Dear Readers:
Today I have this piece for you, by reporter/analyst Evgeny Pozdnyakov, the headline is:
NATO Smooths The Way To Russia’s Borders
The NATO alliance is busy preparing the logistical infrastructure needed to invade and conquer Russia by land. They intend to create a network of overland routes throughout Europe which will simplify the process of moving troops from West to East. Already one such corridor exists: Netherlands – Germany – Poland. To this they plan to add many additional routes. These routes will receive troops and armor from the USA and move them quickly, across Europe, to the Eastern Front. All of this is laid out in this piece from the British Telegraph. Which is behind a paywall of course, but here is a free archived version if you want to read the original source material.
According to the Telegraph reporter, Joe Barnes, American soldiers will land at one of five ports, and then will be channeled through these prepared land routes:
The route labeled as #1 is the existing one: Back in January, Amsterdam-Berlin-Warsaw signed the necessary paperwork to create the corridor. Whereby American troops and armor can already land in the port of Rotterdam (Netherlands), and then travel by train across Germany to Poland. However, the other four proposed routes have yet to be built out:
From Italian ports, US troops could be carried via land through Slovenia, Croatia to Hungary, which shares a border with Ukraine. Similar plans exist to transport forces from Turkish and Greek ports through Bulgaria and Romania to reach the alliance’s eastern flank. Plans are also being drawn up to transport troops via ports in the Balkans, as well as through Norway, Sweden and Finland.
It goes without saying that more paperwork needs to be signed, not to mention lots of waivers among the various nations to permit each others troops and equipment to move freely across each others borders on their way to the Eastern front.
Russian military expert Alexander Bartosh predicted a long time ago that this “military Schengen pact” would spread throughout all of Europe; and his dire predictions have been confirmed by the Telegraph article. NATO Head of JSEC Logistics, Lieutenant General Alexander Sollfrank, also confirms that the plan is to build a multitude of redundant invasion routes into Russia.
Sollfrank plans to use ports in Italy, Greece, and Turkey to dispatch NATO troops to Slovenia, Croatia, and Bulgaria. Thence they will be moved to Hungaria or Romania, where they will be quartered. Romania is expected to play a key geographical role in the upcoming war, basically the lynchpin of the entire Balkans region.
Along those lines, NATO started a massive construction program in Romania, they are building the largest military base ever; located in the region of Constanța, it will occupy 2,800 square hectares. This project is expected to cost 2.5 billion Euros. The base will be large enough to accommodate up to 10,000 NATO soldiers and their families.
Also in the Balkans, this past March NATO finished refurbishing a former Soviet base in Albania. This project cost 50 million Euros.
All of these projects, taken together, may sound expensive for NATO, but they are even more expensive for Russia, as they constitute colossal threats to Russian security, each one of which needs to be matched somehow.
Meanwhile, NATO is also busy in the North of Europe, building an alternate invasion route that runs along the line Norway – Sweden – Finland. All of these projects presume that all the nations involved are co-pacetic and nobody will put up any national barriers to the movement of troops and equipment across whatever borders they need to cross on their way to Russia.
Russian military experts agree that these projects do not necessarily present any new threats to Russia, they just deepen and intensify all the existing threats. The complexities of the alternative routes will lower NATO’s risks of having the Russians shut off all logistics; and will also shorten the distances and times needed to move men and equipment to the Eastern Front.
Integrating The Newest Members
Vadim Koziulin is a Russian military experts who heads a think-tank called the Diplomatic Academy under the aegis of the Russian Foreign Ministry. He points out that the original Schengen nations and logistical routes are already fairly well established. In this system, Poland plays a major role as a direct neighbor of Ukraine. NATO’s current challenge is to integrate the newer Balkan members into this system. He points out that the largest American tank base is in Kosovo. He also reiterates that Romania (which he calls the “flagman”) will play a key role in the integration of the Balkans into the military Schengen system.
In reply to these growing threats, Koziulin recommends that the Russian state increase security of its borders and grow its army, especially units located near the borders of NATO states.
Returning to Bartosh, who regards the Balkan axis as Threat #1 to Russia. In second place he lists the Northern corridor, which creates a threat directly to St. Petersburg and surrounding regions, not to mention the naval bases of Russia’s Northern Fleet. He is sure that the NATO theorists have already worked out every detail of the logistics of moving troops to the border of Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast. When asked how Russia should respond to these threats: “We need to create supplementary strike forces and ways to attack the transport hubs of the enemy. We will have to strike their transport infrastructure as well as their land and sea convoys. The moment the conflict starts we need to destroy all of NATO logistics throughout Europe. And we need to start planning these moves sooner rather than later.”
Awful Avalanche 
I hope all of those ports have plenty of nuke-proof shelters for the populace, because nuking those places would be the first thing I’d do if I was Russia.
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Maybe you wouldn’t even need nukes. Could a couple of Iskanders do the job? I don’t know the answer to my own question. But I agree it sounds logical to target the ports first, instead of waiting for the troops to land and disperse.
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I suggest that it would not be possible to attack ports as Nato would ensure there is no open conflict until all resources are in place and by that point it is too late to stop most of the military troops and cargo as its already on Russia’s western borders.
For Russia to attack ports before conflict starts would mark Russia as the agressor.
After start, ports could be destroyed but also all of the power generating facilities in Europe.
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Logistics is hard. The forward forces need to have enough food, materials, ammunition and fuel for the tempo of fighting AND its duration. That’s… generally a lot more than anyone plans for, as a rule.
Which means the (usually distributed) supply concentrations near the front, where resources are most used, are expended quickly and need to be topped-up and moved as the forces presumably are successful. The distributed supply concentrations are fed from rear-area supply depots that can route what is needed to where. Those depots are then, themselves, supplied by long-term storage, factory or port infrastructure.
All of this becomes a target the moment hostilities commence. The only questions are 1) do I know where enough of these concentrations are, and 2) can I reach them with reliable explosive power such that the supplies/infrastructure is rendered unusable. The exercise of any measure of “yes” to both these questions helps explain why resources are ALWAYS expended more quickly than planned.
It also explains, then, why port and “civilian” transport infrastructure is an immediate target: it is used to replenish the forward materials after whatever was there before gets incinerated. And yes, electrical generation tends to drive all that infrastructure, as well as the factories, so it’ll get serviced also.
And since precision missiles are, in fact, relatively expensive, it’ll get serviced by very large explosions.
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British/NATO/EU ports, port facilities, bridges/overpasses, rail, power-generation, power-transfer-station, refineries, pipelines, defense-manufacturing-plants, grain-elevators et al. Some of these should already be getting hit, defense-manufacturing-plants, and refineries come to mind since British/NATO/EU troops have fielded/guided/fired weapons upon Russia.
The good news in all of this is, somebody in Russia’s high command has, two years in, figured out that this slow-mo-war-of-attrition, this brilliant-Soviet…er…ah..Russian strategy is doing for Russia what it did for the US in Viet Nam…allowing the enemy all the time in the world. For n-teenth time…time is a factor in war. Russia needs to choke off the southern supply line NOW and it looks like they starting to work the issue…
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Take a look at this map, find the port of Odessa on it…good, now find the port of Gdansk in Poland…good, now estimate the distance to resupply US/NATO made equipment & troops in Ukrainia…good. Did you notice that the Poland supply route is ~600 extra miles overland…most of the long overland is a combat-zone? Good.
I think Andrei is right, the “Northern Thrust” is meant to thin out troops in the south, once the Black Sea coast is taken the war is over but, as long as Odessa remains in NATO’s hands the war continues apace. Let Romania become NATO’s front line, with friends like Romania…
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If I were Ukrainian commander, I’d say, Screw Kharkov, let Russia have it (or call Russia’s bluff), and move every troop I have to defend Chasov Yar! (See, I am becoming an armchair general myself.)
But Zelensky and the other Ukrainian leaders are dumb lemmings. They think if they take back Kharkov villages and invade Belgorod, then this will somehow impress NATO with their prowess. While losing the real gems.
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Ref: “Armchair Generals”
But, when “real Generals”, like the top graduate of West Point…Gen Westmoreland [& the General Staff at the Pentagon], effed up Viet Nam…they are not called “amateurs” or, “Armchair Generals”. I think it fair to ask…why? Surely they failed to see the “big-picture” ?
“…Westmoreland adopted a strategy of attrition against the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, attempting to drain them of manpower and supplies. He also made use of the United States’ edge in artillery and air power…public support for the war eventually diminished, especially after the Battle of Khe Sanh…”
I was trained by officers and NCOs that wanted to make sure that a war like Viet Nam would never be fought again and their viewpoint was drilled into my head. That in mind, I think, the “expertise” of the actual Generals is often times overrated.
What’s more, flag officers are political animals, I stress, even in Russia. Since the end of the Soviet Union, the USSR/Russia’s military have had to play second fiddle if, they’re allowed to sit with the orchestra at all. In this war, Crimean War 2.0, Russia’s military felt they had an opportunity to reestablish their primacy and the longer the war continues the longer they are seen as “indispensable” and that…results in a higher social rank, something all good soldiers want.
To be sure, this is a very different motivation from 5th columnist types and outright quislings. Flag officers may genuinely feel that they are operating with the best of intentions of the public and their respective nation by enhancing the military’s status and, as in the US, that may cloud judgement. Many amateurs share the same biases as professional staff but then again, many do not. To lump all of “this, not that” observers into the same category of “armchair Generals” is clearly, an over-simplification. And I note, history does not support the contention that all flag officers views are superior to those of junior and non-commissioned officers…quite the opposite.
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Good stuff. Your last sentence in particular! It’s no accident that the most authoritative American voices of sanity with respect to the Ukraine are colonels, such as Macgregor and Wilkerson.
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Thanks John, technically full birds are flag officers, it’s actually the dividing line but, in practice you are correct, the first star is the most political then…you are in the club.
___________________________
But think of the ridiculousness of the moniker “armchair-general” in relationship to other professions…Do you have to be a Supreme Court Justice to opine on the law? In physics..do you have to be a Nobel Prize winner to put forth a theory? In aerospace…do you need to be an astronaut to opine on space vehicles? In engineering…well you get the drift. As long as somebody has relevant experience, sticks to the facts, their view[s] should not be dismissed out of hand…especially with a verbal dismissal based solely on a rank that may/may-not have been fully earned.
After all, in England, where the dismissal of “Armchair General” first came into widespread use, it was common practice for the uppermost-class to buy their flag rank…resulting some comically incompetent officers.
Conversely, the great Gen. Marshal, as a newly minted Lieutenant, corrected then Gen. Pershing on a particular matter. The General at first dismissed the young Lieutenant then, after considering the young man’s remark, called him back and told young Marshal he found his point valid. What could have been a career ending move turned into the making of a great General. Gen. Pershing respected Lt. Marshal’s willingness to risk it all if he was sure he was right. Gen. Pershing did not refer to young Lt. Marshal as an “Armchair General” he considered the young Lieutenant’s case on it’s merits and…so should we all.
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BTW John, I am assuming you’re this guy:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1993/11/14/journalist-from-oakton-is-one-of-two-being-held-in-afghanistan/7779e183-6f8a-441e-8a38-25e9036391e2/
If correct, a graduate, ironically, of the great man’s namesake, George C. Marshall High School. If I am off the mark, my apologies are forthcoming but, if true to my aim then, I address you with with the greatest respect.
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I get the feeling that this is another bit of NATO delirium.
Russia is not Iraq. At the first hint of any of this, Russia will politely tell whichever senile old man is US President that if the USA lands one tank anywhere in Europe than a state of war exists.
BTW, that Türkiye, Bulgaria, Romania, route looks dicey. Türkiye is barely in NATO as it is, and is rather unlikely to want to cut ties with Russia. Russia is far too valuable a trading partner and a neighbour. It is difficult to see the US/NATO/EU could offer Türkiye that would replace Russia plus ever since the USA tried to pull a coup I do not think that President Erdoğan has a lot of trust in US promises
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This NATO strategy is like one of those Mission Impossible Episodes where 1000 different things must happen all at the same time, with perfect synchronicity and without a single glitch or human error. They just assume that all these countries, like Türkiye will fall into line like robots.
It reminds me of that old joke about the 3 scientists (of 3 different specialties) stranded on a desert island with one tin of food and no kitchen utensils. I can skip over the details, but the punchline is something like, the Theoretical Physicist solution is: “Stipulate that there is a can opener…”
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<i>Theoretical Physicist solution is: “Stipulate that there is a can opener…”</i>
I’ve heard it as “The economist: Assume a can opener”.
But yes it is a fairy tale in the making.
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Your way is funnier!
(Well, depends which profession we want to make fun of on a certain day!)
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Let me get this straight: In order to defend itself the EU/NATO needs several routes to invade Russia?
Is it me or is it NATO thinking that is somehow a bit off?
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…wink..wink..nod..nod…say no more…. 😉
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i think natos thinking is very consistent, and yes – quite off too…
yalensis – thanks for the article…
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You’re welcome, James. After I posted it, I saw that everybody and their grandmother (in the Russophile sphere) reviewed the same article! But hopefully my review added a few extra details.
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That is very great advice, James! I think I do my best writing when I write something that really interests me. And it is a blessing whenever this happens to intersect with things that interest other people as well!
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Maybe they learned something from Napoleon’s mistake?
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Napoleon picked three routes, but his primary was chasing what he hoped would be a decisive battlefield destruction of the Russian army. Napoleon was ever after that decisive battle, after all.
Like a dog chasing a cat, he was led down a path around which the Russians obliterated native supply capacity. And in fact they quite purposefully counterattacked to keep him from deviating into the richer, “Ukrainian” lands to the south.
The Germans learned from Napoleon’s mistake, and had very substantial supply routes defined that stretched all the way back into Germany. Each army would be supplied by a different German region. I’ve held a map of these routes in my hand… they were very, very long corridors, but for a time they enabled aggression against the vast expanse of Russia.
NATO simply took German planning and military philosophy (itself bankrolled by British Slavic racism and imperial anxiety) and said, “sorry about that, chaps, next go around will work out better!”
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Brits: “Nice try, Hitler, but no cigar. We’ll do it right, but next time no more Mister Nice Guy!”
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It’s not surprising that NATO officials would use the Daily Telegraph – BoJo’s platform – to air details of planned Russia invasion routes by ground forces. This doesn’t seem to be a leak, or whistle-blowing – just straightforward reportage of rather sensitive military plans, readily volunteered by NATO ‘officials,’ one of whom, Lt Gen Sollfrank, actually spoke on the record. Even back in the 20th century, before the rise of the obsessive transatlantic Secrecy State, this arguably would have been information whose OPSEC implications far outweighed the public’s ‘need to know.’
The DT article spins these plans as a response to a Russian invasion of Europe, but your Russian military analysts correctly dismissed that flimsy facade. (I like calling it the DT because that’s also the abbreviation for delirium tremens.)
It’s a weird story, because none of this is going to happen. Russia won’t invade Europe unless NATO – like Hitler and Napoleon before them – forces it to. (I suppose that’s no longer entirely out of the question.) Watch Judge Napolitano’s interview with Colonel Wilkerson the other day. NATO isn’t going to invade Russia, or even land US troops in Europe, even in response to a Russian attack on Eastern Europe, because it can’t. It doesn’t have the men, firepower or materiel, it lacks the capacity to mobilize them – and even the DT mentions NATO’s pathetic air-defense vulnerability.
Also keep in mind, the DT, like all Anglosphere MSM but more so, is a mouthpiece for the spooks. They don’t collect and analyze intelligence anymore. Their entire focus is on domestic psy-ops, on deceiving their own public. So why is MI6 sharing this nonsense with us? And why now?
Obviously one goal might be to distract and confuse Russian military planners, intel analysts and leaders. Another might be to distract the British public from the likely Russian response to western attacks (carried out by ‘Ukraine’) deep inside Russia. I’d love to hear everybody else’s thoughts.
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I think you have summed things up pretty well from my perspective. Loved your DT observations. They were always the paper of Empah and Injuh and the Colonial Office — the place where all rght-mnded chaps shouldered the white man’s burden of elevating the savages from their hovels by education, discipline and exquisitely fine manners like always dressing for supper.
Macgregor has always struck me as an American analogue but with brains and down-to-earth practicality. I enjoyed his burblings on Judge Nap yesterday.
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Yes, back in the ’80s and ’90s, when I was reporting from Afghanistan, I remember my British friends calling it the Torygraph. Speaking of Injuh and Empah, I’ve often said that I wound up on the wrong side of the world because I read too much Kipling at an early age!
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Kipling, eh… It’s a good excuse, at least. Speaking as an ex-Literature Major. I mean, it would be okay, in my book, to convert to Catholicism after reading the poems of Alexander Pope or the novels of Evelyn Waugh…
🙂
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Great points, John. I didn’t even think about that, but this Sollfrank character should probably be up on charges for leaking sensitive war plans.
One theory to consider: They are leaking these “fake” plans as a psy-ops to freak out people like ME! Yes, I am easily scared, I admit it….
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The Russian planners already know the logical routes, and assume their opponents know them. NATO knows the Russian know.
Anything that is published is intended to attract attention, for two purposes: 1. to distract and intimidate your opponent, 2. to lay the groundwork within your own populace to support actions already deemed necessary by the elite.
NATO knows Russia has neither need nor desire to “attack Europe”, however NATO itself (that is, it’s elite backers) needs Russian resources and for Russia to stop being a civilizational pole in contrast to their global financialization rule. So NATO has to come to Russia–preferably by fostering internal revolts, but if time grows short more kinetic means are acceptable. And time has grown short.
The war is already on, and Russia has, correctly, chosen not to commit to a strategy of pacifying Europe… again… instead, they will let NATO expend all the effort necessary to haul its supplies, men and production into range. And then it will grind it to dust. When this stops being effective, because NATO is running out of time even faster, Russia will act to turn the dial of progress in Europe back to the 18th century, and let the consequences work out until someone(s) nicer are in power.
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Somehow these invasion routes don’t seem any more realizable than the division of Russia into 12 or more weak statelets. Before these routes could be utilized, tactical nuclear weapons would already be flying east and west, and that is not what the deep state wants. We recently got a glimpse of how weak, or more likely panicked, the US State Dept. is by Russia. State seems to be terrified by the steady successes of BRICS (outside of Argentine), including the desire of even Thailand to join, and by the international popularity of the current Russian Economic Forum meeting. The State Dept., apparently feeling more and more impotent and unable to destroy the Russian economy or stop the gradual shrinkage of the petrodollar system, ordered US immigration officials to forcibly take away Scott Ritter’s p*ssport, so he became unable to fly to Russia and take part in in the current Economic Forum meeting. According to Larry Johnson, this action was illegal and will probably result in an embarrassing law suit against the State Dept, so it must have been an action decided on at the last minute in a moment of panic and weakness. Instead of gagging Ritter and preventing news about the international popularity of the Economic Forum from reaching the American public, the illegal impounding of his passport will probably end up spreading news about the Forum. The State Dept’s childish and self-defeating treatment of Ritter shows that these days it has only a decisively diminished faith in its own potency and ability to control the Narrative about Russia. There doesn’t seem to be much optimism inside the Pentagon, either. One suspects that the recent rash of saber-rattling by stupid-family pols in the US and Europe are mainly a desperate attempt to bluff Russia and trick the stupid, cowardly Russkies into becoming afraid of nuclear war and into agreeing to negotiate an unfavorable (for them) ending to the war in Ukraine before the November elections. The snickering in the Peanut Gallery grows louder. I mean, inviting Banderites with ancestral roots in the Waffen SS to the June 6 D-Day ceremonies and forbidding the participation of descendants of the Red Army, which won 80% of the war against the Nazis, is about as illogical and weak and cowardly a position as you could possibly conceive of. No wonder even Jens hightailed it out of Nato as quickly as he was allowed to do so
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I think the 101st Airborne is already in Romania….
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Thanks for mentioning the Scott Ritter situation, it should probably be discussed. I followed the whole fiasco on Judge Nap’s show. Although I sympathize with Ritter and am outraged at the ham-handed tactics of the U.S. State Department, I think Ritter made several key mistakes in the panic of the moment: (1) As he admitted to the Judge, he just wasn’t thinking clearly at the time, like a zombie he just handed his passport over to these goons without getting their badge numbers, requesting a warrant, recording them on his phone, or even demanding a receipt for the property they seized from him! (2) Later, still in a state of panic, he spread his panic to the Judge, calling him urgently and requesting that he (=Judge Nap) cancel his own trip to St. Petersburg.
Judge Nap made the mistake of trusting Scott and listening to him, he should have ignored Scott’s panic attack and continued with his planned trip to St. Petersburg. As a result of Scott’s fearmongering, Judge lost out on a really nice opportunity to stay with Larry Johnson in a swanky St. Pete hotel and be wined and dined by an adoring Russian elite.
In Scott’s defense, he made an honest judgement call (a wrong one, I believe) when he learned that his own personal sponsor to the event had just been arrested inside Russia. (I forget the guy’s name.) He’s some bigwig capitalist dignitary who recently fell out of favor with Putin. When Scott learned that his sponsor (who also became Judge Nap’s sponsor) had been arrested, he panicked and aborted the mission. He was worried that his good friend the Judge might be flying into a perilous situation. Like, maybe the Russians would arrest and abuse this decent American jurist. Not a chance! They would have offered him the finest caviar and champagne available. I respect Scott’s concern and his warning, but in hindsight it was extremely wrong and misguided. It just shows that Scott is an emotional wreck and cannot think clearly whenever the shit is hitting the fan.
Neither the Judge nor Larry Johnson was in any danger whatsoever. Scott’s situation was different, though: The State Department just dumped on him and took his passport away. Scott was intimidated because these thugs really got to him: As he explained on the Jimmy Dore show, he is a registered sex offender, from back in the day when the CIA trapped him in a honey trap to punish him from being right about the Iraq War. But ever since then, Scott has to embroider a scarlet “A” on his passport, and the CIA can revoke it whenever they like. oi…
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I’ll have to go back and watch the podcast again, but I could have sworn Ritter called the Judge after he heard of his sponsor’s arrest, but before the passport incident. If so, it makes his call to the Judge more understandable and less a product of panic: It sounds like he was willing to take the chance himself, but didn’t want the Judge drawn into it.
I personally would have just told the Judge about the arrest, explained that ‘I don’t know what it means’ (to those whom he’d sponsored), and told him I was still going to St Petersburg. I’d have let the Judge make up his own mind.
I think Ritter subconsciously still may have a little bit of that Cold War, Boris-&-Natasha-inspired attitude toward Russian authorities. It’s common among US military and ex-military types, even those who are otherwise free-thinkers. When I was studying in Moscow, two of my classmates – one an air force veteran – cancelled a trip to North Ossetia on a long break because they were ‘tipped off’ by the vet’s friends in ‘military intelligence’ that ‘the security situation isn’t good.’ The secret squirrels made it sound like Afghanistan, with rogue police setting up unofficial checkpoints and shaking people down. I bit my tongue and resisted telling him the truth, that his ‘intel’ friends were clueless, had zero insight into the situation on the ground and/or were making it up, and that he’d cancelled his trip for nothing.
I too was disappointed that Ritter didn’t have the presence of mind to demand a warrant, and maybe resist and push back a little, cause a scene. This is also a valuable reminder that it’s a good idea always to have a backup passport, perhaps from someplace like Belize. I wonder what they cost these days?
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John, I apologize for mixing up the timing, you are absolutely right. Scott learned about his sponsor’s arrest, he called the Judge and urged him to abort the trip. According to the Judge, this was around 5:00 AM, just as Napolitano was about to walk out the door and leave for the airport.
[Again, I think Scott was over-reacting and leaping to conclusions, like there was some big Stalinist purge underway; Judge would have been perfectly safe flying to Russia, and would have had a fine time there, wined and dined and treated with mucho respect – what a disappointment!]
Like you said, Scott wanted to keep his friend safe at home, but was willing to assume the risk himself. So he set off for the airport, and that’s when the shit went down with his passport…
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‘ … like there was some big Stalinist purge underway’ … EXACTLY the words I was groping for with my story about the USAF vet and his ‘intel’ contacts.
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Yeah, it just sounds like people were getting paranoid for no reason.
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Why bring up the honey-pot incident? It is irrelevant in this case. What the State Dept. did was completely outrageous and shows their paranoia about Russia’s economic successes. And it is part of the tsunami of censorship that has been destroying the media in the US, especially since 2016, including the State Dept sponsored Ukrainian black list that Ritter mentioned. As you know, many commentators compare US censorship today with Russian censorship in the 1980s. Do you think that is fair?
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Yalensis might as well bring it up because it’s an elephant in the room that can’t be overlooked. Even though it WAS an entrapment sting, at least the second instance that Ritter was busted for. I have read varying accounts about the first time, and I haven’t cared enough to dig out the truth, the WHOLE truth, and nothing BUT the truth. In any case, I’m aware that Ritter never touched no-one, so the whole “Scott’s a paedo!” thing is bullshit. Howeverrrrrr, whenever I read any comment thread about anything Ritter said, there are always trolls chiming in with “HE’S A CHILD MOLESTER!” Which is what trolls do to divert attention from whatever the real issue is.
As far as what Yalensis and Jennings said about Ritter giving in too easily, it’s a reminder of how human nature works. When someone is an honest person, and they are confronted by a legitimate authority, they tend to comply. That’s why so many people, including the Jews killed in the Holocaust, went along with the police state types. For all his worldly wiseness, Ritter did what he was told in the shock of the moment. If he had been of a criminal mindset, he might have been more resistant.
Have you ever seen the “Never talk to the police” video that was done years ago by a lawyer? I won’t drop a link here because that would take work, and ilots of people are aware of it. Great vid, though, which everyone should watch. Remember, the cops are NEVER your friend. A “fuck you” attitude is always the best thing to have when a violent person from the State Apparatus is near you.
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Thanks for supporting me, Bukko. I don’t think I am a salacious gossip-monger, I only brought up the “honey-trap” thing because Scott himself mentioned it, not on the Judge Nap show, but on a different show that same night, Jimmy Dore.
Scott was doing the Full Ginsburg that night, and I reckon he felt more comfortable sharing this very painful story with Jimmy (a Hollywood nightclub comedian) than with an upstanding jurist like the Judge.
I have never heard Scott actually talk about this before and tell at least some of his side of the story. Plus, this is actually relevant to his passport story. Scott spent 3 years in jail for whatever it was that he was trapped into doing or saying. He explained to Jimmy that he is required to carry a “special” passport with a stamp of a convicted sex offender. Let’s call it the Hester Prynne passport, lol.
When the goons grabbed him at the airport, Scott was carrying a different passport, without the Scarlet Letter. That may have had nothing to do with anything, and the goons may not have even known about the Scarlet Letter version of the passport, but Scott just blurted that out, about the 2 passports, maybe because when people are panicking they tend to blurt out the thing they fear the most. Scott appears to be prone to panic attacks. I can relate to that, because I do that too, although I have never been in that scary of a situation like he was.
Bukko, you are absolutely right about the cops, and how to handle them. Any time a cop walks up to you, unless it’s to help rescue a kitten from a tree, you should just tell them to fuck off. I am sorry this horrible thing had to happen to Scott, but it’s a good life lesson for all of us: Don’t panic. Take a deep breath. Demand to see their badge. Whip out your phone and start taking photos. Demand to see a warrant. Otherwise keep your mouth shut. Don’t say a word except for: “I need to call my lawyer…” (even if you don’t have a lawyer, pretend that you do!)
And if they arrest you, don’t say a word to anybody, especially that nosy cellmate, who is probably an undercover cop or snitch! Don’t admit to anything, don’t try to explain your side of the story, don’t say a word to anyone except your lawyer.
These are things I learned from reading crime novels, but Scott’s experience is also a learning experience, and should be for all of us who don’t follow the NATO party line.
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I’m curious as to why these trips by Scott Ritter / Larry Johnson are taking place anyway ?
Whose interest does it serve?
USA is an enemy of Russia and is actively supporting the killing of Russians
Yalensis : The sponsor who was arrested is there information about this person? beyond “ he fell out with Putin”. Thank you
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I don’t think you get it, James Lake. Why should Scott, Larry, Judge and the others NOT travel to Russia for an economic forum? It’s their personal right to travel and express their free speech, freely. All three of them, if I am not mistaken, were scheduled to speak or at least participate in workshops. The St. Pete forum is an annual event, and everybody who is anybody in international politics wants to go there, it is actually a huge honor to be invited. Russia, for its part, would like to see as many Americans as possible, in some wild hope that they can influence the American public not to cheer on the nuking of Russia.
Whose interest does this serve? Russia’s, obviously.
Okay, about the sponsor, here is the youtube link where Scott explains what happened to him. If you fast-forward to 4 minutes in, Scott names his sponsor as a certain Alexander Zyrianov.
Scott Ritter : On My Way to Russia I Met Big Brother. – YouTube
I never heard of Zyrianov, but I googled him, he is some kind of Moscow real estate developer. From what I understand, just before the Forum started, Zyrianov got arrested for corruption (giving bribes, etc.), which is not surprising, given that he is a real-estate developer. The backstory is that Putin has really started to crack down on corruption, even petty corruption, because the Russian people are demanding this.
Anyhow, I found this youtube video of Zyrianov on a panel with Ritter:
Moscow Business Developer, Alexander Zyryanov | W/ Scott Ritter (youtube.com)
Ritter has been to Russia several times, by the way, and has made many contacts, both personal and business. He should probably just move there, especially after what happened.
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I hope he doesn’t move there. He’s needed in the US. Nobody’s saying Scott’s perfect, but why focus on his imperfections rather than the unacceptable way the State Dept. acted? It’s a matter of putting things in perspective, isn’t it?
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Important distinction: “USA’s *elites* are an enemy of Russia…”
Ordinary Americans are explicitly not Russia’s enemy and the Russian state and people have made this clear. They’d rather like Americans to do something about their elite, but aren’t holding their breath. They do offer means to emigrate to Russia if Americans (or other nationalities) choose, for instance.
The attitude toward European people is cooler, in part because a good number of Europeans have be-shat themselves in racist expressions once official permission to do so was given.
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Well, looking at those Big Arrows on the map, the uppermost Big Arrow looks remarkably like Churchill’s plan to defeat Russia by invading Norway and Sweden in order to attack the helpless paralysed Red Army on the Mannerheim Line in Finland in early 1940. Unlike many of Churchills thump-headed plans, it mercifully was foiled, this time by a gentleman named Hitler.
The next Big Arrow looks remarkably like Mr Hitler’s own plan to defeat the dastardly Bolsheviks by invading Poland because all these Slavs are the same. Now I know that the Poles are supposed to be On Our Side This Time, but I do wonder what the genius who drew that arrow was thinking about given the possibility of air and aerospace attack, unless all the NATO troops receive a Cloak of Invisibility courtesy of their aristocratic mentors at Hogwarts.
The next Big Arrow looks unmistakeably like Mr Mussolini’s plan to improve his relations with Mr Hitler by sending some tens of thousands of soldiers in shirtsleeves and equipped with light artillery, frequently-jamming machine guns and ill-fitting boots to go and protect the flanks of the Sixth Army’s glorious conquest of Stalingrad. If I recall correctly, Mr Mussolini ended up invertedly pendant from the forecourt of a petrol-station.
Next two Big Arrows show Turkey and Greece and Bulgaria and Roumania all working together (presumably just as they did in the Balkan Wars) to enter Moldova. And also a bit like Marshal Antonescu’s plan to improve his relations with Mr Hitler by imitating Mr Mussolini’s plan. I forget what happened to the good Marshal — ah, Wiki tells me it was a firing-squad.
As for 2 800 hectares to serve 11 000 soldiers, I think this is taking three acres and a cow to a silly extreme. Does every NATO soldier have to possess her own fitness centre or something?
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Hee hee, that’s a pretty funny comment, hismastersvoice. And yes, there is something strangely familiar about these grandiose invasion plans.
They say history keeps repeating itself. In which case, I would keep my eye on Bulgaria, those twats have a habit of switching sides in the middle of every war!
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But…but…this time it’s different…we’re using the latest software updates on both PowerPoint and Project…what could possibly go wrong?
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Now on to a comment about the topic of your post:
I saw the graphic of the Amazing Colossal Troop Transport Corridors! on a couple of Twaater accounts. I didn’t know it was from the Torygraph. All that the Twaats had was the illustration; no attribution. Earlier, I had seen something similarly deludicrous showing how Putler could Goldenhorde across Yurp, complete with big arrows and images of scary tanks. It was a nightmare vision! Mainly because it was dreamed up by peddlers of media mediocracy, not based in reality.
I’m sensing a trend where utter bullshit is going to be screeched about in all sorts of influencer operations. Saw a Twattle balloon from Trump where he’s saying “Vote for me, because Biden plans to impose more lockdowns if he gets reelected.” Never mind that Genocide Joe has been happy to Covidocide three-quarters of a million Americans. That’s three times more than Trump let die, although Joe has had a few more years to Let the Dead Times Roll. So no way would the puppet-masters behind Bidead (sic) have another lockdown — that would harm business profits! Yet I have a feeling that preventing imaginary Covid clampdowns is going to be a big theme in Amerikan election speeches. While TPTB do NOTHING to stop the actual disease.
This just in — one of the main Covid alarmists I read lives in Oxford, England. So he Twaats a lot about Brutish politics. They have a national election campaign going now. The Tories are blorting that Labour is going to raise everyone’s taxes by £2,000 a year — OMG! Except that’s a figure made up by the Tories, based on nothing, which Labour denies. Yet the Tories continue to have campaign ads screeching about a fable.
All these things tie in together, from the pulled-outta-their-arse graphics about the Ukraine war to fake election messages. Humanity is being presented with absolute delusion that powerful sources are claiming is reality. There’s always been an element of lying in public discourse, especially during political campaigns. More of the “post-reality world” I keep whingeing about. Now it’s off-the-charts blatant and the lie-mongers don’t give a shit that they’re obviously lying. They’re counting on the likelihood that the people who WANT to believe the lies will swallow whatever bollocks is served to them. The ones who don’t believe, well, they’re a lost cause to the liars anyway, so who cares what they think?
The media doesn’t rebut the lies in most cases.* Did anyone in the Torygraph article you mention say “There’s no way this mass movement of troops will happen without an equal and opposite reaction from the Russians”? (I don’t give a rosy rat’s arse what some piffling Pommy paper is putting out, so I ain’t readin‘ it) Not that the newspapers I worked at were paragons of journalistic purity, but when we were putting something on page mock-ups before it went to print, we would at least ask “is this true?” Is that like so last-century? When delusional material makes it onto the printed pages or the broadcast images, it’s no wonder the mass media is regarded more than ever as an utter joke. It’s making print publications lose subscribers, fewer people (aside from oldfartz) are watching TV and media outlets are going out of business. To paraphrase Gresham’s Law, “bad media drives out the good.”
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I think one definition of an Idiot is somebody who can always be counted on to focus on the wrong thing. For example: An asteroid is hurtling to Earth, it fills up half the sky and is almost about to hit. The Idiot will be looking down and whining about getting mud on his shoes. In other words, an Idiot focuses on the little things and misses the big ones.
I’ll pick on the Trumpers here: While the American War Machine was hurtling on to mass destruction, destroying any last remnants of free speech in the process, fortifying their totalitarian police state, what were the Trumpers doing? Whining about having to wear a paper face mask. Sheesh! They ignored all the other major shit going on, and this mask thing was, like, their cause! They are simpletons, like a toy with just one button: You press the button and they squeak.
Don’t even get me started on the Bidenites….
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