by Le Dahu for The Saker Blog In the previous article “Part 1: Russian Navy frigates”, the downsizing of combat ships over the last 30 years is as a result of a huge leap forward in technology & design. Essentially, the modern Russian naval capability is to have an effective missile launch ‘standoff capability’ of around 600-1000kms, bolstered by an overlapping series of coastal early warning & integrated defensive
by LeDahu After a brief interlude due to professional reasons, please find below the first part of an article on the Russian Navy, on the latest generation of frigates and the technological advances that has enabled Russian sea power to be noticed globally. This is article is partly in response to the original article, “New, Blue-Water Frigates to Become Main Surface Vessels of the Russian Navy”, back in the
by Scott Humor H.R. 1644, the Korea Interdiction and Modernization of Sanctions Act President Trump signed the ‘Buy American, Hire American’ executive order. “The most spectacular claim—that North Korea is, at present, “capable of producing a nuclear bomb every six or seven weeks”— is backed up entirely by an anonymous blob of “expert studies and classified intelligence reports.”… it is “impossible to verify.” Coming to Russia, don’t complain about
The latest US cruise missile attack on the Syrian airbase is an extremely important event in so many ways that it is important to examine it in some detail. I will try to do this today with the hope to be able to shed some light on a rather bizarre attack which will nevertheless have profound consequences. But first, let’s begin by looking at what actually happened. The pretext: I
Note by The Saker: as has been the case so many times in the past, I am posting an article with which I disagree, rather strongly, in fact, but which I find nevertheless worth posting precisely because it represents a point of view different from mine and because it asks some interesting questions. My own two cents about all this is that the Russians are seeking opportunities to appear to
Die Geschichte ist aus und hier lauft eine Maus A common ending to German fairytales. I hope you all had a safe and happy celebration of the New Year. Unlike previous years, I didn’t tweet while drunk which shows nearly super-human self control. Undoubtedly, a sign of maturity on my part, and also satisfaction with the direction of things. I have been getting many requests to post something of Cat
A beautiful situation in Syria or how to build a mousetrap, by Cat Motya The US, Russia and SYRIA SitRep by Cat Motya, September 27, 2016 Russia, US and Syria SITREP links September 28, 2016 by Scott The New Situation starting with September 11th, 2016 by Cat Motya Thus, we are going to describe a beautiful situation starting with Motya’s past post where he talks about Syria right after the
This article has been written for the Unz Review: http://www.unz.com/tsaker/syria-and-the-coup-in-turkey/ This week has been marked by two major events: the USA and Russia agreed to a common plan for military coordination in Syria and the failed coup in Turkey has been followed by a massive purge of the Turkish elites. Syria: The Russians had really no option but to accept to work with the USA in Syria. They way in
Kazakhstan’s President Nazarbayev and Putin say “we” at SPIEF 2016 On June 16-18 the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum took place in the Northern capital of Russia St. Petersburg Om June 17, 2016 President Putin met with President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev. The presidents’ conversation took place at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum before the plenary session, in which they will take part. On Friday Russian President Vladimir Putin,
source: http://argumenti.ru/toptheme/n481/394395 by Alexander Chuikov, translated by “D” On the northern outskirts of Moscow, under the reliable protection of the Interior Troops, lies low a former secret Institute of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). Nowadays, on top of its front gate there flaunt golden letters: ‘Russian Institute of Strategic Studies’. But the peaceful name would not mislead the knowing, as more than two hundred employees are forging here the analytical
While Commentary, JINSA and AIPAC are in a panic mode because they believe that the MB will soon become Egypt’s main political force, Rabbi Michael Learner, editor of Tikkun, rejoices over the liberation of the Egyptian people from the dictatorship of Mubarak. He writes: To watch hundreds of thousands of Egyptians able to throw off the chains of oppression and the legacy of a totalitarian regime that consistently jailed, tortured
By M K Bhadrakumar for the Asia Times (thanks for Lucia for pointing out this article to me) Iranian politics is never easy to decode. The maelstrom around Friday’s presidential election intrigued most avid cryptographers scanning Iranian codes. So many false trails appeared that it became difficult to decipher who the real contenders were and what the political stakes were. In the event, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei won a
I am publishing a report form one of my contacts who actually has, shall we say, “inside access” to the ongoing events in Tehran. I have asked him to explain to me what the real context of these events actually is, and I am deeply grateful for his reply. He also told me that he would be available to answer any questions his analysis might raise. So please, if you
The AFP reports: A member of the political bureau of Hezbollah Ghaleb Abu Zeinab, told AFP on Saturday that during the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Islamic Republic has succeeded, “once again the test of democracy” . Abu Zeinab said that the party was “pleased with the choice of democracy and the Iranian people.” “Iran has proved its democracy, and succeeded time and again in the test of democracy.”
Againt the background of the “Tsunami” of baloney coming out from so many less than critically thinking “experts” and pundits, I recommend this well written article from the Guardian. VS by Abbas Barzegar for The Guardian I have been in Iran for exactly one week covering the 2009 Iranian election carnival. Since I arrived, few here doubted that the incumbent firebrand President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad would win. My airport cab driver
by Noam Chomsky for ZnetThe Election The word that immediately rolled off of every tongue after the presidential election was “historic.” And rightly so. A Black family in the White House is truly a momentous event. There were some surprises. One was that the election was not over after the Democratic convention. By usual indicators, the opposition party should have had a landslide victory during a severe economic crisis, after
Many thanks to Cem for drawing my attention to the Counter Terrorism blog’s recent posts You want to know that the War Party is thinking nowadays? A good place to figure this out is to look at one of their websites: the Counter-Terrorism blog. There you will see the following entries: * Turkish Ambassador to U.S. Calls Iran “a threat to Turkey as well as to the U.S.” * Is
