Putin's latest 'nuclear war' threat, and his "Ministry of Truth"

Many have been taking Putin's threats in the past about unleashing a nuclear war with a large pinch of salt. Until now, that is.

Rob Virtue (left) informs us today that,

"In a secret meeting with Washington officials, Russia said it was looking at a range of actions over the threat of the West supplying weapons to Ukraine.

They also threatened civil disturbance by Russian nationals in the former Soviet states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, who are feeling increasingly threatened by their powerful neighbour.

A report of last month's meeting, seen by The Times newspaper, said attempts by Nato to return the Crimean Peninsula to Ukraine would be met "forcefully including through the use of nuclear force".

And it said the supply of weapons to Kiev would be seen as "further encroachment by Nato to the Russian border". Putin's generals at the high-level gathering in Germany told the Americans they spoke with the approval of their president." (Express Newspapers: Thu, Apr 2, 2015) (my emphasis)

And whilst Putin is threatening to unleash a nuclear war upon the world, and continues to supply his proxies and Russian soldiers in eastern Ukraine with heavy weaponry,  Dion Dassanayake tells us that,

 

"Vladimir Putin has splashed more than £100million on [lavish private jets] - despite Russia being in economic meltdown." (Express Newspapers: Wed, Mar 25, 2015) (my emphasis)

 

while the Moscow Times reports that,

 

"The cost of cabbage in Russia has risen 66 percent since the start of the year as food price inflation runs rampant on the back of currency devaluation and sanctions on Western imports, the Interfax news agency reported citing data from Russia's Agriculture Ministry." (Moscow Times : Mar. 30 2015) (my emphasis)

If this were not enough, Mstyslav Chernov reports that,

 

"Russia-backed rebel authorities in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday started paying pensions in Russian rubles." (AP (Yahoo News) : 2 April, 2015) (my emphasis)

 

This does not seem to have gone down too well with the pensioners in eastern Ukraine.

 

"The pensioners' reaction to the payments was mixed. One retiree, Viktor Medvedev, said while the payment had less value than his original pension in Ukrainian hryvnias, he was happy to have it. "It's certainly not much, but what we can do? I'm glad to have at least this."

Another pensioner, Elena Ivanovna, was disappointed with Wednesday's payment, saying it was smaller than she expected. "They told us we'll receive more," she said. "Can you survive with this money?" (ibid Mstyslav Chernov) (my emphasis)

And while,

"Yekaterina Matyushchenko, the finance minister in the Donetsk region's separatist government, said pension payments to retirees in the rebel-controlled areas will total 1.9 billion rubles in March" her colleague, Oksana Taran, "....denied that Russia had provided the money, claiming that the funds came from taxes paid by local businesses."(ibid Mstyslav Chernov) (my emphasis)

The beginning of the use of Russian currency in eastern Ukraine is the most obvious indicator that Putin is hell-bent on annexing eastern Ukraine into Russia, along the lines of what he did in Ukrainian Crimea.

This is the first "annexing" salvo that he is firing towards Mariupol. 

This salvo has been accompanied by,

".. pro-Russian rebel official Eduard Basurin, [who] made an early-morning phone call to journalists, instructing them: "We are going to the south, to show you something.

The ten-car convoy carrying reporters pulled up just before reaching Shyrokyne, a village divided between Ukrainian and rebel forces that is close to the strategic port of Mariupol, Kiev's largest remaining stronghold in the insurgency-hit east.

But only video journalists and photographers were allowed to make the final kilometre-long journey to see the wrecked vehicles." ( Beatrice Le Bohec : AFP (Yahoo News) : 2 April, 2015) (my emphasis)

What he had gone to show them was a civilian car and a rebel military truck lying by the side of the road, ostensibly hit by mortar from the Ukrainian forces.

The OSCE monitors queried why the truck was pointing towards the rebel-held city of Donetsk.  To which a rebel replied that it had been "rotated in order to tow it".

This reply, "[prompted] the OSCE monitor to query whether rebel fighters on the ground were communicating properly with their commanders." (ibid  Beatrice Le Bohec) (my emphasis)

This rather poor attempt on the part of the rebels to propagandise in favour of Putin is nothing as compared to the revelation by Levi Winchester that,

"Hundreds of professional internet 'trolls' are PAID to flood news and social media websites with pro-Vladimir Putin propaganda" (Daily Express : Sat, Mar 28, 2015) (my emphasis)

These 'internet trolls' are paid, "£500 a month to work exhausting 12-hour shifts, during which they must write at least 135 pro-Russian comments per day - or face immediate dismissal." (ibid Levi Winchester) (my emphasis)

"The authoritarian procedure was exposed by one former worker, who compared the unassuming four-storey modern headquarters where he toiled to the Ministry of Truth in Orwell's book.
Asked if he agreed that it sounded like something from the classic novel, Marat Burkhard said: “Yes, that’s right, the Ministry of Truth.
"You work in the Ministry of Truth, which is the Ministry of Lies, and everyone kind of believes in this truth. Yes, you’re right, it’s Orwell."(ibid Levi Winchester) (my emphasis)

Putin's "TV Ministry of Truth"

How The Truth Is Made At Russia Today










(to be continued)

Putin's deadly 'hybrid' war ... Russian mothers burying their sons

Whilst, suddenly, Putin has decided,

".... that its state-owned gas giant Gazprom provide discounted gas to the struggling government in Ukraine", (Tomas Hirst : Business Insider UK : Mar. 31, 2015) (my emphasis)

he has also launched the next deadly phase of his 'hybrid' war against Ukraine.

As Maxim Tucker reports,

"Ukraine’s state security service, the SBU, says Russia has entered into a new phase of its campaign to destabilise Ukraine, with the 22 February attack in Kharkiv just one of a series of bombings orchestrated by Russian spy services, the FSB and the GRU. “It starts with the FSB’s security centres 16 and 18, operating out of Skolkovo, Russia,” says Vitaliy Naida (left), head of the [Ukrainian] SBU department responsible for intercepting online traffic. “These centres are in charge of information warfare. They send out propaganda, false information via social media. Re-captioned images from Syria, war crimes from Serbia – they’re used to radicalise and then recruit Ukrainians.” (Newsweek : March 31, 2015) (my emphasis)

Putin's FSB and GRU are targeting,

“ ....  Kiev, Kharkiv, Dnipropretovsk, and Odessa, and all along the potential land corridor [between Russia and] Crimea – Mariupol, Kherson and Mykolaiv. The separatists need these cities. They know there is no chance for them to survive without the land corridor.” (ibid Maxim Tucker) (my emphasis)

And just as Putin has recently admitted in a documentary that Russian soldiers did, indeed, invade Ukrainian Crimea, so too is the truth now bubbling to the surface that Russians soldiers and generals are controlling the war in eastern Ukraine.

As Alec Luhn reports,

"For the past year, the Kremlin has strenuously denied that its troops are supporting pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine — but fighters on the ground are apparently no longer bothering to keep up the farce.
........
St. Petersburg native Dmitry Sapozhnikov (right), who went to Ukraine in October to fight alongside the rebels, told the BBC Russian service in a candid interview from Donetsk that Russian military units have played a decisive role in rebel advances, including the operations in February that led to the capture of the transport hub of Debaltseve. Russian officers directly command large military operations in eastern Ukraine, he noted." (Vice News : March 31, 2015)(my emphasis)

Furthermore, as Anna Dolgov (left) informs us,

"A report being prepared by supporters of slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov (right) claims that Moscow has started discharging its soldiers from the army before sending them to Ukraine and then denying compensation to the families of men who were killed in order to cover up Russia's involvement in the conflict.

The report, which Nemtsov was working on before he was shot and killed in Moscow on Feb. 27, will be completed and published next month by his allies, the politician's friend and associate Ilya Yashin wrote on his Facebook page Monday.

"We have managed to communicate with people who were Nemtsov's sources," Yashin said. "They were very much afraid to speak while he was alive. The murder of Boris, as you understand, did not give them new courage, so they were reluctant to get in contact." (Moscow Times : Mar. 31 2015) (my emphasis)

But how long can Putin's propaganda machine continue to deceive the Russian people, especially as the the effects of the disastrous downturn in the Russian economy now affects their very daily lives?

Surely there will come a point when this 'drip-feed' of the truth about Putin's war with Ukraine, Russia's collapsing economy being due to his desperately protecting his kleptocratic 'siloviki' and fawning oligarchs, and the growing number of body-bags containing Russian soldiers that have fallen in eastern Ukraine being surreptitiously returned to their loved ones in Russia; surely there will come a 'tipping point' when the Russian people themselves will say, "Enough is enough"?

Putin, and his 'siloviki' in particular, must be aware that in today's electronic age there are limits to concealing the truth. A simple SMS is all that is needed for an event in Vladivostok to immediately be known to someone in Moscow. The younger Russian generation of today can be exposed to just so much nationalistic propaganda before they, themselves, tire of this electronic onslaught on their minds.

Putin cannot control the 'entire' electronic ether. And it is for this reason that many in the West are rapidly gearing up towards confronting Putin's propaganda onslaught against his own people.

Is it any wonder that at his first 'foreign policy' speech for a month, 

"[h]e told a meeting of his internal intelligence service, the FSB, on Thursday (26 March), that “they [the West] are using their entire arsenal of means for the so-called deterrence of Russia: from attempts at political isolation and economic pressure, to large-scale information war and special services operations”. (Andrew Rettman : EU Observer : Brussels, 27. March 2015) (my emphasis)

This, however, is not a 'war on the West' but rather Putin's call for an 'information war' to control the minds of the Russian people themselves.

As stated in yesterday's blog-entry,

Oleg Kalugin (left) best  sums up this current strategy of Putin as follows;

"Nikolai Patrushev was my subordinate for years in Leningrad. One day he brought a report about one dissident in his district and said, We must take care of him, maybe arrest him. I said, Why? Give me the case. I read the file of this man, and it showed that he was honest about the lack of food, long lines you have to stand in for food, the bureaucracy of the Soviet party and government institutions. When Patrushev brought it, I said, Why do we have to put him in jail? What is this case? Patrushevs first desire was to put the guy in jail because he would spread his discontent and unhappiness among his friends and colleagues and that was dangerous."(Foreign Policy : July 25, 2007) my emphasis)

The current falling price of oil, the tumbling rouble, the rising food prices, rising inflation, and the horrendous interest rates on loans; these are the equivalent of the reasons of that honest man that Patrushev wanted to jail during Soviet times.

Today, however, that same honest dissident need not move out of his flat to inform his friends and colleagues of the corruption of the Putin regime that he may personally experience. Nor about the funerals of Russian soldiers who have fallen in eastern Ukraine that a neighbour may tell him about.   
Already Russian soldiers themselves are exposing the facts about their fallen comrades in eastern Ukraine. Thus how much longer can Putin lie to the Russian people, no matter how much he tries to wrap up such lies in the cloak of 'nationalist fervour' or modern techniques of propaganda.

Photo of cemetery near Rostov where, according to users of social networks, the Russian soldiers who were lost on Donbass are buried. Tens anonymous burials are designated by plates "Surgical waste".Photo: informator.su

(to be continued)

Putin. Once a KGB agent, always a KGB agent.

Nadia Kasakova (left), Russia oil and gas expert, in her recent article about the Russian economy, says the following;

"Russia's official macro statistics for February (just published by the economy ministry) look either good or bad, depending on which set of numbers you focus on. 

But whichever way you slice it, they still paint a picture of a struggling, export-driven, high-inflation economy." (Saxo Group : 30 March, 2015) (my emphasis)

And John Simpson (right), writing in the New Statesman yesterday had this to say about Putin;

"Putin is, in person, a very different man from the swaggering, macho public image. On each of the three occasions when I’ve talked to him, I have found him polite and pleasant and certainly not domineering. The three occasions could have been four, except that when I went to film at the mayoral office in St Petersburg where he worked in 1991, he didn’t seem important enough to interview: mea maxima culpa. He has been phenomenally successful ever since; he is the most successful leader in Russia since Stalin. But does that make his position safe?" (New Statesman : 30 March, 2015) (my emphasis)

It is difficult to imagine that a 'polite and pleasant .... non-domineering' person can bring a country such as Russia to its economic knees. Nor can one imagine that such a person would intentionally start a war in Chechnya or Ukraine.

Yet this is what Putin has done. And to simply argue that these actions of Putin have primarily been precipitated by his desire,

" ... to use every threat, every trick and every weapon in a disturbingly large arsenal in order to protect himself." (ibid New Statesman) (my emphasis) seems rather naive.

What John Simpson illustrates is the extent to which the propaganda machine and the KGB-schooled 'charm offensive' of Putin has, indeed, succeeded in 'pulling the wool over the eyes' of many commentators and political pundits in the West.

Many Western commentators and political pundits seem to have a disturbing 'blind-spot' about the central role that Putin's training as a KGB agent plays in his decision-making.

"His KGB training requires him to double down, fight his way out, turn up the pressure, never admit, never retreat. He will continue his support of his proxies in east Ukraine and hope that the West’s attention span will be short." (Paul Roderick Gregory : Forbes : 7/21/2014) (my emphasis)

 It is for this reason that, as Tomas Hirst reports,

"Russia will not negotiate delaying repayment over its $3 billion (£2 billion) loan to Ukraine that is due in December." (Business Insider UK : Mar. 27, 2015) (my emphasis)

Nor will he adhere to the Minsk2 'ceasefire' and stop supplying his proxies and Russian soldiers in eastern Ukraine with heavy weaponry.

As reported yesterday by Damien Sharkov,

"22 Russian tanks crossed into Ukraine’s separatist-held eastern territories over the weekend, as pro-Moscow forces continue to seep into Ukraine’s war-stricken Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Donetsk’s local pro-government officials reported yesterday." (Newsweek : 30/3/15)

Furthermore that,

"Russia is frequently forced to deny that it is sending military equipment or personnel to Ukraine, despite evidence that they are. Rebel leader Alexander Zaharchenko estimated in August that there are as many as 4,000 Russian soldiers fighting under him in Donetsk, however added that they were there on a voluntary basis, out of personal solidarity for the pro-Russian cause. (ibid Newsweek) (my emphasis)

And just as he is ramping up his forces for their impending assault on Mariupol,

"Kremlin critic Ilya Ponomaryov (left) said on Wednesday he was under pressure from state authorities not to return to Russia after reports that the country's prosecutors asked parliament to lift his immunity from prosecution as a lawmaker.

Opposition members accuse the Kremlin of persecuting critics of President Vladimir Putin and say the former Soviet spy holds political responsibility for the campaign that culminated in the Feb.27 gunning down of senior opposition leader Boris Nemtsov." (Reuters (MailOnline): 25 March 2015) (my emphasis)

Oleg Kalugin (right) best  sums up this current strategy of Putin as follows;

"Nikolai Patrushev was my subordinate for years in Leningrad. One day he brought a report about one dissident in his district and said, We must take care of him, maybe arrest him. I said, Why? Give me the case. I read the file of this man, and it showed that he was honest about the lack of food, long lines you have to stand in for food, the bureaucracy of the Soviet party and government institutions. When Patrushev brought it, I said, Why do we have to put him in jail? What is this case? Patrushevs first desire was to put the guy in jail because he would spread his discontent and unhappiness among his friends and colleagues and that was dangerous."(Foreign Policy : July 25, 2007) my emphasis)

Recently, in his first foreign policy speech in a month, Putin stated that,

" ...... “the West” is encroaching on Russia and fomenting internal unrest, in his first foreign policy speech in a month.”. (Andrew Rettman : EU Observer : Brussels, 27. March, 2015) (my emphasis)

This speech, delivered to the internal intelligence service, the FSB, last Thursday (26 March), mirrors "Patruschev's desire to jail a dissident simply to prevent him spreading discontent and unhappiness among his friends and colleagues".

Putin is not playing 'find the pea', as John Simpson suggests. Putin is simply expressing in his actions the KGB training that he has received.

(to be continued)

Putin's looming offensive against Mariupol

In July, 2014, just after the downing of flight MH17 by Putin's proxies and Russian soldiers in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board, Matt Chorley reported that,
 
"Vladimir Putin has been branded a ‘thug’ and a ‘liar’ by one of Britain’s top diplomats as the European Union turned the screw on Russia's banks, arms traders and energy firms.

Sir Peter Westmacott, (left) the UK ambassador to the US, said Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine was starting to look like ‘the wrong call’ and the West’s firm response to the downing of Malaysian Airlines plane was starting to have an impact." (Mail Online : 29 July 2014) (my emphasis)

And then earlier this month Putin himself admits that he is, indeed, a liar. His invasion and annexing of Ukrainian Crimea was planned months ahead before it actually happened, thus giving the lie to his constant mantra that he invaded Ukrainian Crimea to 'protect' Russian speaking Crimeans.

Putin, however, is not the only one who is 'economical with the truth'. OSCE monitors are, as I write, being denied access to border crossings controlled by Putin's Generals, his proxy rebels, and his soldiers in eastern Ukraine. As reported by BBC News,

"Kiev accuses Moscow of continuing to supply rebels with weapons and says that control of the border is crucial for success of the truce" ( BBC News : 29 March 2015) (my emphasis)

What is more disconcerting is that in his first foreign policy speech in a month, Putin stated that,

" ...... “the West” is encroaching on Russia and fomenting internal unrest, in his first foreign policy speech in a month.
He told a meeting of his internal intelligence service, the FSB, on Thursday (26 March), that “they are using their entire arsenal of means for the so-called deterrence of Russia: from attempts at political isolation and economic pressure, to large-scale information war and special services operations”. (Andrew Rettman : EU Observer : Brussels, 27. March, 2015) (my emphasis)

That this speech was given to his internal intelligence service, the FSB,  should give us pause for concern.

Andrew Rettman further reports that,

“Moscow is preparing the world for another offensive. The objectives are straightforward - to justify the offensive and to blame Ukraine for violating Minsk 2”, Roman Sohn, a Ukrainian activist, told EUobserver." (my emphasis)

The former US ambassador to Ukraine, Steven Pifer, (left) noted in an op-ed in Ukrainian media last week that: “Mariupol would be an important step to make a frozen separatist-occupied Donbas [in east Ukraine] economically viable”.(my emphasis)

The people of Mariupol are preparing themselves for the looming invasion of Putin's forces against this city.

As reported by the OSCE, the Minsk2 'ceasefire' is been broken by both the Ukrainian army and Putin's rebels and Russian soldiers.

"On 27 March, the SMM observed from an observation point in the vicinity of Berdianske (government-controlled, 18km east of Mariupol) escalating fighting in Shyrokyne (“Donetsk People’s Republic” (“DPR”)-controlled, 20km east of Mariupol, 102 km south of Donetsk) counting over 225 mortar shells from 14:40hrs to 17:15hrs. The shelling had started only a few hours following an SMM visit to the “DPR” “command” in Shyrokyne.

From its position the SMM estimated that the shells were fired from a position of the Ukrainian Armed Forces located in Berdianske. The SMM assessed that the majority of these outgoing shells impacted on the southern part of the Shyrokyne village, controlled by “DPR”. About 20 mortar shells were observed to have been fired back from the area controlled by “DPR”.

Is it any wonder that the citizens of Mariupol are now on tenterhooks?

As noted by Andrew Rettman,

"Russian leader Vladimir Putin has said “the West” is encroaching on Russia and fomenting internal unrest, in his first foreign policy speech in a month.
...............................
“The situation … will not change for the better if we succumb and yield at every step. It will only change for the better if we become stronger”, he added." (my emphasis)

Putin needs a war to deflect the gaze of the Russian people away from the accelerating economic deprivations that they are suffering from because of the falling price of oil, the depreciated rouble, and Western sanctions.

The EU leaders will be meeting on the 27th April to discuss further aid to Ukraine. Will Putin dare to invade Mariupol before then?

(to be continued)