65 Replies to “March Madness”

  1. A key to understanding Putin’s motives
    Gorshenin Institute, 19 March 2014
    Today, perhaps, there isn’t a single thinking person in the world who isn’t trying to find the answer to the question about the ultimate goals of the Russian President. We, as experts, every day hear the same question from politicians, diplomats, journalists, and members of our families. The Gorshenin Institute draws your attention to the article written by a Russian journalist and military analyst Vladimir VORONOV, which was published in Russian monthly magazine Sovershenno Sekretno (Top Secret) on 24 February 2014.
    After carefully studying the article, we have arrived at some conclusions. Certainly, the conclusions are based on the hypothesis that the author used reliable and verified information.
    1. It seems that the Russian leader is seriously preparing for a third world war. This follows from the amounts and the nature of orders placed with military industrial companies.
    2. The myth that Ukraine’s defense industry depends on Russia is being demolished. On the contrary, the Russian military industrial complex in a strategic context is highly dependent on Ukraine.
    3. In the light of the hypothetical threat of Ukraine’s association with the European Union and rapprochement with NATO, the goals of the Russian defense enterprises are in jeopardy, and thus access to the Ukrainian defense enterprises needs to be preserved at any cost.
    4. The geography of the Ukrainian defense enterprises, with which Russia links its strategic doctrine, strikingly coincides with the geography of the points of instability in Ukraine. We see that some forces in these regions are creating the prerequisites for legitimizing the annexation of the regions based on the Crimea scenario. We should note that one of the points with a high concentration of such objects is the city of Kyiv.
    …

    It is difficult to overestimate the significance of Motor Sich for our aviation at least because its engines are used in all our helicopters, including the combat ones: all modifications of Mi-8, Mi-171, Mi-24, Mi-35, Mi-26, Mi-28, Ka-27, Ka-29, Ka-32, Ka-50, Ka-52… Some of these engines are manufactured (or assembled from supplied components) in Russia, but only some and not very many at all. No earlier than on 18 December 2012, did Russia manage to assemble the VK-2500 engine for Ka-52 and Mi-28 out of Russian components, a local version of TV3-11BMA once designed by Motor Sich specifically for Ka-50. Previously, Russia used to receive the majority of components for VK-2500 from Motor Sich.

    It is a known fact that Russian servicemen are expecting over 1,000 new attack helicopters (not including the transport ones) to be delivered shortly, which means at least 3,000 engines, two main ones per each helicopter and at least one spare one. However, Russian manufacturers are clearly not capable yet of producing so many new engines: 50 such engines were planned to be made in 2013, but no victorious reports were observed. Even if everything goes as planned, this is not enough to implement the helicopter programme because old engines will also need to be replaced. Therefore Ukraine’s Motor Sich remains the main supplier of VK-2500 and its components as well as other engines for helicopters used by the Russian Air Force. It also remains the supplier of engines for aircraft used by the Russian Air Force and civilian airlines such as Il-18, Il-38, An-8, An-12, An-24, An-26, An-30, An-32, An-72, An-74, An-124, An-140, An-148, Be-12, Be-200, Yak-40, Yak-42

    …

    Another area of Russian-Ukrainian cooperation is the maintenance of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) of the old generation (Soviet-made), which still form the basis of the nuclear missile power of Russia. In particular, RS-20 (also known as RS-36M, or SS-19 Satan according to NATO classification) developed by the Dnipropetrovsk-based design bureau Pivdenne and produced at the Pivdenmash plant. Pivdenne and Pivdenmash experts still provide design supervision warranty service and technical analysis of Russian missiles, taking part in efforts to extend their lifetime. Spare parts for the older generation ICBMs are also delivered by Pivdenmash.

    And it is no secret that Russia’s nuclear rearmament programme “slightly” sags: missiles in pits age, you cannot prolong the life of Satan indefinitely, while the solid-fuel RS-24 Yars and especially Topol-M are no replacement for Satan because they are fundamentally inferior to their predecessor by their thrust and maximum delivery range. The situation with missiles for submarines is not better at all because Bulava, as we know, does not fly, and new missile carriers are actually unarmed. It is difficult to understand how Russia can create new heavy ICBMs without the Ukrainian state-owned design bureaus Pivdenne and Pivdenmash.

  2. Putin’s end game is no different than Napoleon’s.
    He wants to be the next Holy Roman Emperior.

  3. The russians understand strength, respect it, and don’t confront it with the intent to fight.
    Which goes a long way to explaining how they see the current US Administration.
    The chinese are watching too.

  4. A good political cartoon can illustrate at a glance what editorial pundits need volumes to convey!

  5. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/19/us-russia-estonia-idUSBREA2I1J620140319
    Moscow signals concern for Russians in Estonia
    (Reuters) – Russia signaled concern on Wednesday at Estonia’s treatment of its large ethnic Russian minority, comparing language policy in the Baltic state with what it said was a call in Ukraine to prevent the use of Russian.
    Russia has defended its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula by arguing it has the right to protect Russian-speakers outside its borders, so the reference to linguistic tensions in another former Soviet republic comes at a highly sensitive moment.
    Russia fully supported the protection of the rights of linguistic minorities, a Moscow diplomat told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, according to a summary of the session issued by the U.N.’s information department.
    “Language should not be used to segregate and isolate groups,” the diplomat was reported as saying. Russia was “concerned by steps taken in this regard in Estonia as well as in Ukraine,” the Moscow envoy was said to have added.
    The text of the Russian remarks, echoing long-standing complaints over Estonia’s insistence that the large Russian minority in the east of the country should be able to speak Estonian, was not immediately available.
    But amid the growing Crimea crisis, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – which like Ukraine were all parts of the old Soviet Union – have expressed growing apprehension over Moscow’s intentions.
    Cheers
    Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
    1st Saint Nicolaas Army
    Army Group “True North”

  7. Putin’s motives are very simple: he will not put up with Western meddling in Russia’s sphere of influence. Just like the US will not put up with other countries meddling in their sphere of influence. Yet somehow this makes Russia bad and a threat to world peace, while we must accept that the US is bringing the world freedom and democracy with every drone attack.

  8. The War on Russia by Alexandr Dugin
    A good read but will probably go over the heads of a few hear.

  10. I’m still waiting for the media to examine the legislative/constitutional framework within which the “autonomous” region of Crimea is undertaking a treaty with Russia.
    I realize those are probably too many big words for the media, but it’s an important question. Perhaps Crimea’s actions are legitimate. Just as Quebec’s aspirations are perhaps legitimate.

  11. Without yet reading your link, having been acutely familiar with Dugin’s work for the better part of a decade, I’m really glad you posted that. It should clear some things up with readers, but likely not in the fashion you had intended. And yes, a few do hear.

  12. and OBumbles continues to furiously wave his hanky at Vlad.
    Well done, Oblamer, well done!

  13. …probably go over the heads of a few hear.
    You’re probably referring to those of us hear who refuse to here what your saying.

  15. Yer probs referring to does of us hear…
    If yer gonna goe ful fonic, goe fhull fonic

  16. Russia has bigger problems than North America or Europe, while we slumber China is rising.
    Russia will face a militant China long before we will.
    A strong Russia can better encourage China to go pick on someone else.
    Finally as much as I am conditioned to view Russia as the evil empire, Putin is in many ways more honest, forthright than our shortsighted leaders.
    The forces threatening Russia, rising fanatical muslims in the Stans, China reemerging and failing western markets for Russia goods are at least being seen and reacted to by Putin and his colleges.
    Obviously Putin knows, it is not a “nice” world, paper allies do not keep the wolves away,a fragmented Russia is a weak Russia.
    We Canadians have an ocean to buffer us and protect our delusions, Russia has neither buffer or room in their history for delusions of world peace and UN BS.
    Perhaps Putin has it right, the Crimean people know it and we are on the side of the even more corrupt useful idiots in this case.

  17. Putin’s motives are very simple: he will not put up with Western meddling in Russia’s sphere of influence. Just like the US will not put up with other countries meddling in their sphere of influence. Yet somehow this makes Russia bad and a threat to world peace, while we must accept that the US is bringing the world freedom and democracy with every drone attack.
    Well said and worth repeating!!
    The sabre rattling of old ‘cold war’ hypocrites is just background noise, and easily dismissed as senile mutterings. Old men always sit behind the lines or safely at home and send young men off to be killed, to justify their senile egos and dementia-addled minds.

  18. A strong Russia can better encourage China to go pick on someone else.
    Finally as much as I am conditioned to view Russia as the evil empire, Putin is in many ways more honest, forthright than our shortsighted leaders.
    The forces threatening Russia, rising fanatical muslims in the Stans, China reemerging and failing western markets for Russia goods are at least being seen and reacted to by Putin and his colleges.
    Obviously Putin knows, it is not a “nice” world, paper allies do not keep the wolves away,a fragmented Russia is a weak Russia.
    We Canadians have an ocean to buffer us and protect our delusions, Russia has neither buffer or room in their history for delusions of world peace and UN BS.
    Perhaps Putin has it right, the Crimean people know it and we are on the side of the even more corrupt useful idiots in this case.
    Well said… it’s refreshing to see a voice of reason instead of the endless senile sabre rattling of cold war hypocrites who hide behind their keyboards with no real commitment to anything but vaguely remembered illusions of past glories. The MSM is full of their blathering.

  19. I’ve been forecasting a war in Europe for the last few years, based on nothing more that it being the logical endgame of European immigration and welfare policies.
    Putin seems to agree with me, and he’s locking down his strategic assets before it all hits the fan. He’s playing the same old game that has kept Europe the f-ed up mess that it is since Rome fell. He is a clever fool.

  20. I’m not sure how citizens of Ukraine and Estonia are magically Russian nationals simply because of their language or where Stalin placed their grandparents but whatever. Perhaps letting Putin have what he wants is right for Russia:
    “The aftermath of recognition, however, has presented Russia with a long series of headaches. This week, economists have warned repeatedly that Crimea, if it is absorbed, will prove a serious drag on Russia’s budget, but their arguments have been drowned out in the roar of public support for annexation.”
    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/19/world/europe/south-ossetia-crimea.html?from=homepage&_r=1

  21. You see, they are magically Russian because Russia has a divine sphere of influence. And if some poor sucker happens to be born in a country that is unfortunate enough to share a border with the Siberian Empire? Well sucks to be him.

  22. “Finally as much as I am conditioned to view Russia as the evil empire…, ”
    You mean you grew up in Eastern Europe? Had family members murdered by NKVD? Was forced to grew up under the most retarded of economic systems?
    Didn’t think so.

  23. It all makes sense now…
    But seriously, why aren’t legal experts shouting from the rooftops that an Estonian of Russian extraction is legally an Estonian national and so on?
    Man, humans are stupid.
    Also, Russia may have bitten off more than it can chew. Yes, it gets Crimea but it also get its debt.

  25. Of course they are of the opinion that KBG means Kind Good Boys…
    http://www.nationalreview.com/article/373856/empty-threat-future-judgment-jonah-goldberg
    But in international affairs, it is an unmistakable sign of weakness. When the president tells Putin that he’s on the wrong side of history, the upshot is: “You’re winning right now and there’s nothing I can (or am willing to) do to change that fact. But you know what? In the future, people will say you were wrong.”
    The phrase is utterly lacking in feck because it outsources the bulk of the punishment to an abstract future rather than the concrete here and now. But the fecklessness goes deeper than that because people like Putin and Assad either completely disagree about what the future holds or they think they can change it. And the people who try to bend the future to their benefit tend to be the sorts of people who believe they can.
    Now, I don’t think in the long run things look great for the tyrants and totalitarians either, but that’s just a guess. As Yogi Berra said, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” Maybe there is a direction to history. But if there is, it doesn’t move in anything like a straight line. It zigs and zags and U-turns all the time. And there’s no telling how long any detour will last.
    In the meantime, people can’t eat the future judgment of history. They can’t live decent, free lives because history might eventually work out for their grandkids or their great-great-great grandkids. In short, being on the right side of history in the long run counts for little when in the here-and-now, the guy on the wrong side of history has his boot on your neck.
    Cheers
    Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
    1st Saint Nicolaas Army
    Army Group “True North”

  26. If Putin’s motives were economic they would never have touched Crimea. Nor did they need to worry about security of their bases, these were guaranteed over and over again. Anyone with an iota of common sense knew that those bases would never be touched by Ukraine.
    So why?
    For domestic consumption: Putin’s popularity is in mid 70s now. Anyone who disagrees is in the eyes of NASHI a traitor. There will be no Majdan in Moscow. russia is heading for a demographic collapse and a civil war with muslims (who coincidently now constitute about 30% of conscripts in the russian army). Hence at the expense of those who happen to russia’s neighbours and at the expense of Russian taxpayers Putin is realigning the internal forces and neutering the opposition.
    There is also a more immediate goal, Michael Toten has written about in his latest piece. As long as Ukraine has an unresolved border conflict with the Putinista Junta, Ukraine will not be admitted to NATO… just like Georgia or Moldova. Yet another dimension in which Russia is basically a malignant cancer on all her neighbours.

  27. As Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a treaty on Tuesday making Crimea part of Russia, a little-known region in neighboring Moldova has also pleaded to join the country.
    Russian loyalists in the breakaway region of Trans-Dniester, which shares a border with Ukraine, asked the parliament in Russia to write new laws that would allow them to join the country.
    The Trans-Dniester region split from Moldova around 1990 and made a failed attempt at independence in 2006, when it held a referendum that was unrecognized internationally.
    The region did not want to split from the Soviet Union at the time of its collapse and has now requested unity with Russia.
    http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/another-crimea-ukraines-neighbor-asks-join-russia-111331723.html

  28. Those Russians obviously don’t know how to take over a country. They’re supposed to first claim it has WMDs; then bomb the capitol for a few days; then invade while killing as many civilians as possible; then set up a puppet government nobody wants; then hold faux elections under the watchful eye of armed occupation forces; then send out troops and drones to kill any civilians that don’t support the puppet government. They’ll never learn how to be a superpower like the USofA, with an international hero President that wears mom-jeans and goes on lots of expensive golf holidays at the taxpayers expense.

  29. “The forces threatening Russia, rising fanatical muslims in the Stans, China reemerging and failing western markets for Russia goods are at least being seen and reacted to by Putin and his colleges.”
    So Putin is reacting to the forces threatening Russia by attacking Georgia, creating trouble in the Ukraine and annexing Crimea! And these responses will quell fanatical Muslims in the -stans and a reemergent China as well as help western markets succeed!!
    …
    Couple of observations come to mind.
    1. “My last words to you, my son and successor, are: Never trust the Russians.” Emir Abdur Rahman Khan, Afghanistan c. 1901
    2. “Never trust a Communist.” Dwight Eisenhower
    And for the double whammy, Putin is both.

  30. Love those March Madness Brackets.
    Now if he can invade Greece and Spain the Euro will be saved..

  31. I never fully understood the term “usefull idiot”, thanks for clearing that up for me.

  35. Good characterization,
    Putin knows FULL WELL who and what Obamba really is, it was never a game of “wills”.
    Does anyone really think that the most blackmailable Affirmative Action community organizer in US history is the only totalitarian prick with an intelligence agency at his disposal?

  36. Inane personal insults always reveal more about the insecurities of the insulter than anything else. Just keep showing your greatest fears for all to see.

  37. one has to wonder how much Putin contributed to Obumble’s re-election, and what portion of it went into Obumble’s personal account. Once that is determind we may know how “flexible” Obumble’s actually is. And another question, will Obumble’s now be able to afford his own golf coarse?

  38. Not remembered much now, but in the days following Yanukovych’s dismissal, some in the new Ukrainian power structure (I’m unsure whether a majority sentiment) were calling on Islamic leaders to take on Russia.
    Just like US foreign policy, which always seems to get behind Islamic causes.
    If your mind’s already made up, don’t let me confuse you with the fact.

  39. .. just going out on a limb here, but when a judge sets bail at €125 million they are probably doing so with the intention that it won’t be posted. #bailfail:

    Ukrainian businessman Dmytro Firtash has been released from detention after Austrian authorities say they verified that the 125 million euros ($172 million) bail he posted was not money obtained illegally. The amount is a record sum for bail in Austrian history.A Vienna court said on March 21 that Firtash was released after he pledged he would not leave Austria.The oligarch transferred money for bail earlier this week, but Austrian investigators wanted to check into the origins of the money before freeing him from detention.Firtash was arrested in Vienna on March 12 at the request of U.S. authorities.He has been under investigation in the United States since 2006 for bribery and forming a criminal organization.Firtash was a supporter of ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

  41. I have no opinion on Putin’s motives, whatever they are, except to say that the Crimean referendum was a complete sham, by any standard.
    Even the current incarnation of the Parti Quebecois wouldn’t dare to try such a stunt, apparently, given that they have accepted, on a full-disclosure basis, as a candidate, in an open precursory election, an open fifth “column-ist” (pardon the pun), who abandoned his own ship, leaving the strategic management of his own company to a much-maligned former prime minister of Canada, whom I admire very much and for whom I voted twice (and would do so again), and who set the stage for our return to prosperity, quite apart from providing his good offices in respect of the reunification of Germany and the accretion of not only Barrick Gold, but also of Norton Rose (formerly Ogilvy Renault, thus preserving a serious law firm in Quebec — I have a friend, or former friend, I suppose, who works there).
    On the other hand, I can recommend these things:
    http://www.hoover.org/publications/defining-ideas/article/171246
    and
    Margaret MacMillan’s “Paris, 1919: Six Months that Changed the World” (Random House, New York, 2001) — frankly, I couldn’t get past page 37, I was so confused.
    see here, please:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_MacMillan (Margaret and Ann are sisters, actually).
    If America wants to take a back seat, all Mr. Obama has to say is “Yes, we do” (quit with the pretense).

  42. You may have just set a modern-day record for the longest run-on sentence in history 🙂

  44. Point you seem to be gliding by, Putin is either crazy or acting in what he considers the long term interests of his Russia.
    Complete military control of the sea port,its supply lines,the energy reserves of Crimea and a reputation as decisive, all seem to me, to be in the national interest of Russia.
    If Putin and those who assist him are all nuts, war will follow soon enough.
    However I do not see crazy there, for than I look to the White House, here in contrast to Putin, we have an open undeclared war on the constitution, laws and citizen.
    Putin in contrast, openly has enemy reporters killed. Enemies of his state poisoned.
    Pravda reported the CRU emails, CBC did not.

  45. North of 60, prior to the “referendum”, only one percent of polled Crimean residents said their homeland was Russia. How does this equal a ninety-seven percent victory for Russia? Why the need for troops and silenced TV stations and journalists if this was all super-okay?
    No matter. Russia has claimed Crimea’s financial problems as it has with Ossetia’s. Not even the acquired land will be worth it in the long run.
    Colonialista, Russia will find itself stretched too thin before too long. Not even a solid Putin supporter will put up with that for long.

  46. Could it be the Russian residents were there for several generations?
    BTW, I can hardly keep track of my chequing account. What is it that you know about Crimea’s finances?
    Me, I know nothing about the inner workings of Crimea, but I do know Ukraine owes Russia $1.8 billion in unpaid gas and oil bills.
    Good to see you have some concern for Russia.

  47. Hi.
    Tell me- is a Canadian of Dutch extraction STILL a Dutch national? This is the strength of Putin’s aggression- Russian-speakers need help from Mother Russia.
    And there’s this:
    “The aftermath of recognition, however, has presented Russia with a long series of headaches. This week, economists have warned repeatedly that Crimea, if it is absorbed, will prove a serious drag on Russia’s budget, but their arguments have been drowned out in the roar of public support for annexation.”
    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/19/world/europe/south-ossetia-crimea.html?from=homepage&_r=1
    We can stop pretending Russia is in the right about these things. When it moves into Estonia, I’m sure Putin will have a good reason then, too.

  48. Can a European Jew claim to be Semitic move to Israel and force sematic Palestinians Arabs off their land? Just askin.

  49. It’s interesting and informative that the anti-Putin folks are the most intolerant and personally abusive with insults, instead of arguing with facts and logic. It says a lot about the sort of insecure and intolerant people they are.
    No doubt some of them will prove me right with how they respond to this comment.

  50. “Colonialista, Russia will find itself stretched too thin before too long. Not even a solid Putin supporter will put up with that for long.”
    I am not sure about that. Russians are nation of cynical cowards. They will eagerly lick the boot of any dictator above them as long as they get to subjugate their neighbours. Look at their most cherished rulers: Ivan the Terrible, Catherine the Nimfo, Stalin, Putin, all bloody tyrants all worshipped for the same reason. Notions, of personal liberty, individual freedom are as foreign to them as they are to a wahhabi muslim.

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