Dear Readers:
Today I have something from the other side of the fence. I have this piece from the pro-Ukrainian site liga.net, it is an interview with Kirill Budanov. Readers may recall that Budanov heads Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence (ГУР) attached the the Ministry of Defense. He was appointed to this post by Zelensky fairly early in the war, after a purge of Zelensky’s inner circle. The interview is fairly recent, the piece is dated today, December 26.
[Happy Boxing Day, by the way, everybody! I hope you get some tasty leftovers in your boxes.]
To put this interview in context, one should recall the most recent position of the Ukrainian government as to their strategy and vision of this war. Their goals have been laid out fairly clearly by Zelensky and his team, they envision a two-step completion of the war: Step #1 is the return of Ukraine to its administrative borders of 1991, in other words, they push Russia out of Donbass and take Crimea back. Step #2 carries the war onto Russian soil and ends in the overthrow of Putin, the complete victory of NATO, and the dismemberment of the Russian Federation.
TRANSLATION
LIGA.net has been waiting half a year for this interview with Kirill Budanov. Although, during this same period of time Budanov has given out scores of interviews and commentaries. [yalensis: Meow! maybe he just doesn’t like you as much…] Just a few hours before our meeting he gave an interview to the New York Times, where he clarified a series of issues which our editors always wanted to know.
Five minutes before we started our interview, Budanov warned us that he is not going to comment on the statements of any other military persons, for example Chief Commanding Officer Valery Zaluzhny, concerning a possible [Russian] offensive on Kiev this winter. Budanov’s press-secretary also removed from the agenda “in the interests of war-time secrecy” our proposed question about the drone strike in [the city of] Engels, [Russia], or in general about any [Ukrainian] strikes into Russian territory, or the temporarily-occupied territories of the Ukraine [e.g., Donbass]; nor any questions about any current operations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF).
[…]
A Dismembered Russia And the Borders of 1991
Liga: What we can we expect this winter in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war?
Budanov: We are not expecting a significant change in the near future. There are a series of objective reasons. Russia currently finds itself at a dead-end. The only place where it is “trying to try” to break through, is Bakhmut. And they are not enjoying any particular successes there either. Since August the Russians have been constantly asserting that Bakhmut has “almost” been taken. And now, as you see, it’s almost the end of December.
The only other place where they are trying to concentrate their forces, is a little bit to the North of Bakhmut; and also in the direction of Zaporozhie.
But we don’t see any chance of them achieving something. The Russians have already attempted several small local offensives. All of these attempts were discovered in time, and led to nothing.
For these reasons we do not expect any substantial change in the situation from the side of the Russian Federation. I will not comment on our own activities.
Liga: What about their mobilization? The training that is going on? Won’t this change anything?
Budanov: They are not capable of changing anything in a fundamental way.
Liga: Before February 24 you were practically the only political-military leader in the country who openly predicted a full-scale Russian incursion into Ukraine. And now you are practically the only leader who speaks about taking Crimea in the summer. On what do you found your prognoses?
Budanov: Your question sounds rather strange to me. That the information you hear from me might be different from the information you hear from other people — that’s absolutely normal. I am the head of the Military Intelligence and also preside over the Intelligence Committee attached to the President’s office. All the information flows to me. I rely on data and analytics that are available. And who else can give answers to global questions, if not Intelligence? [yalensis: You fools should only listen to ME ME ME!]
Liga: In order to accomplish our return to the 1991 administrative borders, we need weapons. A lot of weapons. But it’s looking like our Western partners are only willing to give us just enough weapons for defensive purposes. Do you have that impression?
Budanov: There is a fruitful collaboration going on between us and our Western partners. We are very specific in naming the exact weapons that we need from them. All of this is being discussed.
We expect that, besides those significant volumes that have already been given to us, the Western world will intensify the delivery of weapons that will help us to quickly bring about the defeat of the Russian Federation.
Liga: In your office we saw a map of what the “dismembered Russia” will look like. It was clearly marked on the map, with a black marker, that the Kursk, Belgorod and Kuban Oblasts will be incorporated into the Ukraine. Is this the second stage, after we return to the 1991 borders?
Budanov: People see what they want to see. Maybe that was just a wide stroke of the magic marker. And maybe not.
Liga: In the American media and in publications of Western analysts, we see recently many warnings about trying to liberate Crimea by military means. For some reason they think this has to be done by purely diplomatic means. For them, the borders of February 23 are the proper limit, well, perhaps also the rest of Donbass. But Crimea, for them, is a red flag. What can you say in response to their concerns?
Budanov: I am not interested in listening to the opinions of people who do not reflect the position of the Ukrainian people. I have the opposite opinion. [yalensis: I put my fingers in my ears. So there!]
We will return all of our lost territories.
[to be continued]
Awful Avalanche 
I really hate this arrogant types of people. And wouldn’t it be called censorship if an interviewer has to ask only prepared questions and get stupid answers to the ones he receives? I wonder how he is paid to be a magician of that kind
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In my view, Budanov combines arrogance with low intelligence. That’s why he only answers to pre-approved questions, he is unable to extemporize.
And yeah, I know this type of petty tyrant very well from the workplace: He can’t admit to the fact that anybody other than himself might have some useful information or worthy opinions. That’s why he insists that “all the information flows to me.” [And you should only listen to ME!]
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All toilet flush flows to the sewage too 😂 5
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Heh-heh!
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The level of delusion of these guys… Mesmerising!
RE the map : it’s a very important evidence of what Ukrainian “elite” had in mind this year :
– shelling Donbass thus provoking Russia into attacking first
– letting the Russian waves of soldiers crash on the Ukrainian Maginot line.
– entering Russian with an army left undamaged.
– toppling Putin
– dismembering Russia and offering the small piece to Uncle Sam.
Yeah right that was a “great” plan”. Now Budavov should stop dreaming and seek political azylum in Canada.
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Budanov’s level of analytical thinking almost meets the standards of an internet troll: Look how well I can photoshop memes! Like the map of a dismembered Russia! In the next segment (tomorrow) you’ll see how he takes comfort in a poster of the Russian cruiser Moskva sinking into the sea. Wouldn’t surprise me if he also had a poster on his wall showing Putin with a Hitler moustache. See, it’s all about the memes…
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The Ukrainian leadership makes 1945 Hitler seem rational
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Hitler and his bandits at least had the illusion of racial superiority and knew that this linked them to the white West; The Ucronazis know that as Slavs they are trash for Western racism and that they are only used for their purposes against Russia, so they just try to steal as much as they can before the ship sinks.
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I know. At least Hitler had the decency to know when it was over, and eat his gun.
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Decency? I wouldn’t pick this word. This assh… ordered to kill the man who tried to kill him by his own means, Georg Elser. He couldn’t bear the idea that his opponent would survive his ultimate defeat. Too bad soviet soldiers didn’t fond him alive
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i’m trying to think of a word that captures both “ingrate” and “c_nt”. cungrate? ingrunt?
i’d accuse him of saying the quiet part out loud but it’s hardly a secret that the west wants to balkanize russia (because it worked out SO well in the balkans). luckily he’ll have plenty of time to fantasize about it in the near future while he waits for his polish citizenship to be approved.
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This guy (Budanov) is an interesting character. He was designated as chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine in August 2020 (well before the war). At the time he was 34 years old, and with the rank of Colonel. His designation is very curious, IMHO. He was both very, VERY young and low rank for such a position (his predecessor were much older, and higher in rank). The interesting question should be why he was chosen for such an important position, given his age and (lack of substantial) experience, what is actual experience was, who was sponsoring hime, and so on. But apparently none of the 100.000 western journalist (sic) are interested in such questions.
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@ stevit65,
Might that be because feminine Z surrounds himself with bootlickers, not competent men that might [and will challenge] his grand vision of a ‘country’ that shouldn’t exist in the first place…?
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Or maybe most of these appointments were actually made by Victoria Nuland?
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Reality is the fount of all good satire. Ten years from now, if Kirill isn’t strung up on a lamp post by returning troops.. from Ukrainia’s meat-grinder, the question will be, where in the world is Budanov’s villa exactly?
I mean the opportunity to pilfer US small arms and sell them to the various terrorist/criminal organizations through-out the world wouldn’t be passed up by a guy like that.
Remind me again of how the 3LA’s Afghanistan 1.0 turned out..oh yeah, so effing clever
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fthumbs.gfycat.com%2FFamiliarCriminalKitfox-size_restricted.gif&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=7b4a32f53d516f2f2fefb5fba9d52337be65b55eb796946fbbd6bfa77b3965c0&ipo=images
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The mind baffles at why anyone would eagerly anticipate talking to this piece of cardboard…
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Because he wields power, and they are just cub reporters?
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You’d almost forget 404’s asking/demanding entirely new army division to be delivered to its doorsteps, by foreign legions and regimes. Maybe Kill Bill can provide some footage of 404’s heroic fought [and won battles] against the crumbling Russian forces…
I thought so. What a load of horse manure.
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Any smart American knows this is a central banker’s war to continue to overthrow countries who do not have THEIR central bank, a la USA Federal Reserve, and pouring big money into their banking accounts. The riches families and their minions are the owners of this Basal, Switzerland based Bank of International Settlements, and funny they never fight in these wars. They get deferments as they have to make the weapons of destruction for the war their people started! However, our sons and now daughters are killed,blinded, wounded, or left crippled for the rest of their lives while they never experience combat. Today they control 95% of the world’s economies and continue to use the military power of the USA and NATO to continue their money making machine and control of the world. For hundreds of years they have fine tuned their system in order to remain invisible to the masses. They do this by owning the mass media, and I mean almost all of it. The only place where they yet control that media is the internet, but they are buying the Internet slowly, but surely. I’ve notice many Internet sites who don’t exist anymore. And most of them were focusing on the power and control of the central bank cartel over the lives of people all over the world. Since they and their minions own or control the vast military industrial complex or the weapons industries they can’t force the governments they control to pay them their tax payers money unless they begin another war and the aggressor nations needs weapons. And that’s where their fiat money comes in, they fund both sides of warring countries, and after the war their rebuilding corporations get all the contracts to rebuild the countries infrastructure, yes, buildings and all! Note how after WW1,WW2, Korea, Viet Nam, Ist Irag, 2nd Irag, Afganistan, and now Ukraine there is no information on the mass media as to who received the billions of dollars to rebuilt the worn torn nations. The central bankers, again, own the mass media and we the tax payers pay for it without any knowledge of who is getting all the money! We need to do what Iceland did they ended their central banking system, put the leaders of the central banks in jail and some went to prison,elected a new government with trusted citizen candidates running the new government. The central bankers retaliated as they did with U.S. President Andrew Jackson for also “killing” their central bank by creating a recession, however, since Iceland’s money was not going to the central bank empire Iceland did experience a slight recession and recovered financially, again, due to their money staying in Iceland. And the national debt created by the central banking system was given to the central bank since they created it! As they have done time and time again the central banking system was ready to use military force to bring Iceland into its domain by a simple invasion, or overthrow of its new government, However, Russia who also got rid of its BIS central bank came to the defense of Iceland and the Basal based central bankers backed off. Hopefully, you have a better perspective of who creates the wars and financially benefits from them, and, by the way, their media friends and minions never tell the masses of people all over the earth of their wicked deeds. Read, War is a Racket by a three star United States Marine General. My best,Charles “Chuck” Pineda, Jr.Democratic, family values, candidate for Governor of California 1986-2010.
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Thanks for that comment, what you say is true. The final and most degenerate stage of capitaism/imperialism is the rule of Financial capital and bankers. Lenin wrote about this over a hundred years ago in his book “Imperialism the highest stage of capitalism.”
Actually, Marxists have known about this stuff for almost a couple of centuries now, but it is interesting that even non-Marxists are starting to figure it out.
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This might be of interest [ Andrei Martyanov]
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