By Amarynth and intended as a quick update and a companion piece to The Saker’s Chaos piece here: http://sakerlatam.blog/the-saker-files/panic-and-chaos-is-clearly-stetting-in-as-the-west-fears-peace-above-all-else/
Victoria Nuland (affectionately known as Cookies), jumped the shark. She called her counterpart in China and demanded, (asked, petulantly begged?): China Do Something!. Influence the Russians!. We need a concession from them. Just Do Something! There were the requisite attempts to deliver soft threats: “if there is a conflict in Ukraine it is not going to be good for China either,” as “there will be a significant impact on the global economy”
The Chinese Foreign Ministry responded:
- Stop interfering in the Olympics
- Pay attention to Russia’s Security Guarantees which are valid
- Give up your zero-sum game and the Cold War mentality and use the correct method to put out the fires you started.
On the very same day, this past Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (affectionately known as Lil’Blinky) had a telephone conversation with China’s State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Lil’Blinky talked about the risks posed by “further Russian aggression against Ukraine” and conveyed that “de-escalation and diplomacy are the responsible way forward.”
Wang Yi responded:
- Stop interfering in the Olympics
- Pay attention to Russia’s Security Guarantees as this is valid and important
- Give up your zero-sum game and the Cold War mentality and use the correct method to put out the fires you started.
- And what about those Minsk accords? You understand they have to be implemented, don’t you?
Global Times wrote an op-ed about all of this, explaining: “The root cause of the Ukraine issue is that the US has promoted NATO’s eastward expansion unrestrainedly, thus pushing Russia into a corner where there is no way to retreat. Washington is the culprit of the crisis. The US now hopes China will “persuade” Russia. In essence, it wants China to urge Moscow to make a concession. The perfect plan Washington desires is that Moscow will cooperate unconditionally with the US’ geopolitical ambitions. How absurd and ridiculous its logic is!”
So both Cookies and Lil’Blinky struck out on the highest levels of the diplomatic circles in Beijing.
What? More interference in the Beijing Winter Olympics? Yes. That would be the new plot to encourage athletes to create chaos and to cause trouble everywhere. Sources said the plan includes encouraging athletes to express dissatisfaction with China for various reasons, not to compete or even not to participate in the games. The US has also pledged to offer generous rewards to athletes who join the program and to mobilize global resources to “protect the personal reputations” of athletes who choose to play negatively. (Is this what the 47 state department officials for security only wanted visas for)? The US is also blowing smoke of withdrawing their diplomats from China during the course of the Olympics. Can you connect the dots in terms of what is being planned here?
And then they want China to help with concessions? How perfectly arrogant.
And oh btw, China is also not interested in the US’ F-35C stealth fighter that recently crashed in the South China Sea, says the Foreign Ministry.
It was left to the new Chinese Ambassador to the US to ratchet up the final pain dial one more click. In an interview with NPR, to a US Audience, his first public interview since taking the post as Chinese Ambassador, he states:
“If the Taiwanese authorities, emboldened by the United States, keep going down the road for independence, it most likely will involve China and the United States, the two big countries, in a military conflict.”
This has caused shockwaves and China simply says that the US must take its warning with all seriousness and Washington’s strategic arrogance will only drag the US into more tense strategic unpreparedness. In addition, this expression is used: If Washington provokes either China or Russia, the other one will not be indifferent.
Seems to me Lil’Blinky and Cookies have just been wack-a-moled. Apparently, Blinken was so curtly dealt with, that he could not get to the litany of human rights abuses and the Uyghurs and whatever else. He was cut off smartly before he could rattle off that old litany of nonsense.
Ambassador to the US Qin Gang has succeeded in raising the stakes and turning the tables.
Nice, thanks for this.
It will be the cold war shorter than the previous one. The United States already lost without first starting. The Russia-China Union is the sword of Damocles over the AngloZionist empire.
It is a mixture of weiqi, Bridge and Chess.
“The Russia-China Union is the sword of Damocles over the AngloZionist empire.”
… and irony of ironies, a good proportion of the AngloZionist empire’s minions want no part of it.
both calls to china reveal the cards washington has to play. the pentagon has surely told them what happens if they start a war. the treasury has surely told them what happens if they sanction russia off swiftor putin personally.
the chinese have told them what they MUST do.
now time and pressure will do the work of missiles and bullets until they submit to what they can not change or over turn.
One of the greatest blunders of the past century was Foggy Bottom driving Rossiya and Katai together in a strategic and economic cooperation. Methinks they will live to rue that day and I’m sure cookies and blinky are giving birth to a cow at this moment, watching all their carefully laid plans be rent asunder. They should be used to this by now after what we did to them in late February ’14.
So the situation now is all Flots of Rossiya have sailed. Units from the Eastern and Central Military Districts are rumbling west, heading to the west regions of Rossiya. It is obvious that Katai has our backs and Moskau not only believes this fact but trusts in this fact. So be it. If we have to fight, and you can’t imagine how much I hope we don’t have to fight, we can fight without casting a nervous eye over our shoulders. The situation is now in the hands of Shoigu and Gerasimov under the able control of VVP.
Auslander
Auslander,
They are back to back. It is a reassuring sight.
God preserve you and give you the satisfaction of seeing a positive dénouement and safe landing for all.
I see two great ironies.
First, the ones who schemed to engulf Deutschland in 2-front wars for the last century are themselves overwhelmed from at least 3 major fronts and many more little ones!
Second, their assumptions of naval supremacy and predilection for steaming around to pressurize even big Powers with their ships has been turned on its head. Now ships are exercising off their coasts and lurking under the waters and troop carriers are taking short cuts through the Channel! Little corvettes sortieing loosens sphincters and a bolt for the exits throughout NATO; they know military supremacy was lost long ago..
Current work is largely political and diplomatic maneuvering to realign the madmen with reality.
I wonder if all these “diplomatic dispatches” adding to the verbal diarrhea in the MSM are pure hogwash? All diplomats know the score; how could they talk to the Chinese like this?! Do they think it is a Hermit Kingdom without modern communications? Maybe it is propaganda for internal consumption to project a stance of “resolve and leadership?” If not, and this is actually true, (and why would Chinese play along with this nonsense) they are beyond delusional and frankly rabid. God help us.
“One of the greatest blunders of the past century was Foggy Bottom driving Rossiya and Katai together in a strategic and economic cooperation.”
Right to the point. Soon enough, pushing otherwise reluctant Iran into alliance. I wonder what idiocy can we expect that will add India into mix.
Anglos conveniently forgot that their power and riches has origin in each and every of mentioned countries, as all of them was pillaged for untold trillions of today’s $ and £ during last centuries.
Asia didn’t forget. Nor Latin America. Nor Africa.
To paraphrase great Ivo Andric:
Depth of Anglos final fall will be measure of their former glory.
It started with that criminal, Richard Nixon (representing his ilk of that time) in the early 1970’s recognition of communist China as part of the way to get off the accepted ‘rules based’ international gold standard and begin a free-lunch era that has resulted in 50 years of decay and deconstruction of the USA as a premier post-WW2 nation. Without that step (and its later WTO implications) mainland China would probably be not much ahead of North Korea with a population of peasants largely growing their daily rice.
Now, it looks like the party is over and the floor boards burnt. Nothing left except a soft land of social disaster and decaying infrastructure inside a hard armoured military-industrial crab shell. They have developed a dishonest economy that specialises in hypocracy and empire lust. What they have achieved is an obese unhealthy population dying at rates far above the global trends for recent pandemic stress. They have not resisted the temptations of other peoples’ pockets and largely have nowhere to go.
The Russians are in the historical lead now having transformed into and then beyond Soviet-level thinking to focus on national defence. The USA, and its many dual passport holders-in-charge, are like the sleeping rabbit that suddenly wakes up to find the turtle has crossed the finish line. A 1917-like transformation awaits them, it seems. It will be painful but in the end something new and non-free-lunch orientated will arise.
In the mean time, all the howling and screaming is actually not the down-to-earth American people facing very difficult times — it is rather this strange long-lived trans-national parasitic criminal entity (a tribal corporation of sorts, but also far more) that has no further colonization prospects ahead for its own escape from the sapped husk and next-stage perpetuation. A fragmenting Russia (with climate change on its side) would be ideal, if only they would oblige. What we are witnessing is a form of macro-exorcism in slow motion. How long will it take is anybody’s guess.
Sometimes these conversation between the US/ NATO and China/Russia, is like adult talking to kids all wind up on cokain AND metamfetamin.
The stupidity of both the US and NATO, got to be on a all time high.
Jewnited States and their psycopat allied Rothschildistan, both operating from and on stolen land, seems to be running out of luck.
The party is over and a long term hangover can not be avoided.
“Sometimes these conversation between the US/ NATO and China/Russia, is like adult talking to kids all wind up on cokain AND metamfetamin.”
Exactly. Because it is.
Abuse of cocaine and other stimulants are of the charts among US high end society. Add to that opioid crisis for everybody else. Yet they want to go head to head with not one, but two vengefull peer opponents.
Methheads…
Those two are disgraceful, pathetic beings that truly represent the current state of the US. One can only hope that the US wakes up and gets their act together.
Beings?…no…no…no….dark empty voids of nothingness deep in the Universe looking for Human Souls to eat…
Some Entomologists have argued that It is much closer….the toilet bowl at Comet Pizza among a filthy cockroach breeding colony in back of the toilet….
Don’t bet on it.
They are but drones, no soul, no independent means of thinking or making their own decisions.
@ amarynth
Thanks for the China SitRep.
It is high time to shred the “paper tiger,” and China is slamming the doors on any hypocritical approach by the neo-cons. La “cookie” Nuland approach was a threat in disguise, “if there is a conflict in Ukraine it is not going to be good for China either,” i.e., supply-chain will be disrupted, blah, blah, blah…
Both la Nuland and Blinken were also “fishing” in China’s political waters, trying to find any ripples they could exploit between China and Russia, and they found none. Or about China’s own plans. Truth is, the paper tiger is now facing potential conflicts in three regions, South China Sea, Eastern Europe, and West Asia. If, as many credible analysts have shown, they cannot even play ball with Russia, what if China goes on with an opportunity coup and attacks Taiwan while the empire is playing world police in Ukraine?
No doubt la Nuland and Lil’Blinky are concerned with their own bluffing, either China or Iran can call them on it.
Lone Wolf
404 delenda est!
How can anyone in the so called West who has even a partially functioning brain not be totally embarrassed at the lack of intelligence and diplomatic skills of the morons who supposedly represent us? If this holds true for the military leadership as well then may God help the soldiers etc if a conflict does break out.
Some may know one or two surviving combat vets who fought the Red Army and the PLA. I have known a few. Every one still had obvious combat neurosis. Regrettably the celestial geniuses making Zone A Policy have no idea what a world of pain really is. Of course, if they continue down this path they’re quite liable to find out.
Nuland the filthy fat f…….g cockroach is responsible for the slaughter in Donbass…
Anthony Blinken…allegiance only to Israel…
Cookies…allegiance only to Israel…
Is the Sky Blue?
Thank you for this story.
It amazes me that the Chinese diplomats and representatives even have the time to
discuss anything with the U$ morons, idiots, and imbeciles, which describes damn near all
of them.
Let me make this as 1+1=2 simple as possible:Taiwan belongs to China….anything else….F…..O…..as in Off….
The report is excellent and I thank Amarynth for posting it.
What is important to see in these news reports is the US view of the world situation.
They cannot believe superpowers can be in a coordinating alliance. The US never coordinates. They dictate to their allies.
They cannot believe that neighbors with nearly 3000 miles of common back-to-back borders can trust one another with neither posting security controls along the border.
They also cannot accept that two distinct races and civilizations with quite different cultures and social development could so readily work together for so many common goals.
The US thought it was easily going to split the Double Helix.
The US suffers from a telescopic tunnel vision, profound lack of knowledge, a sociopathic warp of emotions and incompetent leadership in all vital organs of governance. Thus, Nuland, thus, Blinken, thus, Biden, thus, America.
Russia’s tribulations are based on the US being stupid, ill-informed, poorly trained, unchallenged for thirty years, and suffering a vile racist Russophobia (and Sinophobia).
The US is incapable of conceiving becoming a level partner with Russia or China, much less a third, not even a half of global super power group.
I sincerely doubt that without a shock event Russia can “talk” the monster down.
The ‘safest’ place for that shock event may be in Syria.
But, wherever, it is coming because circumstances require it.
A shock even is indeed needed and I have no doubts is coming. The level of ‘diplomacy’ of SehSha is appalling to be kind and only a severe shock might, and only might, bring Foggy Bottom to it’s senses. One can always hope.
Auslander
A serious and penetrating analysis of the decay of bourgeois civilization was given by the British Marxist, Christopher Caudwell, in his “Studies and Further Studies in a Dying Culture” published by Monthly Review Press, New York. This work, written in the 1930s before WW2 when the bourgeoisie could at least boast of great intellectual and heroic individuals like G. B. Shaw and T. E. Lawrence, is much more applicable today compared to the times when it was written. Caudwell was killed at the age of 29 fighting against the fascists in Jarama, Spain in 1937.
“The ‘safest’ place for that shock event may be in Syria. ”
I’m quite sure it will be Syria – with a couple of hours forewarning. Otherwise ISIS will never be defeated in Syria and Iraq.
Again I want to say how much thankful to God for this site. Truly it’s a refuge from the world media tbat is so much propoganda and flat out lies. God bless THESAKER.
And very good to see clear and consistent response coming from China Those two mentioned in the article make me want to puke. Seriously everything about them is offensive. Tneor mannerism, everything. Not saying this to be funny or rude, they even just look dirty. Her especially. Like she doesn’t even bathe right. Not kidding, maybe they got a demon. They surly make one uncomfortable just hearing them talk.
And it’s good seeing signs the world beginning to question and resist America..That’s very good. Actually its freakin aweome. Praise God in heaven. Even though I’m an American for the good of the world America needs to be knocked to the ground. At some point we citizens are going to have to face we citizens are the ones wno must deal with the evil bastards ruling over us. It won’t be easy, but we’ve enjoyed the good tines and will also have to endure the bad.
Don’t loss hope. Just consider the change and improvemts in Russia. Yes they have much work to do but they’ve accomplished much. I love listening to the Acrch Bishop Sheen recordings. He said communism was like a manure spread across Russia tbat like a fertilizer would bring forth new and improved growth. Yes strong good Russian people endured overcame commu ism and tnose filthy jew bolsheviks. Yes tney were, its fact. It’s proven, its history, tbe bolsheviks were fithy jews. And id bet they looked dirty just like the two mentioned. But anyways, the manure is spread across America today. We must endure and over come. Lord willing Russia at some point will be able to help us find our way back to soundness and righteousness. We need a Vladimir Putin to lead us. If youre the praying type keep praying, you know what for, neverr forget proverb 1529 the Lord is far from the wicked but he heareth the prayer of the righteous. Amen. God bless.
@ Pennsylvania Chuck
“Again I want to say how much thankful to God for this site. Truly it’s a refuge from the world media tbat is so much propoganda and flat out lies. God bless THESAKER…”
Wow! I was thinking along the same lines earlier today: The Saker blog is a refuge from stupidness, dim-witted, asinine thinking, and from all forms of lies and deceit.
I second your blessings.
Lone Wolf
404 delenda est!
“Not saying this to be funny or rude, they even just look dirty. Her especially. Like she doesn’t even bathe right. Not kidding”
Let me help you out here. She is dirty and unwashed.
Look here: https://telemarksporten.no/Tegneserier/Victoria_Nuland_N1_Faces_of_Evil.jpg
Regards
Kent
One more.
https://fotovision.no/GLP1/Nuland_Bleed_The_Eu_Faces_of_Evil.jpg
Kent
This period has drawn such a tide of sighs and today, laughter. How absurd. When the Chinese say, to your face, that you are acting with “temerity,” they are truly, disgusted, and absolutely despise you. They very seldom will criticize you to your face so frankly. Haha, that’s great.
I would be conservative in seeing Chinese troops in any overseas adventures, but Taiwan land is Chinese land. I think it would be no surprise if Bei Jing sees a military solution there. They will not hesitate in what they consider is their legitimate territory. This is one place China is always willing to go to war. Defense of territorial integrity.
Sometimes the tone-deafness of Washington simply beggars belief. I think the “exceptional people” are about to be kicked in the behind by the “reality-based community”.
I think what is basically going on is the U.S. bureaucracies/interest groups are running on auto-pilot and the people in charge are too dumb/dysfunctional to adapt to new circumstances.
Part of the problem is endemic cultural aspects.
They (Americans) are largely performers.
Look at the news and the comedy shows — they are almost one and the same in tone and approach.
They don’t tell the news (information) — they interpret and act it. Since the invention of the mass TV in the 1950’s everything has to be performed in public almost like a mystery performance. This is what sets the tone and agenda — and it is their communication style.
Since Reagan (the actor) they generally do not have presidents — they have people acting as presidents.
Like that old “Dr. Kildare” TV show — the actor was not a doctor. And apparently he complaind often about being recognised and harassed by people asking him for medical advice etc.
However, it provides a window into the current issue.
The USA actors (cookies & blinky, et al) have largely lost the ability to discern the differences between domestic and non-domestic audiences. And it is vdifficult to interpret these actor’s performances for domestic consumption from real foriegn policy agency in respect to others.
As has been noted by others (and often) the real shock coming for the USA is the sudden separation between the actors and the real — Gen. “Dr. Kildare” is going to have to perform some real surgical operations in from of the world’s cameras. The “no cloths” theme comes to mind. Or, as one US billionaire put it — when the tide goes down you get to see who has no swimming trunks on. Atm, it looks like the truckers of the world are going to be the snow plows to clear away these cultures of mendacity. In past times it used to be the farmers and their tractors that signalled change. Interesting times, indeed.
“The USA actors (cookies & blinky, et al) have largely lost the ability to discern the differences between domestic and non-domestic audiences. ”
Interesting. I don’t know that Nuland fits the “actor” rubric, as she has been in the weeds at the State Department for a long time—just popping into view occasionally, as in the Maidan episode, but not occupying a high-profile public office. However, I think it is likely quite true that these jokers think foreign diplomats and leaders are the same as the sycophantic media personalities who are paid to let themselves be led around by the nose and to accept every story line from the Nulands, regardless of how clueless and dumb-ass it is.
So they have no idea that they are bombing—or even what type of comportment is appropriate for diplomats, or for a State Department rep—even the SecState. They think all of their “audience” is rubes.
And even if they realize they are bombing with their childish blandishments, they are so conceited and egotistical that there is no way for them to figure out what has gone wrong or how to improve their performance.
For Zone A there is no Plan B. They keep ratcheting up the pressure and believe their adversaries (Russia, China, and Iran) will at some point capitulate to their demands. The Hegemonic US is blind to the reality that it is no longer able to operate from a position of strength. The bluff and bluster, and the rantings and raving will fail. Likewise there is no Plan B for the Fed as they again appear to have bailed out Wall Street banks that made a lot of bad bets through their trading house’s. This latest scandal involved the Repo Market where we now find out that there was no liquidity crisis. The Federal Reserve printed up 19 $ Trillion for the fourth quarter of 2019 to cover Wall Street losses as reported by Pam and Russ Martens. We still await the numbers for the first and second quarters of 2020. Feels like 2008 all over again. Dodd-Frank be dammed. QE to infinity? In Foreign Affairs and Financial Affairs the mantra for the US is double down.
In the beginning Satan made the cockroach for practice…
Then Satan immediately went on to create Vicky Nuland…and Anthony Blinken….Although there is vigorous debate at international Entomology conferences that Satan created Hillary Clinton nanoseconds earlier….
If it wasn’t for Mother Hillary, Vicky’s career would have ended with the political crash and burning of Dubya and Dick Cheney. It was Mother Hillary looking out for the little war hawks that gave Vicky her the first job at the State Dept. Where amazingly, they then made a ‘spokesperson’ into a senior diplomat overnight.
Its hard to imagine any other serious country where the person giving the press briefings one day, suddenly becomes Deputy Foreign Minister with a major area of responsibility the next day. Only in America.
War for Blair Mountain & Mayor Daley,
The Clintons are Squids from a dark pulsar of evil. They link and devour everything around them. The trail of bodies.. the cackling at Gadhafi’s lynching.. Hillary acquiring “her touch” with children from Madeleine Albright.. Both flew Lolita Air to the Island.. I can go on forever
They are connected to JFK, the Democratic machine and both Mayor Daleys of Chicago. The father in Chicago during her youth and the son which they feted at the White House. She was a teen in Chicago during JFK’s infamous 1960 election – did she canvas one of the eligible cemeteries? A suitable task for a young trainee in Mayor Daley’s machine..
A dying Bob Dole and I shared a joke recently – I saw an internist with a Residency certificate from Cook County on his office wall and asked whether he was still voting involuntary in absentia? Bob Dole asked whether he would soon return a Democrat and be enrolled by the Chicago machine to vote there?
They are even connected to that toilet bowl at Comet Pizza, via the original laptop from Hell, Wiener of NYC, as well as the Podesta emails which really opened up the can of worms.
I apologize for the digression – the name Daley is an Infamous one raising strong feelings, but I agree with both of you, Hillary Clinton has special responsibility for Cookies. There is a hierarchy within covens.
Would a disaster like her be given such a high profile position had she not be married to arch-zionist Robert Kagan?
I expect Blinken’s call came with some implied threat of enhanced disruption of the games or something along those lines unless China made plausible noises of going along with pressure on the RF.
I can’t think of why else a call would be made under the circumstances unless it was for plausible deniability of that sort of thing. I don’t buy Mercouris’ opinion that it was because they’re just not facing reality.
The problem for Washington is going to be that whatever plans they have for the Olympics is going to already be known to the Russians and the Chinese.
I mean, honestly, they could not even keep their plans for a Kazakhstan color-revolution hidden from the Russians, and that one involved killing a lot of people.
So the Chinese will know what Washington plans to do well before they do it.
If Washington really does intent to put on some provocation in the games then expect the Chinese to nip it in the bud before those “officials” can enact their plans.
I mean, what is the protocol if an Olympic official suddenly “tests positive” for Covid?
If there NATO gets into a shooting fight in Ukraine with Russia, then Taiwan becomes re-united with the mainland.
Why not? Hard to imagine a better opportunity coming any time after?
“And oh btw, China is also not interested in the US’ F-35C stealth fighter that recently crashed in the South China Sea, says the Foreign Ministry.”
The Chinese should fish that pig of a plane out of the water and then put it in a park somewhere for the kiddies to climb over and play on.
And when the Americans howl they can say: Well, it’s the only thing we could think of that it is good for.
Speaking of the “crash of the F-35C”…
[1] There’s no such thing as a “leak”. When ever you see anyone refer to a “leak” you can bet your sweet bippy that it’s intentionally planted disinfo.
[2] The photo “leaked” is remarkably similar to that of an earlier crash in the Atlantic. https://www.f-16.net/aircraft-database/F-35/mishaps-and-accidents/
[3] The crash COULD be used to cover a large scale undersea rescue operation of a missing submarine. Not a recovery effort of wreckage.
[4] The location of the search is questionable. This is within Chinese claimed territory. Are we supposed to believe that the aircraft carrier was intentionally sailing inside the Chinese territorial waters?
What? More interference in the Beijing Winter Olympics?
…
:
And then they want China to help with concessions? How perfectly arrogant.
And how perfectly childish. Like a three year-old, Kagan, oops Nuland, thinks the US is the centre of the world; everything revolves around it and if it doesn’t get its way, it throws a tantrum and refuses to get its overfilled diaper changed.
Seems to me Lil’Blinky and Cookies have just been wack-a-moled.
Yup, they’ve been well and truly wack-a-moled all right. Question is, has it registered? I’m not 100% certain that these two sorry specimens, — the best American diplomacy can offer — unlike we mere mortals, are capable of comprehending the implications of what the PRC has just said.
111 years of hollywood, brainwashing not only Americans, but also the subconscious of the consumer in zone a, b, c etc. This leisure called “seventh art” is very powerful.
From childhood, the average American is taught that they are the center of the world.
Are American people culturally self-centered? Absolutely. Far from their borders they do not care about the famous zone b.
The same must have happened in the golden Greek or Roman times.
But, analyzing the politicians from the last 40 years, not generalizing his people. Its politicians come from many generations with a lot of power and with Hubris syndrome.
Nuland, Bolton, Pompeo, McCain, Blinken, etc. They cannot conceive of a sovereign nation not being afraid of them or following their rules.
It is a sociological and psychological problem.
“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.”
G.Michael Hopf
https://youtu.be/xEvE_VmK_yw
The Treaty of Good Neighborliness was signed in 2001 by Putin and Jiang Zemin. You’ve got to wonder if they had already envisioned what’s happening now (the US trying to thwart the rise of Russia and China) back then, if only as a possible scenario. Probably not. My knowledge of Putin is extremely modest, so I could be completely wrong. But from his interview with Oliver Stone, I get the sense that at the beginning he was still hopeful he would find an understanding with the US. He even asked (half-jokingly?) if Russia could join NATO. So the initial treaty may not have been directed against the US.
However, by 2007 (his famous Munich speech), it was clear Putin’s position towards the US had hardened. What made him change his mind? Again from the Oliver Stone interview, I would guess it was the 2nd Chechen War. He seemed to have been genuinely disgusted to find that the US was helping the Chechen fighters logistically. He said he complained to W who seemed surprised. W forwarded Putin’s complaint to the CIA. It was the CIA who wrote a reply to Putin, saying they reserved the right to be in contact with the opposition in Russia.
. Sources said the plan includes encouraging athletes to express dissatisfaction with China for various reasons, not to compete or even not to participate in the games. The US has also pledged to offer generous rewards to athletes who join the program and to mobilize global resources to “protect the personal reputations” of athletes who choose to play negatively.
The above probably explains why American athletes were requested to not bring their personal phones but use phones provided by the State Department. Secure channel established for trouble making communication….
On reflection, these publicized statements are important pieces of the puzzle, helping lift a veil on the bubbling geopolitical pot.
These calls from Little Blinkie and Cookies appear to test the wind before the leap and to make Mafia-like threats. A frenetic and malignant adaptation of Kissinger’s shuttle diplomacy.
They are a measure of panicked activity to help reduce too much uncertainty and to corral some variables, to pacify another large front from triggering Taiwan and a hail-Mary try for separation from Russia.
The thrust of the Hegemon:
– How would the Chinese respond?
– What is their current mindset? Remove the veil of strategic ambiguity and force them to declare themselves in official private conversations, vis-à-vis Russia and a desired war in Europe.
– Can a temporary ceasefire be obtained to focus on and to settle the “Russian front?”
– Could they be threatened?
It looks like the kind of offer made to Putin before Sochi Olympics was made to Chinese before the Beijing Olympics – do X,Y,Z to ensure a smooth safe fantastic and family-friendly Olympics.
The rage of the Chinese can be inferred by lack of transcript/conversation readout. They posted just a terse Foreign Ministry statement, and made more directed plausible-deniable editorials at GT, etc.
So the crazy tone implied above masks a boiling pot and a marked rise in tensions, which the Chinese are trying to manage safely.
In any normal country a diplomat using such foul language as she did 8 years ago would have been fired immediately. In addition there is the loose and aimless chatter about who should be running the target country. “Yats” indeed! It’s scandalous. The outcome of her work is a failure. The most competent people in that capital city are the lobbyists and the corrupt members of Congress, it seems.
Nulland is directly responsible for mess of ukraine and Russian’s are still letting her roam FREE and unpunished.