To me this is further evidence of more serious war preparations against Russia are on the table. No kidding.
Real war is coming. If one checks the MSM headlines of the last few weeks, it is quite obvious that the West’s is setting up the media campaign for the upcoming confrontation. Level heads should be aware of the political costs incurred by the Russians in order to provide the Syrian people with victories on the battlefield and I very much hope that the Russians will not run short of their resources and calculated moves.
See the Western headlines for yourself:
RUSSIA
1. RFE/RL: ‘I Love Russia. I Am A Patriot:’ Pussy Riot Strikes At Prosecutor.
2. New York Times: Pussy Riot Video Mocks Russian Prosecutor Accused of Corruption.
3. RFE/RL: U.S. Senator Predicts Revelations Of Putin’s Wealth Will Destabilize His Rule.
4. International New York Times: Masha Gessen, Russian Banks, Lies and Emojis.
5. The Guardian (UK): Timothy Garton Ash, Putin must be stopped. And sometimes only guns can stop guns. The time for diplomacy will come again, but it is not now: Ukraine urgently needs military support, and a counter to Russian propaganda.
6. The Independent (UK): Joan Smith, President Putin is a dangerous psychopath – reason is not going to work with him. A secret war in Ukraine, murder in London, incursions into others’ airspace. His behaviour is getting worse.
7. Maclean’s (Canada): Michael Petrou, How Litvinenko’s poisoning fits into Putin’s power play. Everything Vladimir Putin has done to reassert Russian power has seemed farfetched, outlandish and inconceivable-until he did it
8. BBC: World War Three: Inside the War Room. (Video)
9. Washington Times: Russia could overrun Baltics in 3 days. NATO forces would face severe casualties.
10. Newsweek.com: RUSSIA PRACTICED NUCLEAR STRIKE ON SWEDEN: NATO REPORT.
11. Wall Street Journal editorial: A NATO Message for Mr. Putin. A new combat brigade could deter ‘a little green men’ incursion.
12. The National Interest: America Reveals ‘Great Power’ Plans Against Russia and China.
13. Reuters: William Pomeranz, A whiff of panic in the Kremlin as Russia’s economy sinks further.
14. The New Yorker: Masha Lipman, Putin’s Shaky Tsardom. With Russia’s political environment growing more chaotic, just how much is Putin in control?
15. Carnegie Moscow Center/Gazeta.ru: Andrei Kolesnikov, By Bread Alone: Why Poor Russians Aren’t Protesting.
16. Pakistan Observer: Alexander J. Motyl, PUTIN IS STEERING RUSSIA TO COLLAPSE.
17. Bloomberg: Can Russia Be More Miserable? Judging by Oil, the Answer Is Yes. Combining inflation and unemployment, Russia is among the world’s unhappiest economies.
18. Paul Goble: Why Germans Supported Hitler to the End and Why Russians May Do the Same with Putin.
19. Moscow Times: What Do Russians Really Think? The Truth Behind the Polls.
20. www.foreignpolicy.com: Hannah Thoburn, For Putin, For Stalin. Fearful of unrest, Russia’s president is using the memory of Stalin to exhort his people to sacrifice.
21. Carnegie Europe: Judy Dempsey, Russia’s Manipulation of Germany’s Refugee Problems.
22. The Daily Telegraph (UK): Russia accused of clandestine funding of European parties as US conducts major review of Vladimir Putin’s strategy. Exclusive: UK warns of “new Cold War” as Kremlin seeks to divide and rule in Europe.
23. Human Rights Watch: Human Rights Violations in Russia’s North Caucasus.
24. Deutsche Welle: Dirty propaganda wars in Russia. Mud sticks – that’s why politicians love to throw it at their opponents. But in Russia it’s become an art form with TV programs making allegations to discredit government critics. Fiona Clark reports from Moscow.
25. Politico.eu: Anna Nemetsova, How Putin created a monster in Chechnya. A crazed Chechen leader, once a Putin favorite, is embarrassing the Kremlin by threatening everyone.
26. www.foreignaffairs.com: Alexander Baunov, More Putin than Putin. Ramzan Kadyrov Tries to Take Center Stage.
27. Moskovskiy Komsomolets: Putin criticised for “inaction” over Kadyrov’s attacks on opposition. (Mikhail Rostovskiy)
28. Kennan Institute: Maxim Trudolyubov, Russia’s Got Talent: Kadyrov’s Electoral Politics.
29. New York Times: Maxim Trudolyubov, More Than a War of Words.
30. www.opendemocracy.net: Eleonora Zbanke, Russia’s year of cinema, or a return to silent films. In Russia, 2016 has been designated the Year of Cinema. But any new films are likely to be ‘silent’, lacking any voice of their own.
31. The Diplomat: Quentin Buchholz, Russia and Climate Change: A Looming Threat. Recent rhetoric notwithstanding, there is reason to be skeptical about Moscow’s attitude to climate change.
32. Paul Goble: Putin Using Specter of Russia’s Disintegration to Avoid Reform, Rogov Says.
33. The American Interest: Lilia Shevtsova, HOW THE WEST MISJUDGED RUSSIA. What Do the Normativists Stand For?
34. The Wilson Quarterly: Jill Dougherty, PUTIN’S HARD/SOFT STRATEGY. The unpredictability of Vladimir Putin’s “hard” and “soft” sides constantly confound the West, but his approach has an internal logic of its own.
35. New York Times: Railing Against Graft, a Georgian Leads Calls for a Cleanup in Ukraine.
* * *
Putin is vilified today, but Putin is coming from the soft arm of the military/defense complex – the intelligence. If Russia goes for an Army General as the next President, then the real hard power is prepared to be deployed. Putin is a softie (like a holstered pistol) by comparison to the heavy fire coming from the big guns, to be used next.
Maj. Gen. Aleksey Dyumin–Russia’s next President ?
Non-governmental media are confident that Putin has designated his successor, and announced the beginning of a grandiose special operation whose results will become evident in 2018.
State media dry announcements concerning the nomination of Aleksey Dyumin to the post of the Tula Region are interspersed with conspiracy theory-laden interpretations by the “free media” suggesting that the process of advancing Putin’s successor to the post of president has begun.
Even though the next presidential election is still more than two years away, the law permits the current president to serve one more term, and so far there are no indications Putin would not run again, the theme of Putin’s successor is already the subject of guessing games in both Russia and the rest of the world Why did the nomination of an ordinary governor cause such widespread reaction, especially among the so-called opposition?
It can be explained by one thing only: Aleksey Dyumin is one of the most trusted individuals in the president’s entourage, someone whom Putin trusted with his own life more than once.
Dyumin, moreover, has a range of out of the ordinary abilities which he acquired and honed during his career in the Federal Protection Service and the Ministry of Defense. It is he who commanded the Crimea operation, who saved Yanukovych, he enjoys the highest degree of respect within the armed forces, and moreover he is young and full of vigor. His meteoric career is nothing short of exceptional.
There was only one “but” which spoils the otherwise ideal picture, the absence of serious civilian experience. Though one should note that Russian generals, as a rule, found themselves just fine in civilian professions, they usually turn out to be good managers and the most outstanding governors.
According to the well-known Russian journalist Sergey Dorenko, Dyumin’s nomination to the Tula governorship will help him acquire the necessary experience. The major general who commanded Russian special operations forces is also a well-known figure in the West, which definitely wouldn’t want to have to deal with a Russian president who is also the general who carried out the brilliant Crimea operation.
They couldn’t cope with a KGB lieutenant colonel, and now there is a general on the horizon. Naturally, so far these are only guesses plus a simple juxtaposition of facts. There are no official comments on this topic and there cannot be, but the flywheel of Western propaganda is acquiring momentum and the topic of Russia’s 2018 presidential elections is starting to make headlines.
