mourosipol by force that could result in a humanitarian nightmare.
Already South Africa has told Putin to take a hike. And I don't think Ulan Bator is feeling the love either here. Ukraine was the one that opted out of NATO. They wanted to be part of the Russian Confederation.
Not anymore.
Your post is in competition with most of RisingSun's stuff as the very worst commenter contributions ever to Zero Hedge.
Spare him, he's a vet and he's disabled so possibly his thought process has some problem.
I gonna root for RisingSun and viedoklis_lv for that trophy.
I did not mean Crimea, I mean the referendum in the East in Ukraine.
Putin has already won this thing. Just cut off the gas this winter (Ukraine owes billions to Gazprom anyway), and Kiev surrenders or shuts down their industry and freezes their population (along with parts of europe).
Yes Kiev might choose the later. They're insane crazed Nazis hell-bent on staying in power at all cost, even freezing their entire population. Human life means nothing to those power-crazed fanatics.
If they do that and the Zero regime continues supporting them, then Russian ICBMs really should head for American cities.
And Americans deserve it.
The Ukranian govt. is controlled by 12 mostly dual citizen oligarchs who, in concert with the U.S., are trying to extort money and military assistance from the EU and European Nato countries so the oligarchs can preserve their ability to fleece the Ukranian people and remove profits and capital from their operations in Ukraine to Western banks outside of Ukraine. Those profits and capital should have remained in Ukraine and been invested there to benefit the Ukrainian economy and people. That is the meaning of "Globalization" - the ability and "right" of oligarchs to plunder the economies of every nation on the planet under rules imposed and enforced by U.S. military might.
Not a single line of Western though asks what is best for the ordinary working people of Ukraine. It is all about preserving a puppet government owned and controlled by oligarchs for the benefit of oligarchs and, of course, murdering thousands of ordinary Ukranians to preserve the existing system of grift and plunder by the very few.
Very well said lines, MrPalladium!
+100
Sorry, but you should eat less propaganda but understand what is going on!
Russia has won absolutely nothing, Russia is the victim.
Russia is part of Europe and it's interest is to have good relations and to build axis Paris-Berlin-Moscow.
This is also in the interest of the Europeans.
For more than 200 years City of London and New York do everything to create tensions on the European continent.
USrael wants war in Europe (and middle east, which also was avoided by Putin, btw.)
Russia has won, because they ZOGs have not succeeded in creating their war? I'd suggest to wait for the next false flag...
Absolutely agree.
"All this explains why the separatist rebels were on the brink of defeat ten days ago, resulting in a hastily arranged Russian invasion."
To thise who have a short memory span - ten days ago "brink of defeat" was the time when East Ukrainian forces had 7000 Kiev hunta forces surrounded in 5 cauldrons. Not many would consider that a sign of defeat!
About this invasion. Pics or it didn't happen.
No pics have been offered, therefore it did not happen.
This is such elementary logic that I will give the entire article one star.
/Because -5 stars is not an option.
"This is such elementary logic that I will give the entire article one star."
Indeed I WISH that ZH board has negative rating, perhaps a rating scale from minus 5 to positive 5 (i.e. 11 grades) so I can give a max negative rating to a propaganda BS like this!
Or, at least the star counts from zero instead of one.
>>>>This is a real war being fought by people defending their homeland against Nazi vermin who have vowed to exterminate them like cockroaches. When they finally win I hope they proclaim FUCK THE USSA and launch war crimes trials for the coup, the Maiden killings, the Odessa murders, the MH17 killings and all of the unnecessary civilian deaths which are due to wealthy oligarch toadies trying to suck the West's dick.
Beautifully, and honestly, stated. The link below is well worth a look; the author, Joaquin Flores, basically maintains that Putin & Company having been using judo on "the West" since late 2013. While the end of the Novorussian Project is not yet clearly in view, the author claims that essentially all of the ebb and flow of military and public relations activity re Ukraine has been orchestrated by the Russian leadership:
http://syncreticstudies.com/2014/08/30/understanding-the-astounding-novo...
.
Merkel is holding the line long enough for the extremists in Ukraine to have a chance to get killed. She needs the gas but not until winter.
This!!!
+1
September 4th 23:53 UTC/ZULU Ukraine SITREP: Maybe, just maybe?
The Vineyard of the Saker
Many major developments to report today…
...all the signs are that the JRF have reached their breaking point: this is the moment when a military force suddenly and completely collapses, like a dam which blows out under the pressure of water. The JRF is not retreating on one, two or even three directions, it is retreating everywhere (except north of Lugansk). Entire battalions are leaving the front under orders of their battalion commanders and without the approval of the Junta leaders. At least one such battalion commander is already being judged for desertion.
The entire Ukie leadership seems to be in a panic mode, especially Iatseniuk and Kolomoiski, while the Nazis are mad as hell at the Poroshenko administration. There are constant rumors of an anti-Poroshenko coup by outraged Nazi nationalists. And then, there are the absolutely staggering Ukrainian losses. There is one such list which I reader sent me who, according to my reader, was published on Zero Hedge, but I could not find it there. I did find it here though:
40,000+ Ukrainian soldiers have died.
600+ armored vehicles have been lost.
200+ artillery pieces have been lost (probably many more in reality).
Most of the Ukie aviation in flying condition has been lost...
Desertion? from killing your fellow countryman? It's a shame it did not happen enmasse during the genocidal USA Civil War run by and for the bankers who were also in the slave trade. Aka the Red Shield and their klan.
I hope all of those Ukie young and older men desert. The Kiev junta is evil vermin.
I hope Saker is wrong about 40,000 Ukie soldiers being dead. If so - the scum oligarchs in Kiev need to be captured, put on trial and hung. All of them.
Ukraine needs a Causescu moment for their nazi leaders.
You seem not to recognize, that Ukraine has a ZOG.
Bankers operate in the shadows. The invisible men. The avg joe has no idea who is pulling the strings. Just talk to some friends/co-workers/relatives and soon you will understand how little people really know.
"Bankers operate in the shadows. The invisible men."
What shadows? What invisible? We have the list, the names of the banks and their CEOs with dates, salaries, balance sheets, most of everything.
It's the Fed, the IMF, the World Bank, etc. As you're mulling over some invisible conspiracy, they are operating right under your very nose.
Hey, you're using common sense. When there's some invisible powers-that-be it's much easier to concoct wild theories about all types of cabals, escpecially those involving a certain "tribe".
@ ChiangMai,
the list of Ukie losses was posted by ThirdWorldDude on Sep. 04 at #5179454
"Here's a complete and updated list of ZATO/ Ukie losses between May 2nd and August 21st:..."Rasmussin said they will give Ukrain 15 mn EU. Put that up against the 5 billion USD they owe Russia and it will cover a months interest.
Saber rattlers.
YES - to the Gas move
Um Yeah OK to the gold - not sure where they'll get it but ok
HELL YES to the nix of the McPukeBurgers - should have never allowed those toxic waste dumps out of the US
That's the beauty of the "gold" trump card move.
How high does gold have to go to have enough to pay for heat and soup?
Who has a piss pot full of gold in their vaults and the ground?
huh....
And in any case, any real escalation screws the global economy even further when already about half of all county's treasuries in the short end are trading 0 to negative yields. I mean.... Gettin' serious, folks!
Or maybe just add some of that fart spray in the natural gas until the Euros give up.
No one would go to war over fart spray...or would they?
Weeeeeelll....
When I first visited Europe back in the 50's and then went to live there in the 60's, lemme tall ya'....
Lots of the women on the Continent didn't shave their armpits
Lots of people still didn't bathe properly and smelled pretty bad...
So, lemme see here....
Nope. No war over fart spray.
Hell, he oughta do that next! Could you see the back lash against Hollande? Any German worth their citizenship and grandpas' old SS uniform in the attic would simply heat up a pot of sauerkraut and ignore the smell.... The French? Ah....
They don't call it "eau de toilette" for nuthin!
[Um Yeah OK to the gold - not sure where they'll get it but ok ]
Porky will ask for Ukraine's gold back from Washington storage ???
And all Germany has to do is ask for its gold back. Its all there and safe still.
(maybe)
all the sabre rattling is very expensive. for everyone.
If Putin wants a land bridge to Crimea, then why doesn't he offer to forgive the Ukraine of a load of debt in exchange for his bridge. This would save lives, money and a whole lot of trouble.
If Obama outplayed Putin, I'd be shocked. The world is a little slow. Here is what I wrote back in April and with Georgia requesting NATO membership, I still think their butts are in play:
The Upcoming Russian Invasion of Ukraine and Georgia
It's Putin vs. Kissinger, if even that's true. Lots of shit in this shitshow.
Suck for who, exactly?
Only sucks for you and I.
If Obama outplayed Putin....
Putin and Obomya are chess pieces... not the players. We all Know this. They are both puppets. We all Know this. Let's stop talking as if Putin and Oboymba or however y'all want to spell the 'presidents' name, are in charge of anything. They are there to divert and distract our rage from those who really deserve it. Obama's golf game. Putin's bare chest. So fucking what? Easy targets for ridicule while the private shareholders of the Fed laugh at the commentary on ZH for being nothing more than a place for the enraged to let off some steam before getting back on the hamster wheel.
Breaks over, get back to work, citizen.
Nope. Not at all. Putin is activerly trying to kill the petrodollar. Obama is trying to save it. Putin is trying to build a new economic order while Obama is activly trying to save the old one. Sorry you are totally wrong. Putin deal them and stopped them from attacking Syria. Thats what got them furious.
There has never been more importaint game as the one going on right now. if Putin is able to survive a new worlf order will be astablished. If US wins thr game is all over foir the world and we can all just give up now and accept USA hegemony for the next 1000 years. Living in THE MOSt interesting times indeed. Let's just hope we dont all end up smoking radicative pile.
petkovplamen - You are of course right about Putin, but wrong about Obama. Think of Obama as someone like the drunk Yeltsin while the sharks around Yeltsin were carving up the country and you'll have a better picture of how it goes in D.C. these days.
Putin is deeply patriotic and resents the western bankers setting up shop and looting the country in the 90's under the guise of showing the russians how to get it done. He has been pretty hard on the oligarchs over there and the banking want that system back.
It ain't happening under Putin and this like all wars are about money, resources and debt and who controls it, Putin happens to believe it belongs to the state and the banksters want it.
Could we get a rebutal from the lone zionist status quo supporter to explain the rational behind the single down arrow? ...
Crickets
What a rubbish and biased report. This was pure speculation and propaganda by the west again. not worth reading as it has no connection to the realities. All this speculation, how about evidence? The thing the west cant produce. Show us the MH17 black box recordings NATO or get off the planet!
Rubbish for the sheeple.
@ stilletto:
MH-17 - yep, KIEV can't show ATC tapes and CIA/USA can't release
info from Black Box[s] because evidence points in wrong direction.
[to themselves and not to Russia]
If evidence indicated Russia had been involved the MSM would
have it plastered all over the airways 24/7
All politics is local. Checkmate.
Europe is stupid. it is palying the american game
Most of the world is stupid. They are playing the Globalist's game. Any country trying not to is labeled a pariah and then the NGOs (or worse) are sent in to help them fix things.....................
Haven't the polls we've seen shown us the "people" of these eastern and southeastern Ukraine regions overwhelmingly (i.e. > 80%) want affiliation with Russia and not Kiev?
Yes - affiliation with Russia. They don't want to be controlled by Russia.
They want nothing to do with Kiev. They want to be left alone and be autonomous.
Don't we all. Don't. We. All.
We have been working on some sanctions for some time now... but we will give you the details tomorrow
LMFAO
Should be a late night.
Let me be perfectly clear... we don't have a strategy.
Almost verbatum....
I thought they said "smart power" was the strategy? ;-)
I hope to hell this is the peak-geopolitical-incompetence by DC.
I fear it is not and there are far more incompetence to be found. (President Perry anyone?)
Fear not, they've got two moar years to poke China with a stick too.
Damned shame he's been firing his best combat officers left & right huh? ;-)
Re. peak-geopolitical-incompetence
Jim Willie predicted some time ago that Ukraine would be the end of the Petro$.
"Let me be perfectly clear... we don't have a strategy."
"What difference does it make?"
The leaders of the free world. All minimum-wage psychopaths.
How many provocations with hundreds of killed ethnic Russian civilians, bombing of civilian cities, hundreds of thousands fugitives, breaking agreements and using false flags (MH17, Odessa) until you recognize a strategy?
@ Major Major Major:
I'd gladly hit Russia with two more sanctions:
They're no longer permitted to export 'snow nor cold weather' this winter...
Crap article from Bloomberg, but the first suggestion reality is dawning in the west.
Seems like the ZATO conference is a farce. $15m in aid, whats that, ten minutes of military
operations, and they spent 5 X that n their own meet security..
$15 mil won't even buy a buncha phone tapping devices to keep their own people under surveillance.
$15 mil
may just be enough to pay air fare for Kiev junta to escape to USA...
[no need to knock as our southern door is wide open]
There will be more crap from Bloomberg. The Mayor is taking over again, after promising to butt out.
No more large sodas in the newsroom.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/03/media/michael-bloomberg-return/And it had a leftist tilt already .... oh boy ....
$15m won't even cover the bribes.
To clarify for Winston - The ZATO meeting in Wales is costing $80M in security alone. That's not even counting the lobster thermidor and grey pupon. The $15M for The Ukraine is the pot from the last hand when they all turned in.
Who wrote this article? Putin gets all the blame even though the US spent at least $5 billion destabilizing Ukraine. Demonization of Putin has come to Zero Hedge.
Why not an immediate cease fire and talks? What are Blackwater mercenaries doing in Ukraine along with CIA and FBI agents? Why were Maidan killers trained in Poland two months before the protests? Why was the legitimate government of Ukraine overthrown? The West has many questions to answer and take a lot of the blame for this clusterfuck. Just as they have to do for Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria.
Bloomberg is about as impartial as the New York Times when it comes to international politics. And equally worthless. And as Mayor of New York, Bloomberg was the proper fascist stopping and frisking 1800 New Yorkers everyday.
BloomTurd "news" is total shit just like pro-amnesty and gun control oligarch Bloomberg. F him.
Endless evil Putin crap.
That was my surprise also. A good old fashion flip-flop. WTF style. Ask folks here about Ukraine in 2011 and they would say "yea baby, I got some coke and a blow from my Ukraine chippie at Scores last weekend when I gave the secret handshake to Robotrader".
Whow.... Ukrainian Surprise.
Don't leave out the little matter of a missing jet liner, no air traffic recordings, black box gone missing and the whole matter classified by the West.
I'm not sure how much the former government was overthrown as voluntarily abdicated. There wasn't really a military coup nor were there actual attacks on the government or presidential compounds. I've watched many governments fight off much worse revolts. Maybe it was a tactical or strategic retreat. All in all, Russia has officially regained the Crimea, which it did not have under the previous government, even though it was pro-Moscow. There might have been much more strategy behind all this.
Here are the facts:
Western-backed Ukrainian opposition seizes power in fascist-led putsch
By Chris Marsden24 February 2014
The intervention of the United States, Germany, France and other European powers in Ukraine led to a putsch by far-right forces on Saturday. The negotiated settlement that Foreign Ministers Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany, Laurent Fabius of France, and Radoslaw Sikorski of Poland imposed in Kiev, aiming to provide a semi-legal façade for the opposition’s power grab, did not survive for a single day.
On Friday, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych agreed to form a national unity government within ten days that included opposition representatives and to reinstate the 2004 constitution passed after the US-backed Orange Revolution, depriving him of control over the heads of the security services. Presidential and parliamentary elections were to be held by December, during which time Yanukovych was to remain president, though only as a powerless figurehead.
The agreement signed was worthless.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/02/24/ukra-f24.html
He is Berezovsky's cousin, for fuck's sake! What do you expect him to say?
The kosher cocksucker is trying to talk his book.
The article appears to have been written by a room full of Jews.
https://www.google.fr/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=EPMIVOvDPNHPaLGPgOAF&...
Get on your fucking knees Ukraine! India wants you to submit to your master!
I don't know what game you should play with a monkey, but it's not chess.
Dude.... Camp 17 awaits! If you get there early, you can always become a Kapo.
I've been inviting myself over and over. No reply YET.
@ himaroid:
well Russia's not all bad - they did send him a banana for his birthday
Longer term, the situation looks worse for Putin. Russia may have already lost the Ukrainian people; as recently as 2011 84% of the population held a favorable view of Russia with only 11% holding a negative one. As of a few months ago, 60% of Ukrainians viewed Russia badly with only 35% having a positive view. Considering that Ukraine is the birthplace of Russian civilization, Putin looks to have lost the PR war.
RUSSIA DOESN'T GIVE HALF A SHIT ABOUT PERCEPTIONS - THESE PEOPLE ARE MOSTLY RUSSIAN IN THE FIRST PLACE, AND PERCEPTIONS FADE!
Russia may also face a resurgent NATO. Already NATO has said it will open bases in former Warsaw pact countries. A greater risk is that Russia’s actions in Ukraine finally shakes Europe out of its defense lethargy and induces rearmament. Despite the eurozone’s malaise, this may trigger realization that liberal states cannot rely on the US defense shield forever.
RESURGENT NATO??? WHAT AN IDIOTIC JOKE! NATO IS NOT JUST BROKEN, IT IS BROKE!
Most damagingly for Russia, its ‘special’ relationship with Germany may have ended. Since the Berlin Wall fell the integration of Russia into western economic, political and social norms has been a cornerstone of German politics. Now, however, Berlin is taking the tougher line over Ukraine, even while other European states vacillate over the economic fallout. Angela Merkel seems to have decided that a long-term stand on values is more important than short-term economic pain caused by sanctions. The German-Russian relationship seems to have ruptured and the impact on Russia’s economic modernization will be high.
ROFL!!! GERMANY DOES HUGE BUSINESS WITH RUSSIA AND LESS AND LESS WITH THE REST OF EUROPE THESE DAYS! GERMANY WILL LIKELY ABANDON THE EURO AND JOIN THE BRICS IN TIME!!!
James Barnes, whoever the hell that is, needs to PAY ATTENTION!
Resurgent Zato? It is a paper tiger. Put some jets in the air and tanks on the ground against the Russians.
To have an army you need soldiers. Relying on the Poles 100% is not going to cut it.
.
He does pay attention, to his instructions. To reality, not so much.
The United States has Germany by the balls with Deutche Bank's gargantuan derivative problem. It's so bad the Fed said fuck off when Germany asked for its Gold back. Germany WILL join the BRICS in one form or another. Likely they will get a Golden offer from China they can't refuse and finally replenish their physical supply that the Fed now has dominion over. And yes the Fed has the world's Gold still. It doesn't matter how many times it's been rehypothicated. Unless a worthy challenger wrestles the metal away from a militarily defeated US, the Gold remains on US shores.
ha ha ha
That made me laugh too. The German-Russian relationship was founded on a mutual distrust of America.
This clown thinks that Germany is going to quit its relationship with Russia and stand alone against double dealing America. ha ha ha
As leader of the CDU, how Frau Merkel valued Bush's WMD false flag and his invasion of Iraq. Their values overlapped when Bush withdrew from the ABM Treaty.
Her valued intelligence agencies probably informed her how the Syrian revolution actually got started and who paid for it. As they did about who really caused the trouble in the Maidan and who did the killing.
Yes, Chancellor Merkel can finally extract Germany from the clutches of Putin and find refuge under the broad wings of Victoria Nuland.
Special relationship with US just ended. German opinions of the US are that it is a rogue state together with Israel willing to murder civilians with artillery and flechettes to gain control.
It is not a pretty image and no dobt Pew will record it
Who'd a thunk Germany would be that slow on the uptake? Didn't they just make a half dozen submarines for Israel? Which they gave to them at a discount.
Only UK, Canada, Australia and Eastern European NATO members are committed to the American lie about the revolution in Kiev. Many are taking an economic hit because of the lie. I believe, in spite of the public statements, there is internal and private pressure from a majority of member states to end this as quickly as possible. And that's not what the US wants.You obviously do not understand the world of risk management and currencies.....
Russiahas a weak currency with very little to back it....
I know, I know the dollar and euro are the same......
Almost, but they and the yen are the worlds currencies....
Pretty much everything else is pegged to one of them or more than one.........
So you would rather get paid in russian rubles or USD? For last weeks work?
How convertable are they and how long do they hold their value with 12.5% current inflation????
China is even having problems stabilizing their currency and they are notoriously good at it....
Just wondering if you know what your talking about or if your just spouting off with your mouth on something that you have no idea how it works.....
Maybe you are a young blond female.....
Bring on the red arrows you putin luvers who are lined up to give the asshole a blojob...............
So you would rather get paid in russian rubles or USD? For last weeks work?
How convertable are they and how long do they hold their value with 12.5% current inflation????
China is even having problems stabilizing their currency and they are notoriously good at it....
Didn't you know there's a currency flu going around?
You better get vaccinated so drop your pants and bend over.
The currency I like best is the gold I dig out of the ground................
It is very hard to accumulate though......
All the others are a joke!
Just the ruble is more of a joke than most....
It's not the currency and who issues it, lucky, it's the abundance of it at your disposal that counts.
If your currency starts to go hyper, just buy a lot of land in Patagonia or a couple of van Goghs -- maybe the one with all the stars. That's the one I like.
The currency I like best is the gold I dig out of the ground................
It is very hard to accumulate though......
All the others are a joke!
Just the ruble is more of a joke than most....
Hey, you know all those Russian billionaires?
Do they have billions of dollars or billions of rubles?
Just wondering.
USD most likely.....
However more counterfiet 100 dollar bills come out of russia than all other countries combined...
So who knows....
'All's fair in love and war'
I call bullshit logger...The FED produces the most counterfiet, hands down, second is so far off, it may as well be on the moon!
Anyone around for the cuban missle crisis? I was and kennedy reacted the same way Putin is, toward having new missles in his backyard.We invaded Cuba,poorly ,but everyone was scared Russia would send missles into Central Park! Our state department is a disaster and has dragged us into this and we have no leadreship to recognize history repeating itself in a reverse fashion.
Piece of side history for that.
The USSR put missiles into Cuba because the US put Jupiter IRBMs into Turkey. Kennedy had ordered them removed, but the JCS "forgot" about that order. So, the Soviets responded in kind.
You are right.Nato wants weapons in the Ukraine in Putins "Cuba" and he is saying no way.Can`t blame him and I am no apologist for Russian behavior on any level.The arrogance of the State dept. types is apparent.They never learn and they are far from the scene when it hits the fan and people die.
It all gets down to the Monroe Doctrine - Defacto principle - for both parties and china as well
62' was reaction to USA action in turkey - same as today with NATO - china ditto w Vietnam
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/northwoods.html
Putin will win.
And for those doubting this, when has he ever lost?
You're preaching to a deaf crowd. Nothing but "USA USA!!!" here anymore. Zero Hedge should stick to financial news - the masses that gather here are geopolitical idiots.
How does it feel to be an idiot?
He divorced his wife and she is still alive.
And he has a superbowl ring.
All Putain has to do is ask his boys to turn the fucking tap off.
And northern Europe will freeze its bollocks off this , or next winter
The Eurozone economy will be flushed down the shitter.
The gas can go to China instead , or they can simply hold it back until their new China pipeline is built.
The NATO meeting is a likely discussion on how the EU will survive with no gas this winter (or next) , try to discredit Putain in front of Russia so they can install another puppet , but we already know that plan will likely backfire miserably.
Long False Flag's BTChez ..........
Won't work. Shipment will arrive from ME by floating LNG tankers.
Keep the money flowing to Russia.
You forgot /sarc
No way enough tankers available to supply the required amounts of gas for the EU.
Current average EU gas consumption from Russia is 15 billion cubic feet PER DAY
Do you realise how many tanker deliveries that would be - IMPOSSIBLE !
EU pigs will have to suffer.
1 BLN Cuft/month will suffice. Not ideal but tough shit, wear thermals. Absence will make the heart grow fondler.
EU pigs ? Das Rayciss .. I'm a pure blooded Anglo Saxon , so Fuck You .
It'll take years just to build the receiving terminals, and that's if they don't run into 'problems' . . .
Who are they going to hire to build them? The local Muslims? The volunteers coming back from helping the Uke rebels?
Hahahaha.
The local Muzzies have all fucked off to train in IT & construction in Syria for a while , I am sure when these cunts get back they will be trying to do some de-construction work.
Long Crusades , BTChez .......
Fucking Muzzies! Long Christians!
Actually , the Muzzie PAKIstani's in the UK are too busy raping little white English children to worry about ISIS. Obviously the blokes are way too ugly to get a decent shag from their own missis , erm sorry slave , so if they cannot rape little white English kids then it's off to Syria with ISIS.
Google: PAKIstani rape UK
The truth will out.
Listen now. I ran checks on all of you. Brilliant minds working at half capacity. If you want to get behind something meaningful here is your chance.
Support Putin 24/7 NO flip-flop.
Russia will not allow Eastern Ukraine to fall under the control of the West, nor allow NATO membership for Ukraine.
At the least they will make certain that Eastern Ukraine becomes its own Republic within the Russian Federation and to ensure land access to Crimea and the Black Sea and claiming the industrial centers.
If Kiev and the West are stupid enough to try and make West Ukraine part of NATO all bets are off.
All bets are off anyway , this entire thing is a Charade , the actual underlying problem is the collapse of the global Fiat Debt Ponzi , and they are desperately looking for things they can blame it on. For a while they thought they could blame it on Russia but nobody seems to be falling for any of it. You can smell the desperation a fucking mile off , the whole thing would be hilarious if only they were not prepared to kill innocent children in their stupid fucked-up Flase Flags re: MH370. As they get more and more desperate so will their ill - judged fuck up's will only get worse and worse. May as well just come out with the truth , yeah our currency system is proper fucked and on the virge of collapse , we are now in a Jihad with the Muzzies and the Russians are actually our friends.
At least a "top aide" in ISIS was eliminated today, so that problem will soon be solved.
Just like OBL. Will it be a sea burial?
Just like the 55 or so "Al-Qaeda Second in Commands" they announced killed in Afghanistan over the last decade or so.
It would be nice if the official PR firm of the NWO would use some new stories every once in a while. This playbook has gotten so repetitive.
One crisis actor now unemployed or reassigned to a new acting role.
This happens when USA and europe support a coup of a democratically Russian leaning President, no?
The genius of Putin's strategy
is that he has not employed
any "strategy"...Putin has merely
stood back playing rope-a-dope,
watching and waiting
very patiently as Porshenko,
in his infinite stupidity-step by step-
is handing Putin everything
he could want and even more
than he could ever reasonably
have asked for--
and all on a golden platter.
think about it--where would the cards
be laying if Putin had taken aggressive
action much earlier in the game??
"The two most powerful warriors are patience and time".....
......(Tolstoy)....
Float like a butterfly,
Sting like a bee,
Ain't no wimps gonna fuck with Puti.
Yes, het let the West strategy turn on its head like it does in every case. He just let US 'strategists' defeat themselves in the clusterfuck of their own making.
I just knew there was a reason not to trust this Gavekal outfit. They state unknowns as facts and then build their arguments around them. Further, just like the rest of the western puppets, they accuse Putin of of the crimes they themselves have facilitated.
Just like the pigeon on the chessboard, they strut around, knock most of the pieces over, shit on the board and declare themselves winners!
...and the sheep bleat on.
Gavekal gets added to the "don't waste your time reading" list.
Exactly.
"Flushed with the glow of easy success in Crimea, Putin openly backed separatist rebels who were both militarily incompetent ... His biggest mistake was concluding that Ukraine would cease to operate as a unitary state and so lack the will to fight."
OK, this is bullshit. Rebels have been brilliant, Ukraine is losing because its recruits and regular troops lack the will to fight.
Can we believe any of the rest of this article?
I dunno why you didn't turn off bold after you made your point, but I agree that this is bullshit- pure and unadulterated.
The rebels have been absolutely brilliant. They are fighting with their hearts and for their homeland. Their conscripted "enemy" really doesn't want to fight in the first place. Vicky Nuland and her band of minions has fucked up big time. Vlad is calling her bluff. If she's not pissing her pants, it's because she's so stupid she doesn't know what she's done, and that, is a very real possibiltiy.
Aw.... just the Karma of the "Fuck the Eu" moment.