Media Continue To Push 'U.S. Officials Said' Claims Even When Those Are Obvious Lies
Back in April it was widely reported that the U.S. government is intentionally lying about the war in Ukraine:
In a break with the past, U.S. is using intel to fight an info war with Russia, even when the intel isn't rock solid - April 6, 2020 - NBC News
It was an attention-grabbing assertion that made headlines around the world: U.S. officials said they had indications suggesting Russia might be preparing to use chemical agents in Ukraine.President Joe Biden later said it publicly. But three U.S. officials told NBC News this week there is no evidence Russia has brought any chemical weapons near Ukraine. They said the U.S. released the information to deter Russia from using the banned munitions.
It’s one of a string of examples of the Biden administration’s breaking with recent precedent by deploying declassified intelligence as part of an information war against Russia. The administration has done so even when the intelligence wasn’t rock solid, officials said, to keep Russian President Vladimir Putin off balance. Coordinated by the White House National Security Council, the unprecedented intelligence releases have been so frequent and voluminous, officials said, that intelligence agencies had to devote more staff members to work on the declassification process, scrubbing the information so it wouldn’t betray sources and methods.
Despite knowledge that the U.S. government officials are lying to them 'journalists' at major U.S. media continue to report their 'not rock solid' claims as facts.
The New York Times reports on the northern Kherson region, where new Russia troops deployments prevent a long planned Ukrainian attack:
“They are not preparing to exit now,” Gen. Kyrylo O. Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service, said in an interview with a Ukrainian news outlet, Ukrainska Pravda, that was published on Monday. “They are preparing to defend.”
...
“They are creating the illusion that everything has gone,” General Budanov said. “At the same time, on the contrary, they are bringing in new military units there and preparing the streets of the city for defense.”The loss of Kherson would be a severe military and symbolic blow for Mr. Putin, who has rejected requests from his commanders on the ground that they be allowed to retreat from the city.
A look at the map will immediately throw the last assertion into doubt.
bigger
bigger
The northern Kherson region on the right side of Dnieper river is a strategic launching pad that allows for future attacks in several directions - Mykolaiv, Odessa, Kryvy Rih, Nikolaiev, Dnipro and beyond. No officer who has learned a bit about wars would want to give up such a strategic position. That is why the assertion that commanders requested a retreat from that area strikes me as obviously false.
A click on the link the New York Times provides to support its claim convinces me that it stinks:
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has thrust himself more directly into strategic planning for the war in Ukraine in recent weeks, American officials said, including rejecting requests from his commanders on the ground that they be allowed to retreat from the vital southern city of Kherson.A withdrawal from Kherson would allow the Russian military to pull back across the Dnipro River in an orderly way, preserving its equipment and saving the lives of soldiers.
The mid September report quoted above provides zero evidence that the claim made by 'American officials' is based on anything but fantasy. It is simply an assertion, likely a false one, by U.S. officials.
In a current Washington Post piece U.S. officials make a similar but different assertion which, again, is likely false:
The confidant who vented to Russian President Vladimir Putin recently about his military’s handling of the war in Ukraine was Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the founder of a Russian mercenary group that is playing a critical role for Moscow on the battlefield in Ukraine, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the matter.Prigozhin’s criticisms echoed what he has been saying publicly for weeks, the officials said, speaking anonymously to discuss sensitive intelligence. But the revelation that he felt comfortable sharing such a harsh rebuke of the Russian military effort with Putin in a private setting shows how his influence is rising as Moscow’s war falters.
...
The Washington Post previously reported that a Russian insider confronted Putin personally to spotlight mismanagement of the war effort but did not name that individual. The Post reported that the exchange was considered significant enough to include in the daily intelligence briefing provided to President Biden.Prigozhin’s frustration with the Russian Defense Ministry and his growing tension with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu are also the subject of a separate U.S. intelligence report that has been circulating among officials in Washington, according to people who have read the file.
So U.S. intelligence is claiming that Prigozhin and Putin recently had a meeting during which Prigozhin vented his anger. How would the U.S. know that? Does it have microphones inside the Kremlin? Is there a mole deep inside Putin's administration who serves him his tea? I don't think so.
Down in the 11th paragraph the Post finally says that Prigozhin himself is strongly denying any recent meeting with Putin as well as any 'venting':
Prigozhin denied recent personal contact with Putin in comments to The Washington Post made late Monday through his press service.“First, I did not communicate personally with Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin either recently or in any foreseeable future. I did not criticize the management of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation during the conflict in Ukraine. Therefore, I cannot comment on anything,” he said, adding that he had no right to criticize or praise the work of Russia’s armed forces since he was not a military expert.
That statement sounds more truthful to me than any of the claims those anonymous U.S. officials make.
So why do U.S. officials come up with such nonsense?
NBC News and other outlets told us why:
The administration has done so even when the intelligence wasn’t rock solid, officials said, to keep Russian President Vladimir Putin off balance.
That is of course not the real reason. Putin is a professional. He knows what requests his commanders have made or not made. He knows that he did not meet Prigozhin.
The real function of those false assertions is to project Russia as weak, to deceive the U.S. public to keep up the support for the U.S. proxy war against Russia. That may or may not work. But as long as 'journalists' are willing to write down such nonsense there are also no costs to any of the 'U.S. officials' producing it.
They will only stop making up shit when they are called out for it.
Posted by b on October 25, 2022 at 14:09 UTC | Permalink
next page »-->"They will only stop making up shit when they are called out for it."
Been going on for years, e.g., anonymous sources who don't need corroboration, is no different than fiction/fantasy. US regime media is propaganda for public consumption. They probably have a laugh in the Kremlin when some staffer shows what "stories" US regime media runs with.
Posted by: Forbes | Oct 25 2022 14:41 utc | 2
we all know Hollywood movies are fiction, yet they keep being made.
Posted by: mijj | Oct 25 2022 14:47 utc | 3
Those who believe they are preserving a sacred bureaucracy against the will of "immature" life forms aren't going to let mere material facts dissuade them from building fetters and guardrails.
They will continue to make shit up until churches and states no longer call for it. Since made-up shit is central to each of those institutions, we've got a long wait ahead of us.
Posted by: sippy the shot glass | Oct 25 2022 14:53 utc | 4
Infosys in China
What if China throws Infosys out of China?
Who is Infosys?
Infosys is the $80 Billion company owned by UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Father-in-law/Wife.
What if China told PM Sunak to end the sanctions on Russia or they would kick Infosys out of China?
Is PM Sunak subject to such Blackmail?
Posted by: Julian | Oct 25 2022 15:00 utc | 5
Even putting the word 'journalists' in quotes to describe the inept stenographers dominating the USA media is too good. These hacks are sloppy third-grade secretarial clerks at best. I recently learned that nearly all the tabloids and some broadsheets in Denmark, Norway and Sweden are produced and edited by millennials, who are more interested in playing video games than studying anything useful.
Posted by: Steve | Oct 25 2022 15:07 utc | 6
who is going to call them out, and how? we have decades of people getting jailed, committing "suicide" by a couple of shots to the head, well known figures getting demonetized and smeared and blacklisted, and the political opposition shrinking away. i think it's going to take things getting a lot worse, and the process of losing the war in Ukraine will accelerate this process in the U.S. it's going to take major external events, the whole US edifice is rotten but is mutually reinforcing. there's an article at Naked Capitalism about the left wing president of Colombia being critical of US policy, his government is being bankrupted by US economic policy, but it looks like the plutocracy in Colombia is kneecapping him (looks like it to me, that is). Imran Khan is fighting for his political life in Pakistan, for daring to push back against the empire. I think everything hinges on the success of Russia and China and the Belt and Road Initiative.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Oct 25 2022 15:11 utc | 7
Wow. Who would have thought that people who pretend not to understand the difference between men and women would be lying about other stuff too?
Posted by: ZX | Oct 25 2022 15:15 utc | 8
Anything in the American media is intended for the American readers and viewers. If the government wants to send a message to Putin, there are back channels more efficient. That’s what ambassadors and their staff are for. The idea that Putin is combing NBC News for insight is absurd. Even Americans who don’t watch NBC News are more informed.
Posted by: Gail Storm | Oct 25 2022 15:16 utc | 9
I am grateful for MOA as I removed all contact with the MSM in my life years ago. Nice to be reassured it was the right thing to do.
Posted by: SwissArmyMan | Oct 25 2022 15:19 utc | 10
Several years ago, Patrick Armstrong wrote an article about Washington's dumbfoundingly poor intelligence on Russia: https://patrickarmstrong.ca/2018/05/10/no-your-intelligence-is-actually-bad-very-bad/
If anything, it's gotten worse since then. Just last year, in Afghanistan - with tens of thousands of locals on our payroll, in a land we had occupied for two decades, micromanaging the security and intelligence services of the puppet government we installed - our officials were utterly shocked by how quickly it all fell apart. 48 hours before the Taliban seized Kabul, our intel officials were 'warning' journalists that the capital might fall 'within 90 days.'
With respect to Russia, an inability to recruit and retain reliable Russian informants is partly to blame. This forces Washington to rely almost exclusively on signals intercepts and satellite surveillance.
From the outside looking in, it appears there is an even more dangerous process at work: Something in the institutional culture of our intelligence agencies, I think, has prompted something similar to the 'mass formation psychosis' we saw with Covid. It seems the people inventing these nonsense reports actually come to believe them, on some level. Or at any rate, they are able to brief the president with straight faces.
I also wonder whether CIA sincerely believes it has 'assets' in the Kremlin and/or Russian military, whose job it is to tell the Americans exactly what Putin wants them to hear. So ... who is keeping whom 'off balance'?
Posted by: jmj59 | Oct 25 2022 15:30 utc | 11
thanks b...
i appreciate you rummaging thru this shit, so that i don't have to! fact is the western msm is completely captured by the intel agencies.. the journalists write what they are told and don't question any of it... that is not their job, lol... they are steneographers for the intel folks! garbage in and garbage out..
forget about calling them out... until ordinary people reading this shit start asking the same questions you ask - those who are stupid enough to read this crap deserve what they get! people need to ask more questions, but i have found - most people don't!
they just make up bullshit to support a narrative.. this has been the way for too long for it not to have been acknowledged by a thinking person.. problem is, there ain't a lot of thinking people who read these publications, or if they were - they would stop!
you know it is bullshit when they say anything like this -
'U.S. Officials Said'
American officials said,
according to two U.S. officials
according to people who have read the file.
breaking with recent precedent by deploying declassified intelligence
declassified intelligence
bullshit, bullshit, bullshit... they aren't going to stop with the bullshit.. that is their job - to spread bullshit! calling them out isn't going to change any of it... it will be business -bullshit - as usual!
Posted by: james | Oct 25 2022 15:31 utc | 12
Posted by: james | Oct 25 2022 15:31 utc | 13
Yeah, at a certain point you have to stop analyzing it and start looking for better sources of information.
Posted by: Bemildred | Oct 25 2022 15:38 utc | 13
Any hint of a whimper of critical thinking gets a stamping by the Pentagon's boots, forever. Mr Assange can testify to that. Better to just nod along, then go home and hug your children tight, whispering 'everything's going to be ok'...
Posted by: Benn | Oct 25 2022 15:38 utc | 14
Putin's time is consumed with running Russia as people would learn if they read what goes on at his daily meetings, but then presstitutes aren't people in the general sense. For example, Russia has many organizations related to military management, and today Putin met with one of those, "the Coordinating Council under the Government to meet the needs of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation". The Kremlin explains:
"The Head of State held a videoconference meeting with members of the Coordinating Council under the Government to meet the needs of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, other troops, military formations and bodies."
We then discover that this council was just formed a few days ago on the 21st. The overall transcript is indicated as being incomplete, but the information Putin supplies in his opening remarks tells us a great deal:
Our colleagues have spoken many times and on various occasions – both in connection with the well-known restrictions in the economic sphere and in connection with the special military operation – about the need to update the procedures and the regulatory framework in making decisions in various areas of our activity. This also applies to the economy as a whole, individual industries, the Armed Forces, the provision of a special military operation with everything necessary, and so on.We have faced certain difficulties and the need to modernise our work and give it a new impetus and a new character during the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. And a lot was done then in terms of updating this very regulatory framework, getting rid of archaic procedures that prevent us from moving forward at the pace that the country needs.
Now that we are faced with the need to resolve at a faster pace the issues related to the provision of a special military operation and related to the fight against the economic constraints that we are facing, without any exaggeration unprecedented, you know, many times with many of you who are now taking part in this meeting, discussed issues related to the need, Let me repeat once again that the updates of all our work to improve administrative procedures have taken many approaches to these problems from different angles.
And now the situation is such that life itself is pushing us to once again look at all this work in the most careful way and develop common approaches to updating all procedures, all administrative procedures, everything related to what is called "management" – in the broadest sense of the word. And this, of course, cannot be done without broad and deep coordination between all areas of activity, all structures, all ministries, departments, and of very different orientations – the power bloc, the economic bloc, and the regions of the Russian Federation. It is for this purpose, to put it in my own words, that the Coordinating Council was created. [My Emphasis]
As my emphasized portion alludes to, a great mass of organizations are engaged in SMO management, a delegation of responsibility Putin arranged. It's clearly safe to say Putin is more directly involved in the SMO than Biden is in the Empire's operations and that Russia applies more wisdom.
I was in a shop today and glanced at the selection of newspapers, just to get a flavour of what the current mood music that the public opinion is being choreographed to. I laughed; it was genuinely amusing.
I've not partaken in main stream media for some time, though I do occasionally dip my toe in to gauge the breadth of my disconnect. I'm not sure I anticipate the current levels of absurdity diminishing.
It's like kicking a habit. I used to be a news junkie but now I've gone so long without it that my genes don't code for those proteins that build the receptors. I'll never get that rush again. I'm facing a future of stark reality without the camerderie of my junkie friends (apologies to anyone that has struggled with a drug habit for my frivolity), no longer frequenting those comfortingly familiar places that hold so many memories. Absent the traditions and ceremonies that for so long defined who I thought I was.
Even the dealers were my friends, weren't they? They were usually welcoming and we enjoyed some level of human contact, however base.Did they corrupt me or did I corrupt them?
Now I'm faced with undecipherable reality. A mystery is a fascinating thing.
Posted by: Cyclops | Oct 25 2022 15:41 utc | 16
"They will only stop making up shit when they are called out for it."
No, they will not.
I know an American woman from Texas - I've known her for about ten years - who used to be intelligent, funny, and genuinely liberal (not political "liberal"). In two years, since about the day Bidet "won" the American "election", she's deliberately chosen to shut off her brain and critical faculties. Now she claims on Twitter that the anti Russian neocon warmongers Tom Cotton and Mike Pompeo are Russian agents paid by the tweet by Putin, she enthusiastically supports nazis in Ukranazistan, and she couldn't be less interested in what she herself used to believe before 2020 if she tried. And this is absolutely typical of the target audience for this kind of warmonger propaganda from the military industrial complex media.
All that will happen if their "shit is called out" is that the one doing the calling out will be labelled a Ptin apologist. You are dealing with so called rational human beings who have so shut down their minds that they can honestly tell themselves that Russia destroyed its own pipelines and bombed its own bridge. You are expecting too much if you think they can or will change.
The towering MoA comment forum intellects who cannot predict what's going to happen 24 hours in the future to save their hyperintelligent lives can call me a troll and an idiot now.
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Oct 25 2022 15:45 utc | 17
Now that the US+ knows that Russia is nervous about about the potential "dirty bomb" scenario, perhaps they will start use the locations of their purported assembly as safe locations for the storage of weapons and other sensitive materials, knowing that Russia is unlikely to bomb them.
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Oct 25 2022 15:48 utc | 18
@ Bemildred | Oct 25 2022 15:38 utc | 13
thanks.. yes! and of course that is why we are at moa, as opposed to reading that drivel! if i find any better sources, i will let you know.. meanwhile, i have my trusted sources - karlof1, grieved, and etc. etc. lolol!
Posted by: james | Oct 25 2022 15:51 utc | 19
Well, the new British Asian Rishi Sunak doesn't appear to have better brains than his predecessors, for he had kept Ben Wallace as the defense secretary.
Posted by: Paulg | Oct 25 2022 15:57 utc | 20
re: President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has thrust himself more directly into strategic planning for the war in Ukraine in recent weeks, American officials said, including rejecting requests from his commanders on the ground that they be allowed to retreat from the vital southern city of Kherson.
The retreat from Kherson request is because Kherson is surrounded on three sides here and here by Ukr troops, and on the fourth side by a the Dnipro river with blown bridges, forcing resupply by risky pontoon boats.
Recently, Russian-installed authorities in Ukraine told all Kherson residents to leave immediately ahead of the expected action by Ukrainian troops to take back the city. Russia’s military leadership has withdrawn its officers in the Russian-annexed city of Kherson across the Dnieper River in anticipation of an advance of Ukrainian troops.. . .here and here.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 25 2022 15:58 utc | 21
I believe I have solved the riddle of why us officials (small capitals) are asserting so definitively what are obvious untruths, and will continue to do so.
They are simply following the Chinese example. How?
Xi Jinping has confounded everyone by revealing in his presidency that whilst he is a practicioner of 'communism with Chinese characteristics' those characteristics are deeply cultural. Part of that culture is Confucianism, which says in practice that you act as though what you wish to be true is true, because that is an important way to make it happen.
This is fine when it comes to good things like politeness, and optimism in the face of disaster. If you believe these are good goals and practise them as if they had already happened, a mysteriously powerful, increasingly invasive goodwill accomplishes the goals you set.
If we think of us officials as Confucianists at heart, all we have to do is switch their misplaced priorities onto the right track. Confuscianism doesn't work in the negative; Mephistopheles already learned this fact. And we true Confucianists already see that what is meant for ill somehow converts itself to good in the long run; it just takes longer to happen.
Problem solved!
Posted by: juliania | Oct 25 2022 16:00 utc | 22
If Sunak too keeps the Ukraine rhetoric on, he won't be able to solve the terrible economic problems of the UK. The money the UK had lost with Boris the clown's Ukraine expedition cannot be replaced that easily in 2023 and after.
Posted by: Paulg | Oct 25 2022 16:00 utc | 23
that's rich don... an ap article and an nyt article.... why did i even bother? lol..
Posted by: james | Oct 25 2022 16:01 utc | 24
How do media corporations like the NYT and WaPo stay in business? Most people can advertise and sell stuff through Ebay and craigslist and get news and information for free on the internet. My guess is the big corporations and government agencies are the ones supporting these media outlets. The only incentive is to write what they are told, and never question it, or go out of business because their corporate backers will stop funding them.
Posted by: 10 to 1 | Oct 25 2022 16:02 utc | 25
@PaulG 23
Sunak will be gone in 6 months, if he lasts that long. He only got to be Crime Sinister because nobody else was stupid enough to take that poisoned chalice.
The post of Brutish Crime Sinister is no more than that of rubber stamp for the Warshington Warmongers, and everyone knows that.
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Oct 25 2022 16:04 utc | 26
Paulg | Oct 25 2022 15:57 utc | 20
His brains are better because they're inside his skull and not all over his bath or down a storm drain or in a jar at MI6.
Does that help you toward a less juvenile understanding of how real, actual states work, rather than your radical individualist (i.e. liberal) cope?
Posted by: sippy the shot glass | Oct 25 2022 16:05 utc | 27
Biswapriya Purkayast | Oct 25 2022 15:45 utc | 17--
I'd say she's become morally unhinged, something similar infiltrated minds in 2008 and led to Obama's victory and also his reelection. In his video address to the participants of the plenary session of the XXIV World Russian People's Council today, Lavrov tangentially touched on the reasons behind that woman's failing in the latter half of his remarks:
Attempts by Washington and its European satellites to isolate Russia and "push" us to the margins of world politics are doomed. Today's world is not Western-centric, but, on the contrary, multipolar. The course of history cannot be reversed. In practical terms, this means that States and their citizens have real freedom to choose paths and models of political and socio-economic development. The peoples of the world want to live according to the cultural and civilizational foundations bequeathed by their ancestors. They reject the pseudo-liberal approaches imposed by western elites, which encourage destructive models of behavior and thereby cause irreparable damage to people's moral health.For our part, we proceed from the premise that universal human solidarity should be based on traditional values common to the world's major religions and cultures. Russian diplomacy will continue to work to ensure that interstate communication is based on the principles of international law and honesty, goodness and justice. I am pleased to note that a similar line is adhered to by the overwhelming majority of the world's states, representing more than 80% of the population. That gives us hope.
Of course, we will continue to strengthen fruitful cooperation with the Russian Orthodox Church and other traditional confessions of our country. To promote inter-civilizational, interfaith, intercultural dialogues in the interests of further formation of a more equitable and democratic polycentric architecture of the world order. [My Emphasis]
Lavrov's observation is extremely important when thinking about the endgame and reinforces what myself and others say about the RoW being with Russia and against the Empire. There's a stupendous moral failure within the Outlaw US Empire that's being swept under the rug despite its symptoms being displayed by media daily and is a topic that's rarely discussed here.
"The real function of those false assertions is to project Russia as weak, to deceive the U.S. public to keep up the support for the U.S. proxy war against Russia. That may or may not work."
If there is any credibility to the dirty bomb worry, it lies in the fact that non-elites believe that Russia must resort to one because it is losing. The Syria false flag attacks were only credible if you didn't know the jihadists were losing to a military using high explosives, not gas.
Posted by: dadooronron | Oct 25 2022 16:06 utc | 29
The scariest part for me if true is:
"The Post reported that the exchange was considered significant enough to include in the daily intelligence briefing provided to President Biden"
That means: The real function of those false assertions is to project Russia as weak, NOT to deceive the U.S. public to keep up the support for the U.S. proxy war against Russia, but to deceive Biden.
Even if Biden is cognizant at certain times, he is being fed a crock of bad information?
Posted by: intp1 | Oct 25 2022 16:10 utc | 30
@SwissArmyMan post #10
I actually check out the headlines of MSM regularly. Not that I trust anything therein, but I get a quick grasp of reality by the exact opposite of what they are selling.
Posted by: YIU | Oct 25 2022 16:11 utc | 31
Sorry, 'practitioner'. My other misspelling is perhaps apt, so I'll leave it.
;)
Posted by: juliania | Oct 25 2022 16:14 utc | 32
Msm Reference;
BBc broadcasts deep into USA cities and FCC does nothing for decades..
Border states with Canada endure endless london propaganda broadcasting inside usa territory. Intentional, these transmissions reach hundreds miles inland
Posted by: meow | Oct 25 2022 16:18 utc | 33
Don Bacon @ 21
Kherson city is surrounded by Russian forces, but not by any Ukrainian forces. The distance from the Kherson city border to the Russian front line is ~30kms to the west. Nikolaev, on the other hand is ~25-30kms from Russian front lines. That is, one of the reasons, why Nikolaev is being evacuated.
When the Dnipro's west bank is evacuated by Russia, it becomes easy to catch any Ukr provocateurs in that area. The internet is taken out in that area, so there's no more TG posts or YT videos.
If the Ukrainian forces wants to advance in the steppe toward the RF forces, let them come. They'd simply get decimated.
Posted by: Paulg | Oct 25 2022 16:19 utc | 34
Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 25 2022 16:06 utc | 28
Wonderfully well said, karlof1! Thank you for the quote from Lavrov. That is in depth what I was saying; I hadn't read this before I posted.
Thank you for saying what I said better!
Posted by: juliania | Oct 25 2022 16:23 utc | 35
My father used to have a plaque on his desk, "I may have my faults, but being wrong is not one of them."
Posted by: Immaculate deception | Oct 25 2022 16:23 utc | 36
Don Bacon @21
The OP is about American propaganda masquerading as news, and in response you quote more American propaganda from the ISW (a Kagan family project), well-censored and policed Facebook, the VOA and last, but certainly not least, The New York Times...
You obviously missed the point. Try proving the Biden Administration's talking point with something other than USG propaganda...
Posted by: Spanky | Oct 25 2022 16:29 utc | 37
@ Posted by: joe9211 | Oct 25 2022 16:25 utc | 37
Russia is already rebuilding Mariupol. The US cannot even rebuild Baltimore or Detroit.
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Oct 25 2022 16:30 utc | 38
Kherson is not only valuable, it is also vulnerable. It is dangerous to get caught on the wrong side of a big river.
Russia's new commanding officer, General "Armageddon" Surovikin, said recently:
"The situation today is not simple. We will proceed from the need to preserve the lives of the civilian population and the servicemen. ... We will not exclude the adaption of the most difficult decisions."
This seems like preparing the listeners for a withdrawal from Kherson. Interview with subs on: https://odysee.com/@mfsa_33_:4/Filmim2vbbb
Anti-Empire just published an article on Wagner: https://antiempire.substack.com/p/what-is-wagners-game
Posted by: wt | Oct 25 2022 16:30 utc | 39
We’ve been calling all the US media for its’ lies for more than 20yrs now, it does not work. They will only stop when they are punished with jail terms for the journalists and the owners, seizure of assets and closure of their businesses
Posted by: Kadath | Oct 25 2022 16:39 utc | 40
In my lifetime I have watched the United States melt away as an organization. Every year it takes more effort for the system to sustain itself. The population is headed toward half a billion and most of it will not be prime human material. A Great Reset is coming, just not the one envisioned by the WEF. There will be no steady-state hell from which there is no escape.
Posted by: Quent | Oct 25 2022 16:41 utc | 42
Oh, shut up with your drivel, Joe's brain who collapsed with the twin towers. You are always a week behind, and a block short. Thanks for the laugh though.
Posted by: Arcticman | Oct 25 2022 16:50 utc | 43
intp1 # 30. Re lying to Biden, Bingo! The false narratives by the mockingbird stenographers are not aimed at us. The intel agencies controlling the permanent government disseminate propaganda aimed at the POTUS and lazy uninformed members of Congress to persuade and provide cover for their support of endless war. Obama repealed the Smith-Mundt Act propaganda ban as part of the 2013 NDAA, making it legal and lucrative to lie to us. Since then, MSM is an wholly controlled extension of intel.
Posted by: Willow | Oct 25 2022 16:50 utc | 44
@23 I knew Sunak would be scared to fire Wallace. Leaving him in charge of Ukraine he might as well forget fixing the economy.
Posted by: dh | Oct 25 2022 16:51 utc | 45
Some random thoughts on this subject.
Some weeks ago an independent-thinking journalist/writer who is now ~ 65 years old commented on a recent visit to his alma matter, supposedly a top-tier journalist school, where he gave a lecture. He was told in a private conversation afterward that the school no longer teaches investigative journalism. They now teach how to spin narratives. He sounded sincere.
I believe it was during the Obama administration that federal law was changed to allow the targeting of the domestic population with misinformation for NS reasons.
So while the shaping of domestic public opinion to serve special interests has gone on for well over 100 years here, there’s a recent trend of intensified lying, now legalized, to the people.
People who pay subscriptions to read the NYTs, Financial Times, etc, appear to me to be the most duped. They seem to believe that with their superior knowledge (for which they pay), that only they are in the know. I base this on visits to a well-off retirement community where my mother lived. I saw her change over the years in this way, she eventually mirroring her peers’ sense of superiority — only I sense she knew better and did it to get along socially.
As a college kid I learned TM taught by Maharishni Univeristy meditators who would travel around to college campuses. I once asked why they charged money for the brief training and was told that Americans only like something if they have to pay for it— If it costs something, they believe it is worthwhile. While this was probably a somewhat disingenuous reply, it holds a kernel of truth about this almost totally commodified culture now undergoing extreme decay.
In contrast, the buddhadharma teachings I received from Rinpoches over the past decades, precious teachers with more than thirty years of formal education, originally from Tibet, would laugh at such. They give everything away, as fast as is constructively possible.
Spin is very expensive. It is the culmination of a culture before the fall, of a society ruled by elites who know not the value of restraint and reserves. Pillage, loot and steal instead.
~~
https://www.stalkerzone.org/phase-apocalypse-starvation/
Posted by: suzan | Oct 25 2022 16:55 utc | 46
Now I'm faced with undecipherable reality. A mystery is a fascinating thing.
Posted by: Cyclops | Oct 25 2022 15:41 utc | 16
---
Thanks for sharing this. I've also disconnected from the mass hysteria 24/365 crazymaking machine. It's so freeing. In high school I bought into the need to understand what was going on, to be informed. But out of all that NPR listening and magazine reading, I don't remember anything. One morning on Morning Edition, an old cracker baseball commentator would always address Bob Edwards with "hello, colonel"--that's all I really remember. So, what value did it have?
Most people are still asleep and always will be. The truth will indeed set you free, but that's it.
More from Prigozhin addressing the Washington Post:
You are a publication with colossal experience, more than 140 years, your teachers and people who owned and worked in your publication kept their face and tried to objectively cover various events for a century and a half, so try not look like hysterical women in the kitchen, who collect gossip and speculations and try to create some kind of information field by publishing ridiculous provocative and offensive questions. I understand that as of today most American journalists, especially those belonging to the Democratic camp, suffer from boorish vulgar populism. However, if each of you does a little bit to restore some element of objectivity to American journalism, you can become a really important tool for solving global problems of the world. At the moment, you have become a "garbage dump".:
You are a publication with colossal experience, more than 140 years, your journalists and people who owned and worked in your publication kept their mind and tried to objectively cover various events for a century and a half, so try not look like hysterical women in the kitchen, who collect gossip and speculate and try to create some kind of information field by publishing ridiculous provocative and offensive newss. I understand that as of today most American journalists, especially those belonging to the Democratic camp, suffer from boorish vulgar populism. However, if each of you does a little bit to restore some element of objectivity to American journalism, you can become a really important tool for solving global problems of the world. At the moment, you have become a "garbage dump".
Posted by: fx | Oct 25 2022 17:00 utc | 48
dh @ 46
Maybe leaving Wallace there, he'd keep the vultures away, but he'd strip the wings a bit, just enough. Sunak is too rich to be afraid of anyone, he and his wife are richer than the king and the consort. After all, Indians own most of the UK these days.
Posted by: Paulg | Oct 25 2022 17:05 utc | 49
another interesting piece from Douglas Macgregor
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/playing-at-war-in-ukraine/
Posted by: leaf | Oct 25 2022 17:07 utc | 50
@50 Maybe but I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of Wallace. Wait and see what happens if Sunak starts talking about peace in Ukraine. He'll be toast.
Posted by: dh | Oct 25 2022 17:10 utc | 51
Good article B.! U.S. media ecosystem is dangerously bad right now. As an America, I see this as the single greatest threat to the country and the larger world.
@ Don Bacon - they're right when they point out how tendentious it is to quote western media to bolster western media. But, I am watching the Kherson front. If Russia does withdraw or is otherwise defeated, then it says a lot about the Russian situation (cannot take Odessa), and also, yes, the Western media has been calling it for weeks. Put a calendar alert on it. I also have a calendar alert for a mid-November joint RU-BY invasion.
@ Wt -- Thanks for the anti-empire link. That Wagner article is great. Mercenaries are overrated and Prigozhin seems to be positioning himself as Putin's successor. Is Prigozhin one of these types calling for nuclear strikes, or is that just Kadyrov and local leaders in the annexed oblasts?
Posted by: GoFast | Oct 25 2022 17:16 utc | 52
@Posted by: suzan | Oct 25 2022 16:55 utc | 47
Some weeks ago an independent-thinking journalist/writer who is now ~ 65 years old commented on a recent visit to his alma matter, supposedly a top-tier journalist school, where he gave a lecture. He was told in a private conversation afterward that the school no longer teaches investigative journalism. They now teach how to spin narratives. He sounded sincere.
Thanks a lot for sharing. It seems that the "journalism schools" also throw ethics and morality out in their curriculum. I always wonder how one with conscience and morality can write, talk, or spread things that are not true and/or purposefully harmful. Their karma must be materialized when the time arrives.
******
Sorry to be off-topic: it is fortunate that you have opportunities to learn from Rinpoches. My understanding is that the Tibetan Buddhism education is very rigorous. It is not easy to become a Rinpoche, which takes time, efforts, and deep understanding in Buddhism.
Posted by: LuRenJia | Oct 25 2022 17:20 utc | 53
Thanks b. For debunking the NYTimes for the 47 millionth time.
I've learned a lot from this blog, since I've been lurking, & occasionally commenting, for the past few months.
Importantly I learnt how to read between the lines and separate the avalanche of lies laundered with a handful of facts that's the western mainstream media.
Like they say, "give someone a fish, they eat for a day. Teach someone to fish, they eat forever".
Well, I certainly learned how to fish. I can now, to a reasonable degree, identify the propaganda, the lies in the western media myself.
Thanks a lot b. Great work.
BTW, going by the trend of this blog, I say that a post debunking a lying rag like the NYTimes indicates a slow news day.
I say that because of the Ian Fleming's James Bond movie plot going on real life.
A diabolical plot to detonate a dirty nuke concocted by a corrupt politician in time for an election (Biden), with his looney mistress (Ursula Van Der crazy) and implemented by his right hand, the recreational narcotic abusing comic relief (Zelensky). Only a ex-KGB agent (Putin) can stop them and save the world.
James Bond film in real life. Hilarious beyond belief, you can't make this up.
Posted by: FieryButMostPeaceful | Oct 25 2022 17:33 utc | 54
@52 Second thoughts, if Sunak does make peace moves, Wallace will just resign in fury. Either way I think the chemistry between Sunak and Wallace could decide the future of Ukraine.
Posted by: dh | Oct 25 2022 17:38 utc | 55
A worrying development, maybe the US knows that Ukrainian forces are near spent hence the outrageous propaganda, and another route might be on the cards, we must remember the Ukraine conflict is just a side show.
http://johnhelmer.org/the-us-signals-readiness-to-launch-nuclear-strike-against-russia/
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Oct 25 2022 17:45 utc | 56
Come on people, think big!
If you are Japan with a sound economy and stable society, but possess limited natural resources nor the means to militarily aquire them, high material prices can still be afforded to a certain cost point with a strong currency.
If you are the USA with a poor economy and doomed socio political future and are on the trailing edge of resource depletion, but still do possess the military means to command discounted energy inputs, high prices can still be afforded to a reasonable degree even with a weak currency. (Albeit relatively stronger than peers.)
Now, combine the reality of the USAs socio political economy with a greatly diminished ability to coerce/force producers to supply critical resources as substitutes for former domestic inputs, what happens to prices?
That's right, the combination of weak currency and limited input options creates a multiplicative effect that in turns feeds upon itself in a now vicious cycle.
Is this difficult to foresee? Of course not, it's basic logic. Ok, so what happens when the Intel community which commissioned Hubbert et al back in the 50s has been setting up the pieces all along?
That is, the wide open borders combined with full spectrum propaganda is designed specifically to create the type of end game we see developing?
Which is why I keep saying, how do you play this situation? Do you get out or stay? Staying means hyper inflation, social breakdown, political failure and eventual secession and dissolution.
You can repeat this same analysis for any aligned state. The demographics and woke ideology are intentional disruptive policies instigated to incite the maximum level of chaos.
Posted by: B9k9 | Oct 25 2022 17:45 utc | 57
Simon Tisdall from The Guardian is such a vile opinion maker, and one of a special kind too. I think this guy didn't write one single sentence that has a grain of truth in it.
He is Graun's in-house foreign affairs commentator, one of those injecting hatred, fear, and disarray into public sphere day in, day out.
I mean just read what Wikipedia claims him to be:
'Tisdall is a proponent of regime change as a political and military tool of Western bloc countries to enforce a change of government or leadership in an opposing or designated enemy country.'
And there are hundreds of 'Tissdals' out there.
So why wonder why the World is such bad place.
Posted by: whirlX | Oct 25 2022 17:46 utc | 58
I used to joke about "Never go Full Incubator Baby" but it appears we have overshot even that marker here in the US. The thing is, one can go on all day about the lies, present evidence to the contrary and even point out logical fallacy but it does not matter because of the conditioning of the America populace. Ever wonder why it's so easy to lie, get debunked, and then do it again inside of a week? Just about everyone I know is subject to what appears to be a rigorous social engineering protocol. When presented with anything that contradicts the dominant narrative, they simply refuse to look at it while simultaneously hurling defensive chaff in the general direction so as not to exposed to any "mis-dis-trans-information"! If by chance some information does make it through the membrane of denial and strikes a chord, cognitive dissonance goes to work:"That could not possibly be true!! It's far too.....(fill in blank)"
I too tune into some form of MSM now and again just to see what kind of exposure folks I know are getting. It's truly astounding. I'm not one to claim knowledge of truth or something so pretentious but at least I try to assemble data/information and make some sort of composite model. I've come to the conclusion that the mass media has gone full mockingbird. There is nothing to keep them from making shit up. No need for sources other than nameless/anonymous, and never any remorse when they are caught lying. The masses wont hold their attention on it any longer than a goldfish, so its rinse and repeat.
Posted by: Chevrus | Oct 25 2022 17:47 utc | 59
Posted by: james | Oct 25 2022 16:01 utc | 24
Maybe it's my imagination, but our old friend doesn't seem to be himself these days.
Posted by: farm ecologist | Oct 25 2022 17:50 utc | 60
I was interested to see this video (linked below) from Gonzalo Lira. In it, he is guessing, but has mentioned some reasons for his guesses. This "dirty bomb", if detonated and blamed on Russia, would bring in NATO forces and weapons. He gives as some reasons behind his guesses: Shoigu's obviously concerned telephone calls to defense ministers on a weekend and a UN meeting about it, the 101st Airborne troops that were deployed to Romania, and Ukrainian troops in Kherson region supplied with gear for a nuclear/chemical event.
One factor that he didn't mention was the upcoming mid-term election and the effect that such an event would have on voters who were convinced by the propaganda that Russia had released a WMD and that the US was sending our children into war.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw84nOmGLcw&t=900s
Posted by: Belle | Oct 25 2022 18:01 utc | 61
Posted by: dh | Oct 25 2022 17:38 utc | 56
Astonishing... So, I summarize:
* You have the Russian army in Ukraine, soon half a million soldiers strong;
* you have the Russian people and their leaders led by Putin;
* you have the inhabitants of Donbass and the separatists in general;
* you have the Ukrainian military alliance with its neo-Nazi militias, its regular soldiers, its Western mercenaries and its senior NATO leadership,
* you have the political power of Zelinsky and his sponsors in Brussels, London and Washington.
And of all this, you tell us that two Britons, who personally would be unable to win elections at home, who have probably never set foot in this country, could "decide the future of Ukraine"?
So you are still at the stage of "rule brittania"?
Posted by: UncleTom | Oct 25 2022 18:10 utc | 62
The US government/media cartel wants people to believe that Russia is losing, but what happens when the Ukrainian army collapses? What's their Plan B when Russia takes over all of the regions that are now part of the Russian federation, or when Odessa falls to them? The US/NATO is desperately looking for a false flag to give them an excuse to send troops in (another 'coalition of the willing'). They should be careful wha tthey wish for.
Posted by: Mike R | Oct 25 2022 18:13 utc | 63
@ farm ecologist | Oct 25 2022 17:50 utc | 61
i agree.. not sure what happened there...
Posted by: james | Oct 25 2022 18:15 utc | 64
Israeli media reports on transfer of "Smart Shooter" complexes to Kiev to fight alleged Iranian drones supplied to Russia by Tehran, after Israel said it would NOT send weapons to Ukraine.
"Smart Shooter" is a computerized high-precision remote-controlled gun turret.
https://t.me/IntelRepublic/7513
Posted by: Down South | Oct 25 2022 18:17 utc | 65
🇷🇺🇺🇲⚡Russia has notified the United States of the start of a nuclear deterrent exercise on October 26, which will include launches of ballistic and cruise missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
https://t.me/intelslava/39989
Posted by: Down South | Oct 25 2022 18:19 utc | 66
Is Russia close to achieving its de-Nazification and de-militarisation objectives yet. No, so I guess it's quite happy for the war to continue until it feels it has and in the process stripped NATO of most of its heavy weapons. Washington still believing that Ukraine can defeat Russia is part of Russia achieving those objectives.
There are many parts to de-militarisation, reducing the size of the Ukrainian Army, destroying heavy weapons until US is incapable of supplying any more in the quantities Ukraine requires, and persuading pro-regime Ukrainians that this war should never been fought because of the destruction and costs to Ukraine, just as seemed to work with Germany and Japan after WW2.
The major concern for Russia is its casualty rate. For instance, today a pro-Ukrainian website claimed that there were 450+ Russians killed. I suspect that Ukrainian propagandists are making these numbers up, because the number of Ukrainian dead is horrendous. There appeared to be little or no action on the Kharkov and Kherson fronts except for some Ukrainian reconnaissance missions which tend to end with significant Ukrainian casualties. On the Donetsk front, Ukraine claimed to have counterattacked the Russians and driven them back but tweets suggested the Ukrainians had only captured territory in no man's land. Ukraine seems to have reinforced their units around Bakhmut.
Thinking back to the liberation of East Aleppo, the SAA who seemed to do most of the fighting would bombard the area the intended to capture, clear up the jihadists and then retreat to their former defensive positions when the jihadists counterattacked killing many of the jihadists. The next day, they would repeat this cycle, and do so for a number of days, minimising SAA casualties and maximising jihadist casualties until they had fully exploited that part of East Aleppo as a killing ground. I wonder if the Russian Army is doing something similar around Bakhmut to advance its de-militarisation objective.
Posted by: Ghost Ship | Oct 25 2022 18:22 utc | 67
@54 LuRenJia | Oct 25 2022 17:20 utc - "..to become a Rinpoche, which takes time, efforts, and deep understanding.."
Sorry to continue this off-topic, but I must share one of the first things I was taught by a western teacher in that field.
He said that anybody could become a teacher of a thing by studying that thing well enough to pass it on to students, but that in this particular field, a teacher was first required to "manifest the qualities" of the thing he was teaching.
I always thought that was a superb benchmark for the communication of anything.
Posted by: Grieved | Oct 25 2022 18:22 utc | 68
🇺🇦💡 About electricity supply in the Odessa region and connections to Moldova and TransnistriaAs we analyze the results of the Russian strikes on the energy infrastructure in Ukraine, we in our team ask one uncomfortable question.
Transdniestria is home to a large thermal power plant, the Moldavskaya TPP. From its open switchgear, there is a 400kV high-voltage line to Romania as well as a 330kV overhead line to Moldova, Ukraine, and Transdniestria itself.
The Odessa region, through which both personnel and foreign equipment are permanently transferred by rail to the front near Nikolaev and Kherson, receives a substantial part of its electricity from the Moldovan TPP.
Yes, the region is also fed by the South Ukrainian NPP, Ladyzhinskaya TPP, and the cascade of HPPs on the Dnieper River. Still, the Moldovan TPP plays an important role.
So, during the spring and summer escalation around Transnistria (at that time Ukrainian formations conducted exercises near the borders, and some politicians seriously declared the necessity of a military operation), a strange situation was observed.
All this time, the Moldovan thermal power plant continued to supply Ukraine with electricity.
But come October, the energy infrastructure was hit. Almost all TPPs were hit by cruise missiles or kamikaze UAVs. In addition, substations were hit almost all over the country, except facilities in the Odessa region (the situation changed on 22 October - then two substations in the Odessa region were hit for the first time).
What is even stranger is that after the hits on the Romanian power plants, hundreds of megawatts of electricity are happily in transit from Romania to Ukraine through the Moldova TPP.
And the wildest thing in this situation is that the Moldovan TPP also generates electricity that goes to Ukraine.
Yes, there are many excuses.
For example, mention the dependence of the north of Transnistria on Podolskaya 330/110/10 kV substation located in Ukraine. To tell about some commercial contracts for export and transit of electric energy. To point out that there is nothing personal here, but only business and replenishment of the Transnistrian budget. To argue that there are no technical possibilities, that the DMR is an independent state that decides with whom to trade.
There are a lot of reasons to come up with. But then what is the point of all this? It turns out that we hit the enemy in the face with one hand, and with the other hand we hold out a handkerchief soaked in alcohol.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/16608
Posted by: Down South | Oct 25 2022 18:23 utc | 69
Posted by: Belle | Oct 25 2022 18:01 utc | 62
What actually happens if a "dirty bomb" really occurs. UK has been put on notice. The fact that UK / US publicly refuting this, will make it all the more dangerous IF it actually were to occur. It becomes even more dangerous, if they publicly accuse Russia for it. Russians will suffer vastly from the resulting pollution it causes.
Russia, and probably US for that matter will put every nuclear force asset in maximum alert and Russia will bomb the heck out of Kiev and Lvov and all the Arestovich's and Podolyaks and Zaluzhnys from the world. Maybe they'll hit staging grounds in Poland. Maybe they'll hit something in UK.
It will be as close to get to armageddon until you actually reach it.
Posted by: unimperator | Oct 25 2022 18:25 utc | 70
🇺🇦"Bring a friend and get 20 thousand hryvnia."The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine continues to look for ways out of the acute shortage of recruits, now offering to actually sell friends for the needs of the front.The Ukrainian authorities are giving a reward of 20,000 hryvnia if someone brings a "friend" to the front.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/16616
Posted by: Down South | Oct 25 2022 18:25 utc | 71
Attacks of the Ukrainian army are repulsed in Svatove direction, temporary lull near KhersonThe Russian army has successfully repulsed a series of attacks by the Ukrainian army in the Svatovsk direction, according to Go and See. The Ukrainian Armed Forces suffered losses and were forced to retreat.
The AFU also engaged in battle reconnaissance in the Liman section of the front. The Russian Armed Forces were able to destroy the advancing Ukrainian armored vehicles and the AFU was pushed back to their initial positions.
A fragile equilibrium remains in place in the Kherson direction. On the whole, apart from local skirmishes with Ukrainian DRGs, there have been no major battles. Nevertheless, the situation could flare up at any moment.
Overall, the strategic initiative is still in the hands of the AFU, but time and mobilization are working for the Russian army.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/16620
Posted by: Down South | Oct 25 2022 18:27 utc | 72
Kherson - hold it, can't be left behindMilitary expert Boris Rozhin on the defense of Kherson, storming Avdeevka, and the possibility of an offensive by Belarus especially for Voenkor Kotenok Z @voenkorKotenok channel:
- Which option awaits Kherson - Stalingrad or Izyum?
- At the current stage, there is conflicting information from this direction. If a political decision is made to withdraw from the right bank of the Dnieper, of course, there will be no Stalingrad there. This may be caused, among other things, by the threat of a dirty nuclear bomb and the undermining of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric plant.
Should a political decision be made to hold Kherson and the bridgehead on the Right Bank, one can expect prolonged intense fighting in this direction.
Despite the obvious problems with logistics and the threat of the use of WMD, the issue of holding Kherson is still more political than military.
It is worth recalling that Izyum was abandoned for purely military reasons after the AFU breakthrough at Balakleya and the threat of encirclement of the Izyum grouping of the RF Armed Forces, which forced the retreat behind Oskol to avoid a pit.
The Foreign Legion is being brought near Svatovo
- Why is the enemy stalling near Svatovo?
- Our troops strengthened the defense here plus reinforcements, which allowed us to stabilize the front after withdrawal from the line on the river Oskol. In addition, counterstrokes in the area of Torsky and Terny have confused the enemy's plans to advance north of Kremenna.
The last attempts of the enemy to attack in the direction of Svatovo were unsuccessful. The AFU did not succeed in breaking through to Svatovo, although it was planned to take Svatovo as early as 17 October.
Nevertheless, the enemy continues to accumulate forces in this direction and has not abandoned its offensive plans concerning both Svatovo and Kreminna. To reinforce these plans, the presence of foreign mercenaries in this section of the front line is increasing.
There will no longer be a frontal assault on Avdiivka
- Why are we still unable to take the Avdiivka fortification and cut off the enemy's Ugledar bulge?
- The reasons are trivial - the enemy has strong fortifications here, while we do not have enough forces in this direction.
In both cases, a frontal assault on the Avdiivka and Ugledar fortifications does not promise anything substantial to our troops but rather distracts them from more promising areas.
The offensive near Peski and Pervomayskoye, as well as the fighting for Marinka, clearly show that it is impossible to achieve any rapid advances in the current grouping here, as well as to achieve at this stage a real operational encirclement of the Ugledar and Avdiivka groupings of the AFU. Only a slow repulsion of the enemy with the grinding of its positions with artillery.
No change so far in the Belorussian direction
- Commander of the AFU Ground Forces Syrsky announced the threat of invasion by the RF Armed Forces from Belarus. To what extent are the fears of the enemy justified? Can we? And is it necessary?
- According to official data, some 9,000 Russian troops are currently deployed in Belarus, not only near the border with Ukraine but also in northwestern Belarus near the borders with Lithuania and Poland, where there is an accumulation of groups of NATO countries that pose a threat to Belarus.
An attack on Ukraine from the territory of Belarus requires a larger grouping, which at the current stage is not formed there. This does not mean that no such grouping will be formed on the territory of Belarus, but at the current stage, the probability of a direct Russian offensive against Kiev from Belarus is not very high.
However, the war will go on for a long time, and we may yet see this option.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/16621
Posted by: Down South | Oct 25 2022 18:29 utc | 73
> but what happens when the Ukrainian army collapses
If there’s a nuke around the same time, could that “explain” the “suddenly missing” soldiers?
Posted by: klik | Oct 25 2022 18:31 utc | 74
🇺🇦The Ukrainian military has installed 🇮🇱an Israeli "SmartShooter" interceptor system on drones in an attempt to intercept Iranian drones, DEBKA reportsWhile Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz says on Tuesday that Israel will not supply weapons to Ukraine, military sources report that the Ukrainian military has installed an Israeli "SmartShooter" interceptor system on drones in an attempt to intercept Iranian drones.
The Israeli system operates on the principle of "One shot, one hit". The system is based on artificial intelligence and a radar system. The Israeli developers of the system pride themselves on the fact that the system accurately hits the target without any misses.
The system was unveiled at the 2022 military exhibition in Paris and was first deployed in September 2022 by the Israeli army in Hebron to help disperse Palestinian protests.
And while the SmartShooter system has performed well, it is unclear how it will perform when mounted on a drone, as the company does not publish its test reports, and problems with flight stability, wind, targeting, inertia, low mass and high recoil on an ultralight drone are critical for combat missions.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/16656
Posted by: Down South | Oct 25 2022 18:32 utc | 75
@GhostShip69: It seems like the RF forces have a good idea of when to withdraw in order to shorten the front, avoid being encircled/overrun and give AFU forces a chance to roll across the fields. Despite all the crowing from the Ukrainian Victory crowd, RF force do not appear to be taking the kind of losses being claimed. Judging by some of the aerial footage, the AFU armored units charging across the fields does not seem to be working out.
Posted by: Chevrus | Oct 25 2022 18:40 utc | 76
@69 Ghost Ship | Oct 25 2022 18:22 utc
I always assumed that was Russian commanders running those operations and that cycle of repetition. In other words, if anything, the SAA learned from Russia, rather than Russia learning from SAA. These seem to be signature Russian tactics that have been working all along the front line in Ukraine.
I agree with your observations. I think the de-militarization is a both a by-product and a main goal at one and the same time. In other words, the tactics Russia would have used anyway are good tactics to achieve that demilitarization - but I also think that to achieve that main goal, Russia would eventually have to step up the moving-forward a bit more. This has been work to stabilize the front line. But since that main goal has not been fully achieved yet, that's what the Russian buildup contemplates in the coming offensive.
And Russia never said one of its objectives was to capture territory, other than to liberate Donbass. But even though some of this conflicted territory is now lawfully a part of Russia, this doesn't seem to have changed Russia's sense of the realities, namely that this is ground in conflict, that must be secured, and through exactly the same tactics, the rinse and repeat of grinding down the enemy with minimal loss of Russian life, and all the while securing more fighting ground, and ground to hold (as opposed to ground that can be discarded at need). Same tactics under radically altered legal situation. New tactics coming soon.
2 cents.
Posted by: Grieved | Oct 25 2022 18:45 utc | 77
@Don Bacon 24
Your sources are broken. The allies love having concentrations of Ukranian troops around them, as that allows them to take them out in the most cost effective manner possible, with hyperbaric bombs, drone guided MRLS and artillery systems, which the allies have and use in enormous quantities. The Ukranian hate being in concentrations or within 30 miles of allied troops for the same reasons.
Not having seasoned troops, modern systems or even the munitions to use their old systems the only way that the Ukraine was able to advance without massive losses and overwhelmed hospital staff was when the allies retreated, because until recently, the Allies did not have sufficient troops to hold territory they had overrun. This is no longer possible. Russia has already added about 70 thousand seasoned troops to the front lines, and has three hundred thousand in training.
This can be clearly seen in the falling in daily Ukrainian casualties. The Ukraine no longer has the manpower, munitions or capacity available to launch effective attacks on the allies, and with the allies having degraded the power and rail networks, and the ground turning into mud, Ukraine will not be able to stop the allies from doing whatever they need or want to do to complete the process of eliminating Ukrainians from federation territory, preventing the ability to attack federation territory, denazifying and demilitarizing the Ukraine, ensuring that the Ukraine does not host enemy troops, and, I suspect, providing many more Ukrainians the opportunity to decide if they wish to join the Federation and thrive or clew to the poverty stricken, debt saddled, economic basket case that the remnants of the Ukraine will undoubtedly remain.
The only way this might change is if this transitions to a thermonuclear war, which is not survivable and so definitely means human extinction. We all hope this does not happen, but if it does, it will be because some idiot attacked Russia or China with weapons of mass destruction. Neither Russia nor China will be the first to use such weapons, because they do not have: oligarchs pushing them into wars intending to depopulate the Earth so that they can inherit it; religiots pushing them into wars intending to force their god thingies to intervene; or, idiots in control, sufficiently delusional who imagine that thermonuclear war is survivable.
Unless it is Putin, anyone telling you anything that contradicts any of the above is lying to you, whether their lies are caused by conviction or delusion is irrelevant. They will remain lies.
Posted by: Hermit | Oct 25 2022 18:57 utc | 78
Posted by: FieryButMostPeaceful | Oct 25 2022 17:33 utc | 55
I say that because of the Ian Fleming's James Bond movie plot going on real life. A diabolical plot to detonate a dirty nuke concocted by a corrupt politician in time for an election (Biden), with his looney mistress (Ursula Van Der crazy) and implemented by his right hand, the recreational narcotic abusing comic relief (Zelensky). Only a ex-KGB agent (Putin) can stop them and save the world.
I'd watch that !
... ah, merde !
Posted by: Sarlat La Canède | Oct 25 2022 18:58 utc | 79
It's not only the press. The CIA, for instance, is tasked with intelligence gathering and covert action. That is like doing your homework and giving yourself marks.
Posted by: Passerby | Oct 25 2022 18:58 utc | 80
Either way I think the chemistry between Sunak and Wallace could decide the future of Ukraine.
dh @ 56
There's no chemistry between Sunak and Wallace. Sunak is from the elite, while Wallace is public school. Sure, the defense of the UK will be considered, but not the defense of the Ukraine against the cost to NHS, price of food and essentials etc of the common voting Brit. There's only 26 months to go for the next general elections, and Tories can't have another internal crisis and a voter crisis. It is not like with/for Biden, who is with one leg in the coffin.
Posted by: Paulg | Oct 25 2022 19:10 utc | 81
Posted by: Hermit | Oct 25 2022 18:57 utc | 80
It's been noticeable that ukie losses have become smaller, over the past week or two. While it could have been earlier been 600, we now have maybe 150-300 and random APCs and tanks.
They made a lot of pretty hefty attacks especially in the Kherson area earlier this month and september and the equipment losses seemed quite noticeable. Now the equipment would no longer be there, to support defense. UAF still has front line air defenses, somewhat suppressing capability of close air support action.
Neither I'm convinced that Russians will be launching any sort of larger attacks of their own now, either. The economic card is a big factor in Ukraine, even if EU/Leyen is trying to go all in propping up the Ukrainian economy. They can't prevent it and some sort of migratory tsunami into Poland and beyond.
Today Leyen announced that they will be sending 400 electric generators (probably diesel) in an effort to prop up the Ukraine electric system. Details weren't mentioned exactly what capacity generators they are, but probably some kind of commercial generaters, perhaps 400 - 1300 kW range. Theoretically they might get something over 500 MW.
I see this statements as a desperation relating to the disappearance of railway electrics, which seriously complicate equipment logistics. Diesel locomotives are much lower in numbers, and less practical and efficient to use.
Posted by: unimperator | Oct 25 2022 19:11 utc | 82
What sort of person would consider working for CIA-USAID or FBI, where the chance of getting betrayed by your own people is close to one in one? What sort of people tolerate that sort of person wielding powers of government?
Perhaps this "woke" education and employment is to ensure those agencies a pool of potential employees thoroughly compromised and trained to think and act as psycho-sociopaths. I mean, its protagonists must have some goal in mind for their program of "woke-ism."
Posted by: The Rev. David R. Gr | Oct 25 2022 19:13 utc | 83
@63 "And of all this, you tell us that two Britons, who personally would be unable to win elections at home, who have probably never set foot in this country, could "decide the future of Ukraine"?"
You are taking me too seriously. Of course I don't think Sunak and Wallace have that kind of influence. But Britain, under Johnson, has been a key instigator so I think any weakening on Sunak's part could have a significant affect. It would certainly be noticed in Washington and Brussels.
Posted by: dh | Oct 25 2022 19:16 utc | 84
Posted by: unimperator | Oct 25 2022 19:11 utc | 84
Re. railways, Ukraine also has a wider track width than Poland or rest of EU countries. The USSR/CIS used 1520mm while current EU pretty much 1435mm. They are limited to the set of locomotives Ukraine has.
The USSR made huge investments in terms of electric and railway grid redundancy in the Ukraine, it's quite an effort to try to "disable" everything. It might not be necessary though. The military planners should consult railway and electric engineers and specialists when deciding what are most effective methods to disable these systems. Obviously railyards, with locomotive maintenance and storage would be a priority.
Posted by: unimperator | Oct 25 2022 19:21 utc | 85
@86 Posted that before I saw your #83. I still think any decision Sunak makes on Ukraine, even if it's just conciliatory noises, will have an effect on the war. Not saying he has the power to make peace but he could get the ball rolling if he chooses. Wallace will be the major opposition to any peace move.
Posted by: dh | Oct 25 2022 19:24 utc | 86
Posted by: dh | Oct 25 2022 19:24 utc | 88
No telling what regime change in Great Britain means for the war, but it's probably nothing good.
I assume anybody who's not an official Atlanticist good boy would be weeded out before they can reach Number 10 (sorry, Jeremy Corbyn.) Though his appeal to actual, living voters may still be mysterious, Rishi has just been wafted into 10 Downing Street by the British Deep State over the still-twitching political corpses of not one, but two (count em) prime ministers. They'll have vetted their guy, is what I'm trying to say.
So, probably no change in the UK's position as a US sockpuppet.
If there is hope, it must lie with the Europeans. It's madness for them to sacrifice everything they've worked for since 1945 for the sake of Freedom and Democracy (lol) in a country most Europeans would prefer didn't exist. Their entire way of life now depends on coming to a reasonable, peaceful, mutually beneficial long term understanding with Russia. The sanctions can't be good for the CEO's of major German, French and Italian corporations. You'd expect the politicians to listen to them, even while they're deaf to what contemptible pleb voters think.
Posted by: ZX | Oct 25 2022 19:44 utc | 88
So how reliable is this source?
If this is only half correct, it's worrying, at least to me. After the annexation it's all or nothing for Russia. Hoping for the collapse of Europe or the financial system like Putin and Glazyev seem to be doing does not look like a good idea tbh, it's like fighting by the enemys rules. The West is openly talking about how to "decolonize" Russia into many small parts. I think Russia should seek a way out of this war, otherwise it might be no more. Will China help?
Posted by: Turandot | Oct 25 2022 19:46 utc | 89
The new brown uk leader is an ego fuelled narcissist. He is only a member of the elite by virtue of marrying into it which simply emphasises his desperation to be accepted into a society that he had no genuine means of acceding to himself. His mother owned a chemist shop and he waited at tables in curry houses as a youngster which indicates his true origins.
He felt he was prevented from beating Truss due to racist considerations and therefore sabotaged the latest vote to prevent his actual voter base having a say.
What this means is that this man will cling to power by any means available. He’s shown he’s not a fool but a pragmatist, and therefore will not appreciate an openly neo-Nazi racist regime which has quite clearly put the entire uk economy at risk as well as pushing his own party towards electoral catastrophe.
Whether this translates into direct encouragement to agree to a peace deal to give him the opportunity to be re-elected rather than be forced out by his party in a few months like Truss, remains to be seen.
Posted by: Night Tripper | Oct 25 2022 19:47 utc | 90
@90 I'm probably expecting too much from Sunak. But it definitely needs somebody with clout in the West to stand up and say it's time to stop the madness. Nobody seems to want to take the first step. Pathetic bunch.
Posted by: dh | Oct 25 2022 19:50 utc | 91
@21 Don Bacon
After the destruction of the 6th Army at Stalingrad, the German army was in retreat more or less till the end of the war. It's became an rule in the German Army that if the Soviets gained a foothold on the German side of a river, it must be attacked and liquidated immediately and at all cost otherwise the river line would eventually be lost.
Yes it's risky having the river to your back, but it also means your flanks are covered and the enemy has to come right at you.
The Russians (according to reports I cannot verify), have rotated out the paratroopers and Chechyans who had been defending the bridgehead replacing them with regular army mechanized and armored forces.
Everyone is still waiting for the big push by Ukraine at the now prepared defense lines. The largest number I've heard for Ukrainian forces is 60k. The best number I've heard for Russian forces is 30k.
The Russian forces appear to be well supplied by at least 3 different heavy pontoon bridges and ferry's. I'm not sure about the state of the rail line over the dam. As more of the civilian population is evacuated, Russian supply challenges grow easier.
In war anything can happen, but by all appearences the Russians plan to stand and fight while the Ukrainian Army has already exhausted itself. The only open question is if the Russians plan to attack out of Kherson or if the main effort (assuming there is one ?) happens somewhere else.
Posted by: Dan Farrand | Oct 25 2022 19:53 utc | 92
Biswapraya Purkayast @ 17
And in response to top post from b
There used to be a fairly large stratum of the professional managerial class who had professional competence, who were educated, who considered themselves to be critical thinkers. Of course they all read the NYT and the New Yorker but they also made an effort to be broadly informed. They knew perfectly well that the editors of their hallowed New York publications did not know everything about everything. All of us know or have known persons with some access to at least the antechambers of Power. All of us know those who have professional competence in fields other than our own. And we used to talk to each other.
Covid has been a big factor but is hardly the only factor. I am staggered by the manner in which the PMC all shout and scream the same slogans at the same time. The middling to top layers of whatever passes for the intelligentsia have never been so unitary as they are now. What the NYT pronounces is gospel and none dare question a single word. Any who would question, or who simply know different because they have specialized knowledge or particular experience, they keep it quiet. Very quiet. And if their own children are groomed or guided to ritual mutilation they applaud the dominant narrative. It's like 20 million or maybe 50 million people all at same time became zombies. Most of all they are certain that the way their social set thinks and behaves is the only possible way for the world to be. Any who are not completely onboard with the program are enemies and outcasts.
The woman you describe is the large majority of the people I know. It does appear they made a conscious decision to shut down their brains. That decision is a strange one and I wish I understood it.
Posted by: oldhippie | Oct 25 2022 19:55 utc | 93
I don't think that so-called journalists think of themselves as reporters of fact. That is not their job. They have been told or assume based on input from higher ups that they are at the forefront of an information war. So their job is to act as information warriors. They probably think of themselves as "on the front lines" of the information war. As the old saying goes, truth is the first casualty of war. No one in the corporate owned news thinks they are supposed to provide accurate information to the public. "Reporters" act as cheerleaders, or perhaps sports announcers for "our team". Since perpetual war is the new normal operating procedure for the US, expect the news to remain like this indefinitely.
Posted by: John R Moffett | Oct 25 2022 20:00 utc | 94
Sunak is an ex banker type and will do whatever the financial elite think is in their best interest....public be dammed.
To think Sunak is some great world leader is delusional. He doesn't have boobs like Truss but likely has a closet full of perfidy to keep him in line.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 25 2022 20:00 utc | 95
The US government/media cartel wants people to believe that Russia is losing, but what happens when the Ukrainian army collapses? ...
Posted by: Mike R | Oct 25 2022 18:13 utc | 65
The deployment of Geran attack drones threatens total Ukrainian collapse before the midterms, perhaps this dirty bomb threat is exactly what the Empire of Terror does when it looks like Ukraine is about to collapse and take their narrative with it?
The whole Long War plan to bleed Russia is prefaced on an ability to control the pace of the conflict by supporting UA just enough that it doesn’t lose or win. Gerans break that, perhaps the dirty bomb threat and rumours of large troop and materiel movements are a play to restore equilibrium by intimidating RF into backing off?
Posted by: anon2020 | Oct 25 2022 20:05 utc | 96
❗️ Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov calls military action in Ukraine jihad"I give you my word: we will attack them every day. <...> We will not take these shaitans, prisoner. We will burn them. We will not stop anywhere. Our territory is not Zaporizhzhya, not Kherson. Our territory is Odessa, Kyiv, and Kharkiv. All the regions and Ukraine as a whole are our territories, Russian territory. I swear in the name of the Almighty this is a big jihad. And we will not stop," Kadyrov said, promising that there would be "good news" soon.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/16672
This is why Kadyrov is mad. With right. We will revenge our guys.⚡️⚡️⚡️AFU hit Kadyrov's headquarters near Kherson with a Himars attack:40 dead and around 60 wounded.
Our Phosphor's brother was killed in that strike.
Phosphorus, accept our condolences. Your brother died a hero💔Glory to Heroes.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/16674
Posted by: Down South | Oct 25 2022 20:06 utc | 97
❗️ Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov calls military action in Ukraine jihad"I give you my word: we will attack them every day. <...> We will not take these shaitans, prisoner. We will burn them. We will not stop anywhere. Our territory is not Zaporizhzhya, not Kherson. Our territory is Odessa, Kyiv, and Kharkiv. All the regions and Ukraine as a whole are our territories, Russian territory. I swear in the name of the Almighty this is a big jihad. And we will not stop," Kadyrov said, promising that there would be "good news" soon.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/16672
This is why Kadyrov is mad. With right. We will revenge our guys.⚡️⚡️⚡️AFU hit Kadyrov's headquarters near Kherson with a Himars attack:40 dead and around 60 wounded.
Our Phosphor's brother was killed in that strike.
Phosphorus, accept our condolences. Your brother died a hero💔Glory to Heroes.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/16674
Posted by: Down South | Oct 25 2022 20:06 utc | 98
You must understand, by good or by struggle, humans are free. But to become a human, there's must be harmony and humility:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzE-kVadtNw
Posted by: Ear | Oct 25 2022 20:09 utc | 99
The search for a "dirty bomb", the needs of the Russian army and a request to the Pope. The main events around Ukraine on October 25.Operation progress
▪️Russian troops repelled all attempts to attack the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Nikolaev-Kryvyi Rih direction, the enemy lost up to 130 people killed, said the official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov.
Coordinating Council
▪️The President of Russia at a meeting of the Coordinating Council to meet the needs of the RF Armed Forces demanded "in the very near future" to prepare a draft target task for the needs of a special military operation.
In new regions
▪️The authorities of the Kherson region evacuated 22.3 thousand people to the left bank of the Dnieper. The number of resettled people is expected to reach 50,000 in the near future, the regional administration said.
▪️In Melitopol, a car exploded near the television center. The blast wave in the building knocked out windows and interior doors, damaged neighboring houses. Six people were injured, including a 12-year-old child.
"Dirty Bomb"
▪️Several IAEA specialists will visit the Kyiv Institute for Nuclear Research and the mining and processing plant in Zhovti Vody in the coming days in connection with the available information about the preparation of a provocation by Ukraine using a "dirty bomb", Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, said. According to him, the preliminary results of the inspections may appear a week after the trip.
Macron's call
French President Emmanuel Macron asked Pope Francis to call Putin and Patriarch Kirill, as well as US President Joe Biden, to bring the Ukrainian crisis closer, Le Point magazine reported.
▪️Moscow welcomes Macron's proposal and is "open to all contacts," Peskov said. However, he noted, the French president’s statement “doesn’t say anything about someone having to call President Zelensky and deal with the legislative framework, which from now on prohibits any negotiations with the Russian side.”
Russia's retaliatory steps
▪️Moscow, in response to the unfriendly actions of the European Union and PACE, expanded the list of persons who are prohibited from entering Russia. The document specifies that "we are talking, among others, about representatives of European commercial structures for the production of weapons and military equipment involved in the supply of their products to the Kyiv regime." Restrictions also apply to individual PACE deputies.
Help to Ukraine
The West intends to provide assistance to Ukraine "for decades to come", we are talking about the "Marshall Plan of the 21st century", said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
▪️According to von der Leyen, Ukraine needs from €3 billion to €5 billion a month just to cover budgetary expenses, including salaries and pensions. The European Union is ready to provide €1.5 billion and expects the United States, other Western countries and financial institutions to help with the rest.
▪️Von der Leyen called for the confiscation of frozen Russian assets and their direction for the restoration of Ukraine.
▪️Vladimir Zelensky said that Kyiv expects to receive $38 billion from Western partners next year to cover the budget deficit.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/16681
Posted by: Down South | Oct 25 2022 20:10 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
I am not so sure they will stop making shit up just because they get called out for it.
I am reminded of the "Narcissists Prayer":
"That didn't happen.
And if it did, it wasn't that bad.
And if it was, that's not a big deal.
And if it is, that's not my fault.
And if it was, I didn't mean it.
And if I did, you deserved it."
Posted by: moaobserver | Oct 25 2022 14:39 utc | 1