Interpreting Russia’s Official Response To The Nigerien Coup
BY ANDREW KORYBKO | JULY 31, 2023
Last week’s patriotic military coup in Niger could be a game-changer in the New Cold War as was explained here, though this analysis here argues that it might be nipped in the bud if Nigeria ultimately does the West’s bidding by leading an ECOWAS invasion force aimed at reinstalling the ousted president. Those who aren’t already aware of the insight shared in those analyses should at least skim them in order to be brought up to speed and thus better understand Russia’s official response to this event.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on 27 July that “We believe the coup is an anti-constitutional act. We always occupy a clear position in such cases…We reaffirm our position that it is necessary to restore the constitutional order in Niger.” One day later on 28 July, his country joined its fellow permanent UNSC members in issuing a joint statement that “strongly condemned the efforts to unconstitutionally change the legitimate Government of the Republic of Niger on 26 July 2023.”
They also “expressed support for the efforts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union…(and) underscored the urgent need for the restoration of constitutional order in Niger in accordance with the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance and expressed their support for regional and continental mediation efforts.” Two days later on 30 July, the AU and ECOWAS gave the junta a two-week and one-week ultimatum respectively.
If President Mohamed Bazoum isn’t reinstalled by then, they warned of “punitive measures” that could include the “use of force”. This sequence of events shows that the AU-ECOWAS duopoly is exploiting the UNSC joint statement as the pretext for invading Niger in order to secure their Western patrons’ interests there. None of this is surprising, however, which is why some might wonder why Russia agreed to the same statement that’s being taken advantage of to legitimize its rivals’ regional power play.
For starters, Russia always officially condemns anti-constitutional seizures of power, with this being more symbolically important than ever after Ukraine’s Western-backed and fascist-driven “EuroMaidan” coup in spring 2014. That said, this stance and its associated support of peaceful means for restoring the constitutional order in countries that experience these sorts of regime changes don’t automatically equate to it endorsing Western-encouraged invasions to this end.
It’s important to note that neither the AU nor its West African-Sahel ECOWAS enforcers put forth their ominous ultimatums by the time that Russia agreed to the UNSC joint statement on Niger. Even though it should have been foreseeable that these threats would follow, the fact that they hadn’t yet officially been made meant that there wasn’t any diplomatic pretext for Russia to break with precedent. For that reason, it supported the UNSC joint statement, which promoted mediation efforts.
The next point to make is that the West has been fearmongering that the Kremlin had a hidden hand in previous military coups in the West Africa-Sahel Region so it would have come off as very suspicious if Russia was reluctant to condemn this latest coup. That approach would have likely fueled an even more intense round of information warfare falsely alleging that Moscow was behind this regime change, thus justifying the planned Western-encouraged ECOWAS-led invasion on an urgent anti-Russian pretext.
And finally, since it can’t be taken for granted that the Nigerien junta will successfully repel this invasion in the likely scenario that it’s commenced sometime after the AU’s two-week ultimatum expires, it doesn’t make sense for Russia to signal support for what might very well be a doomed cause. Doing so would be detrimental to its soft power interests since the collapse of that junta could then be spun as a joint Western-African victory over Russia in the New Cold War.
None of this is to suggest that Russia is seriously opposed to the junta becoming an interim/transitional government, however, since precedent shows that it has no problem cultivating mutually beneficial relations with military rulers in the region like Mali’s and Burkina Faso’s. If the likely scenario of a French-backed ECOWAS-led invasion doesn’t materialize, yet without the coup leaders capitulating to pressure to reinstall Bazoum, then Niger will probably become Russia’s next strategic partner in the region.
Ukraine Receives $1.25Bln in US Grant Funds for Paying Wages, Social Assistance
Sputnik – 31.07.2023
Ukraine has received a new grant from the United States worth $1.25 billion to reimburse state budget expenses, including wages for state employees and social benefits, the Ukrainian Finance Ministry said on Monday.
“The State Budget of Ukraine received a grant from the United States of America in the amount of USD 1.25 billion through the Multi-donor Trust Fund of the World Bank,” the ministry said in a statement.
The grant was provided as part of the fifth additional financing under the World Bank’s Public Expenditures for Administrative Capacity Endurance in Ukraine (PEACE in Ukraine) project, which seeks to partially cover state budget expenditures, including for social and humanitarian purposes.
“The involved grant funding will be aimed at reimbursing state budget expenditures, in particular, to pay wages for government employees and payments under certain state social assistance programs (IDPs [internally displaced persons], people with disabilities, low-income families and housing, utility subsidies) and other social payments,” the ministry said.
Ukraine has received $8.45 billion in US grants to support the state budget in 2023 alone, while as much as $20.4 billion has been disbursed since February 2022.
Last week, the chairwoman of the Ukrainian parliament’s budget committee, Roksolana Pidlasa, said the state budget received $25.3 billion from international partners in 2023, accounting for 49.1% of all state budget revenues.
Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said in May that the country’s budget has been running a deficit of about $5 billion a month since the military conflict began, with two-thirds of the money coming from foreign loans and grants and three-quarters spent on military needs.
Calls to ban Russian aluminum ‘expose EU market manipulation’ – industry association
RT | July 31, 2023
Five EU-based business associations representing aluminum consumers have called on the London Metal Exchange (LME) to reject demands for sanctions on Russian primary metal, describing the pressure as “obvious market manipulations,” according to a statement by the Federation of Aluminium Consumers in Europe (FACE) released on Friday.
Last week, Norwegian producer Norsk Hydro urged the LME, the world’s largest and oldest market for industrial metals, to reconsider a decision made in March not to ban Russian aluminum from its warehouse network. Norsk Hydro argued that Russian aluminum, which is subject to US sanctions, dominates the LME warehouse stock and poses risks to the market.
According to the letter sent to the LME on Friday by the Belgium-based FACE along with four associations from Germany and Italy, the calls to ban Russian aluminum are “obvious market manipulations by vested interests,” as they were made by major metal producers who are direct competitors of Russian manufacturer Rusal.
Such a ban would be “suicidal” in the current context of the “huge metal deficit” in Europe, high energy prices, and inflation, the FACE statement claimed.
Calls for sanctions “seem one more oligopolistic attempt to easily eliminate a competitor with non-market practices and to turn Europe into a captive market, with full knowledge of the devastating impact any restriction of Russian metal supplies will have on the EU aluminum industry value-chain”, said Mario Conserva, FACE’s secretary general.
He pointed out that small and medium-sized businesses represent 90% of the EU aluminum industry workforce and 70% of its output, but their interests are not taken into account when trade and supply policy decisions are made.
Earlier this month, Reuters reported that EU industry group European Aluminium had warned against placing sanctions on Rusal “due to its strategic importance on the global aluminum market.”
According to FACE, the EU is dependent on other countries for nearly 90% of its primary aluminum needs. Rusal accounts for about 12% of the bloc’s current demand, the association said. The industry body described Rusal’s output as competitive and fairly priced, and claimed that it helps decrease the carbon footprint of the entire European aluminum industry.
The Russian aluminum industry has increasingly become a target for Western restrictions. In February, the US imposed 200% duties on imports of Russian-made aluminum products, while the following month Canada banned imports of Russian aluminum and steel. In May, the UK also revealed plans to ban imports of Russian aluminum. The EU has so far restricted imports of only a limited number of specific aluminum products from Russia.
The ‘Scandal Implosion’ Stratagem: Will It Work for Ukraine?
By Alastair Crooke | Strategic Culture Foundation | July 31, 2023
Biden: “Putin has already lost the war … Putin has a real problem: How does he move from here? What does he do?” Secretary Blinken repeats ad infinitum the same mantra: ‘Russia has lost’. So does the head of MI6, and Bill Burns, the head of CIA, opines, (replete with snide asides) at the Aspen Security Conference, that not only has Putin ‘lost’, but further, that Putin is failing to keep a hold on a fragmenting Russian state, entering upon a likely death-spiral disintegration.
What is going on? Some suggest a psychic disorder or groupthink has seized the White House Team, resulting in the formation of a pseudo-reality, severed from the world, but unobtrusively shaped around wider ideological ends.
The parroting of dubious narrative however, morphs for the informed world into seeming western delusion – the world as the ‘Team’ imagines it to be, or more to the point, would like it to be.
This tight parroting though is clearly no ‘coincidence’. A clutch of high officials speaking to script and in concert are not deluded. They are mounting a new narrative. The ‘Russia has lost’ mantra defines the mega-narrative that has been decided. It is the prelude to an intense ‘blame game’: Project Ukraine ‘is failing because the Ukrainians are not implementing the doctrines received from NATO trainers – yet despite this, the war has shown that Putin has ‘lost’ too: Russia too, is weakened’.
This is another exemplar of the current western fixation on the idea that ‘narratives win wars’, and that set-backs in the battle space are incidentals. What matters is to have a thread of unitary narrative articulated across the spectrum, asserting firmly that the Ukraine ‘episode’ now is closed and should be ‘book-ended’ by the demand that we all ‘move on’.
The gist of it is that ‘We’ control the narrative; us ‘winning’ and Russia losing, therefore, becomes inevitable. The flaw to this hubris is firstly that it puts the Administration ‘high priests’ at war with reality, and secondly, that the public long ago lost trust in mainstream media.
Jonathan Turley, a recognized legal scholar and Professor at Georgetown, who has written extensively in areas ranging from constitutional law to legal theory, draws attention to: “the last ditch effort of the members of Congress and the media to get the public to just ‘move on’ from the Biden corruption scandal”. The message, he writes, “is clear … Everybody needs to back off! … [However] as evidence and public interest increase, it is a bit late for spin or shiny objects”.
“This week, the scandal is likely to be even more serious for the Bidens and the country. The media is increasingly taking on the appearance of Leslie Nielsen in Naked Gun yelling that there is “nothing to see here” in front of a virtual apocalyptic scene of fire and destruction.”
What is the link to Ukraine? Well, a year ago, Professor Turley wrote that the political and media establishment would likely use a ‘scandal implosion’ approach to the corruption allegations as the evidence mounted. There would be an attempt to ‘cap off’ the scandal with Turley suggesting that the Justice Department would secure a ‘light plea’ by Hunter Biden on a couple of tax counts, with little or no jail time.
Well, that’s exactly what has occurred one year later. Then came the predicted ‘scandal implosion’: Hunter pleaded guilty to having delayed due tax payments – to a chorus of House members and the media shrugging off all other corruption allegations, and firmly declaring the scandal ‘closed’, together with the demand to “move on”. Turley notes however, “the media’s desire to “move on” from the scandal is reaching an almost frantic level, as millions in foreign payments and dozens of corporate shell companies are revealed – and incriminating emails are released”.
It is not clear that the stratagem will work. It is already in trouble.
The key elements to the ‘implosion stratagem’ are revealed as outright, unflinching denial that there is any ‘problem’ at all, and an obstinate refusal to concede even a scintilla to the notion of there being any type of failure. No need to look in the mirror.
This too was the modus operandi in respect to the Nordstream débacle (the destruction of the gas pipeline to Germany): Admit to nothing, and get the CIA to rustle up a ‘scandal implosion’ scenario. In this case, a nonsense diversionary story of a yacht with a few nefarious sub-aqua divers descending to 80-90 metres, without special equipment or using specialised gases, to lay and detonate explosive devices. No real investigation; ‘Nothing to see here’.
But as events in Germany indicate, the story is not believed; the coalition in Berlin is in deep trouble.
And now, the stratagem is being applied to Ukraine: The ‘Chorus’ cries out, ‘Putin has lost’, in spite of Ukraine messing up its chance to weaken Russia decisively. The hope is plain – that ‘Team Biden’ can steal away, undamaged, from devastating defeat, with ‘a scandal implosion’ mechanism already being primed (for after NATO’s summer ‘deadline’ to achieve a ‘win’):
‘We gave them everything – yet, the Ukrainians turned ‘their back’ on our expert advice for how to ‘win’ – and consequently have achieved nothing.
“Ukraine’s counter-offensive is failing to make progress because its army is not fully implementing training it has received from NATO, according to a leaked German intelligence assessment … Ukrainian soldiers trained by the West are showing “great learning success”; but they are let down by commanders who have not been through the [NATO] boot camps, it adds … the Ukrainian military favours promoting soldiers with combat experience, over those who have received NATO-standard instruction”.
Well, well? Like Afghanistan?
The war in Afghanistan was a sort of crucible, too. In very real terms, Afghanistan was turned into a testbed for every single innovation in NATO technocratic project management – with each innovation heralded as precursor to a game-changing future. Funds poured in; buildings were thrown up; and an army of globalised technocrats arrived to oversee the process. Big data, AI and the real-time utilization of ever expanding sets of technical surveillance and reconnaissance were to topple old ‘stodgy’ military doctrines. It was to be a showcase for technical managerialism. It presumed that a properly technical and scientific way of war clearly would prevail.
But technocracy as the only means of constructing a functional NATO-style military birthed instead, in Afghanistan, something thoroughly rotten – “data-driven defeat”, as one U.S. Afghan veteran described it, that it collapsed in a matter of days. In Ukraine, its forces were caught between Scylla and Charybdis: neither the armoured fist thrust taught by NATO to break the Russian defences, nor the alternative light infantry attacks were successful. Ukraine is suffering rather, a NATO-driven defeat.
Why then, opt to take reality ‘head-on’, with the snide insistence that Putin ‘has lost’? We do not, of course, know ‘the Team’s’ internal rationale. However, to open negotiations with Moscow in the hope of obtaining a ceasefire or a frozen conflict (to bolster the ‘Narrative’) would likely disclose a ‘Moscow’ as insistent only on Kiev’s full capitulation. And that would sit awkwardly with the ‘Putin losing story’.
Perhaps the calculus is to hope that between now and winter, public interest in Ukraine would have been so diverted by other events that the public might have ‘moved on’, and with blame clearly hung around the necks of Ukrainian Commanders showing “considerable deficiencies in leadership” which lead to “wrong and dangerous decisions” – by ignoring NATO-standard instruction.
Professor Turley concludes,
“None of this is going to work, of course. The public has lost trust in the media. Indeed, the “Let’s Go, Brandon” movement is as much a mocking of the media – as [it] is a targeting of Biden”. “Polls show that the public is not “moving on” [from the Hunter allegations] and now view this as a major scandal. A majority believes that Hunter has received special protection in the investigation. While the media can continue to suppress the evidence and allegations within their own echo-chambered platforms – truth like water has a way of finding a way out”.
In effect, ‘events’ are marching forward – with or without the media.
And here is the crux: To the degree that Turley estimates the Biden affair constitutes a putative ‘apocalyptic site of domestic U.S. destruction’, so the West faces a yet more strategic defeat segueing out from its Ukraine project – for that defeat encompasses not just that of the Ukrainian battle-ground – It has destroyed the myth of NATO omnipotence. It has upended the story of ‘magical’ western weaponry. It has burst the image of western competence.
The stakes were never higher. Yet did the ruling-class think this through when they so lightly embarked on this ill-fated Ukraine ‘project’? Did the possibility of ‘failure’ even enter to their consciousness?
UK businesses ignoring anti-Russia sanctions
RT | July 31, 2023
British manufacturers have been supplying Russia with key industrial equipment despite Western sanctions, The Times reported on Monday, citing statistics from investigative group Data Desk.
The outlet’s analysis of trade data showed that despite the British government’s claims to have implemented the “most severe economic sanctions ever imposed on a major economy,” UK companies have still been permitted to export equipment important for Russia’s fuel and mining industries.
Export data showed that a subsidiary of construction company Hill & Smith continues to supply pipes that are installed on gas pipelines in Russia. Hill & Smith said last year it had “no direct customers or suppliers” in Russia, the report noted.
Many other companies based in the UK are also allowed to supply Russia with equipment for key areas of the mineral extraction industry, The Times wrote.
Following the start of the conflict in Ukraine, the UK stepped up sanctions against Russia, banning new investment in the country and restricting imports of Russian oil, coal, and gold, and exports of key industrial goods, among other measures. London has also frozen £26 billion ($33.4 billion) in assets and reserves belonging to the Russian state since the beginning of the conflict, according to the Bank of Russia.
Russia has won the oil war
The West doesn’t seem too keen to enforce its $60 price cap on Russian crude
BY PÉTER G. FEHÉR | MAGYAR HÍRLAP | JULY 31, 2023
Moscow’s leadership may not have been cheering loudly, but they probably still celebrated quietly within the walls of the Kremlin. After all, Russia has won the oil war. The news has been widely reported among economists and even in Western press, but it cannot be said to have come as a surprise shock. Those involved in the global oil business knew that they could not win such a war against Russia.
The United States and the European Commission’s measures to reduce Russian energy exports aimed to produce problems for the Russian treasury by reducing its revenues. However, it seems that the punitive measures introduced without any impact assessment have been seriously misguided, especially on the part of the EU. Rather, the EU has punished itself by foregoing cheap Russian gas and being forced to buy expensive U.S. natural gas.
Strange as it may sound, the Brussels officials knew exactly that this would be the consequence of the sanctions they imposed. It is worth looking to Russia expert Christopher Davis, professor at Oxford University: Davis has claimed nothing less than that the European Commission only began to address the impact of the punitive measures after the sanctions against Russia were introduced. At that time, it produced a secret study that was not shared with EU citizens. It said that the decisions were taken too quickly and that they were taken under political pressure without any prior economic impact assessment. The EU thus did not look into the potential impacts of sanctions; it was in essence an abrupt and thoughtless decision.
Moscow, meanwhile, looked for other buyers of its black gold, which was also predictable, and China was one of the first to come forward. Moscow has now built infrastructure to handle the increased traffic between Russia and Asia. Before the war in Ukraine, China was buying 1.5 million barrels of oil a day from Russia. Today, it takes in 2.5 million barrels a day.
Now, publications such as the Wall Street Journal are acknowledging that Russia has achieved a real global victory in the oil wars. The price of the Russian Ural blend oil has for the first time exceeded the $60 cap per barrel imposed by the U.S. and its allies last December. Although this happened just last Thursday, there is no sign that anyone is willing to enforce the sanction.
It is now no longer a mere assumption that the EU and the U.S. have made spontaneous sanctions decisions against Russia with unforeseen consequences. It is understandable that the European Commission does not want to publicly admit the consequences of such clumsy measures.
The question has to be asked again, for the umpteenth time: Why are there no consequences for a disastrous decision taken by the European Commission that once again went over the heads of the member states without even consulting them?
***
Hungarian parliament fails to approve Sweden’s NATO bid
RT | July 31, 2023
The ruling Hungarian Fidesz party has boycotted the Monday session of the parliament, which resulted in a vote to ratify Sweden’s membership in NATO failing due to low attendance.
While the overwhelming majority of opposition MPs who attended the extraordinary session voted to admit the Nordic nation into the US-led military bloc, the lawmakers from the ruling party, which holds a two-thirds majority in the chamber, did not show up, according to Hungarian media.
Only two members of the 31-strong alliance – Hungary and Türkiye – are yet to ratify their national laws on Swedish membership. The accession will not be finalized until all nations do so.
Some Hungarian news outlets suggested that the party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban wanted to delay the vote until September, when the legislature returns from recess. Türkiye is expected to approve Swedish membership in the autumn as well, though Ankara’s position on the issue so far has been mercurial.
Ahead of the vote, the opposition argued that the ratification must pass because Hungary’s reputation with fellow NATO members would be hurt otherwise. The government argued that there was no reason to rush.
Gergely Gulyas, who heads the prime minister’s office, said last week that the Orban government supports the NATO bid, but added that some members of Fidesz were less enthusiastic about it.
Orban and his cabinet have broken with the dominant narrative within the alliance, which urges for continued military support for Ukraine in its conflict against Russia. Budapest has called for unconditional peace talks, highlighting the cost of the hostilities to all parties involved, including members of the EU that were hurt by their own sanctions on Russia.
“The Americans can pull out a lot of money with all sorts of financial manipulations, but the euro is a different story, it’s not suited for that,” the prime minister said in an interview on Friday, explaining his opposition to protracting the conflict.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared his support for Sweden’s accession during a summit of NATO leaders in Lithuania earlier this month, pledging to send the relevant legislation to MPs for consideration.
Previously he and other senior officials criticized the European nation for a number of issues, including what they described as harboring wanted terrorists from Türkiye on its soil and allowing the burning of the Quran during political protests.
Seven reasons why Russia dominates in Ukraine
By Drago Bosnic | July 31, 2023
There have been little to no at least somewhat objective assessments of Russia’s special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine, primarily due to the fact that our newsfeeds are being flooded with an ocean of ludicrous propaganda that only aims to portray Moscow’s forces as supposedly “weak and ineffective”. Everyone from tabloids and YouTube “experts” to reputable (or rather once reputable) media keep parroting the same narrative – “Russia is losing“. However, is that the case? Here are seven reasons why that’s not only patently false, but quite the opposite, it couldn’t possibly be further from true.
Unrivaled command and control
The Russian Armed Forces, as one of the largest and most powerful on the planet, are a massive and complex system. And yet, this system is characterized by centralized control that allows the Russian High Command to respond to changes on both tactical and strategic levels in a timely and adequate manner. The Eurasian giant’s military has massive reserves that are orders of magnitude greater than the forces deployed on the frontlines. These can easily be relocated to areas that need to be reinforced while also providing additional assault troops that can be inserted in areas where the enemy’s defenses are the weakest.
Perhaps the best example of this is the recent advance of Russian troops in northern Donbass and the border areas between the LNR (Lugansk People’s Republic) and the Kharkov oblast (region), where Moscow’s forces have been on the offensive for over two weeks. Despite the fact that the now heavily battered Kiev regime troops have constantly been losing ground in this area, there’s been virtually no mention of this in any of the mainstream propaganda outlets. In the meantime, the Neo-Nazi junta’s best forces are wasting their last battlefield reserves in futile attacks on the intricate and dense Russian defenses in the Donbass, Zaporozhye and Kherson oblasts.
And while the mainstream propaganda machine keeps denigrating the Russian military, behind the scenes, the Pentagon meticulously observes Russia’s advanced experience in organizing command and control systems and how it can use it to improve its own. Moscow’s ability to lead multiple high-intensity military operations simultaneously while coordinating all this with the rest of Russia’s massive state apparatus (particularly its world-class diplomacy) is of great interest to power circles in Washington DC. In stark contrast, the United States military is experiencing an unraveling of sorts due to issues with over-politicization and ideology.
Massively improved ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance)
In years before the SMO, the Russian military wasn’t exactly known for the widespread use of drones and other unmanned platforms, as the mainstream propaganda machine kept presenting Moscow’s forces as supposedly “technologically inferior”. Still, years before the SMO, particularly during its antiterrorist intervention in Syria, the Kremlin invested significant resources in various kinds of unmanned systems. The Russian military then used this experience to massively improve its tactical capabilities, an effort that has exponentially amplified its performance everywhere. This is particularly true for the SMO, as drones have been an unrivaled force multiplier for Russian forces.
And while the Kiev regime forces are vastly superior to NATO-backed terrorists in Syria and elsewhere, and despite the fact that the belligerent alliance is providing them with unprecedented amounts of real-time battlefield information, for the most part, they’ve been unable to capitalize on this massive boost. Although tactical ISR by the Neo-Nazi junta troops is greatly augmented by NATO’s strategic one, better results on a larger scale have been sorely lacking. In contrast, the Russian military’s land, air and space-based ISR platforms have been used to a deadly effect, inflicting irretrievable losses on both enemy frontline troops, as well as its rear.
A unique combination of active defense and ad hoc (counter)offensive operations
Although doctrinally offensive-oriented, the Russian military certainly doesn’t neglect its defenses. On the contrary, it’s using its tactical defensive potential for strategic offensive purposes. The speed with which Moscow’s forces have been able to build up massive and complex defensive lines where there were none before has left NATO military experts baffled. The Soviet concepts of “defense in depth” and “active defense” have been greatly improved by the Russian military’s recent technological advances. This has resulted in nearly complete obliteration of the Kiev regime’s offensive potential, forcing it to use desperate tactics to try and break through Russian lines.
Needless to say, this is causing massive casualties in the process, as the Neo-Nazi junta forces are losing hundreds of men for every square kilometer of territory they take. However, the real issue for Kiev is that it can’t hold these areas for long, as each one effectively acts as an artillery “mousetrap”. Namely, as soon as the Kiev regime forces move in to secure the area, they’re pounded by a massive barrage of regular and rocket artillery, followed by a swarm of various types of drones that pick off any survivors. In addition, the masterful use of mines (particularly through remote mining) by Russian forces has been unequivocally devastating for any offensive operations.
This is particularly true in the Zaporozhye sector, where the Neo-Nazi junta forces continue to suffer massive casualties. Ever since the initial stages of their much-touted counteroffensive, these forces have experienced losses of over 30%, both in manpower and weaponry without ever seeing enemy combatants or even reaching the first line of Russian defenses. This has resulted in little to no losses for Moscow’s forces, particularly when considering the scale of military operations. Even the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces, General Mark Milley, was forced to admit that the Pentagon is stunned by the effectiveness of these defense lines.
The high morale of Russian forces
The way that Russian defenses are able to hold has a devastating effect on the morale of Kiev regime forces while boosting their own. During the planning phase, the Neo-Nazi junta and their NATO handlers were confident that it would be easy to break through Russian defenses due to their supposed “low morale”. However, the reality on the battlefield shows that such assertions are wholly limited to the mainstream propaganda machine’s “parallel universe” in which even goats and old ladies “armed” with pickle jars are “beating the Russian military”. Still, unlike the mythical “massive Russian casualties”, such miscalculations have resulted in very real losses for Kiev.
Disorder, insubordination and inadequate coordination among Kiev regime forces
All of the aforementioned issues are virtually omnipresent in the ranks of the Neo-Nazi junta forces, as well as the numerous NATO-sourced mercenary groups. As the commanding cadre often sends troops to certain (and pointless) death, military personnel often ignore orders or outright refuse to follow them. Officers usually remain hidden in trenches or are even completely absent from the frontlines. This results in widespread frustration among soldiers, many (if not most) of whom are forcibly conscripted, which further leads to the low authority of the officers. This has also been confirmed by numerous foreign mercenaries fighting on the side of the Neo-Nazi junta.
Namely, in an interview for ABC, an Australian national known by the call sign “Bush” complained about the lack of necessary command and leadership skills among officers of the Kiev regime forces. According to his assessment, this issue has led to the deaths of both regular soldiers and foreign mercenaries. In addition, these men are often not following even basic orders, such as the complete ban on the use of smartphones on the battlefield. This offense is very common among soldiers and mercenaries alike, despite the fact that it’s virtually a death sentence in an era of warfare where SIGINT (signals intelligence) is an integral part of any meaningful military operation.
Top-notch training and combat experience
The level of combat experience and training on both sides of the conflict is high, but differs significantly. While the conflict in the Donbass region has been going on for nearly a decade now, between late 2015 and late 2021, it was relatively low-level as the frontline stabilized and was mostly limited to artillery duels (although the shelling of Donbass never stopped). This has resulted in a largely superficial combat experience for most Kiev regime soldiers. On the other hand, the Russian military has accumulated significant combat experience in Chechnya, Georgia and Syria, where it had the chance to conduct complex operations against various opponents.
No amount of no matter how advanced NATO-sourced weapons and endless forced mobilization waves could’ve ever given the Neo-Nazi junta the necessary combat experience to adequately face Russian forces. This primarily refers to the strategic aspect of warfare, a field which Russian officers have been able to master as their military can deploy to virtually any point anywhere in the world, on-demand, and then set up strategically important military bases, even on an ad hoc basis. Syria is perhaps the best example of this, as demonstrated by Russian bases in Tartus (previously a small naval facility) and Khmeimim (an airbase established in 2015).
Vast technological superiority
Despite all the propaganda fantasies of NATO-supplied SAM (surface-to-air missile) systems shooting down Russian hypersonic weapons, even Western military experts are forced to recognize Moscow’s superiority in a plethora of long-range, high-precision weapons. In this regard, Russia’s absolute dominance in hypersonic technologies is just the icing on the cake, as the Kremlin boasts a no less impressive arsenal of more conventional strike capabilities that include (but are not limited to) various supersonic, transonic and hybrid land and sea-based cruise missiles, tactical ballistic missile systems, numerous types of kamikaze drones/loitering munitions, etc.
The latter have been used to a devastating effect, neutralizing thousands of Kiev regime’s artillery pieces, including hundreds of US-supplied M777 howitzers. ZALA’s “Lancet” and “Kub-BLA” have been particularly deadly in this regard, in addition to the mass usage of various types of FPV (first-person view) drones. Apart from these, the performance of Russian combat vehicles has vastly outmatched any NATO-supplied equivalents, regardless of how new and modern. In fact, even Soviet-era tanks and armored vehicles have proven to be superior to virtually any new Western vehicle in the same class, be it in the service of Moscow’s or Kiev’s forces.
Newer Russian tanks such as the T-72B3M, T-80BVM, T-90A and T-90M (as well as numerous types of armored vehicles), have all demonstrated stellar performance in comparison to the best NATO armor, particularly the now deeply troubled German “Leopard 2” tanks, including the latest A6 variant. The Neo-Nazi junta’s “wunderwaffen”, used in its abortive attempt to conduct a “blitzkrieg” counteroffensive, have been effectively useless. The combination of the use of all of the aforementioned assets (in addition to its unrivaled attack helicopters) has made it possible for Moscow to comfortably break wave after wave of Kiev regime attacks.
Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.
How Real-World Evidence Contradicts ‘The Science’
BY DR CLARE CRAIG | THE DAILY SCEPTIC | JULY 29, 2023
In September 2020, I became one of the first U.K. doctors to speak out about damaging Covid policy. Since January 2021, I have co-chaired the multidisciplinary HART group, publishing evidence-based analysis on Covid issues in an attempt to educate the public.
In 2021 it became clear that it was very challenging to persuade people face-to-face that the Government had chosen a dangerous path with its Covid policies. If someone listened long enough to understand one crucial point, the conversation would end with them in cognitive dissonance, unable to reconcile their other beliefs with what they had just learned.
The obvious answer to requiring someone’s attention for a little longer was to write a book. The challenge was to write in a way that ensured no reader would feel angry or foolish. The result was, Expired – Covid the untold story, a book that tackles 12 key Covid myths related to virus spread, lockdowns, asymptomatic infections and the efficacy of masks. Each one is addressed from the starting point of what was the dominant belief system before showing where the arguments did not fit. Each of these beliefs is interspersed with chapters which investigate the psychology of our beliefs, why we believe what we believe, the impact of fear and what it takes to change our minds.
It is a readable book for a layperson and consequently it is not the maths book that many people expected me to write. Instead, it is a summary of what the evidence shows and leaves the details to be referenced elsewhere. It is rich with metaphors and analogies to ensure that even complex concepts are digestible. It also covers far more than just science and psychology. To fully understand the issues requires a history lesson, a bit of religion and plenty of understanding of human failing!
A central theme is the significantly overlooked role of aerosols in exhaled breath – a crucial factor in virus transmission. A comprehensive understanding of this sheds light on why lockdowns and other restrictions failed to yield expected results. However, the physicists specialising in aerosols, despite their expertise, were disregarded and silenced by the medical community, which was tenaciously holding on to a misinformed belief about aerosols that almost unbelievably centred on the wrong number being used in a textbook.
Complicating the matter, the medical community still held onto echoes of a 150 year-old debate between germ theory and miasma theory, causing physicians to dismiss the possibility that microorganisms could be airborne via aerosols, despite a substantial body of evidence supporting this.
The irony is that the proponents of germ theory, who had to fight fiercely for their views to be accepted, adopted some beliefs, specifically about close-contact transmission and asymptomatic transmission, which were not supported by empirical evidence. Because these ideas had been entrenched in medical education and textbooks, they were perceived as fact and seldom challenged.
I have always enjoyed reading non-fiction but was always in awe of how much work the authors must have put into their books. It turns out I was right about just how much work such a book takes! The meticulous research meant that I learnt a lot on the way too so I hope that even if some of the story is familiar to you, there will be plenty for you to learn too.
More than any of the above, Expired is a call to action to reinforce the ethical principles that have guided Western societies for centuries, highlighting the damage done by overriding them during the pandemic and the urgent need to restore them.
Now that the fear and panic era of Covid is finally dissipating it is time for a rational and calm reanalysis of events. The Covid Inquiry is years away from reporting on political decision-making and so far there is marked evidence of bias in the approach being taken. Expired makes sense of the real-world evidence and exposes how ‘The Science’ was based on flawed assumptions that led to devastating policy.
I thoroughly explored avoiding Amazon altogether and using independent publishers, warehousing and shipping but it was simply not economically viable. It is therefore available exclusively on Amazon. It is available as a paperback, on Kindle or as an audiobook (read by me). The reviews so far have been overwhelmingly positive and I would really appreciate your feedback too.
Dr. Clare Craig is a diagnostic pathologist and co-Chair of the HART group. She is the author of Expired – Covid the untold story.
An NIH patent coupled with a histrionic CDC publicity stunt about dangers of RSV yield a new $9 billion market
Fauci’s legacy lives on under new directors Hugh Auchincloss (NIAID) and Lawrence Tabak (NIH)
BY MERYL NASS | JULY 25, 2023
I previously revealed a 2021 CDC-authored study showing that, based on death certificates, only 25 US babies per year die from RSV. 97% of US babies have been exposed to RSV by age 2, providing partial immunity. This also tells us that RSV is and has been widespread in the environment and is not a NEW virus that is suddenly killing us and for which we must get armored up.
CDC says elders die from RSV, but CDC has no idea how many. For most of us elders, an RSV infection is probably a cold—or nothing at all.
I wasn’t kidding when I said armored up. There are vaccines for pregnant women (but they appear to cause premature labor) in order to protect the babies; monoclonal antibodies for the babies themselves because, I guess, those vaccines given to their mothers don’t work very well; and vaccines for elders.
All rolled out at (nearly) warp speed. All paying royalties to the NIAID. All have efficacy that wears off very quickly. Which is a win for the manufacturers but a loss for the vaccinees.
But a $9 billion market is projected, cause you can get doctors to recommend just about anything, it seems. After all, following the CDC is the “standard of care” and the best guarantee against a malpractice case.
UPDATE: Now the mfr of ONLY, an RSV shot for the elderly, predicts $9 billion alone in that market—and more for the pregnancy and baby market. Yee gads.
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From the Archives
The Great Recycling Scam
By Dr. Vernon Coleman – 21st Century Wire – September 2, 2022
Recycling was introduced, worldwide, as a tool to teach citizens to become compliant.
Forcing citizens to sort their rubbish into up to nine separate bags or boxes every week had absolutely nothing to do with ‘saving the planet’ and everything to do with teaching citizens (through a mixture of fines and shame) to behave ‘responsibly’ i.e. to do as they were told without looking too closely at the rationale of what they were being told to do.
The recycling never had anything to do with protecting the planet, of course. Most of the rubbish sorted, washed and collected in the UK was taken abroad, by lorry or ship or train, and burnt or dumped. It was, quite simply, impractical and not cost effective to recycle the material that had been collected. And, of course, collecting the sorted rubbish involved massive costs in terms of cash and pollution.
Today, the recycling business has reached an apogee of lunacy. Councils introduce ever more complex rules and fees. They refuse to take away much of the waste that is collected. And those wanting to take their rubbish to a ‘recycling’ centre will probably have to make an appointment and answer a host of questions.
It is no surprise that fly-tipping has become a major problem. The biggest causes of plastic in the sea are dumped fishing gear and plastic waste (much of it officially designated as recycled) which has been dumped by ships.
The good news, however, is that in Britain, recycling rates are falling. More and more people have become aware that the whole recycling movement was just another piece of manipulative trickery.
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- The interest of the House of Rothschild in Ukraine
- Pentagon fires top military planner
- If Americans Knew
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- No Tricks Zone
- Germany’s Green Energy Transition Becoming Increasingly Expensive…Another 6 Trillion Euros!
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- Germany’s Green Energy Debacle: High Energy Costs Force Kahla Porzellan to Close After 182 Years!
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