Syria. Reuters is reporting that Syria is behind schedule for turning over chemicals.

Posted by: par4 | Feb 5 2014 17:35 utc | 1

I don't know. What I do know is that whatever the West has planned it ultimately comes from the mistaken notion that extremist reaction is manageable and a small price. The model of conquest/enslavement/managed instability is the new face of global relations.

Posted by: stephen | Feb 5 2014 17:37 utc | 2

B -- I'm wondering if the surprise could come from the Russian side. Consider this scenario: Yanukovich threatens to default on Ukraine's debt. That certainly be to Ukraine's advantage: their crippling $60 billion debt would be wiped off the books and they could rely on funds from Russia for the cash flow to keep the govt. running. The West -- particularly Germany -- would be placed in a very vulnerable position. Germany is set to begin another round of loan talks with Greece and the Germans would face a severe threat of contagion if Ukraine defaults.

Posted by: LLza | Feb 5 2014 17:40 utc | 3

US has, for almost 4 years now, put aside the direct military offensive in the buffer zones (the middle-east, central and eastern Europe, part of Africa) and is relying on its proxies to advance her political aims. Those proxies have shown themselves not to be a really capable actors. The overall plan of the "West" is therefore in quandary again. I expect the main actor to display a more curled-in attitude publicly in the next one year or so while the most extremist (France, Saudis, Israelis) proxies becoming more agitated and the less extremist falling into some kind of "moderation". Once the overall policy collapse again the extremist will be the ones that will lose the most politically.

Posted by: ATH | Feb 5 2014 19:15 utc | 4

Malishevsky has an interesting comment on the correlation of Us default debt with crisis appearing suddenly on the screen http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/02/05/what-links-threat-of-a-us-default-with-destabilization-ukraine.html .It looks like Russia is bending backwards (Jarba reception as an official minister…)till the end of Sochi and is probably preparing its response post Olympic Games.Remember Putin had a reunion of its National Security that was publicized two weeks ago about the Ukrainian crisis.A signal has been sent to through that to its own public opinion that Russia is evaluating the situation and preparing a course of actions.

Posted by: Nobody | Feb 5 2014 20:11 utc | 5

The BBC spent almost an entire program yesterday, spewing propaganda about the Sochi Olympics and how the entire event is soaked in corruption.

They managed to find some token Russian citizens living in Sochi to express their disgust and outrage about the game etc etc. They also brought in their criminals Oligarchs from Yeltsin's era who fled to London after Putin came to power.The claim the event cost $60 Billion. How did they arrive at that figure????

The bottoms line here is that, many Western governments(Germany, UK etc etc), who can't face up to Putin on real issues, have taken it upon themselves to turn this beautiful event into a political show and score some cheap point against Putin. Putin, so far have chosen to ignore them and focus on the game.

Posted by: Zico | Feb 5 2014 20:13 utc | 6

Yes, something is up. CSPAN has been awash in think tanks concerned about security at Sochi. When was the last time think tanks gave a hoot about the Olympics?

Last night one of the broadcast channels had a piece that warned people that, if they turned any electronic communications devices on at the Olympics, they would immediately be hacked. My partner and I just looked at each other and nodded--"Just like in the USA?"

Everyone is talking about Russia's despicable anti-gay policies, as if the US was ever a paragon of gay rights!!!

The imperialists are drooling to get Putin. It makes you wonder what good it will do them, but it's probably all they got these days.

Posted by: JohnH | Feb 5 2014 21:36 utc | 7

"The claim the event cost $60 Billion. How did they arrive at that figure???"

They rolled in the cost of building mountain roads, a rail line, bridges&tunnels for both, new port facilities, a new international airport, tens of thousands of new hotel rooms, a new world-class hospital, geothermal power plants to power all the above, and much more.

In other words, the costs to turn a sleepy coastal town into a major year-round resort destination.

Posted by: rkka | Feb 5 2014 22:17 utc | 8

yes, i remember the surprise when Georgia launched its (US backed?) war while Putin was in Beijing

Posted by: brian | Feb 5 2014 23:11 utc | 9

@7
'Russia's despicable anti-gay policies,'

since when is a law punishing the soliciting of minors 'despicable'?

Posted by: brian | Feb 5 2014 23:13 utc | 10

"What has the "west" planned for the start of of the Sochi Olympics? Let me know some scenarios."

Considering that, for the West's scum, no crime is too big and no lie is too outrageous or infantile, the possibilities are endless. The only thing we can predict with certainty is that it will be cowardly, dishonest and half-baked and will target civilians who couldn't possibly have 'deserved' what happened to them.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Feb 6 2014 1:08 utc | 11

I think people are right to point to the Georgia War and the attempt to overshadow the Beijing Olympics. But I don't think we'll see something quite so spectacular.

The US/UK is far to wise to gin up something that would give the Russians any sympathy, so I think we'll see some gay/"Pussy Riot"/Greenpeace type stunt which the western media will use to overshadow the games. Along with playing up the terror threats and focusing on them to overshadow the joy of the games.

But they will do something. The US security state is too insecure and petty not to. But my guess is it will be a media spectacle, not so much a violent attack.

Posted by: guest77 | Feb 6 2014 3:17 utc | 12

Not that anyone should request anything from the bunch of murderous Zionist war criminals that currently comprise the Western elite but does the ridiculous over-top absurd anti-Putin/anti-Sochi propaganda have to make all Western citizens sound like such a bunch of whining, painty-waist little b!tches?!!!

WAAAAH!!!!!!I HOPE YOUR OLYMPICS SUK!!!!!WAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!

Although there are many examples, this one from Khruschev's great-granddaughter has made the rounds and hits all of the major talking points.

FFS, I don't remember the world getting a tour of the slums of Atlanta in 1996.

PS: I had to look up what year those Olympics were in and - seriously, get me out of this effing Spectacle madhouse - it looks like they're going to recycle the Atlanta bombing plot into a movie with Jonah Hill and DeCaprio. I had almost forgot that the sketchy details of THAT bombing - pipe bomb, no one really claimed responsibility at first, fingered the wrong guy who died of a heart attack later, y'know very Boston Marathon if you will - so maybe that's what we'll see at Sochi: Boston Terror Bomb Two: Twice as Tsarnev?

Posted by: JSorrentine | Feb 6 2014 4:03 utc | 13

Central Asia, possibly Xinjiang. It is the common Achilles heel of Russia and China, because of potential terrorism. The Central Asian region also shares commonalities with the Islamic nations to the west. Stirring up some troubles by the West is a prelude of Things to Come from Syria to Xinjiang.
China's state media have practically elevated the visit of President Xi to Sochi as a summit/state visit. Russia recently affirmed its support for China with its stand against the war shrine visit by Japan's prime minister. The Russo-China love-in is practically a de facto alliance except in name. Nothing more than the ``West'' would like more dearly than to throw some mud (or worse) in their faces.

Posted by: nakedtothebone | Feb 6 2014 4:10 utc | 14

In today's Murdoch-owned newspaper, The Australian, prospective visitors were warned of the possibility of toothpaste bombs going off in the planes servicing Sochi.
I think the West will try to spoil the Games. I hope they won't try to blow them up.

Posted by: Hal Duell | Feb 6 2014 6:01 utc | 15

Toothpaste bombs : A new and more potent "mother of satan" explosive compound made in your mom's bathtub can blow jumbo jets out of the air when triggered by the heat of being inserted into your bum. Red Alert, how nice.

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Feb 6 2014 11:48 utc | 16

The spin on the toothpaste bomb is just proof of how demented FUKUSI's become..First it was shoes, then,printers, then drinking bottles, now toothpastes?????

What next??? Cheese burgers???

Posted by: Zico | Feb 6 2014 12:26 utc | 17

Zico thinks the Olympics are a "beautiful event"? that's hilarious. the Olympics are disgusting, no matter where they are held. they promote obscene spending on police-state security, decimate public coffers, and temporarily render social ills, like homelessness, invisible. the Olympics represent everything that is fucked up with the global community. fuck the Olympics.

Posted by: lizard | Feb 6 2014 12:57 utc | 18

Here we go.

US park war ships outside Sochi

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/u-s-navy-warships-enter-black-sea-ahead-sochi-games/

Posted by: Anonymous | Feb 6 2014 14:53 utc | 19

@19

Yup and from this article about the same:

For now, the Mount Whitney and the Taylor are an unsubtle reminder to Moscow that Washington remains worried about the potential security threat to the Winter Games. American officials have repeatedly offered to lend any assistance that Russia needs to preserve the security of the Winter Olympics, which have been threatened with attacks by fighters from Russia’s restive Muslim regions.

Why can't the world just get it through its thick f*cking skull that the United States is here to help?!! FFS, if the world would just listen to the United States and shuts its f*cking yap then we wouldn't have any problems!! The U.S. is going to help you until it hurts and then help you so more b!tches!!! It's for your own f*cking good!!!

Posted by: JSorrentine | Feb 6 2014 15:27 utc | 20

It seems that a phone call from two of the US operatives trying to pull off another color coup in Ukraine were recorded and let into the wild:

http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.jp/2014/02/possible-phone-intercept-of.html

It's nice to see them saying "F*ck the EU".

Posted by: Ozawa | Feb 6 2014 16:10 utc | 21

I'm visiting in Wisconsin and a Wisconsin Public Radio talk show spent a 20 minute segment on all the "issues" and "problems" connected with the Sochi Olympics.

The topic they asked listeners to comment on was whether or not the terror warnings would lead these listeners to not watch Olympics coverage on TV. Or to not follow the Olympics.

Once caller, who admitted she would have watched in any case, said the mass killings of wild dogs had turned her off the Olympics in Russia.

One caller said, essentially, how do terror warnings affect appreciation of ahteltic competitions??

The threat of toothpaste tube bombs on planes flying to and within Russia was in all the NPR top of the hour news summaries. I don't know what the MPM (Mainstream Corporate Media) did on the evening TV news broadcasts, but I assume it was considered a Big Deal.

Since some US government high muckymuck stated this was a "creditable threat."

Sheesh.

BTW, does anyone know the actual source of the dog killing reports? A BBC reporter said he had seen quite a few dogs running free and wondered about the report. He noted some animal rights people had been rounding up as many of the dogs as they could, whether to get them off the streets or to save them from being killed was not clear.

This morning the two recently Pussy Rios women being in NYC was reported on in depth.

But, the drum beat about terra terra terra reminds me so much of Bush Boy's years in office it almost makes me laugh.

Update: Interestingly, listeners to NPR have apparently been asking why only the bad side of the Russian Olympics are being featured on NPR and other US media. So, today, the architecture of the main stadium has been featured. "Breathtaking," was one judgement of building, which can be changed to accommodate smaller crowds. It was designed with Russia's bid for a future World Cup in mind.

Posted by: jawbone | Feb 6 2014 21:24 utc | 22

Its like reading Victoria Nuland or NYT, yet it appears in Democracy now under Amy Goodmans name..How the hell does she like Putin to plutocrats? When it was Putin who put an end to the thieveing oligarch plutocrats?

Its as if it were written by Pussy Riot

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_sochi_olympics_from_putin_and_the_plutocrats_to_pussy_riot_20140205

meanwhile russia has done the world a service by leaking a Nuland rant....LOLOL

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/state-dept-blames-moscow-leak-article-1.1604676

Posted by: brian | Feb 6 2014 21:43 utc | 23

B,

Listen to this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSxaa-67yGM#t=89

the whole story here:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26072281

Posted by: Yul | Feb 6 2014 23:46 utc | 24

Why don't the people of Chechnya, Dagestan, and other Russian Caucasus regions have the right to strive for independence when the people of Abkhazia and South Ossetia do?

Posted by: Inkan1969 | Feb 7 2014 3:00 utc | 25

Of course Bandar is not alone, perhaps distanced from US, just perhaps but I suppose have full support from sh..ty country which is equivalent. This guys are very adaptive and have assets in every hot spot on planet. Which are those hot spots? Syria, Ukraine, Iraq, Gaza...I do not think something big happen outside ME as the potential to great gains (WW3 or regime change or stole land) for them diminish with distance, for the time being. But as nackedtothebone address, just to throw some mud Xingjian is a good target and could be a tactical advance, but too Chechenia or the destruction of the golden dome mosque...if more I will...

Posted by: Rihard | Feb 7 2014 21:38 utc | 26