Does Russia Have an Intelligence Service?
Does Russia Have an Intelligence Service?
Paul Craig Roberts
I think not. There is a bureaucracy, an office, and someone with a title, but there is no intelligence.
Putin did not know that a US trained and equipped Georgian Army was about to invade South Ossetia and went to the Olympics in China.
Putin didn’t know that the US was about to overthrow the Ukrainian Government and went to the Sochi Olympics.
Putin didn’t know that the West was deceiving him with the Minsk Agreement. This cost him 8 years and left him behind the eight ball and locked into a military conflict now 3 years old, a conflict that has expanded into US/NATO missile attacks into Russia. And still Russia stands down. Has Putin not been informed of the attacks? Lavrov told Carlson that Russia was not at war with the West.
Putin didn’t know that the US was about to overthrow Syria. In his interview with Tucker Carlson Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov spoke as if the renewal of the conflict in Syria allowed plenty of time to find a diplomatic solution. He had no idea that Syria would be overthrown by about the time the interview ended.
Russia had no realization, despite Biden explicitly telling them, that the Nord Stream Pipeline was going to be blown up by the US.
How is it possible that the Russian government never has a clue about imminent events that have adverse consequences for Russia?
Have the fearsome days of the NKVD and KGB convinced Russian liberals like Putin and Lavrov that intelligence services are dangerous and unnecessary in a democracy?
The sudden fall of Syria has completely changed the matrix. The US and Israel have gained tremendously at the expense of Russia and Iran. The Israeli government sees an enormous situational change that has greatly weakened the ability of Iran and Hezbollah to oppose Greater Israel.
The Jerusalem Post reports that Israel Defense Force Operations Command Chief Major General Israel Ziv said the fall of Syria has weakened the Axis of Resistance to Greater Israel and presents a historic opportunity that Washington and President Trump should capitalize on to remove Iran as an obstacle to US and Israeli interest.
The year 2024 ends with the erasure of Palestine and Syria by Washington and Israel. During 2025 the targets will be Lebanon and Iran. And Russia, of course.
The rapidity of Syria’s collapse raises the question whether Washington purchased Syria’s collapse with payments to generals and officials. The Syrian military had successfully repelled the previous assault with the aid of Russian airpower. But this time the army retreated from its positions and refused to fight, leaving the cities open for enemy opposition. Ekaterina Blinova offers some information here: https://sputnikglobe.com/20241208/why-are-israel-and-the-us-salivating-over-syrias-break-up-1121126981.html
Carlson’s Interview of Lavrov
Carlson’s Interview of Lavrov
Paul Craig Roberts
Interviewed by Tucker Carlson Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov showed that he and the Russian government are relying on legalistic arguments and the right of self-determination in the UN Charter. In view of the world’s tolerance of Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestine, Lavrov’s legalisms are the weakest possible reed. Lavrov even goes so far as to deny that Russia and NATO are at war. If US and NATO missile attack on Russia is not war, what is it?
I regard the interview as confirmation of my belief that the Russian government’s response to the threat that the West brings to Russia is unrealistic. The lack of realism has trapped Russia in a long-term war and cost Russia her Syrian ally and most likely her Syrian bases. The ease with which the West is rolling up Russia, now also threatened with a possible color revolution in Georgia, will undermine confidence in BRICS. Putin has demonstrated that he is no match for the American neoconservatives. In the interview with Carlson, Lavrov showed that he had no comprehension that Syria would fall before his diplomacy could get into gear.
With Syria in US/Israeli hands, Iran’s ability to supply Hezbollah in Lebanon is questionable. The Middle Eastern scene has changed dramatically in Israel’s favor from a week ago. Encouraged by the Fall of Assad, Washington’s warmongers will push forward undeterred by Lavrov’s legalisms and belief in the efficacy of truth.
Putin and Xi and Iran The Unready Updated
Updated December 9, 2024
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Putin and Xi and Iran The Unready
Paul Craig Roberts
The third front that Washington opened against Russia had immediate success. https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2024/12/06/us-opens-a-third-front-against-russia/
Putin’s inability to ever finish a task has cost him Syria. Putin stupidly repeated the mistake he made with the Minsk Agreement with the Astana Agreement which permitted Washington to maintain illegal military bases in Syria, steal Syria’s oil, and route it to Israel via Turkey to fuel Israel’s destruction of Palestine.
The result was a massive strategic defeat for Russia, with its nine-year defense of Syria washed away in a few days.
Now only Iran and Saudi Arabia stand between Israel and Israel’s goal of Greater Israel. The Saudis having witnessed Russia and Iran’s inattention and inability to act are motivated to reestablish the petrodollar in exchange for American protection. Iran and Hezbollah having pissed away the strategic initiative will be the next to fall. The neoconservative plan to overthrow seven Muslim countries in five years has taken longer than intended but is on its way to success. Trump’s military and foreign policy appointees are all anti-Iran and will easily fall in with Israel’s agenda as it also serves Washington’s intent to control oil flows and waterways.
Erdogan, the president of Turkey, betrayed Muslims and Putin by allying with Washington and Israel in overthrowing Syria, a country that likely will disappear with portions going to Israel, Turkey, and the oil to the US. Netanyahu has already seized the Golan Heights buffer zone in Syria declaring necessity to protect Israel from threats.
The Western presstitutes are delivering the required narrative to control explanations. The US mercenary Arab forces are presented as “the Syrian opposition,” and the conflict, over with Assad’s departure, is said to have been “a civil war” resulting from Assad’s inflexibility and misrule. In other words, the media finds no US/CIA fingerprints in Syria’s overthrow. As avoiding Putin’s defeat is important to the Russian media, the same story is likely to repeat in the Russian media.
Encouraged by Putin-the-Unready’s inaction on all fronts, the “US is beefing up missile deployment in Europe,” reports RT and also in Japan where the flight time to Vladivostok is 8 minutes. Again Putin is pissing away his strategic advantage, as he did with the Minsk Agreement, while the US develops and deploys hypersonic missiles. Clearly, the Russians do not want war; yet they continue to be hyped as warmongers. while they bring war closer by their inaction.
The quick, easily achieved, enormous victory Washington gained over Russia and Iran in Syria means the assault on the two countries will continue, thus maximizing the chance that Putin will have to surrender or resort to nuclear war.
I sometimes wonder what world the Russians operate in. Putin was unprepared for the color revolution in Georgia, a former province of Russia. He was unprepared for Georgia’s invasion of South Ossetia. He was unprepared for Washington’s overthrow of the Ukraine government. He was unprepared for the US/Ukrainian prepared attack on Donbas Russians. He was unprepared for the overthrow of his Syrian ally. He is unprepared for the current US efforts for a second color revolution in Georgia. It is astonishing that a leader who is forever caught off guard can think that legalisms and truth are the road to peace, Russia’s position as outlined by Lavrov to Tucker Carlson.
As Karl Marx said, force is the only effective force in history. In the past I disputed this, but I am less sure today. It is ironic that it is the “American democracy” that adheres to the Marxist-Leninist line and not the country that emerged from Marxism-Leninism.
The Russians believe in the efficacy of truth. The West believes in the efficacy of force.
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