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War Drums Beating: Bulgaria Blocks Russian Access To Its Airspace For Syria Flights
On Monday we flagged a notable escalation in the build up to the geopolitical “main event” in Syria where, thanks largely to the West’s ambition to break Gazprom’s leverage over Europe, the US and Russia are one “accidental” run-in away from taking the “proxy” out of the term “proxy war.”
With the Kremlin now ramping up its military presence around the Assad stronghold of Latakia, the US is scrambling to do anything and everything in its power to slow the Russian build up - including putting pressure on Greece to deny Russia the use of its airspace for supply flights to Syria.
This isn’t the first time Greece has found itself in the middle of Cold War 2.0, as Athens (and notably Panagiotis Lafazanis) used Greece’s geographical position to field competing gas pipeline bids from Washington and Moscow during the height of the country’s fraught bailout negotiations.
So while we wait for Greece to pick a side between the US and Russia by either allowing Moscow to use its airspace on the way to supplying Assad or else snubbing the Kremlin and jeopardizing a potentially lucrative gas deal, at least one country has been quick to make a decision: Bulgaria...
#BreakingNews Bulgaria has denied Russia use of its airspace for supply flights to Syria http://t.co/SR6IvQTqFO
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) September 8, 2015
Why, you ask? According to a spokeswoman, the Bulgarian foreign ministry has "enough information that makes [it] have serious doubts about the cargo of the planes, which is the reason for the refusal."
What's particularly amusing here is that all of the above (Greece's reluctance to immediately acquiesce to Washington's demands, Bulgaria's move to deny Russia use of its airspace, and the whole Syrian civil war) is the direct result of energy disputes. As mentioned above, Greece is being pulled between The Southern Gas Corridor and the Turkish Stream, while the South Stream debacle means Bulgaria has no reason not to side with the West. And of course the entire crisis in Syria all comes down the proposed Qatar-Turkey line.
So once again, it all comes down to natural gas and if the conflict in Syria has taught us anything so far, it's that when it comes to energy, the world's most powerful nations are willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of lives to protect their interests.
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So, what are we saying here? That Russia wants to have a war with the biggest gas market on earth? The EU? When Putin's rapidly running -GDP, dropping reserves and customers and not getting the investment and contract approvals needed for Chinese pipelines either, due excess capacity, for probably another five years, if he's lucky?
OK.
Alternatively he's trying to maintain a naval port and ally and long-term client, which will also make another long term client very happy, Iran, the US's bridge-to-far in the ME.
Oh no, it has to be about gas.
Say it like it is Tyler, The lying fucking elite ass holes are beating the bull shit war drums again so we can send young people to die for their big bucks and life styles of cheating and fucking stealing some moar!!!
Educate the young people and troops to stop following orders.
Educate the young BEFORE they are troops. Troops will follow orders,period.
Useless eaters. Need to thin the herd. Especially with Social SEcurity cuts coming lameduck 2016.
THis is only the bound Syria flights.
Injured ISIS fighters getting treated in Israeli hospitals.
Figure it out for yourself.
USA tells their dumbass people vis a vis the ZioMedia that they are fighting ISIS.
If the USA was serious in fighting ISIS they could wipe them out in a week.
I mean with satellite images of where ISIS is , it shouldn't be too hard to program a few cruise misssiles to take them out.
Dutch:
Can I quibble a little bit?
Jabhat Al Nusra, Al Qaeda in Syria, are the ones along the Golan who are evacuated to Israel for medical treatment. It has gotten so egregious that Druze in the Golan have been attacking Israeli ambulances.
It makes a difference with the mother of all False Flag anniversaries coming up on the 11th Day of September that our Nobel Prize winning President is in bed with Al Qaeda.
I will concede your point that Eliot Shimon, Caliph Al Baghdadi is a Jew
There are a lot of military drills going on in Russia right now I think the time for war is closer than ever.
USA announces ''Russia keeps moving closer to our bases''. After all we own Europe and is just an extension of the USA.
There is no law that Russia has to sell gas to Europe.
also those 6000 German companies doing business in Russia can be told to leave.
I am sure the Chinese can take up the slack.
The gas contracts with Europe end in 2019.
Russia just got cut off from Syria!!!
Your next move Mr. Putin...
Were you born an idiot, or did you simply develop into one?
As long as a ship can sail out of the Black Sea around Turkey, Russia will not be cut off from Syria.
Airspace? How about a parabolic curve of an ICBM?
Yes, quite.
Russia can attack ISIL using ICBMs fired on Russian territory. Good testing for elderly ICBMs that would soon be aged out of service.
Any CIA operatives in the region would just be collateral damage.
As Pynchon called it
The USA attempt at stealing Ukraine and Crimea (Russian base) backfired. Look next for Turkey to close the Bosphorous Straits. as per orders from Washington.
>>> Look next for Turkey to close the Bosphorous Straits.
That would be the kick off for World War 3.
Nuclear missiles would be raining down on North America.
Rumour has it that Erdogan is directing ISIS and wants ISIS to move into Crimea to stir up the Tartards.
Putin has his hands full now. Looks like a big squeeze move is on
Good luck stirring up the Tartars in Crimea. Life under the Ukrainians really sucked for them and few are willing to die in the Donbass. Further, Putin has them closely managed, and they are too few and too poor to have any real clout. This is just another USSA wet dream
[Turkey closing the Bosphorous Straits] "That would be the kick off for World War 3."
I think you're right. But Erdogan will do anything to win a browny-point from his masters.
Believe me, Erdogan is not in love with the Negro.
Some of the countries who, like Bulgaria, take the US side in a particular dispute, do so having gotten agreement from the Kremlin to do so.
If Moscow knows Greece will grant Russia air passage, why not let Bulgaria look independent?
Or if a freighter is loaded with supplies out of Rostov, let Greece look independent.
By treaty, Turkey has no right to close the Bosphorus Straits to Black-Sea country naval vessels. The restrictions apply mainly to commercial ships and non-Black Sea navies.
Russia will move into Syria
The little guys won't stop them
No body is really clean in this.
But if they can stop the slaughter, I am for them.
US supporting their allies =Good
Russia supporting their allies against terrorists=BAD
USSA gov needs to be overrun
..
Technically, it has been. It sucks to realize that McCarthy was mostly correct. The Democrats adhere to the Cloward-Piven strategy, and the Republican party seemingly adheres to corporate welfare, leaving the productive middle class diminishing with each passing year.
Israel is a British creation. The Balfor Declaration.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-09-07/bed-despotic-house-saud#comment...
Bal Four? Take a walk
Strike 3 you're out.
Look at the Balkan peninsula map. There is no way to fly to Syria over Bulgaria only. Greece and Turkey are on the south.
Don't ask anyone to look at a map or think. Most are experts in SE Europe although they have never set foot there.
Has any of you jokers actually consulted a map? Greece and Bulgaria are nowhere near any path from Russia to Syria.
They sure would be if Turkey were to deny flyover rights.
Shoot down the Capian, and tear through Iran and Kurd controlled northern Iraq maybe? Blow up some ISIS on the way through Kurd territories and say you have started your plan. I think a major coup could be had by Russia if they started attacking regular ISIS columns in frikin Iraq anyway. That's the pretext anyway...and in Russia's sense it's a tad more true in that they are fighting ISIS some to try to save Assad's ass. The US doesn't seem to be fighting them at all, other than saying they are.
Why not be the country showing video of yourself blowing up these tools...it would be a PR spectacle and I'd love to see how the US tries to spin it. Might as well make them work for their phony narratives, you know?
I would not be surprised if Lavrov is talking to Iraq right now about that very scenario. But maybe USA thinks Iraq is in its pocket and will not play ball with Russia?
They have to fly over Bulgaria and Greece,,, or Turkey, or Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran then Iraq.Even a northern route to the Atlantic then south require overflight from Spain through the Straits.
I don't know what maps your looking at.
Pretty well got em locked out other than a northern route which will require refueling. The u.s gov wants a war sooooo bad with Russia. I guess the world is once again going to let the perverted stooges in government get us to start killing each other again.
Then I read Biden is now running for President,,, almost vomited. We really are that stupid!
It has always been known that Bulgaria is USSA's puppet government, hell they even send the presidential candidates list to the USSA embassy, and those terrorist fuckheads inside chose who wins.
This is an urban legend. Constitutionally, the president of Bulgaria has merely protocol functions such as approving foreign ambassadors, giving away medals, pardon criminals, etc. The prime minister nominally has more power but being a head of a country in a currency board, in EU and NATO apparently doesn't have much room for souvereignity.
The percentage of voting electorate is persistently about 50% and it tends to drop. The majority of voters are ethnic muslims and gypsies who traditionally give their solid vote for politicians who work for minorities' wealth. Ethnic Bulgarians are fed up with politics and democracy and treat the state and goverment as inevitable parasites.
It is not urban legend, and all in goverment are chosen by the terrorist USSA. What you say about Bulgarians shows your ignorance (or denial of the truth), if terrorist USSA says anything, Bulgaria does it at the drop of a hat, I think that is also enough proof.
All Russia has to do is use a ''Reach'' call sign. Thats what AMC command uses
i.e. C-17 ''This is Reach 45''.
Rubbish.
Most A class national IFR air space continue up to a minimum of 60,000 ft.
It is national territory, you have to submit a flight plane and get a clearance at every national airspace and FIR boundary.
If you don't get it, you will be intercepted and required to comply with legal airspace instructions by that state, or you can be shotdown if you do not comply, or if you ignore or resist.
You are right ;-)
I was just goofing.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jpxu5qgubsoacn9/AIRCRAF6.JPG?dl=0
No big deal, Bulgarian air defense consists of a rusty, double-barrel 12 gauge shotgun and 3 shells....
Bulgaria is a member of NATO since 2004. If attacked there are several thousand aircraft, SAMs and ships able to defend them. If aircraft are declared hostile by Bulgaria you can bet there will be some F-22A on the way to Syria directly, perhaps even an SM6 DDG and carrier Super Hornets. Syria would also be a very hostile airspace by the time they arrived.
Not done with your fanboy drivel yet ?
Never will be kid, I'm going to rub your Russian troll nose in military and strategic facts until dear comrade pootie becomes quite inconsolable and bereft. :D
perhaps
You might also wager that there will be S-500 and Antey 2500 waiting there to say hello. :oD
Not in service kiddo, and also not designed for shooting down fighters. It is a strategic SAM designed to kill satellites and ICBM RVs.
The first S-400 Battalion began operating in Russia during 2014, and the S-500 is a long way off (if it is ever even built).
So there are definitely no S-400s in Syria at this time, nor will there be any next decade either. And it's doubtful there's an operational S-300 in Syria either (yes, I do know of the unsubstantiated recent propaganda claims, so don't waste my time with that crap).
Perhaps there are several Buk units operating in Syria.
But but but
Aren't the Russians fond of upgrading oldies like the S-300 and the S-400 into more modern versions?
Wow, take it easy, my friend. Unless you mean there will be nuclear war with an exchange of ICBM by Yom Kippur.
One has the impression you're getting your information from the Pentagon, or better Sergey Shoygu, himself, in Moscow.
Is that what you learned in SunTzu 101? To take as gospel whatever a country's Ministry of Defense tells you what they have and when they'll get it?
Isn't the Antey-2500 a reworking of the S-300. Aren't Antey-2500s operational in India, Egypt and Venezuela. Why not Syria?
Maybe when Russia had less than a thousand advisors and trainers in Syria that was true. They had no missile air defense against the several Israel attacks in 2013. But that was before Crimea and sanctions and the Negro's Big Squeeze.
There are Iskander that can reach the coalition air fields in Syria and Yakhont that can sink the ships in NATO's flotilla.
And maybe, just maybe -- & please don't pretend that it's anything but a 50-50 chance -- Khibiny Works.
My sincere advice to you, friend, is POPCORN
(been away for a few days, replying late:)
You forgot one, Greece. Israel has been exercising with Greek S300s all this year. Also, the US will already have an S300 system and tested it to its limits. The US has versions of almost every weapon Russia produced in the past 50 years, except those produced in the past ten. The S300 is very old hat now, as is the Patriot which was its contemporary. Yes, both very effective against older aircraft, but both have been thoroughly superseded at this point. If the last hope of Russia's allies is the upgraded S300s they're going to find it very insufficient. ;-)
Russia will not try to fight the West in Syria, they would not stand a chance and any fool could work that out. Plus all it would do would be to cause the West focus directly on Assad's bringing the Russian's in, and I don't think Russia or Assad, nor Iran, want that.
You're dreaming mate. If you think any of the NATO countries are ready to spill cash over Bulgaria you are sadly mistaken. They are a part of NATO as a pawn in the game, not as a "valued member". If Bulgaria was attacekd tomorrow you'd be watching NATO fall apart.
Dream on fool.
Any attack will have fighters from UK, France, Spain and Germany forward deployed in hours, with more heavy networked SAMs than you can shake a stick at. You kinda forget that Eastern Europe is already wired for and equipped for high-intensity long-range missile defenses. SAMs that make the S-400 look piss weak, btw. i.e. NATO fighters on the spot are not even required to wipe out any Russian military attempt to overfly NATO airspace without clearance. The Russians know this, and know it extremely well, as they are not actually stupid, like its trolls are.
Shot off a back porch by someone closely resembling Joe Biden's wife...
Can't understand why they want to fly when Russia has already got ships going back and forth from Latakia to the Crimea.
Turkey gets ordered to close the Bosphoros Strait,
The Bosphorus straits are considered international waterways and Turkey is prohibited from restricting their commercial use in peacetime. Turkish maritime authorities can check ships for sanitary conditions and safety and can charge tolls, but cannot stop their passage. (Montreux convention 1936)
What do you want to bet US State Department is trying to say Syria "turmoil" is an exception.
It's certainly time that the countdown clock to midnight which stands at a minute to midnight was fitted with a second hand.
Good point. But nowadays, world leaders ignore any international law that conflicts with their agenda.
Erdogan is no different, possibly worse than many.
Why do you think the USA wanted to take Ukraine and Crimea?
The Bulgarians always the lapdogs: first of Germany (in the 1936 Olympics their team marched in the inaguration ceremony right arms up and goose stepping), then the lapdogs of the Soviets and now the lapdogs of the Americans.
Bulgarians cousins, the Serbians have never been lapdogs. They fought with Germany in WWII, got away from Soviets during the cold war and eventually rejected the West.
Where are they now? Bombed, humilated, put down, and reconciled.
Payback has no time limit...
La vendetta es una minestra che se mangia fredda.
Who's "fredda"?
;-)
was he in The Godfather?
double post
Bulgaria is currently ruled by EU/USA appointed poodles, all of them with their balls in the hands of their masters. Accordingly, sovereign foreign policy is missing and the actions are the ones of a devoted poodle.
A few people will have their bank accounts content increase though.
Here is a scenario to ponder.
Russia boots out all German companies (6000) and China takes up slack
German economy collapses. Thus taking EU with them
NATO loses funding.
Russia turns off the gas.
I'm not sure the German economy would collapse if Russia booted out their subsidiaries. But it would certainly cause Mutti to whince and damage her relations with Washington.
That's mean.. I'll bet Russia adds CO to the gas supply instead.. That will rot local infrastructure pipes .. and the gas quality goes down.. a Ukrainian trick
Russia COULD, but they won't. There's no way China could "pick up the slack". China is technologically behind Russia, never mind Germany. Many of the German companies in Russia are high tech and equipment companies.
Companies are much more than a bunch of machines, they are people and expertise. Just like a hospital is just a building, and without doctors, it's only a building, exactly like every other building.
And as for collapsing the German economy??? That a REAL stretch.
As for Russian gas exports? Russia depends HEAVILY on the money from those exports. Why would Russia (and the oligarchs) kill their golden goose?
Not likely for the reason that Putin would love to peel off Germany for the EEU. Putin is an Atlnaticist at heart, a Eurasian sovereign by necessity
Seems to me
When you try to do something good
Evil tries to block it.
God speed to Putin if he truly intends to quash ISIS.
Hm, just saw that Armenian prexy met with Putin Monday for a friendly confab about the Eurasian Economic Union and other topics. No word on whether they discussed Syria.
But if Russia uses Armenia to fly over, it will have to fly near the Nagorno Karabakh region, which is under fire with Azerbaijan atm.
Choices, choices . . .
Russia might still be able to go over Iran + Iraq to reach Syria. But it might me more dangerous.
One thing is absolutely certain: Putin is an implacable enemy of ISIS and similar radical jihadist groups. So his intentions with regard to IS are at least crystal clear, which cannot be said of many other countries involved in the Syrian/Iraqi war zone.
I suppose these Russian soldiers taking selfies in Syria are there "just on vacation", like in the Crimea
http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2015/09/08/soldats-russes-syrie-le-monde_n_...
Why would you think anyone cares?
And the person's face is blurred out why? Why would the guy care...Russian have been in Syria since they were the Soviets FFS (they have a naval base there I think started in the early 70s right?)...how is that news? The HUFFPO French version is even worse journalism than the English version...LOLOL Strange post in less it's some tactic to discredit Russian critics by posing as a Russian critic.
so what? huffington post is terrible rag anybody quote that is suspect
There was 40,000 or so Russians in Syria and intermarried, etc. all kind of cooperations...
I don't get it. I though this was just a cute troll article, but then I saw this on BBC too.
Did anyone involved bother checking the world map before publishing this nonsense?
Or maybe Russians just fucked with Bulgarians and asked them for flyover permission just for shits and giggles.
Or maybe the Bulgarians are voluntarily "refusing" nonexistent Russian flights in order to curry favor with the masters in D.C. - to show what a good client government they are.
If i was russia i would be taking a page from americas book and fund the PKK via proxies of course
Bulgaria likes its ammunition and small arms sales.
Really, if you think about it, a great play here would be to find the weakest ISIS targets in Iraq or Syria and just smash them if you are Russia. Throw a bunch of what you have at them to launch your "campaign". It's your public premise for building up in Syria. A major successful showing against ISIS would give you so much leverage going forward and call in to question every critic out there arguing against your build up in Syria. All the countries saying "no fly over" have to then explain why they chose to not to "provide support" for the only country beating ISIS. The US and all their "allies" have to explain why they aren't having any success against ISIS. I would put a ton of resources in to a good week long showing (if that much time is even needed). Have as many cameras rolling as possible too...RT "on the front lines" if possible with live feeds. Hard to erase those images after the fact.
This approach serves your overall interest in preserving a friendly regime in Syria. If ISIS is taking it on the chin badly somewhere else then they have fewer resources to throw at Assad. If the west is supporting ISIS under the table than make them do it more and more...they are more likely to screw it up and get exposed that way. Have China help you if possible. And Iran of course. "Save The Kurds and Syrian REfugees!" can be your campaign name...don't overcomplicate it. The western MSM wants to project the refugee crisis flooding out of Syria to use against you if needed...use it to your advantage instead! Declare a safe zone in regions of Syria and northern Iraq for any refugees that want to come. Again...great PR for Russia and any other country that wants to join on and then you get some people in Europe on your side because "at least they are trying to help us deal with all these refugees".
Sure this is more complicated than is possible to write here...but can anyone think of a reason (other than "they all work together and it's not the plan the Zionist's have") this shouldn't be tried. The benefits would seem to be worth the risk.
libertysghost i really pity you, but in a good way, you are still thinking like an honest man. When it comes to americans international policy objectives you must discard such... honest thinking. If russia were to successfully attack ISIS, america media would simply ignore the story all together or just lie and say russia killed some defenseless young men (who happened to be carrying ak47s and wearing all black). Russia CANNOT under any circumstance be seen showing up America as being either incompetent or worse in collusion with ISIS.
Look at that downed flight over ukraine MH13(?,cant bother google) , after this long period of time have we even heard the flight data recorders??? so what makes you think russia is going to be made to look good given the chance by the western media.
Perhaps I'm geographically challenged when it comes to air traffic, but why the hell would Russia need to fly over Bulgaria to get to Syria? Iran, Turkey certainly, but Bulgaria? Sounds like a cheap ploy by Bulgaria to make nice with the west.
Couldn't Russia just stop overflights from ZATO to Afghanistan? Check.