RUSSIAN FEDERATION SITREP 21 NOVEMBER 2019 by Patrick Armstrong

RUSSIA INC. The Russian economist Mikhail Dmitriev says "the Russian economy does not give a damn about the world recession [which he sees coming soon]." And he's right – the Russian economy is the most self-reliant large economy in the world: very little external debt, few imports and a big nest egg of foreign currency and gold. Very self-sufficient (but no French cheese – remember that nonsense?) Ironic, isn't it? the West's war against Russia has strengthened it.

HE'S EVERYWHERE! Putin has the UK election covered they shriek: the Labour leader is a "useful idiot", soft on Russia, a "Putin stooge"; and the Conservative leader hobnobs with ex-KGB agents and suppresses reports on the Russian interference. We're watching the brain death of Western democracy.

NATO. Speaking of brain death, Macron conjured up another kerfuffle in an interview. Europe, said he, can no longer count on Washington and has to stand up on its own. Second time he's said things that should not be said. So far it's only talk but a test of his sincerity is coming on 9 December when he hosts a Ukraine meeting to which he has invited Putin, Zelensky and Merkel. The Kremlin spokesman had no opinion about NATO's health: "We are not forensic pathologists".

BUTINA. Finally released and back in Russia. Still a "spy" or "agent" to corporate media consumers.

NORD STREAM. At last, resisting much pressure from Washington, Denmark has granted permission for the pipeline to pass through its sea floor.

NEOLOGISMS. Adding to his useful Russophrenia, Bryan MacDonald has coined "Putophrenia": "A condition where the sufferer believes Vladimir Putin is a crazed Russian nationalist who wants to destroy the West, and simultaneously, is, together with his cronies, robbing Russia blind & hiding all the dosh in the same West." These two neatly point up the absurdities of the Western propaganda line.

"INTEGRITY" INITIATIVE. "British Government Disinformation Shop Lost Charity Status - Continues In New Format". Of course it's what you don't see in propaganda operations that's important.

IMPEACHMENT CIRCUS. We learn two things. Yes, there is a deepstate/blob/borg/groupthink in the US government that believes that only it – "consensus views of the interagency" – has the right to make foreign policy and is prepared to weaken a POTUS who steps out of line. Second, Washington's policy on Ukraine is being run by people who have a dog in the fight.

CUBAN NOISES. Mass hysteria – dancing mania. But the lie is half way round the world already and the State Department still bangs on about "unexplained health incidents".

SKRIPALMANIA. More delay on the Sturgess inquest. Sounds like Litvinenko eh? Same scriptwriers.

AMERICA-HYSTERICA. "US Man Warns of 'Russian Mind Controlling Devices' in Americans' Ears, Turns Himself In to FBI". "Mental illness" or too much corporate media?

OPCW. Corrupted: "Fairweather, the chef de cabinet, invited several members of the drafting team to his office. There they found three US officials who were cursorily introduced without making clear which US agencies they represented. The Americans told them emphatically that the Syrian regime had conducted a gas attack...." Faked: "Its conclusions contradicted the inspector’s version." False. "Most of the Douma team felt the two reports on the incident, the Interim Report and the Final Report, were scientifically impoverished, procedurally irregular and possibly fraudulent."

WESTERN VALUES™. OPCW. MSF. HRW. Squandering credibility that took years to build.

RATS, SHIPS, UKRAINE. Kolomoisky's interview. Shattering: a major player in post-Maidan Ukraine; funded Azov; fully supported the coup although he fell out with the others; thought by many to be the power behind President Zelensky. Key points. It's time for Ukraine to turn toward Russia. Washington is forcing Ukraine to be at war – a "war against Russia to the last Ukrainian". The EU and NATO will never take Ukraine in and it's time to accept reality. Russia will give money. If the Americans "get smart with us, we’ll go to Russia. Russian tanks will be stationed near Krakow and Warsaw. Your NATO will be soiling its pants and buying Pampers." He is trying to end the war but is afraid that the Americans “will mess it up and get in the way.” When a Kolomoisky switches sides, it's over. Stay tuned.

UKRAINE. Just when you thought that everything that could be stolen, had been stolen, they come up with something else. Land sales. Not to foreigners of course; well, maybe a referendum. Big foreign companies have been wanting in and in a country as corrupt as Ukraine laws are a flimsy barrier

MH17. Now there's some hope in Ukraine, it's time for the JIT to "discover" something or other.

SHIPS. Moscow has returned to Kiev the ships it captured in November. Video.

© Patrick Armstrong Analysis, Canada Russia Observer

Comments

[catherine]

''Second, Washington's policy on Ukraine is being run by people who have a dog in the fight.''

When did the US government start ignoring 'Conflicts of Interest' in hiring and appointments?
Putting Ukraine and anti Russia refugees on the Ukraine desk at State Dept,?
Appointing illegal settlement supporting Jews as Ambassadors to Israel?

[Patrick Armstrong]

Start? well not with Ukraine. Think Brzezinski Albright Chalabi for example.

[Mark Logan]

catherine,

I believe those people reflect the US's current official policy. I would nominate the appointment of the Russia-phobic McFall as ambassador to Russia as an example of conflict of interest. The official policy at that time was "reset".

Soros is another child who suffers from what I call Post Traumatic Stalin Disorder. It appears stronger in the children of the refugees than even their parents. Perhaps because by being removed from the area they were never forced to "get over it". A wild guess.

My ultimate example would be Ayn Rand. Her imagined world appears to be Stalinism turned precisely inside-out. Stalin ate her alive.

[catherine]

''I believe those people reflect the US's current official policy.''

Listening to NSC and State Dept.on Ukraine I think they represent the Neo-liberal Interventionist policies. So currently under Trump I think 'they are making policy" not following Trump adm policy.
Trump policy is like looking thru a kaleidoscope anyway....he turns it until he sees something suitable for framing.

[catherine]

''Post Traumatic Stalin Disorder. It appears stronger in the children of the refugees than even their parents''

Yes it does....maybe the parent tales of the other country or their struggles they tell their children about makes the adult child want to 'do something' about their parents past.

[catherine]

There is one impeachment figure, Fiona Hill, that makes my 'other females' radar say something is wrong with this woman. A man looking at this exchange may just say like Sondland..'she was emotional'. But it's more, and worse,than that.

"Often when women show anger, it’s not fully appreciated. It’s often, you know, pushed on to emotional issues or perhaps deflected onto other people."....was Hill's response to Sondland's description of her in a meeting.
''In this meeting, Sondland said, Hill "was pretty upset about her role in the administration, about her superiors, about the President. She was sort of shaking. She was pretty mad."In Sondland's closed-door deposition with the Intelligence Committee on Oct. 17, he said that Hill had been angry and "emotional" during a conversation in which she allegedly "disparaged" the president.
"It was very unusual," he said. "I mean I've never seen her like that. She's usually pretty calm, collected, straightforward, but she was pretty emotional."

[Christian J Chuba]

In the hearings both Democrats and Republicans accept the premise that it is in America's interest to arm Ukraine to protect them from Russian expansion.
Some even grandstand, 'Ukrainians died while aid was held back'. How many tank or any other kind of offensives has Ukraine beaten back. They have just been shelling eastern Ukraine.

Why is it in our interest to help the Ukrainian govt kill ethnic Russians living in a tiny patch of eastern Ukraine? U.S. journalists and politicians would fall over dead if they ever heard a question phrased like that.

Russia is indeed plagued by the post-ww2 immigrants to the U.S. because many don't like them.

[Patrick Armstrong]

One of the savants said something like we support the Ukes fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here. Yeah right. Just as soon as the Russians take Donetsk airport, they're off to Boulder Colorado.

[English Outsider]

"We're watching the brain death of Western democracy."

Mr Armstrong- we may just be watching a whole lot of people running scared. From Greece to the suburbs of the English Home Counties people who did OK when doing OK was easy - aren't these the "Boomers" over your way? - are clinging on for dear life in a world where doing OK is no longer the norm for an increasing number.

I see it most vividly in Germany. People who've worked hard and saved hard are now finding those savings returning little and losing value. They did all the right things and those right things are no longer good enough. So they cling to a status quo that is no longer as functional as it was because that status quo is their only security.

And those values we all held to so firmly - tolerance, concern for others, a desire to avoid or even atone for past sins - now lead us directly to phenomena we would very much rather not examine. Somehow they have led to the dystopian wilderness of Neu-Kölln or of the Zone urbaine sensible.

In this new and uncertain world we are therefore vulnerable to lines like "Corbyn the Red Peril" or "Putin the Devious Monster". Not merely vulnerable, but willingly acceptant. The Red Peril and the Monster threaten to disturb that shaky status quo so we huddle around those who defend it for us. Such as Johnson or Macron and in particular Merkel are selling us a pup, but how gratefully we buy it from them. Living is still acceptable to pretty good on the upper decks of the Titanic. We really don't want to hear from those who tell us that the whole damn thing is sinking.

Only a strand, that, in today's political whirlpool, but that's one strand all over Western Europe and we boomers will have to get lower in the water before we say of such as you "He was right. We must have been brain dead."

.

On another subject, would it be relevant to add to your summary this item. Are the Russians mediating another step towards shaking off reliance on the West? -

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50507849

[Terry]

The natural born citizen clause should have been extended far deeper into our government.

[Mark Logan]

catherine,

Very much so.

With the appointments of Bolton and Pompeo as their bosses, neo-liberal interventionism became the official US policy (du-jour) of the Trump administration.

Trump manages, when he bothers to, by exception.

[Patrick Armstrong]

All part of the Great Trump Mystery -- he surrounds himself with enemies and they all sooner or later turn up in Schiff's circus.
BUT -- and I look forward to Larry Johnson's take -- maybe at last things march
It looks as if a real investigation has started in Ukraine
and finally a move on the Carter Page FISA abuse.

[Patrick Armstrong]

My take is that Moscow realises the West is at war with it and is cutting connections as fast as it can while, at the same time, making its defence as impregnable as it can.

AS to baby boomers -- we were endlessly told we were the best, the smartest the wonderfulest. Check this book out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Greening_of_America -- our mere existence -- Consciousness III -- would save the world.

[Patrick Armstrong]

Can't resist adding this. From the Beeb piece "Others have raised concerns that the Russian-made software could be used to spy on users."

Actually, it is the Russian realisation that Western spooks ARE spying on Russian users that is a part driver of the bill.

[JerseyJeffersonian]

But, but, we're a Nation of Immigrants! Bow down to your Saviors, lame old blood! For example, look how well the spawn from a Ukro-Nazi is doing as Canada's Foreign Minister.

[JerseyJeffersonian]

Terry, Further, as an Empire, we are used to redress historical grievances of aliens. The ones to look out for are their children or grandchildren - UNASSIMILATED.

[JJackson]

I read that article the other day and that is exactly what I thought. It is fairly standard fare these days on the beeb - Russia bashing with no thought, or coverage, of how it may look from their side of the curtain.

[oldman22]

I knew Charlie Reich back in the '60's.
He played guitar, sang original songs, and practiced law with Arnold, Fortas and Porter.
Charlie was really funny. He wrote the brief for Abe Fortas in the Playboy case. When it was printed, he personally took the copies to the Court clerk, one for each Justice. Unknown to Abe Fortas, he inserted into each copy a color foldout with pictures of playmates, asking the Justices to determine which were obscene and which were not. Fortas found out, and demanded Charlie
retrieve the briefs, which Charlie did, all except one.
Justice Douglas has already picked up his copy from the clerk and refused to give it back.

As for Ukraine and USA, Stockman has outdone himself
with a long explanation, here:

https://original.antiwar.com/David_Stockman/2019/11/21/democrats-empower-a-pack-of-paranoid-neocon-morons/

[prawnik]

Kolomoiskii is simply trying to get the west to up the subsidies.

He can't jump ship to Russia, even if he wanted to, as western prosecutors would suddenly take a very keen interest in his activities, were he to do so.

[Patrick Armstrong]

But if he jumps ship to Russia, then why would he care what Western prosecutors do?
I'm sure he's got a nest egg somewhere that he can get at.

[catherine]

''In the hearings both Democrats and Republicans accept the premise that it is in America's interest to arm Ukraine to protect them from Russian expansion''

Yes...so ridiculous. I have given up trying to find words to describe it.
All I see in DC is a flock of parrots....'Polly wanna say Russia, 'Polly wanna say Ukraine, 'Polly wanna say Israel, 'Polly wanna say Iran, ...ad nauseaum .

[oldman22]

quote
Hunter Biden’s function was to help to protect Mr. Kolomoysky against being targeted by the newly installed Government in the anti-corruption campaign that the Obama Administration and the EU were pressing upon that new Ukrainian Government. Hunter Biden was to serve as a U.S. fixer for his new boss Kolomoysky, to deflect the anti-corruption campaign away from Kolomoysky as a target and toward Zlochevsky as a target. And Hunter’s father, Joe Biden, followed through on that, by demanding that Ukraine prosecute Zlochevsky, not Kolomoysky. Soros isn’t really against corruption; he is against corruption by countries that he wants to take over, and that he uses the U.S. Government in order to take over. endquote

a lot more here:

Ukraine, Trump, Biden — The Real Story Behind “Ukrainegate”
IN FOUR PARTS

by Eric Zuesse Eric Zuesse
November 23, 2019
https://theduran.com/ukraine-trump-biden-the-real-story-behind-ukrainegate/

[JamesT]

Moscow has an extensive subway system with 12 lines and 223 stations. It is an important piece of infrastructure - especially seeing as how Moscow is infamous for its gridlock. Where it has lagged behind world class cities like Berlin and Amsterdam in public transport is in metropolitan/suburban trains like Berlin's S-Bahn.

It seems that the Russian government is on the case (jump to the 2:20 mark to see a map):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4EEOFkPuM4

It looks world class to me. I wish Putin was in charge ot the mass transit here it Toronto.

[Patrick Armstrong]

Very hard to stay up to date. I looked for videos on suburban trains and found this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhtHd-dvECM

Don't know whether I was ever there back in the mid-90s but I was in plenty of similar towns around Moscow. This video is stunning to me: those towns were pretty dismal 20 years ago. It's almost like China in the sense that almost everything is new and even pretty shiny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csz_b_-RfpI

[prawnik]

Because his assets, financial and otherwise, are in the West.

Kolomoiskii wants to be able to live The Good Life, free from pesky criminal actions, prison cells and deportation hearings. He doesn't want to be confined to staying in Switzerland, Russia and Israel.