Jacques Baud is a man worthy of your attention. He is a retired Swiss Army officer and served in a variety of international posts, including a stint with NATO (even though Switzerland is not a member of NATO) where he monitored the flow of small arms in the Donbass and was involved in a NATO program to assist the Ukrainian armed forces in restoring their capacities and improving personnel management.
The Postil Magazine has posted an interview with Baud that provides valuable insights into Russia and Ukraine and the nature of the war now being fought. Here are some salient points from that interview (please click on the link to read the entire interview).
In 2014, during the Maidan revolution in Kiev, I was in NATO in Brussels. I noticed that people didn’t assess the situation as it was, but as they wished it would be. This is exactly what Sun Tzu describes as the first step towards failure. In fact, it appeared clear to me that nobody in NATO had the slightest interest in Ukraine. . . .we tend to portray the enemy as we wished him to be, rather than as he actually is. This is the ultimate recipe for failure. This explains why, after five years spent within NATO, I am more concerned about Western strategic and military capabilities than before.
The current war has its roots in the events of the Maidan in 2014. Simply put, the United States and the United Kingdom facilitated a coup that removed the democratically elected President and replaced him with someone the U.S. and the U.K believed they could control. It was in the aftermath of this coup that the people of Donetsk and Luhansk declared their independence One impetus for this move was the vote of the Ukrainian policy abolishing the law that permitted Russian to be used as the second official language in those regions that were Russian speaking.
Once the Donbas “republics” declared their independence, the Ukrainian Government declared them terrorists and dispatched its army to take control of the region. Despite having numerical and materiel superiority, Ukraine utterly failed to dominate Donetsk and Luhansk. Baud offers this insight:
After 2014, Ukrainian armed forces’ command & control was extremely poor and was the cause of their inability to handle the rebellion in Donbass. Suicide, alcohol incidents, and murder surged, pushing young soldiers to defect. Even the British government noted that young male individuals preferred to emigrate rather than to join the armed forces. As a result, Ukraine started to recruit volunteers to enforce Kiev’s authority in the Russian speaking part of the country. These volunteers ere (and still are) recruited among European far-right extremists. According to Reuters, their number amounts to 102,000. They have become a sizeable and influential political force in the country.
One of the myths readily swallowed in the west is that Russian troops entered Ukraine in 2014 and fought alongside the people in the Donbass who were fighting the Ukrainian Army. Baud says this is not true:
The Western narrative of a Russian intervention in Ukraine got traction, although it was never substantiated. Since 2014, I haven’t met any intelligence professional who could confirm any Russian military presence in the Donbass. In fact, Crimea became the main “evidence” of Russian “intervention.” Of course, Western historians ignore superbly that Crimea was separated from Ukraine by referendum in January 1990, six months before Ukrainian independence and under Soviet rule. In fact, it’s Ukraine that illegally annexed Crimea in 1995. Yet, western countries sanctioned Russia for that…
Think about this for a minute–if the Ukrainian Army could not defeat the militias in the republics of Luhansk and Donetsk over the last 8 years, how in the world is that Army going to defeat the Russian Army? It is delusional.
Baud also comments on the role that the the United States and Europe played in training and equipping right wing Ukrainian extremists who espoused anti-semitism and racial purity:
In October 2021, the Jerusalem Post published a disturbing report on the training of Ukrainian far-right militias by American, British, French and Canadian armed forces. The problem is that the “collective West” tends to turn a blind eye to these incestuous and perverse relationships in order to achieve its own geopolitical goals. It is supported by unscrupulous far-right biased medias against Israel, which tend to approve the criminal behavior of these militias. This situation has repeatedly raised Israel’s concerns. This explains why Zelensky’s demands to the Israeli parliament in March 2022 were not well received and have not been successful.
I encourage you to peruse the Jerusalem Post piece for more background on the west’s role in training groups that openly celebrate Hitler:
The report found that members of Centuria, a far-right organization intent on reshaping Ukraine’s military to align with its ideology, received training from Western countries while at the Hetman Petro Sahaidachny National Army Academy (NAA).
Centuria describes itself as a military order of “European traditionalist” military officers who aim to “defend” the “cultural and ethnic identity” of European peoples against “Brussels’ politicos and bureaucrats,” according to the report. The group is led by people with ties to Ukraine’s far-right Azov movement. Members have been photographed giving Nazi salutes and have made extremist statements online.
The American people are inundated with a barrage of propaganda that portrays the Ukrainian neo-Nazi militias as principled patriots fighting a communist horde. The military forces we are supporting in Ukraine are not Jeffersonian democrats committed to the idea, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness“. Our political class in the United States is betting on the ignorance of their constituents in order to spend billions of dollars in propping up the Ukrainian Government and Army. I for one am praying they lose that bet.
I have read and made a copy of Jacques Baud’s excellent analysis. Much appreciated. But before commenting further — and I apologize if others have already covered this — I’d like to ask what HTML tags, if any, does this blog comment section support? You know, italics, bold font, underline, etc. Thanks in advance for the info.
I’m not sure. It is a Word Press platform.
just curious are there pushbacks from US intelligence and military officers on this insane russophobic agenda by both US and EU leadership ? Are all intelligence and military personel on board on the “destroy russia” train ?
i cannot believe both US and EU intel and military people so monolithic and blind in their support to their “leaders” who seemingly content to led their nations toward war and economic suffering.
for example the british commander who refused order from US general clark when he was ordered to stop russia paratroopers during serb / bosnia conflict
is there honorable and sane people on NATO
Their promotion depends on not rocking the boat
I keep wondering what the endgame is here. Austin let the cat loose admitting that this is a war to try to bleed Russia. None of the professional “journalists” asked a single probing question like “how many Ukrainian causalities would be acceptable to the Administration?” Of course the true answer is “all of them”.
The Russians are not going to put up with this escalation forever. They already issued ominous statements about “unpredictable” consequences, and as Scott Ritter points out, “Russians do not bluff” and so far we have seen that, Russia has done exactly what it said it was going to do.
I see no good ending to this with the psychos now running loose in DC. Is it up to us now? Do we patriots act or wait for the inevitable? I try hard to educate people but the propaganda is pervasive and we all have to admits, that your average American pretty much gets his opinions downloaded daily on their phones and lack the critical thinking skills to question anything.
The GOP has been the biggest disappointment here. I have seen no significant pushback to the Dems agenda here.
I guess the only thing we can do is hunker down, hope to survive, and he ready with shovels to cover up the smoking glowing ruins of the DC beltway and pray that the earth is salted enough for nothing like this to even be able to grow up again?
All I do know for sure if they try to take us patriots down, we need to make it very costly for them.
Stay strong everyone.
Scott Ritter is a convicted paedophile. Convicted twice and jailed for paedophilia. Why are people giving that vile scum shout outs. He lost the right to be treated as human being worthy of any respect yet so many prepared to give the peado a pass it’s sickening.
That is totally irrelevant to the discussion. What Ritter says is true. Russia does not bluff.
Dislike the messenger all you like but the message is valid.
agreed , saw this kind of troll and smear post all over social media when scott ritter on the discussion. the same kind of troll like this ‘ash’ who did drive by smear by posting accusation and smear while riding of their high horse and NOT A SINGLE comment on the topic discussed by mr ritter..
i mean , ‘lost his right’ .. what kind of moron would say this except an obvious plant/troll/shill
From what I read Ritter actually had no contact with an actual minor but an FBI person posing as one. When I read the case I see several oddities here.
In any event it is not relevant to the assertion that Russia does not bluff.
If you don’t like it from him, take it from me and other knowledgeable sources. RUSSIA DOES NOT BLUFF.
seem like honey trap / entrapment from the usual suspects to smear a person who go against the govt.
Yes. Ritter was not popular for refusing to back up the Iraq WMD narrative. But he was right.
What I really hate about these sorts of stings is that if he actually met the person in real life and could tell she was a minor, he might have backed out.
i guess you are here to smear people like those trolls on twitter regardless of their opinions.. i see lot of ppl did this and they all trolls
your post are shameless smear and obvious trolling , from past posts i read you are trying hard to be sublime / pretend to be objective but it is obvious your tone of posts continue to support the empire of lies’s narratives
now you showed your real face without mask with this smear of scott ritter , getting into high horse of saying he lost his ‘right’ to be treated as ‘human being’
disgusting
This was an internet sting. There was no victim that I have been able to find. In some places in the world these type of stings are illegal.
This is what our government does to truth tellers.
thanks for the posts , i foresee the same as you .. as general public we only see what we can see like tip of iceberg. meanwhile the whole shebang is hidden under the water like which of west’s rethoric is real and which is propaganda narrative directed to western sheep populations ? Im sure russia will respond to real provocation and not some fantasy narrative bravado nonsense by the west.
just want to see more of the possible insanity , when poland / moldova enter ukraine proper , when russia already warn the west this is a no no..
The administration apparently truly wants WW3, a war they cannot possibly win.
It’s seems likely that USA / NATO forces are planning to cobble together a false flag o
in Ukraine most likely involving chemical weapons so as to trigger the ustification to deploy US troops face to face against Russian forces in Ukraine.
The lunatic Adam Kinzinger introduced a “Ukraine War Resolution” that specifically mentions that exact plan.
I am very grateful to whoever posted the link to The Postil a week or so ago. I’ve been reading the articles and find that there are people who actually think like I do, and who have the expertise to back up their thoughts.
That might have been me. I think I posted it here. I have been posting it and parts of it all over the internet. Things like:
https://www.thepostil.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Ukraine-Neo-Nazis.jpg
and
https://www.thepostil.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Number-of-Explosions-in-Donbass-19-20-February-2022.jpg
Here is his link to the Minsk accords:
https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/s_res_2202.pdf
Feel free to spread.
Sam here is another good article from the same website:
https://www.thepostil.com/the-nazis-of-ukraine/
Baud is a good one to follow.
The trend is
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/05/01/paypal-cancels-cn-account-may-seize-balance/
Some sites, like Zero Hedge, are picking up the slack.
Reassuring to still find you up and running, with solid, historical based commentary. Be careful in deed….
hate to be the bearer of bad news, but ZEROHEDGE is not a good place to get data/news.. Sure back then in 2013-2014 it is filled with good posts by anti empire / anti neocon writers.. Since 2015 ZH was infiltrated and it changed into a pro empire / pro neocon ‘controlled opposition’ site who routinely link posts from Gatestone and Epoch times propaganda media sites.
same with DRUDGE report , once it was supportive of conservative movement but it lost the original purpose and today it is nothing but british tabloid news aggregator all day long
I’m totally against this war and wish the US and EU would stop supplying weapons to Ukraine. I’m also against NATO and think it should be dissolved.
In the above article, the following is referenced as damning .
“Centuria describes itself as a military order of “European traditionalist” military officers who aim to “defend” the “cultural and ethnic identity” of European peoples against “Brussels’ politicos and bureaucrats,” according to the report”.
What is so bad about wanting to preserve one’s culture and ethnicity? Seems completely reasonable and natural to me.
The weird thing is the neocons started this and many other wars. They are the one who want “one world government”. They are the one opposed to preserving culture and ethnicity. They want a multicultural society. One only need listen to Bill Kristol to see this. Multiculturalism results in social distrust making it easier to control society through a divide and conquer strategy. Look at how easy the CIA was able to exploit past grievances between Ukrainians and Russians to stir up trouble.
This is why it is a mistake to focus on the Azov is Hitler meme. Ukrainians wanting to preserve their culture is noble and right. Russians wanting to preserve their culture is noble and right. War is not required. Mutual respect is.
another lame attempt to whitewash ‘AZOV is not evil’
i guess pushing western narrative of ‘there’s no nazi in ukraine’ is your deskjob
Sorry, I’m not into the cartoon “evil Nazi” meme or simplistic binary thinking. I can tell nuance and understanding are not your forte.
You might consider these sources then:
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/04/azovreplist.html#more
Drone strikes reported on Russian ships X 2, direct attacks on Russia.
I think Russia needs to wake up if it’s not going to get smashed.
It is fighting NATO yet it’s poor at destroying infrastructure and has no plan on how to stop the endless drone supply. If they don’t hit back hard now they probably will get hammered as this escalates.
A week ago I would have said Russia is going to take this.
There are serious weapons and escalations coming.
Russia needs to respond faster. Unless it has some super plan up it’s sleeve it’s about to get hit hard, you snooze you lose.
Russia needs to formally declare war and mobilise it’s reserves. It can’t do that without the declaration.
It can’t afford to wait.
This war is obviously economic.
Ukrainie has 5% of world’s valuable gas oil and mineral reserves.
Getting Ukraines unexploited second largest in Europe (after Norway)
gas reserves will keep Europe warm for years.
Wonder why the want Ukrainie in EU and NATO, its all about the money.
For the 33 bn odd US expects gas, lithium, Titanium, grains.
The West gov does not give two hoots about the Ukranian people. They are salivating at mouth thinking about oil, gas and minerals they can grab from Ukraine.
And Bidens knows all about Ukrainie gas – see Burisma.
Russia let’s Ukrainie go, then West no longer needs its gas or oil or minerals or wheat. Huge losses there.
For West this is 100% about grabbing Ukraine assets. They want them now.
For Russia it’s a 50-50. It’s not just the NATO on borders it’s West grabbing everything in Ukraine and leaving it as the dirt poor corrupt shithole it was.
i saw this kind of ‘concern trolling’ everywhere , where some poster pretend to cry and lament on how slow russian SMO are , some even pretend to cry while at the same time posts propaganda ukrop victories like ‘why no ammo/fuel/food for russian conscript’ , ‘why russian military so weak and slow and lost their way causing miles long traffic jam’ , ‘why putin so weak and indecisive when he should flatten every cities in ukraine proper’
it is as if these posters have fly-on-the-wall full information inside Russia MOD and have the EXPERTISE to criticize on how the SMO should be done..
but it is very obvious these ‘concern trolls’ are spreading FUD and nonsense hidden behind their ‘oh poor russian , oh so many dead russian soldiers , i am sad’ nonsense
Its pathetically transparent.
The country is fu**ked. There won’t be midterms, not that it would matter anyway.
I have prepared for this time but in my heart of hearts I never thought that prep would be necessary. It is worse than I could have ever imagined.
We joke about that idiot jankowicz but she will be a law enforcement official at the DHS that is armed with billions of rounds of ammo.
The border is about the assaulted in ways we could have never imagined, and the psychos are really and truly trying to kick off WW3 deliberately! They are telegraphing the plan, false flag in Ukraine. US troops who are in no way capable of taking on the Russians. They need Ukraine completely destroyed to get rid of the evidence of what these crazies have been doing there. Bioweapons, child sex trafficking, drug and gun running, kickbacks and bribery, money laundering, and no doubt worse.
Europe is bulsily committing suicide and the US public is busy drooling in lockstep all over their Ukraine banners on their mailboxes.
that theres no uproar on this insane ministry of truth in US indicate voice of dissent from real american citizens are blocked by the whole socmed/msm cabal. the whole information oppresion already on US citizens and many foolishly rejoice for it because their febble mind love to see dissent voice like trump blocked off
how insane are these kind of people who so proud of freedom of expression yet cannot face people with different opinion and even less brain/civility to start an objective discussion..
weak minded sheep who will be led to slaughter
The decadent, arrogant, incompetent, corrupt and senile US leaders in charge of the war effort in Ukraine are the only thing that gives me a little hope.
But they seem to not care one whit how many plebes die while they cower in their bunkers. That’s the dangerous part.
The lunatics like McCaul and Kinzinger are seriously telegraphing a false flag. Laying the seeds.
Theres a mistake in year from the original and from what is history, please correct it, it was already multiplied with wrong year to different translations etc…
“from Ukraine by referendum in January 1990” Correct is 1991!