I am not sure if the media reports in the west claiming that Vladimir Putin is crazy is caused by gross ignorance or part of a desperate propaganda campaign. Just take a gander at Putin’s speech today to a gathering of the General Prosecutor’s Office (to put this in U.S. terms, it was a conference of senior Department of Justice officials and the U.S. prosecutors). Read this snippet and tell me if that sounds like a crazy paranoid:
I would like to specifically discuss the tasks facing the prosecution agencies and the entire law enforcement sphere in connection with the special military operation in Donbass and Ukraine.
The special operation has exposed multiple violations of international law by Ukrainian neo-Nazi groups as well as foreign mercenaries. We are referring to extreme atrocities such as killing civilians, using people, including children, as human shields, and other crimes. Flagrant provocations against our Armed Forces, also with the use of resources such as foreign media and social networks, also require a thorough investigation.
At the same time, it is also necessary to suppress any crimes on the territory of the Russian Federation in the most decisive manner. This morning, the Federal Security Service thwarted a terrorist group that planned to attack and assassinate a well-known Russian television journalist. They will definitely deny this now, but the facts and evidence are irrefutable.
In this regard, I would like to say the following. To our surprise, high-ranking diplomats in Europe and the United States are urging their Ukrainian satellites to use their resources to win on the battlefield. Our partners in the United States are using such strange diplomacy – diplomats are even calling for this. But as they realise that this is impossible, they try to achieve a different objective instead – to split Russian society, to destroy Russia from within. But here, too, there is a hitch; this hasn’t worked either. Our society has shown maturity and solidarity; it supports our Armed Forces and supports our efforts to ensure Russia’s ultimate security and help the people living of Donbass. This actually means support for our people living in Donbass. So when they failed to achieve their information goals – they continued to fool their citizens of course, using their monopoly position in their countries’ information space and in some other countries, but they failed here, on the territory of Russia – they switched to terror, to arranging the murder of our journalists.
In this regard, it should be noted of course that we know the names of all the Western handlers, of all members of Western services, primarily the CIA, who are working with Ukrainian security agencies. Apparently, they are giving them such advice. This is their attitude towards the rights of journalists, towards the dissemination of information; this is their attitude towards human rights in general. All they care about is their own rights, some cherishing imperial ambitions, others holding on to their colonial past in the old-fashioned way. But this will not work in Russia.
I am asking the Investigative Committee of Russia, and all investigative bodies to record such crimes in detail, to identify their masterminds and perpetrators, to initiate criminal cases and bring them to trial, as they should. Prosecutors and investigators should carefully study these and all other facts, collect the necessary evidence to make a case, which should be used in court proceedings, including at the international level. Let me emphasise that such evidence should be accumulated for all the crimes committed by neo-Nazis and their accomplices, starting with the coup d’état in Kiev in 2014, which paved the way for civil war, bloodshed and violence in Ukraine.
Next point. We should pay special attention to people arriving to Russia from Ukraine, from the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics. As of today, they number nearly one million, including over 100,000 children. People who had to leave their homes are not always in possession of the documents needed to get material aid, medical support, and to enrol children in schools or kindergartens. I urge the Prosecutor General’s Office to render these people legal assistance and protect their rights, including by reviewing their applications within the shortest possible timeframes. It is hard for these people, help them.
Joe Biden is incapable of giving a speech like this even with the help of a teleprompter. One thing that captured my interest immediately was the measured tone of the speech (it was broadcast live on RT this morning). Vladimir Putin neither ranted nor raved. He was direct, concise and clear.
I found his comments regarding the CIA particularly interesting:
In this regard, it should be noted of course that we know the names of all the Western handlers, of all members of Western services, primarily the CIA, who are working with Ukrainian security agencies. Apparently, they are giving them such advice. This is their attitude towards the rights of journalists, towards the dissemination of information; this is their attitude towards human rights in general. All they care about is their own rights, some cherishing imperial ambitions, others holding on to their colonial past in the old-fashioned way. But this will not work in Russia.
I take Putin at his word. The Russian intelligence service has compiled a list of key CIA officers working in Ukraine and will hold them accountable. Unlike the Soviet era when the United States genuinely offered disgruntled KGB and GRU officers a clear alternative to the lies that shored up the rotten Communist system, the west today has become a caricature of the old Soviet Union. We now imprison political prisoners in the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania for daring to support Donald Trump and trespassing on the U.S. Capitol. In fact, there are more political prisoners incarcerated by United States than are jailed in Russia.
How about a free press? America is now a global joke. The corporate media has turned into Helen Keller when it comes to investigating or even questioning the fraudulent votes that gave the 2020 Presidential election to Dementia Joe Biden. With the exception of Tucker Carlson, the mainstream media refuse to give air time to analysts like Doug MacGregor and Scott Ritter who can authoritatively challenge the Ukraine narrative that Russia is evil and Ukraine is an innocent victim. Anyone who goes on social media and tries to provide an alternative view is cancelled. The American media is now behaving as the Soviet Pravda on steroids.
The CIA, which has the mission of recruiting and managing spies in Russia that will provide crucial intelligence about the true intentions and plans of Putin and his Generals, now are fully castrated. If you were a Russian officer dissatisfied with Russia’s current course of action would you trust the CIA to protect you? I believe that answer is a firm no. Especially because the U.S. has now thrown its full support behind a Ukraine that is rife with NAZI ideology and adherents.
We know from the history of the Cold War that the CIA targeted Russian diplomats and military attaches working in foreign countries as a means to get spies into the Kremlin’s inner circle. With the United States pressing all countries in the world to punish all things Russian, not just the government, but the people, the opportunity for U.S. intelligence officers to befriend and recruit a Russian is more difficult than at any time since 1947. This means the United States will be blind in terms of being able to generate its own intelligence and will become more reliant on foreign intelligence services to provide us with their nuggets.
I pity those U.S. intelligence officers who still have some measure of integrity and have a comprehensive understanding of Russia. Any who try to offer alternative explanations for why Putin and the Russian people are engaged in Ukraine will face strong headwinds and possible accusations of being a “Russian sympathizer.” If you believe in the maxim, “knowledge is power”, then the United States is now entering a phase of being powerless. Ignorance and ideological fanaticism in the intelligence community is a recipe for disaster.
The US moto: “Ignorance is Bliss” 🙂 or, “What you don’t know can’t hurt you”
Thanks Larry for the nuggets of sanity in a world that’s gone mad.
If Biden is the benchmark then Putin is a beacon of total sanity and logic.
This is your best article yet Larry. Massive food for thought.
“In fact, there are more political prisoners incarcerated by United States than are jailed in Russia.”
Had to read that twice. Canada sadly is now also in the midst of barbarism. What we let our government do the non-violent truckers protest makes me want to stay working abroad.
How did it get this way so fast? The values of our grandparents, truth, courage, hard work, free speech, meritocracy, traditional values out the window.
A friend studying what the Brits did to the first nation Indians in Canada told me the approach was simple.
Take the kids from the parents. Put one generation through a different education experience to destroy a culture, forbid the language and culture of the parents, make it look backwards, brutally punish rule breakers, then mandatory failing the kids in grade 10 and chucking them back on the reserves wher they had zero ability to relate or speak to their grandparents or parents and a whole bunch of abuse and mental issues to deal with.
Same happening. Again. To a degree.
Kids in schools taughts gender identity crap, CRT, to feel like victims or aggressors, no free speech, no ability to debate, no tolerance, parents powerless.
Kids indoctrinated and an entire generation in the West is now being put through this bullshit agenda set by some billionaires or nameless persons with zero mandate.
Just look at what kids are dealing with – race issues, gender issues, covid mandates, the propaganda and hatred against Russia…
If we don’t fight back, it will be too late. The next generation will be too far gone. And that all it takes to kill everything good the West stood for.
The first week at the Army War College we broke into small groups and in one session had to identify a strategic leader that we admired. In my normal fashion I went last and alas revealed that I really admired Vlad Putin…not because he was a great human being but because he was in my mind a great (contemporary) strategic leader worth understanding.
My classmates (all Colonels and Lieutenant Colonels) looked at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears–after all wasn’t Russia still our enemy (this was in 2015 mind you).
For my part US foreign policy is a train wreck and has been for more than a century. In large part that is due to the amateurs the US elects into office. Biden and his ilk are not even in the same class as Vlad or Xi for that matter. Putin truly understands foreign policy in the post Cold War era…meanwhile US leadership is mired in a continued battle with a Soviet Union that no longer exists. In other words US foreign policy is as delusional as Biden.
Vlad continues to garner my respect as a strategic leader…Biden–well there’s really no hope for Joe even if he got an Elon Musk brain chip implant.
The only factor that might lead to to think Putin is crazy is his stubborn insistence in referring to western politicians as “partners” or “colleagues” .
Duplicitous liars and corrupt backstabbers maybe but not partners.
That’s just common courtesy or sarcasm, both concepts that the west seem to have forgotten…
Sarcasm would be appropriate but they have not earned the privilege of receiving common courtesy.
Putin needs to express the contempt they have earned
More insight on Vladimir Putin, a devastated Russian economy in the ’90’s, and how Chechen warriors are reaping revenge on American and CIA subterfuge in Mariupol:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRZy-yAYvZA
As for the new age of Nazism in the USA:
https://ia800902.us.archive.org/7/items/pdfy-asES-WBBT_9-wRlF/George%20Bush%20The%20Unauthorized%20Biography.pdf
Keep up the GOOD WORK
One very common tactic people use when they don’t want to include their own culpability in a conflict, as a necessary part of a thorough explanation of how an event happened, is to simply label the other actor as “crazy”.
“How would we know? We can’t imagine why the bats flapping around in his head told him to do it. There’s no point in even going there, unless you’re a psychologist, and laying him down on the sofa wouldn’t change the situation anyhow. There’s a mad man on the loose and we have to stop him”.
Everything is upside down. Before this, I never read The Nation, never listened to the late Stephen Cohen. Now I’m reading Cohen and I realize the man was truly a prophet without honor, as they say.
The Nation ran a lot of articles about the financial sacking of Russia. This one is classic (I warn you, it’s hard to read):
https://archive.ph/KwcAI
The western media push to demonize putin and not seeing this from russia as a nation’s struggle is what breed stupid analysis from many ex military men in US .. the hatred toward russian people and nation skewed the objective analysis of many people , for example read below the ridiculous statement from the owner of Sic Semper Tyranis , a lithuanian called TTG who manage SST posts and also manage col patrick lang..
This level of stupidity should never been allowed on SST or anywhere else ..
“TTG : In the sanctions war, it’s also looking bleak for Russia in the long term. Unless you’re a believer in peak oil, Europe will manage to replace Russian oil and gas by the end of Summer. The Russian war machine, on the other hand, is dependent on the West’s optics, chips and other high tech which will take Russia years to replace.”
On SST, the level of detachment from reality has gone far past differences of opinion, making it unreadable in my opinion.
it is worse than just bad analysis , it is pure IO. that lithuanian clown TTG is running the show , clearly he is the minder or handler of the senile col lang and it is safe bet to say TTG the one behind the banning of dissent voices like LJ and Patrick Armstrong.
the old col lang is just selling his soul and honor , for him an anti neocon suddenly turn into enthusiastic borg supporter , i guess a stack of money will do that
“I take Putin at his word. The Russian intelligence service has compiled a list of key CIA officers working in Ukraine and will hold them accountable.”
How will they be held accountable? “Black on Black” stuff?
If so, I guess it would be relatively safe for those officers back in the US, or in desk jobs in friendly countries, or even “declared” DO in friendly countries (?)
I guess what I’m really asking is to what extent are the gloves coming off? Completely? As in no “friendly” (professional) contact among rivals in the fields? Decades of “black on black” – no quarter given, none asked for?
Yash,
I am afraid so. I don’t see any exit sign given the craziness of Biden and company.
If so, narrows the scope for compromise and off-ramps even further. Intelligence field professionals could potentially serve as back channels when formal and even many informal channels at the military, political, and formal/office/DI intelligence channels were closed off due to tensions and animosity.
But seeing your friends and comrades killed, tortured, and abused in some apparently vile ways will harden the positions of RF military and intelligence individuals and organizations.
“… from the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics. As of today, they number nearly one million, including over 100,000 children.”
That’s news to the West. 900,000 adults is news too. I wonder about that and their age range.
“Russian intelligence service has compiled a list of key CIA officers working in Ukraine…”
My memory is a bit hazy, wasn’t it Eveylyn Farkass (Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia (2012–2015)) who let the Russians know that we could read their councilor message traffic a few years ago?
I live near a British military base. Alot of the senior officers here say Putin has Parkinson’s disease. They seem to really believe it. Let’s see how it rolls.
“In fact, there are more political prisoners incarcerated by United States than are jailed in Russia.” Land of the free my friend. The late Jordan Maxwell was said the United States is neither free nor brave. Oh America how thou has fallen.
This 2022-04-26 NBC News report seems exceedingly interesting:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/us-intel-helped-ukraine-protect-air-defenses-shoot-russian-plane-carry-rcna26015
“[N]ear real-time intelligence-sharing also paved the way for Ukraine to shoot down a Russian transport plane carrying hundreds of troops
in the early days of the war, the officials say, helping repel a Russian assault on a key airport near Kyiv.
It was part of what American officials call a massive and unprecedented intelligence-sharing operation with a non-NATO partner that they say has played a crucial role in Ukraine’s success to date against the larger and better-equipped Russian military.
…
[O]fficials assess that
intelligence from U.S. spy agencies and the Pentagon has been an important factor
in helping Ukraine thwart Russia’s effort to seize most of the country.
…
In a statement, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said,
‘We are regularly providing detailed, timely intelligence to the Ukrainians on the battlefield to help them defend their country against Russian aggression and will continue to do so.’
…
Those early shoot-downs helped thwart the Russian air assault operation designed to take Hostomel Airport near Kyiv, which would have allowed the Russians to flood troops and equipment to the region around the capital.
The Russians eventually took the airport for a time, but never had enough control to fly in massive amounts of equipment. That failure had a significant impact on the battle for Kyiv, U.S. officials say.”
My view on this:
Such efforts to interfere with Russia’s actions in Ukraine are, IMO, guaranteed to:
1) poison future U.S.-Russia relations, to the detriment of both parties but especially of the U.S., and
2) inevitably lead to future blowback, harming the U.S. and its various security forces.
The U.S. involvement in this intra-Slav conflict is incredibly stupid and counterproductive.
The U.S. should have just stood back and offered to play a mediating role.
Rather than, in the words of John Quincy Adams,
“going abroad in search of monsters to destroy.”
The report about the airport seems refer to this;
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Antonov_Airport ,
which doesn’t mention a shoot down,
but that doesn’t mean one didn’t happen.
Ukraine allegedly shot down a couple of Russian IL-76s at the beginning of the war, at least one of which was allegedly carrying troops. Of course, that came from Ukraine so who knows? If “US intelligence” provided anything, I suspect it was radar observations from a USAF AWACS operating somewhere near Ukraine. IL-76s are comparable to the old C-141, meaning they aren’t that fast and carry around 200 troops. The only thing new about this is that Ukraine received info from a US source – which means we’re involved in the damn war and Russia has every right to retaliate. Stupid Biden!!!
debunked fake news , stop posting fake news from ukrop sources and treat it as factual. no russia IL76 was shotdown.. this BS nonsense is on par with ghost of kiev BS
When you take control of an airport make sure you also control the approach for landing and takeoff otherwise you are going to lose aircraft to AAA and SAMs. As the report on the link state. “a Russian transport plane”… “early days”.
The Russians scattered their airborne forces all over and didn’t consolidate with enough mass to take the airfiled and approaches on day one.
wrong take on the situation , airborne forces are not meant to open airfield and become the hub for supply and reinforcement. they depend on ground forces to move into their position and link up with the airborne component..
no data / source on russian airborne source operation during early stages of special operations , only fictional and fantasy account from Ukrop baghdad bobs and the hilarious ‘OSINT’ fake news spreader.
The Fallschirmjäger took airfields via aborne assualt. It was one of General Marshal’s proposals for the Normandy invasion rather than spreading the division out like the allies decided to do.
“no data / source ” You mean the Russian general staff didn’t issue a press release to tell you where they all were?
https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-news-02-24-22-intl/h_ab6cab437dff1920a9fcec2857593b70
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-04-10/battered-ukraine-air-field-was-key-to-russian-plan-to-take-the-capital-the-airport-fell-but-resistance-continued
https://coffeeordie.com/ukrainian-retake-airport/
I know bellingcat is hardly credible with CNN and the LA Times only slightly more believable, but that looks like a bit of confirmation of airborne foreces in action. Where do you think the VDV are, sitting at their home bases tossing pebbles at each other?