Dear Readers:
I personally know a guy who actually went on an African safari. A real safari, where they shoot innocent animals who are just minding their own business. Shoot them with guns, not cameras. Being an animal lover, I don’t approve, it goes without saying. Nonetheless, this friend of mine told an interesting story. It sounded like something out of a Tarzan movie. The native African guides were directing them on a very long trek through the jungle, and one of the white hunters complained, “How long does it take to get there?” One of the natives replied patiently, “It takes as long as it takes.” True story. I didn’t say it was going to be an astounding story. Just a true story.
Anyhow, yesterday (Aug. 24) marked the 6-month Anniversary of the start of the Special Military Operation. So, it is normal that a lot of people inquire, “Why does it take so long?”
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has an answer to that question. I mean, the correct answer should be, “It takes as long as it takes.” But Shoigu decided to be more specific. This is what he told reporters from Ria Novosti: “In the course of the Special Operation, we strictly adhere to the norms of humanitarian rights. Our strikes are conducted by high-precision weapons against the infrastructure of the Ukrainian armed forces – the command centers, aerodromes, ammo caches, fortified regions, objects of the military-industrial complex. And we do everything in our power to avoid civilian casualties. Without a doubt this slows the tempo of our offensive, but we made a conscious decision to do it this way.”
Shoigu also pointed out that Russian troops don’t just seize a territory, they also take the time to manage and govern it afterwards: “We offer humanitarian assistance, we restore the infrastructure and the municipal services.”
Shoigu reassures that everything is going according to plan.
The Art Of War: First Take, Then Consolidate
One may, of course, take all of this with a grain of salt. Not as to Shoigu’s sincerity, but as to the harsh realities on the ground. Be that as it may, it is definitely true that the Russian “occupiers” take the time to rebuild governmental systems. In some areas they are already starting to integrate the occupied territories into Russia. For example, we have this story about Kharkov residents receiving Russian passports.
Some residents of the city of Kupiansk (Kharkov Oblast) have already received their Russian passports. Resident Irina Fedorenko: “This is the happiest day of my life. I have been waiting for this day for 31 years. My son and I received our passports today, we even had our own support group come to back us up. We see changes ahead of us, they have already begun. Life has gotten better and merrier,” Irina concludes, using a stock expression from Soviet times.
Among the first to receive his new passport was the Head of Administration for the Kupiansky Region, Maxim Gubin: “I have this sensation of mental ease and strength,” he related, after the ceremony. “The feeling of belonging to something larger than myself. It feels like returning home to my family after a long journey.”
The one thing I would advise these people, is to keep checking underneath their cars. There have already been more cases of car bombings, as Ukrainian professional assassins seek out people they deem to be “collaborators”. Alas, sometimes it seems like winning on the battlefield is the easy part. It’s what happens afterwards…
Awful Avalanche 
The Russians shy away from the possibility of a great humanitarian tragedy that is the last Western resort to grow hatred and to be able to use the usual divide and rule.
LikeLike
REQUEST – In Andrei Martyanov’s latest video he says that there is a flood of new details in the investigation of the Darya murder filling the Russian media, including evidence of direct involvement of the Estonian State. Can you cover some of that? I tried a search for links to Estonia earlier, but got nowhere, it would probably have to be a search in Russian which I cannot do.
LikeLike
Request granted. I was planning to do more on the Darya story over the weekend anyhow. I didn’t see that Estonian connection, though. Will have to look for that.
It might not be tomorrow, we’ll see, but I promise something definitely over the weekend.
I did see a very interesting clip on Shariy’s channel, some journalists interviewed Natalia Vovk’s mother in Mariupol; and also some of the neighbors who knew her there. The usual, “She was quiet and kept to herself…”
LikeLike
Thanks. I would suggest not to concentrate on Vovk though, she is just the hypnotised psychotic proxy, an automaton. Most important are those that ordered the murder and those that planned it. Just my opinion.
LikeLike
And those that enabled it! (which might have been the role of Estonia).
LikeLike
Actually, Vovk is all I have at this point. I don’t know where Martyanov is getting his info from, because I scanned the Russian internet and I couldn’t find anything new on the Estonian connection. Just the old news that Vovk fled there from Moscow, which we all knew anyhow. And then the trace goes cold.
I personally lost interest in this story, once I realized they were never going to find Vovk. Just like the Skripals, she will never be seen again. She will live out her life in some safe-house, probably in London, and that will be the end of it.
It’s like reading a detective novel, you really get into the characters and plot; but then the author dies before finishing it, and you realize you are never goind to learn the ending to the story!
LikeLike
As for Estonia, I think they just provided her with a way-station on the “underground railroad” after her flight from Moscow. According to some reports she was in and out in under a day, and next spotted in Vienna. From there, my guess would be, whisked off to London! This whole thing has the stench of MI-6 and “Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, IMHO.
LikeLike
Are we there yet?
Intellectually, I think we all understand that we can’t really know when this will all be done, especially given the rather thick fog of war (Both shooting and informational) But the 6 year old beneath the skin wants a date certain
The really tricky part here is: What, exactly does “Done” look like? Everything East of the Dneiper and South of Dnepropetrovsk in Russian hands? Russian tanks in Lvov / Warsaw / Berlin / Paris? What?
I think it’s a safe bet that the collective west is not going to peacefully accept defeat, but what exactly is their cunning plan? Start a fight in Taiwan? Get an Anglo/Polish/Baltic expeditionary force into Ukraine? It’s pretty clear that the Wunderwaffe of the week isn’t going to cut it in even the middle term, and it seems like there just aren’t enough tanks / field or SP guns / ammunition in the collective west to keep the resupply of those going for much longer, so something will need to change. Stay tuned for next weeks installment – desperate times call for desperate measures I guess.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Key is the primary strategic aim of Russia, of which Ukraine is only a small part – destruction of the US-UK-NATO plan to destroy Russia. That is a truly existential question. Russia is currently in a position of massive strength relative to US-UK-NATO, and that position might not last forever. Ergo, it would be profoundly stupid on Russia’s part to waste the opportunity to settle the question once and for all.
One has to bear in mind that Russia is already in direct (not proxy) war with US-UK-NATO. Not just the supply of weapons and training (which legally already makes them full belligerents), but they already have a huge number of active service soldiers and officers on the ground in Ukraine fighting Russia, all the way up to general staff. Hundreds have been killed (most described as “merceneries”, but I think when eventually the truth comes out we will find that a great many of them were active duty NATO soldiers and officers – plus certainly many real mercenaries). Many (perhaps even hundreds) have been taken prisoner.
All targetting is done 100% by the US/UK/NATO, using intelligence data that is completely external to Ukraine (spyplanes circling just outside Ukraine sovereign territory, satellites etc). Ukraine’s own ability to control its army was wiped out in the first 3 days of the SMO – everything is remotely controlled by Washington, through the integration of Ukraine’s forces with the NATO command structure, right down to the battalian level.
If that is so, why does Russia not directly strike the sources of intelligence data that are currently killing Russian soldiers and Donbass civilians? For 2 reasons. Firstly because Russia has escalation dominance – she can control when and by how much escalation occurs, which is of ultimate strategic importance. Secondly because Russia is currently grinding and destroying a significant part of NATO war-making capacity very efficiently with pretty small losses, which will have huge benefits in the next stages beyond Ukraine. Therefore it currently suits Russia to keep relatively quiet about the direct open warfare involvement of the West, to avoid pressure to strike back directly on NATO targets. Remember those 3 Kinzhal-armed Mig31’s recently deployed to Kaliningrad, ready to destroy command-centres in London at any moment if commanded to do so! This keeps intense pressure on NATO. Russia will only escalate when it suits Russia’s major strategic goals to do so, not when the West wants her to react.
But be certain – (1) Russia will not stop until the West copiously fulfills her demands; and (2) the more the West doubles down, the more (by far) the demands – I really cannot see Russia ultimately settling for anything less than the total dismanting of NATO, combined with substantial demilitarisation of current NATO countries, and enforced neutrality of all eastern European states – whether by negotiation or by force, most likely a progressive combination of both, until the West surrenders.
This is all going to take quite a few years – probably kept on a slow-burn pace by Russia all the way – meanwhile plenty of other changes will be taking place – financial, geopolitical, trade, cultural, everything – as the centre of the world moves to Eurasia and the Anglo-American and European countries plus Japan disintegrate.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great description of the big picture. I have believed for many years (pessimistically) that war between Russia and NATO was inevitable. But, like many people, I just assumed it was going to be the classic NATO hordes invades Russia from the West; and Russia has to gird itself up and fight back. When the war actually did happen, it turned out to be not so bad (for Russia), since it is being fought mostly on Ukrainian soil. As one of my friends said, “They couldn’t have picked a nicer country!”
Joking aside, this is once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Russia to secure itself more existential security for the next generation or so. This is a Peter the Great at Poltava moment, and Putin would have been cursed for the ages, if he had let this opportunity slip, to dismantle NATO.
I know that all sounds very hard and cynical, it’s like dancing on peoples bones; but unfortunately that’s the reality of war and geopolitics.
LikeLike
The plan for the west is to destroy the nuclear plant making South and East Ukraine a radioactive wasteland thereby negating all Russian gains, victories and sacrifices, forcing the retreat and withdrawal of the Russian military and a mass migration of refugees embedded with saboteurs terrorist cells to destroy critical Russian infrastructure while security forces are overwhelmed with millions of refugees from the Donbass.
LikeLike
Si esto sucede , y puede suceder, significaria que la estrategía de Rusia fue completamente equivocada . Efecto de ello sería un golpe de Estado en Moscu y la aparición de un Presidente , sin complejos .
Es cierto que VVP se comporta siempre con medias tintas .
Porque el enfrentamiento OTAN-RUSIA está asegurado .
Lo decisivo es cuando y con cuanta intensidad es decisivo el momento .
Es ya tarde para la diplomacia hacia un Nuevo Orden, global o pluripolar .No se puede cocinar una tortilla, a la francesa, o bien de patata con cebolla, sin romper los ( h ) uevos .
LikeLike
WWII lasted 6 years. the US/UK idiots currently mocking the “slow progress” of the russian/donbass forces spent 20 years in afghanistan and have jack sh_t to show for it. i’ve said it once and i’ll say it again: someone needs to spike western water supplies with ritalin. i’ve seen cocker spaniels with longer attention spans. (then again ritalin can increase aggression and that’s already in a heavy surplus among western types.)
as for the safaris: i’d love to pick those guys (and occasionally girls) off with a bushmaster and all but it’s the fault of the africans for letting them in to begin with. you’d think several centuries of experience would have taught them that white people with guns are something to avoid at all costs.
LikeLike
Apparently the local Africans derive some benefit from the safari tourist dollars. One would hope they have it set up at least so that the animals who get killed are not endangered species. My friend told me that the “hunters” are not allowed to take their tropheys home with them, I mean, I think they can take the head maybe as a trophy; but the meat has to stay behind, and is taken by the tour guides as part of their tip. So they eat them, basically.
LikeLike
someone needs to spike western water supplies with ritalin.
No — not Ritalin! That stuff is two kinds of speed in one tablet. Literally. Look up the composition. Too much speed makes people paranoid and aggressive. Patients on the psych wards LUV that stuff, which is why the docs won’t prescribe it for them. But there are always “pill mill” psychs in the community who do (as well as dexamphetamine 5 mg capsules down here). I have seen more than a few patients with underlying schizophrenia get delusionally aggro when they get into that stuff. Not as bad as smoking meth, but still… Since the US/UK idiots are already hostile and schizy, they don’t need an accellerant for that! I’m more in favour of something like the Yippies’ proposal to drop LSD in the Chicago water supply before the 1968 Democratic Presidential Convention. If someone could dose the Washington and London H2O system with that, or better yet MDMA the love drug, what a world it would be!
LikeLike
I read somebody once (can’t remember who), who suggested placing a mild euphoric in the water supply. Something like tryptophan. If everybody is feeling happy and contented, they are less likely to be aggressive and warlike.
LikeLike
One thing that has crossed my mind several times and then drifted away only to return is the hatred of so many former SSRs for Russia. The attitude of Baltic states, the Finns, Poles, Urainians and Khazaks plus Georgians and Chechnans in the immediate past must be indicative of something.
i cannot discover if the spread of Russians in large numbers was over centuries, or whether a lot of them were deployed by Moscow in the 1920s and 30s to run Administration in the far flung “provinces”, to run factories, agriculture and so on as the bureaucratic overclass to meet state five year plans. That kind of recent “colonialism”, if it existed, might explain some of today’s problems. And the denizens of Iron Curtain countries like Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Hungary were none too happy at being ruled by Moscow from the end of WW2 via puppet governments. Romania and Yugoslavia had their own strongmen. Bulgaria is a closed book to me as is Moldova.
You may know the answer to this off the top of your head. Perhaps the Czars were responsible over centuries for Russian speaker spread to the corners of their empire. I simply do not know. But one has to admit, many of Russia’s historic neighbours have been none too keen on them for quite some time. With this so-called SMO and professed need to move slowly to minimize civilian casualties, there appear to be a lot of neighbouring countries who aren’t buying the PR. And “liberation” of majority ethnic Russian areas in Ukraine seems to be an obvious goal, so killing those people off as collateral damage in a major pasting was never going to be on the cards.
Have you opined on this topic or similar in the past?
LikeLike
“And the denizens of Iron Curtain countries like Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Hungary were none too happy at being ruled by Moscow from the end of WW2 via puppet governments.”
The majority of the members of the USSR in the 1990s by a large margin (average >70%) voted to remain, but reform the USSR. That runs counter to your assertion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Soviet_Union_referendum#:~:text=The%20referendum's%20question%20was%20approved,dissolved%20on%2026%20December%201991.
The nations you mention were members of he Warsaw pact, and had to adhere undoubtedly to the dictat from Moscow, similarily to what South America and the NATO nations experienced in their relations to the USA. And then there was Operation Gladio…
LikeLike
There is some truth to these claims of Russian colonialism. As the Russian/Muscovite Empire expanded West and East, it absorbed smaller units filled with peoples of various ethnicity. Not unlike the Roman Empire. And the Russian army had to fight against militant tribesmen of technologically inferior capacity, as they absorbed these areas. If you read Pushkin’s travelogue “Journey to Erzerum”, he talks about some hostile attitudes of locals (like Chechens, Cherkasi, etc.) to the Russian officials who were appointed to rule over them. Like in any empire.
Lenin called the Tsarist Russian Empire “the prison of nations”, and he set out to liberate the various peoples from this prison. But Lenin’s form of “liberation” was to turn the ethnic conflicts into a class war and re-unite everybody once again, but under a different guise. Where working-class people were all equal citizens of the new Empire, regardless of their ethnicity. This model worked quite well, despite the deformations of the Stalin era.
I would distinguish these older conflicts from the current NATO-inspired hostility against the current Russian government. Personally I don’t think the NATO/EU honchos have the pulse of the nations they govern, either. They are appointed Gauleiters of the American Empire. They are much more colonial administrators than the Soviets ever were. Since even Soviet-appointed leaders had the best (economic) interests of the people they governed. The NATO stand-ins don’t give a fig for the people they govern.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Since even Soviet-appointed leaders had the best (economic) interests
Not only that, but members of each and every tribal group and each and every republic had every chance to rise up the ladder to occupy any positio without exception including the topmost – and did! You can’t get much more egalitarian than that.
LikeLike
Great point! I think the only (unwritten) rule, was that a Jew could not occupy the top spot. Second or third, okay; but not the top. This was understood by everyone, including Trotsky.
I believe that same “rule” applies even today. Although I personally wouldn’t mind seeing the likes of Anatoly Wasserman in the Kremlin. Along with his famous tool belt!
LikeLike
>hatred of so many former SSRs for Russia
It’s a complicated issue, don’t you think? Some of these that you’ve mentioned don’t exactly “hate” Russia. Those that do have a range of different reasons for it.
Some of them never really wanted to be liberated from Nazism (and yes, you can only be liberated from Nazism, since any other modern political system is WAY better than Nazism). That’s a sad truth, but there you have it.
Some of them are old enemies of Russia, eternally locked with it in a life-and-death struggle.
Some of them feel wronged by “Russia” (or Russian Empire, or SSSR) since it intervened in their internal affairs.
Russian Empire was not particularly pleasant for quite a lot of people (tribal brigands like the Chechen, for instance), but that’s common for any empire that follows a “mission civilisatrice” (to use a Froggie term) and is engaged in a competition with other empires (Swedish, Polish, British).
> spread of Russians
More like long-time settling of Russians than an “express colonialism”. Indeed, some of newly-acquired Soviet territories were bucolic shitholes, fit only to grow cattle (both bovine and human) and had to be industrialized because industry is essential for modern civilization and Soviets were very much into that.That requires administrators, engineers, technicians and other skilled workers. Only place that could produce a lot of them was Soviet Russia. Therefore – Russians galore.
But quite a lot of these modern “independent” countries were part of the Russian Empire and have a lot of Russians which lived there for centuries.
> Iron Curtain countries
Almost all of those countries you’ve mentioned have different attitudes towards Russia and different motivations for “Russophobia” and they go way, WAY back. I could start analyzing this on a case-by-case basis, but it would take a long time and lots of typing, so I’m not gonna. But this needs to be addressed:
“Romania and Yugoslavia had their own strongmen”
What does this mean, exactly? Two completely different countries with different motivations and they’re connected… how?
There was no “Russophobia” in former SFRY, mind you. Dominant nations were Serbs and Croats. Serbs are generally Russo-friendly and Croats are Russo-neutral. Everyone else’s attitudes (Bosniak, Slovene, Macedonian, Montenegrin) were irrelevant (more or less Russo-friendly, though)
>move slowly to minimize civilian casualties
Almost every modern Russian military campaign followed the same rule. Sometimes Russians were sufficiently pissed off at their enemies and went “full hog” on them (Ottomans, Nazis), but slow and steady progress is a hallmark of Russian offensives. Especially those whose goal is to take AND HOLD territory. So if someone thinks that this is “PR” than they’re only kidding themselves.
LikeLike
I know enough about Russian military history, to believe that Shoigu is telling the truth, however much Westie MSM mock him. (They are projecting their own cavalier attitude about human life.)
Westie MSM also has its own way of doing “military math”, I saw an insane piece this morning in some MSM (I think it was MSNBC), I was just scanning the headlines on my work computer for chuckles (during my coffee break), and they said, “Ukraine captured back more territory than the size of Denmark.”
So I thinks to myself, Jeez, did the Ukies re-take Lisichansk when I wasn’t paying attention? And go on to skim the article, having taken the clickbait. And they’re, like, Ukraine took back territory the size of Denmark, whereas Russia has only captured territory the size of Andoras (whatever country that is).
And here is their reasoning: They are counting as “captured back” all the areas around Kiev, Chernigov and Sumy where the Russians feinted then pulled back, at the beginning of March. Where the total square kilometers might just equal the size of Denmark.
I mean, anyone who has been following the war in detail knows that this is a completely bogus comparison, and cannot be used as a metric for success. But anyone who is ignorant and reads an article like that, will be thinking, “Yeh, sounds like Ukraine is winning the war. Based on that metric!”
LikeLike
Westie MSM is shockingly full of shit. I used to religiously read NYT and The Graun and FAZ and whatnot, before I found out that there’s nothing but lies atop other lies, with half-truths mixed into it.
Shook my world, to be honest. Nowadays, I wouldn’t trust them if they told me that the water is wet.
When SMO started, first news about it were posted on the local media (and they are no better than other Westie MSM).
I actually had to read Russian and Ukrainian media to confirm it. Insane, LOL.
LikeLike
Ooh teacher — I know the answer to the geography question! Andorra is a small statelet in between France and Spain, Basque country. You might have known that already and been thrown off by the misspelling in the clickbait. I have a mind that’s like a flytrap for irrelevant trivia, including tiny countries, places that are even more obscure than Luxembourg and Lichtenstein. Like San Marino in Itlaly and Melilla (Spanish colonial enclave in north Africa.) And don’t get me started on the micro-states all over the Pacific such as Brunei. There’s so much fascinating history on maps, which ties into the expansion of conquering nations, royal families that just won’t die, etc. Just think of what people will be saying about whatever is left of the current 404 circa 2072.
LikeLike
Thanks, Bukko! I didn’t actually know that, I vaguely thought Andorra (however they spelled it) might be some tiny Pacific island. So, now I know that it’s landlocked. Being Basque country I’m sure it’s lovely though.
I reckon I’m just Americanized enough, that my ignorance of geography can be forgiven. On the grounds that “I personally believe that U.S. Americans” are geographically challenged, LOL!
(This girl is my idol and role model, just so you know…)
LikeLike
Good afternoon, one point. Andorra is NOT the Basque Country, it is a Pyrenean co-principality whose princes are the President of the French Republic and the Bishop of La Seo de Urgell (Lleida). Its official languages are French and Catalan.
All the best.
LikeLike
Thank you for that clarification, Mont. Your knowledge is appreciated.
I did not realize that Monsieur Macaroni was a prince!
LikeLike
The reply function for some reason doesn’t work for me!
So thanks for all the comments on my query. They have clarified some points for me but by no means all. Yalensis says the SSRs were run in their best economic interests, but that depends on one’s POV. Moscow’s idea of best economic interests and elevating tribesman from their bucolic existence that Fat Max describes seems little different from the attitude of white European colonialists world wide, bringing “civilization” to the “savages” even when they didn’t ask for it.
Peter Moritz said, first quoting me:
““And the denizens of Iron Curtain countries like Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Hungary were none too happy at being ruled by Moscow from the end of WW2 via puppet governments.”
The majority of the members of the USSR in the 1990s by a large margin (average >70%) voted to remain, but reform the USSR. That runs counter to your assertion.”
No it does not. The Iron Curtain countries were not SSRs. They were essentially occupied to act as a buffer against the West.
I had some small experience of travel in East Germany in 1980, driving from Hamburg to West Berlin and back. The miles of machine gun towers on either side of the road nearest Hamburg were not reassuring. The border inspection of the car and forced removal of my camera to the trunk I did not imagine. It was real. I was told to never stop except at some restaurant halfway to Berlin. That place was a total dump that stank of urine. The parking lot was surrounded by giant billboards with exhortations like Stop the Western Arms Race, and a picture of a rocket bursting through orange clouds remains in my memory. As does the sight of all the men sitting randomly in Trabants around the lot eyeing travellers. The police hid behind trees to enforce the 80kph speed limit, but got me for stopping too close to the railway tracks when a train was coming. No sign like a line on the pavement was provided. The towns were visually empty of life, and side roads showed houses literally falling down. Best economic interests of the people? Maybe in the SSRs, but not in East Germany. Then there was the huge Russian army base and many soldiers just outside Berlin. The whole place emitted nasty vibes. That is not the way the Imperial hegemon runs its colony Canada where I live, for example. It’s done far more subtly.
I’ve also experienced in days past, schoolmates who were refugees from Hungary in 1956 and Prague in 1968. They were not happy campers.
Look folks, I’m 75 years old. I don’t need any gilding of the lily. I want the facts. That’s why I landed here, for a more nuanced and intellectual approach on today’s current affairs than the other English language pro-Russian hairy-armpit sites, whose right wing tendencies I find difficult to separate from fascists themselves. I’m about the one in a thousand in my country who doesn’t buy the Western line of anti-Russian BS that is spread on like lashings of lard so thick, daylight is obliterated. It’s not a comfy spot to be in to have friends and relatives who think I’m a nutter for being anti-Ukrainian. Not that I give a real damn at my age other than to be in sorrow at the way we’re browbeaten with non-stop lying and essentially racist propaganda.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to know the truth about the Russian side of things. Just because the West has degenerated into rich people running everything and screw the proles, doesn’t mean that Russia is utopia either. It represents to me a country that has been screwed over by the same capitalist interests and has said, enough is enough. If I were powerful enough I’d stand up on a soapbox here and proclaim my disdain for the way things are going here. But at the moment, a fat lot of good that would do.
So again, thanks for the replies and the effort that went into them. They have been integrated into my brain housing group.
Onwards.
LikeLike
Thanks for your intelligent comment, beluga. Not sure why your “reply” function isn’t working. Did you try rebooting your computer? [little joke there…]
LikeLike