Is Putin preparing the Russian people for war? (31st January, 2015)

"Dear Sergey Yevgenyevich (Naryshkin), we were all sympathizing with you, when on January 26 at a news conference of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) you were refuting verbal assaults of PACE President Anne Brasseur, who accused Russia of ‘Crimea’s annexation'," Ivanov said, addressing Naryshkin on Wednesday morning.

Sergey Naryshkin

"I propose that as a form of a retaliatory step you give order to the Committee on Foreign Affairs to prepare a statement condemning the annexation of the German Democratic Republic by the Federative Republic of Germany in 1989," Ivanov said. "Moreover, unlike in Crimea, there was no nationwide referendum in GDR." (TASS : January 28, 2015) (my emphasis)

Subsequently, "[a] relevant order was issued by State Duma speaker Sergey Naryshkin to the parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs as it was proposed earlier in the day by lawmaker Nikolay Ivanov" (ibid TASS)

This 'jaw dropping' proposal by Nikolai Ivanov, supported by Sergey Naryshkin, none other than the State Duma Speaker, simply beggars belief.

If this does not raise eyebrows then possibly maybe this will.

"A Russian senator has teamed up with a motley crew of celebrities to establish the Anti-Maidan, a movement that will aim at forestalling popular uprisings in the country, state news agency TASS reported Thursday.

Dmitry Sablin

"All street movements, all 'color revolutions' lead to bloodshed, and children, women and the elderly are those who primarily suffer," Dmitry Sablin, a member of the Federation Council and deputy head of a war veterans organization, said in comments carried by TASS. "We have come together so this does not happen." (Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber : The Moscow Times : Jan. 15 2015)

This movement includes, "the Night Wolves, a group of more than 5,000 bikers who love their country and have repeatedly manifested their support for President Vladimir Putin, who was famously pictured riding a Harley Davidson trike alongside the Surgeon in 2009." (ibid Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber) (my emphasis)

Dmitry Sablin, as a member of the Council of Federation Committee on Defense and Security, is in no doubt a member of the FSB, the new KGB.

And now the Cult of Personality of Putin is being launched under the guise of an educational project to help young people implement their creative potential.  The organization is called CET. The only requirement, said public relations manager Anastasia Melnik, is unconditional support for Putin. (Daniel Schearf :VOA : January 29, 2015) (my emphasis)

One must therefore assume that if these young people of CET see the death and destruction that Putin is causing in eastern Ukraine in particular that they will, nonetheless, simply agree with it.

The excuses that CET members will use is the very propaganda of Putin's media machine that is pumped out daily right into their living rooms. A prime example is this RT 'news' item, published on 29 Jan 2015, about the Russian bombers that recently caused commercial flights over the English Channel to be diverted.

What RT does NOT mention is that,

" .... the bombers did not file a flight plan, did not have their transponders switched on and "weren't talking to air traffic control". (BBC News : 30 January 2015) (my emphasis)

If we now add the failing economy of Russia to this rather heady mixture of 'Russian nationalist chest thumping'  in confronting NATO, the US, western democracy, and the EU

• by Putin,
• his Russian 'bikers', 
• the 'youth' of Russia, 
• his 'all pervasive' propaganda machine, and
• his political party that also now controls the Russian Duma

we have a very volatile mixture indeed.

Even one of his 'inner circle', Andrey Kostin, who runs VTB bank, one of the banks that Putin controls, is now screaming that the sanctions imposed upon Putin, his kleptocratic clique, and certain parts of the Russian economy is, in reality, an 'act of war' against Russia.

I will let Anton Siluanov, his Finance Minister, speak for himself.

These CNBC interviews were conducted shortly after the Brussels meeting of EU Foreign Ministers held on 29th January 2015, that extended the time of the EU sanctions that were imposed upon Putin and his kleptocratic clan, amongst others. As Siluanov says in this interview, "In Russia, life goes on". 

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos held in Switzerland 21 - 24 January 2015, had previously stated that,

Igor Shuvalov

" .... what he considers the West's attempts to oust Putin will only unite the nation further. "When a Russian feels any foreign pressure, he will never give up his leader," Shuvalov said. "Never. We will survive any hardship in the country — eat less food, use less electricity."(The Moscow Times : Jan. 25 2015) (my emphasis)

This, coming from one of the RICHEST men in the government.

We wait to see whether the Russian people will, indeed, "eat less food and use less electricity" as the rouble continues to slide, the price of oil continues to fall, and their salaries buy less and less. More critically, Putin's Russia is on the brink of an unemployment catastrophe that only a war can, in these circumstances, relieve.

(to be continued)