Russia

Russia Moves Huge Number of Troops to Western Border

The official Russian government news agency reports the nation’s military is moving a large number of soldiers and equipment to the Western Military District.

“The General Staff and the Western Military District’s command have been working tightly on determining and specifying the personnel and hardware of the 20th combined army,” a military source told TASS.

“In particular, questions are being decided of complementing the army with units from other military districts and forming more mechanized infantry, armor, artillery, missile, reconnaissance and other brigades.”

The army will be “reformatted” by December 1st in the district that encompasses 2 million square kilometers of airspace and 3,000 kilometers along the border with Europe.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Russia and Nato are ‘actively preparing for war’

Russia and Nato are actively preparing for war with one another amid the greatest build up of military tension in Europe since the end of the Cold War, a new report says.

Rival exercises by the Russian armed forces and Nato have led to several near-miss incidents that could result in confrontation between the two sides, and leaders need to consider a new arms control treaty to avert the possibility of heightened tensions spilling into war.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Russian Warships Dock In Iran for War Training

Two Russian warships have docked in northern Iran for a series of naval training exercises with the Islamic Republic, according to Persian-language reports translated by the CIA’s Open Source Center.

The two Russian ships docked in Iran’s Anzali port on Sunday and will hold “joint naval exercises during the three-day stay of the warships in Iran,” according to a Persian-language report in Iran’s state-controlled Fars News Agency.

“The [Russian] warships, Volgodonsk and Makhachkala docked in Anzali Port [near the Caspian Sea], in the fourth naval zone, on the afternoon of 9 August,” the report says.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Russia Could Be Prepping for Space War With Aggressive New Satellites

No one outside the Russian government, and perhaps the Pentagon, knows for sure what Kosmos-2491, -2499, and -2504 are for. But it’s clear enough what the three mystery sats could do, in theory. Zipping across orbital planes hundreds of thousands of feet above Earth, the nimble little spacecraft—which are apparently the size of a mini-refrigerator—are able to get really close to other satellites. Close as in a few dozen feet away.

And if they can get that close, the little robots could spy on, hijack, and even destroy other sats.

In other words, Kosmos-2491 and its triplets might be space weapons, the likes of which few other nations possess. And if so, they could upset the orbital balance of power, at a time when government agencies, armies, scientists, and everyday people—in the United States, especially—depend on satellites for communications, surveillance, science, and navigation.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Russian Bombers Flew Within 40 Miles of N. California Coast

Two Russian nuclear bombers flew within 40 miles of the California coast and one of the pilots relayed a veiled threat during the Fourth of July aerial incident, defense officials said.

“Good morning American pilots, we are here to greet you on your Fourth of July Independence Day,” a Russian Tu-95 Bear bomber crew member stated over the emergency aircraft channel.

Meanwhile, Russia’s across-the-board buildup of nuclear forces and revised doctrine are increasing the danger of a nuclear war, according to a think tank report on nuclear threats.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Russia can barely afford its monstrous new third-generation super-tank

On May 9, Russia unveiled its new third-generation Armata tank during its Victory Day parade in Moscow.

The Kremlin hopes the Armata will revolutionize Russia’s ground-based military capabilities. The Armata features considerable upgrades in armor, engine, and armaments compared to previous Russian and Soviet tank models.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

U.S. Conspiring With Russian Oligarchs to Overthrow Putin, Says Duma Member

Russian Parliament member Yevgeny Fedorov claims that Russian oligarchs are in negotiations with top American corporations and the White House to foment an astroturf revolution that will lead to the ouster of President Vladimir Putin and the collapse of the Russian Federation within two years.

During a 34 minute interview with a Russian media outlet, Fedorov made a number of bombshell claims in asserting that a Ukraine-style coup was being organized.

“They are conducting a negotiation process with the Russian elites for the extradition of Putin,” said Fedorov, noting that the same process was undertaken before the coup in Kiev which ousted Viktor Yanukovyc. He identified John F. Tefft, the United States Ambassador to Russia, as being the figurehead behind this conspiracy.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Russia blocks atheist webpage over ‘insulting’ believers

A Russian atheist social networking page was blocked Monday on the back of a court ruling that it insulted the feelings of religious believers.

The group called “There is no God” on the VKontakte networking site – which had over 26,000 followers – went offline for users across the whole country.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Russia Unveils ‘straight’ Flag

Vladimir Putin’s United Russia Party has unveiled a ‘straight flag’ in an effort to counteract the rainbow flag used worldwide as symbol of gay pride and LGBT rights.

It was unveiled on the annual Day of Family, Love and Fidelity.

The party says the flag is intended to honour the nuclear family and traditional Russian values.

The flag which has its own hashtag #realfamily in Russian features a father, a mother and three children. The Deputy leader of the Moscow branch of United Russia Aleksey Lisovenko told Izvestia newspaper:

“This is our answer to same sex marriages, this mockery of the very concept of family. We must prevent gay fever in our country and support traditional values.”

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Russia claims to have developed secret ‘superweapon’ capable of switching off foreign satellites and enemy weapons

Russia has claimed to have built a revolutionary new weapon system that can render enemy satellites and weapons useless.

Its Russian makers say it is a ‘fundamentally new electronic warfare system’ which can be mounted on ground-based as well as air- and sea-borne carriers.

However, it has refused to reveal how the system works.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Russia To Launch Bulava Ballistic Missiles In Military Exercises By End Of 2015

Russia plans to perform several test launches of its Bulava ballistic missiles by the end of 2015, according to a report. The launches will occur just weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the expansion of Russia’s nuclear arsenal in a move that sparked international criticism and NATO countermeasures.

“Several launches are being planned by the end of the year,” a source within Russia’s Navy told Russian-owned Tass. The Bulava ballistic missiles will be launched from Russia’s Borey-class submarines, though additional information on the tests was not made available. It will be the first time Russia tested its Bulava missiles since late last year.

The Russian military also plans to bolster its force of Borey-class submarines, with an additional eight submarines set to be ready for service by 2020. The vessels are capable of holding a stockpile of 16 Bulava missiles each.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Russia Tested Hypersonic Glide Vehicle in February

Moscow is developing a new, ultra-high speed strategic attack vehicle similar to China’s hypersonic weapon, according to military analysts.

However, unlike high-profile strategic bomber flights and large-scale nuclear war games that U.S. military commanders have called provocative, details about the Russian hypersonic vehicle remain one of Moscow’s closely held military secrets.

The Russians have been developing the new Yu-71 vehicle for several years and conducted the most recent flight test in February, according to an article published this month in Jane’s Intelligence Review.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Only 9 percent of Americans See Russia as a Threat

With 33 percent the Islamic State terrorist group topped the list of the Americans’ security fears, followed by China with 26 percent, according to a Fox News poll conducted between June 21 and 23.

A mere nine percent of respondents pointed to Russia as a security threat, followed by Iran and al-Qaeda.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

U.S. Will Permanently Position Heavy Weapons On Russian Border

On Monday Obama’s defense boss Ashton Carter said the United States “will contribute weapons, aircraft and forces, including commandos, for NATO’s rapid reaction force” and hinted commandos would be used against separatists in eastern Ukraine.

On Tuesday in a stopover in the Estonian capital of Tallinn Carter cited the alleged Russian intervention in Ukraine as the reason the United States will permanently position tanks, artillery and other military equipment in eastern Europe on the Russian border.

The move is the first time since the Cold War the United States has positioned heavy military equipment in Eastern Europe. “It’s like taking NATO back to the future,”Julianne Smith, a former defense and White House official, told The New York Times.

“These are responses to Russia’s provocations,” Carter told CBS News. He said that “aggressive rhetoric, aggressive behavior — the kind of thing that doesn’t belong in a Europe” are responsible for the militarization on Russia’s border and the stationing of military hardware in nearby Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania.

The Defense Secretary added that financial sanctions imposed on Russia following its opposition to the coup in Ukraine have not achieved the result sought by the United States.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

US wants Russia to cease to exist as a country — Russia’s top security official

The United States wants Russia to cease to exist as a country, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said in an interview with the Kommersant daily published Monday.

“We possess enormous riches,” Patrushev said. “Americans believe that we hold them illegally and undeservingly, because, in their view, we don’t use them the way we should.”

(Read the rest of the story here…)

How Russia’s most advanced military equipment stacks up against NATO’s hardware

Despite the country’s economic crisis, Russia has been stepping up its military spending at a dramatic pace.

At the same time, a lot of NATO members have been paring back their budgets.

At the same time, Moscow’s relationship with Washington and Europe is in its worst state since before the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Putin: Unilateral US withdrawal from ABM treaty pushing Russia toward new arms race

Global decisions like the US pulling out of a treaty banning strategic anti-ballistic missile defenses are pushing the world towards a new Cold War, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. Military conflicts have a far lesser impact, he added.

“Not military conflicts but global decisions like the US unilateral withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty lead to a Cold War,” Putin said. “This more in fact pushes us to a new round of the arms race, because it changes the global security system.”

Putin made his comments at a key plenary session at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

The 1972 ABM treaty between the US and Soviet Union ensured that neither side tried to neutralize its foe’s nuclear deterrence by building an anti-missile shield. The US unilaterally withdrew from it in 2002, as the Bush administration claimed it needed protection from “rogue states” such as North Korea and Iran. Moscow believes that the US is actually building a global anti-missile system to undermine the defenses of Russia and China.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Russia warns that it will retaliate if U.S. weapons are stationed on its borders

A plan by Washington to station tanks and heavy weapons in NATO states on Russia’s border would be the most aggressive US act since the Cold War, and Moscow would retaliate by beefing up its own forces, a Russian defence official said on Monday.

The United States is offering to store military equipment on allies’ territory in eastern Europe, a proposal aimed at reassuring governments worried that after the conflict in Ukraine, they could be the Kremlin’s next target.

(Read the rest of the story right here…)

Russia to increase nuclear arsenal as U.S. plans more firepower in Europe

Russia will expand its nuclear arsenal this year, President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday, as old Cold War rivals Moscow and Washington each plan to increase their military capacity amid rising tensions over Ukraine.

Russia will add 40 intercontinental ballistic missiles to its stocks, Putin said, noting that they “will be capable of overcoming any, even the most technically sophisticated, missile defense systems.”

Putin’s comments, at the opening ceremony of a government-sponsored arms show outside Moscow, come just days after the Pentagon confirmed its plan to place more heavy equipment at sites in NATO member states in Eastern Europe and in the Baltics.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

The PetroYuan Is Born: Gazprom Now Settling All Crude Sales To China In Renminbi

Russia’s third-largest oil producer, is now settling all of its crude sales to China in renminbi, in the most clear sign yet that western sanctions have driven an increase in the use of the Chinese currency by Russian companies.

Russian executives have talked up the possibility of a shift from the US dollar to renminbi as the Kremlin launched a “pivot to Asia” foreign policy partly in response to the western sanctions against Moscow over its intervention in Ukraine, but until now there has been little clarity over how much trade is being settled in the Chinese currency.

Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of state gas giant Gazprom, said on Friday that since the start of 2015 it had been selling in renminbi all of its oil for export down the East Siberia Pacific Ocean pipeline to China.

Russian companies’ crude exports were largely settled in dollars until the summer of last year, when the US and Europe imposed sanctions on the Russian energy sector over the Ukraine crisis…

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Is Russia’s New PAK-FA Fighter Superior to America’s F-22 and F-35?

Russia’s new fifth-generation fighter jet will be superior to its American counterparts in every way, a senior Russian military official has said.

According to Russian state media outlets, Viktor Bondarev, Russian Air Force Commander-in-Chief, said that the PAK FA will be able to outduel America’s F-22 and F-35 fifth generation fighter jets.

Speaking of the PAK FA to reporters last week, Bondarev said that “It will be in no way worse than similar American planes such as F-22 and F-35. Rather, it will outperform them in almost all parameters.”

(Read the rest of the story here…)

The Next-Generation Weapons That Russia Will Use Against The United States In World War III

The Russian military is in the midst of a sweeping modernization program, and it is currently developing some incredibly impressive offensive and defensive next-generation weapons that are designed to be used in a future war with the United States. The key to winning World War III will be to strike hard and to strike fast, and the Russians understand this. Meanwhile, the U.S. military has totally shifted gears from a “Cold War mindset” and is now completely focused on fighting smaller regional wars in the Middle East and elsewhere. As a result, U.S. strategic forces have suffered. There has been very little effort to modernize, and many of our nuclear missile silos are using technology that is ridiculously outdated. For example, CBS News has documented that eight inch floppy disks are still being used in many of our missile silos. And don’t expect things to change any time soon. At this point, the U.S. military plans to keep Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles that were originally deployed in the 1960s and 1970s in service until 2030.

What all of this means is that the Russians are feverishly preparing to fight World War III and we are not. The following are just a few of the next-generation weapons that Russia will use against the United States during the next great global war…

The Sarmat Intercontinental Ballistic Missile

Most Americans have heard of the infamous SS-18 “Satan” intercontinental ballistic missiles. But these are now being replaced by the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile…

The Sarmat (also known as Sarmatian) is a Russian liquid-fueled, MIRV-equipped, super-heavy thermonuclear intercontinental ballistic missile in development as of early 2015, intended to replace the previous SS-18 Satan and carry extensive counter-missile defense measures. Its large payload would allow for up to 10 heavy warheads or 15 lighter ones, and/or a combination of warheads and massive amounts of countermeasures designed to defeat the anti-missile systems. The Sarmat is expected to be ready for deployment around 2020, but other sources state that the program is being fast-tracked and it could comprise up to 80 percent of Russia’s land-based nuclear arsenal by 2021.

As you can see below, these missiles are extremely huge…

The Borey Class Nuclear Submarine

Of even greater concern than the Sarmat are the new Borey class nuclear submarines that Russia is building. The following is from an article about the launch of one of these new submarines, the Vladimir Monomakh, in 2013…

Russia recently launched its near silent nuclear submarine following several years of development.

The Borey Class submarine, dubbed Vladimir Monomakh, has a next generation nuclear reactor, can dive deeper than 1,200 feet, and carries up to 20 nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM).

Each of these “Bulava” ICBM’s can carry ten detachable MIRV warheads, what they call “re-entry vehicles,” capable of delivering 150 kiloton yields per warhead (luckily, tests of the warheads only yielded 11 “successes” out of almost 20 attempts). Which doesn’t mean they aren’t a concern, MIRV’s are what shook the Cold War to its foundation when they first appeared in the 1970s.

One of the primary things that has U.S. military planners worried is how quiet these subs are. In fact, according to an RT article these subs are supposed to be “almost silent”…

It belongs to a class of missile strategic submarine cruisers with a new generation of nuclear reactor, which allows the submarine to dive to a depth of 480 meters. It can spend up to three months in autonomous navigation and, thanks to the latest achievements in the reduction of noise, it is almost silent compared to previous generations of submarines.

So why is that a problem?

Well, imagine a scenario where Russian nuclear subs approach our coastlines completely undetected and launch a barrage of missiles toward our cities and military bases. We could be wiped out before we even knew what hit us.

If you don’t think that this could ever happen, just consider the following excerpt from a Fox News article published back in 2012…

A Russian nuclear-powered attack submarine armed with long-range cruise missiles operated undetected in the Gulf of Mexico for several weeks and its travel in strategic U.S. waters was only confirmed after it left the region, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

It is only the second time since 2009 that a Russian attack submarine has patrolled so close to U.S. shores.

If we can’t detect them, how are we going to defend against them? Here is a look at one of them in the water…

The Bulava Submarine-Launched Nuclear Missile

The Borey class submarines are going to be carrying Bulava submarine-launched nuclear missiles. The Russians have had some difficulties with the development of these missiles, but most of those difficulties now appear to be ironed out. The following is a description of these missiles from globalsecurity.org…

The Bulava (SS-NX-30) is the submarine-launched version of Russia’s most advanced missile, the Topol-M (SS-27) solid fuel ICBM. The SS-NX-30 is a derivative of the SS-27, except for a slight decrease in range due to conversion of the design for submarine launch. The SS-27 has is 21.9 meters long, far too large to fit in a typical submarine. The largest previously deployed Russian SLBM was the R-39 / SS-N-20 STURGEON, which was 16 meters long. Russian sources report that the Bulava SS-N-30 ballistic missile can carry ten warheads to a range of 8,000km. Other sources suggest that the Bulava might have a range of 10,000 km, and is reportedly features a 550 kT yield nuclear warhead. Apparently up to six MIRVs can be placed at the cost of offloading warhead shielding and decoys.

The Bulava is specifically designed to avoid interception, and each warhead is independently maneuverable to help ensure that they reach their targets intact. The following was written by U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Tom Spahn…

Similar to its land-based variant, the Topol-M SS-27, to thwart evolving Western ballistic-missile-defense shields, the Bulava can conduct evasive post-launch maneuvers and deploy a variety of countermeasures and decoys to defend against interception. Its ten hypersonic, independently maneuverable warheads are protected against both physical and electromagnetic-pulse damage to ensure that they can reach their targets intact.

The Barguzin Strategic Missile Train

When nuclear missiles are in a stationary location (such as a missile silo), they can be pretty easy to target. But if you put them on a mobile platform, you can gain quite a strategic edge.

With that in mind, the Russians have reintroduced the strategic missile train…

A Russian military source outlined the capabilities of Barguzin strategic missile train. The country may roll out five such disguised mobile launch platforms each carrying six RS-24 Yars missiles in five years.

A ‘nuclear train’ – properly called BZhRK, short for ‘combat railway missile complex’ in Russian – is a mobile platform for transporting and launching strategic nuclear missiles. Similarly to nuclear submarines, such trains are hard to wipe out in a preemptive strike because of their mobility and ability to be disguised as regular freight trains.

The Soviet Union had 12 such nuclear trains, each carrying three RT-23 Molodets (SS-24 Scalpel in NATO disambiguation) missiles, but they were released from combat duty after Russia and the US signed the START-2 treaty in 1993 and eventually decommissioned.

Last year the Russian military said that nuclear trains – which are no longer banned under the New START treaty – would be revived.

The S-500 Missile Defense System

Lastly, I want to discuss a very important weapons system that I recently mentioned in another article.

It is called the S-500 missile defense system, and it fundamentally changes the balance of power between the United States and Russia.

Once fully deployed, the S-500 will be able to intercept our intercontinental ballistic missiles. This means that the concept of “mutually assured destruction” does not necessarily apply any longer. If the Russians can take out most of our nukes with a devastating surprise first strike and intercept whatever we are able to launch back at them with the S-500, the cost/benefit analysis of a nuclear conflict completely changes.

The following information about the S-500 comes from military-today.com…

The S-500 is not an upgrade of the S-400, but a new design. It uses a lot of new technology and is superior to the S-400. It was designed to intercept ballistic missiles. It is planned to have a range of 500-600 km and hit targets at altitudes as high as 40 km. Some sources claim that this system is capable of tracking 5-20 ballistic targets and intercepting up to 5-10 ballistic targets simultaneously. It can defeat ballistic missiles traveling at 5-7 kilometers per second. It has been reported that this air defense system can also target low orbital satellites. It is planned that the S-500 will shield Moscow and the regions around it. It will replace the current A-135 anti-ballistic missile system. The S-500 missiles will be used only against the most important targets, such as intercontinental ballistic missiles, AWACS and jamming aircraft.

Sadly, most Americans do not believe that there is even a remote possibility that we will ever fight a war with Russia.

As a result, most Americans will never see the point of articles like this one.

But over in Russia, anti-American sentiment is at an all-time high and many of their talking heads and intellectuals are now convinced that a shooting war with the United States is inevitable.

So what do you think?

Please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment below…

(Originally published on End of the American Dream)

Russia Has Constructed Massive Underground Shelters In Anticipation Of Nuclear War

Did you know that the Russians have a massive underground complex in the Ural mountains that has been estimated to be approximately 400 square miles in size? In other words, it is roughly as big as the area inside the Washington D.C. beltway. Back in the 1990s, the Clinton administration was deeply concerned about the construction of this enormous complex deep inside Yamantau mountain, but they could never seem to get any straight answers from the Russians. The command center for this complex is rumored to be 3,000 feet directly straight down from the summit of this giant rock quartz mountain. And of course U.S. military officials will admit that there are dozens of other similar sites throughout Russia, although most of them are thought to be quite a bit smaller. But that is not all that the Russians have been up to. For example, Russian television has reported that 5,000 new emergency nuclear bomb shelters were scheduled to have been completed in the city of Moscow alone by the end of 2012. Most Americans don’t realize this, but the Russians have never stopped making preparations for nuclear war. Meanwhile, the U.S. government has essentially done nothing to prepare our citizens for an attack. The assumption seems to be that a nuclear attack will probably never happen, and that if it does it will probably mean the end of our civilization anyway.

Needless to say, the Russians are very secretive about their massive underground facility at Yamantau mountain, and no American has ever been inside. The following is what Wikipedia has to say about it…

Large excavation projects have been observed by U.S. satellite imagery as recently as the late 1990s, during the time of Boris Yeltsin’s government after the fall of the Soviet Union. Two garrisons, Beloretsk-15 and Beloretsk-16, were built on top of the facility, and possibly a third, Alkino-2, as well, and became the closed town of Mezhgorye in 1995. They are said to house 30,000 workers each. Repeated U.S. questions have yielded several different responses from the Russian government regarding Mount Yamantaw. They have said it is a mining site, a repository for Russian treasures, a food storage area, and a bunker for leaders in case of nuclear war. Responding to questions regarding Yamantaw in 1996, Russia’s Defense Ministry stated: “The practice does not exist in the Defense Ministry of Russia of informing foreign mass media about facilities, whatever they are, that are under construction in the interests of strengthening the security of Russia.” Large rail lines serve the facility.

Back in 1996, the New York Times reported on the continuing construction of this site. U.S. officials were quite puzzled that the Russians were continuing to build it even though the Cold War was supposedly over at that point…

In a secret project reminiscent of the chilliest days of the cold war, Russia is building a mammoth underground military complex in the Ural Mountains, Western officials and Russian witnesses say.

Hidden inside Yamantau mountain in the Beloretsk area of the southern Urals, the project involves the construction of a huge complex served by a railroad, a highway and thousands of workers.

Within the U.S. intelligence community, there was a tremendous amount of debate at that time regarding the purposes of this facility, but what everyone agreed on was that it was going to be absolutely massive…

A report in Sovetskaya Rossiya said the project involves construction of a railroad, a modern highway and towns for tens of thousands of workers and their families.

“The complex is as big as the Washington area inside the Beltway,” said an American official familiar with intelligence reports.

A couple of years later, a top U.S. general said that he believed that the complex at Yamantau had “millions of square feet available for underground facilities”…

In 1998, in a rare public comment, then-Commander of the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) Gen. Eugene Habinger, called Yamantau “a very large complex — we estimate that it has millions of square feet available for underground facilities. We don’t have a clue as to what they’re doing there.”

It is believed to be large enough to house 60,000 persons, with a special air filtration system designed to withstand a nuclear, chemical or biological attack. Enough food and water is believed to be stored at the site to sustain the entire underground population for months on end.

A few years after that, in 2003, there was an article in the Washington Post by Bruce G. Blair in which Yamantau was mentioned as a potential key target for U.S. nuclear war planners…

Die-hard [U.S.] nuclear war planners actually have their eyes on targets in Russia and China, including missile silos and leadership bunkers. For these planners, the Cold War never ended. Their top two candidates [i.e., targets] in Russia are located inside the Yamantau and Kosvinsky mountains in the central and southern Urals.

Both were huge construction projects begun in the late 1970s, when U.S. nuclear firepower took special aim at the Communist Party’s leadership complex. Fearing a decapitating strike, the Soviets sent tens of thousands of workers to these remote sites, where U.S. spy satellites spotted them still toiling away in the late 1990s.

But the Russians have not just been building giant underground facilities deep in the Urals.

They have also been constructing thousands of new underground bomb shelters in major cities such as Moscow.

The following is an excerpt from an RT article in 2010…

Nearly 5,000 new emergency bomb shelters will be built in Moscow by 2012 to save people in case of potential attacks.

Moscow authorities say the measure is urgent as the shelters currently available in the city can house no more that half of its population.

In the last 20 years, the area of air-raid defense has been developed little, and the existing shelters have become outdated. Moreover, they are located mostly in the city center, which makes densely populated Moscow outskirts especially vulnerable in the event of a nuclear attack.

In order to resolve the issue, the city has given architects a task to construct a typical model of an easy-to-build shelter that will be located all over the city 10 to 15 meters underneath apartment blocks, shopping centers, sport complexes and parks, as in case of attack people will need to reach the shelters within a minute.

Of course all of this construction cost the Russians a lot of money.

One estimate put the cost at “anywhere from half a billion to a billion dollars”…

Though the bunkers are supposed to be designed to shelter the population in the event of a nuclear attack, government officials say it’s only a precaution and they do not expect such an attack or nuclear outbreak (e.g. Chernobyl) to occur. Neither RT or the Russian government provided estimates for the cost of the facilities. A Popular Mechanics article that reviewed a number of different types of bunkers and building practices had varying prices depending on the type of shelter. Since the proposed Russian bunkers would hold roughly 1000 people each (based on the population count and other details), one could estimate that the lowest price point for a bunker this size, with basic necessities like bathrooms and reserve food for a day or two, may run in the area of around $100,000 – $200,000. This would put a conservative price tag for 5000 shelters anywhere from half a billion to a billion dollars. A significant investment, indeed.

So what about us?

Has the U.S. government constructed any bunkers for the survival of the general population in the United States?

Of course not. In the event of a nuclear war, I guess they just expect pretty much all of us to die.

The Russians also recently finished work on a brand new national defense center in Moscow that contains extensive underground facilities…

Russia is launching a new national defense facility, which is meant to monitor threats to national security in peacetime, but would take control of the entire country in case of war.

The new top-security, fortified facility in Moscow includes several large war rooms, a brand new supercomputer in the heart of a state-of-the-art data processing center, underground facilities, secret transport routes for emergency evacuation and a helicopter pad, which was deployed for the first time on Nov. 24 on the Moscow River. The Defense Ministry won’t disclose the price tag for the site, but it is estimated at the equivalent of several billion dollars.

In addition, the Russians have also been developing a new anti-ballistic missile system that is designed to keep U.S. nuclear missiles from getting to their targets in the first place.

The U.S. doesn’t have anything like the S-500 that is currently being developed by the Russians. At the latest, it is scheduled to be deployed in 2017, but there are rumors that it is already starting to be deployed today. The following comes from military-today.com…

The S-500 is not an upgrade of the S-400, but a new design. It uses a lot of new technology and is superior to the S-400. It was designed to intercept ballistic missiles. It is planned to have a range of 500-600 km and hit targets at altitudes as high as 40 km. Some sources claim that this system is capable of tracking 5-20 ballistic targets and intercepting up to 5-10 ballistic targets simultaneously. It can defeat ballistic missiles traveling at 5-7 kilometers per second. It has been reported that this air defense system can also target low orbital satellites. It is planned that the S-500 will shield Moscow and the regions around it. It will replace the current A-135 anti-ballistic missile system. The S-500 missiles will be used only against the most important targets, such as intercontinental ballistic missiles, AWACS and jamming aircraft.

Sadly, most Americans are not interested in this stuff at all.

These days, most Americans just assume that the Russians are “our friends” and that a war with Russia could never possibly happen.

What they don’t realize is that the Russian people see things very, very differently. Today, 81 percent of Russians have a negative opinion of the United States. Our interference in the conflict in Ukraine has made the Russian people very angry, and there are many over there that now believe that a shooting war with the United States is inevitable.

And this week things between the United States and Russia got even more tense. Barack Obama has already announced that we will be sending “non-lethal” military aid to the Ukrainians, but now the U.S. House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a resolution that calls for Obama to send “lethal” military aid to the government in Kiev…

Yesterday, in a vote that largely slid under the radar, the House of Representatives passed a resolution urging Obama to send lethal aid to Ukraine, providing offensive, not just “defensive” weapons to the Ukraine army – the same insolvent, hyperinflating Ukraine which, with a Caa3/CC credit rating, last week started preparations to issue sovereign debt with a US guarantee, in essence making it a part of the United States (something the US previously did as a favor to Egypt before the Muslim Brotherhood puppet regime was swept from power by the local army).

The resolution passed with broad bipartisan support by a count of 348 to 48.

According to DW, the measure urges Obama to provide Ukraine with “lethal defensive weapon systems” that would better enable Ukraine to defend its territory from “the unprovoked and continuing aggression of the Russian Federation.”

“Policy like this should not be partisan,” said House Democrat Eliot Engel, the lead sponsor of the resolution. “That is why we are rising today as Democrats and Republicans, really as Americans, to say enough is enough in Ukraine.”

If Obama does decide to send lethal military aid to the Ukrainians, the Russians are going to flip out.

Sadly, neither side seems very interested in peace at this point.

We just continue to take even more steps along the road toward World War III, and it is a war that the United States is completely and utterly unprepared for.

(Originally posted on End of the American Dream)

Is Vladimir Putin Dead?

Russian President Vladimir Putin has not been seen in public since March 5th, and the Internet is abuzz with rumors that he is either seriously ill or dead. So could it be possible that there is anything to these rumors? At this point, Russian officials insist that Putin is just fine and that he isn’t even ill. But a trip that Putin was supposed to make to meet with the presidents of Kazakhstan and Belarus was abruptly canceled. A speech that Putin was supposed to make to his old friends at the Federal Security Service was also suspiciously canceled. So what in the world is going on here? Of course Putin could put an immediate end to all of these rumors by appearing in public, but he has chosen not to do that so far. But why wouldn’t he? Is more going on inside Russia than meets the eye?

These rumors about Putin have been circulating in Russian media for a few days, but on Thursday they started exploding all over the Internet. The following is from Debka…

DEBKAfile reports that Russian websites Thursday morning began running unconfirmed reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had suddenly died. This has not been confirmed by any official in Moscow. But a short announcement of Putin’s death was seen briefly on Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s website early Thursday, only to be removed after 20 minutes.

Why would an announcement of Putin’s death show up on Dmitry Medvedev’s website?

That seems rather odd.

And another thing that raised eyebrows was when Putin’s planned visit to Kazakhstan was suddenly canceled…

Vladimir Putin has postponed a visit to Kazakhstan, officials from both countries said on Wednesday, though the Kremlin dismissed another report that plans had changed because the Russian president was unwell.

Dauren Abayev, adviser and spokesman for Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, announced the delay of the meeting between the two allies, originally scheduled for this week, without giving a reason or a new date.

Another Kazakh government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters: “It looks like he (Putin) has fallen ill.”

Of course the Kremlin is completely denying that there is anything wrong.

Here is more from Debka…

The Kremlin Thursday dismissed rumors that President Vladimir Putin was ill after he canceled a trip to Kazakhstan. The rumors flying through the Russian Internet claimed in fact that the 62-year old Russian leader had suddenly died. Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, asked by Reuters if the president, who had not been seen on live TV since March 5, was in good health, replied “yes”. “He has meetings all the time,” he said by telephone. “He has meetings today, tomorrow. I don’t know which ones we will make public.” A Kemlin website photo of a Putin meeting on March 10 with a provincial government proved to be an old picture. Still, Russian financial markets were stable and the ruble improved in value.

And Putin’s own personal spokesman says that even though a scheduled speech to the Federal Security Service was canceled on Thursday, Putin is well enough to “break your hand” with his handshake…

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has dismissed rumors circulating on the Internet that the Russian leader is in poor health.

Dmitry Peskov told Ekho Moskvy radio station Thursday that the president was “absolutely” healthy, adding that the president’s handshake was still so strong it could “break your hand.” Peskov’s comment was a reference to the Kremlin’s usual response to regular queries about the fragile health of former President Boris Yeltsin, who had heart surgery during his tenure.

Peskov also said that Putin would not be appearing at a meeting with the Federal Security Service Thursday, which he often attends.

“Yes, he’s usually there,” Peskov said. “But this year he was not planning to be.”

So should we just trust that the Russian government is telling us the truth about this?

Would we trust our own government to tell us the truth?

Sadly, the cold, hard reality of the matter is that governments lie. That is what they do. So until Putin appears in public, doubts are going to remain.

And as the Washington Post has pointed out, we need to consider what has happened with previous Russian leaders…

There’s also a history here. At the end of the Soviet era, three separate Communist Party chiefs died suddenly in office, and during the end of Boris Yeltsin’s time as president of Russia, alcoholism and poor health led to a number of unexplained and embarrassing absences. Again, Putin is certainly no Yeltsin — he’s a black-belt in judo and known to be extremely health conscious — but many Russians now assume that the state would lie about the health of its leaders.

This all comes at a time when the western world is turning up the heat on Putin.

For example, the Telegraph is reporting that the UK is considering exposing the secrets behind Putin’s enormous wealth in an attempt to publicly embarrass him…

Britain may broadcast the financial secrets of Russia’s ruling elite as part of the information war against the Putin regime, the Foreign Secretary has indicated.

Philip Hammond said he was interested by the idea of publicizing the wealth of the Russian president’s inner circle in order to embarrass them in front of their people, as part of the response to the ongoing incursion into eastern Ukraine.

And the Obama administration has just made the decision to send drones and armored Humvees to Ukraine…

The United States announced Wednesday that it is sending small unarmed drones, armored Humvees and other assistance to Ukraine in its fight against Russian-backed separatists – but for the first time the White House said arming Ukraine hasn’t been ruled out.

Some lawmakers are upset that lethal weapons haven’t already been included as part of $75 million in new aid announced Wednesday.

Asked during a White House press briefing to confirm that the U.S. won’t send weapons to the former Soviet nation, Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, ‘That’s not necessarily accurate.’

Needless to say, the Russians are not going to like that one bit. This is something I discussed in an article earlier this week.

On the flip side, the Russian government is taking some bold stances recently as well.

For instance, this week a top Russian official suggested that Russia has the right to move nuclear weapons into Crimea and that a key nuclear weapons treaty with the United States may be in jeopardy…

On the question of sending nuclear weapons into Crimea, Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted Mikhail Ulyanov as saying, “I don’t know if there are nuclear weapons there now. I don’t know about any plans, but in principle Russia can do it.” It’s a position that other Russian officials have articulated in the past. Ulyanov’s boss, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, made similar comments in December.

More surprising was Ulyanov’s warning about the status of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Force Treaty, signed by the U.S. and the Soviet Union in 1987. The deal was designed to eliminate the two countries’ stocks of nuclear and ballistic missiles with ranges of between 300 and 3,400 miles.

In addition, the Russians have formally announced that they are completely withdrawing from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe…

Moscow has announced it is “completely” ending activities under the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE). Russia’s participation in the treaty was first halted in 2007.

“The Russian Federation has taken the decision to halt its participation in meetings of the [consulting group] from March 11, 2015. Therefore, Russia is ending its actions in the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, announced in 2007, completely,” a statement from the Foreign Ministry said.

The war drums are getting a little louder with each passing day.

Many people probably hope that if Putin’s time is over that it will help to calm things down a bit.

Unfortunately, my research has led me to the conclusion that the exact opposite will probably be the case.

So what do you think?

Do you believe that Putin is ill or dead?

And where do think things between the United States and Russia will go from here?

Please feel free to add to the discussion by posting a comment below…

(Originally published on End of the American Dream)

Virulently Anti-American: 81 Percent Of Russians Now View The United States Negatively

Russians view the United States much more unfavorably today than they did during the end of the Cold War era. As you will read about below, an astounding 81 percent of all Russians now view the United States negatively, and only 13 percent have a positive opinion of this country. In all of the years when Russians have been surveyed on their attitudes toward the U.S., they have never been this negative. But of course Americans generally do not view the Russian people unfavorably. So why is this happening? Well, it all comes down to the actions of the Obama administration. The Russian people are convinced that U.S. organizations organized, funded and armed the rebels that violently overthrew the democratically-elected Ukrainian government. And once it was overthrown, the Obama administration immediately recognized the rebels as the legitimate government of Ukraine. And now most Russians are convinced that the U.S. government is trying to promote a similar revolution inside Russia. In recent years, the Russian people have become increasingly nationalistic, and at this point they view U.S. meddling in their affairs as a direct threat to their way of life. Even while most Americans are extremely apathetic about what is going on over in Russia, an increasingly large chunk of the Russian population is angry enough to go to war.

Anti-American sentiment inside Russia has grown so strong that even the mainstream media is starting to report on it. For example, the following quote comes from a recent article in the Washington Post…

Thought the Soviet Union was anti-American? Try today’s Russia.

After a year in which furious rhetoric has been pumped across Russian airwaves, anger toward the United States is at its worst since opinion polls began tracking it. From ordinary street vendors all the way up to the Kremlin, a wave of anti-U.S. bile has swept the country, surpassing any time since the Stalin era, observers say.

For the recent survey that I mentioned above, Russians were asked this question: “What is your general attitude toward the United States?”

81 percent of Russians responded negatively, and only 13 percent had a positive response.

That is the most negative that Russians have been toward the U.S. since polling began back in 1988.

And this could potentially be just the beginning.

For a moment, I want you to imagine a scenario. I want you to imagine how the U.S. government and the U.S. population would respond if the Russians organized, funded and armed rebels that overthrew the Canadian government. And then imagine how the U.S. government and the U.S. population would respond if the Russians started shipping heavy military vehicles and sophisticated military equipment to those rebels after they had established a new pro-Russian government.

I can just see it now – people everywhere would be screaming “Red Dawn” and warning of imminent war with Russia.

Well, the truth is that Ukraine is Russia’s most important neighbor, and the two nations have ties that go back for thousands of years.

When we meddled in Ukraine, we poked Russia right in the eye, and now we have a very angry Russian bear to deal with.

For much more on how angry Russians are at this moment, please see my previous article entitled “This Is How Much Russians Hate America“.

And if Barack Obama decides to start sending heavy military vehicles and equipment to the government in Kiev, that is going to escalate things to a completely new level.

If you do not think that could happen, you should consider what the Washington Post is reporting…

President Obama said Monday that he is considering providing Ukraine with lethal weapons to defend the country against Russian aggression if diplomatic options fail.

Of course it is not just Obama that is thinking this way. In fact, there is lots of pressure on Obama from both sides of the aisle to arm the Ukrainians…

The pressure on Obama from the Republicans, but also from his own political camp, is intense. Should the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine not hold, it will likely be difficult to continue refusing Kiev’s requests for shipments of so-called “defensive weapons.” And that would represent a dramatic escalation of the crisis. Moscow has already begun issuing threats in anticipation of such deliveries. “Any weapons deliveries to Kiev will escalate the tensions and would unhinge European security,” Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s national security council, told the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda on Wednesday.

In the end, I believe that this is going to happen. And when it does, all hell is likely to break loose.

If you believe that cooler heads will somehow prevail, you should consider what is already happening. At this point, U.S. tanks and military vehicles have already rolled into Latvia…

Latvia has confirmed more than 120 armored units, including tanks, have been delivered by the US. According to the Latvian Ministry of Defense, these include M1A2 Abrams tanks and M2A3 Bradley armored vehicles.

The move to deploy yet more tanks and armored vehicles was welcomed by Latvian Minister of Defense Raymond Vejonis.“The presence of our allies (US and NATO) in Latvia is a confirmation of solidarity and security in the region,” Vejonis said in a statement on Twitter.

How would we feel if Russian tanks were rolling into northern Mexico?

And many in Europe seem to be quite hawkish these days as well. For instance, the president of the European commission says that an EU army is needed to deal with the potential Russian threat…

The European Union needs its own army to help address the problem that it is not “taken entirely seriously” as an international force, the president of the European commission has said.

Jean-Claude Juncker said such a move would help the EU to persuade Russia that it was serious about defending its values in the face of the threat posed by Moscow.

All of this posturing could ultimately lead to something far worse than the Cold War.

If we keep pushing Russia, we could someday end up with a real war on our hands.

But don’t just take my word for it. Just consider the following excerpt from a recent article by Stephen Lendman…

Ukraine is ground zero. Ongoing conflict risks the unthinkable – direct US confrontation with Russia risking nuclear war.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev warned Ukraine’s conflict could “unavoidably lead to a nuclear war..”

Nuclear arms expert Steven Starr warned about things headed recklessly toward this possibility.

Nuclear expert Helen Caldicott believes US/Russian confrontation risks nuclear war. Things today are more dangerous than any previous time in the post-WW II period.

Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark said “(n)othing is more dangerous than the aggressive US/NATO troop movements right on the borders of Russia.”

To most Americans, the threat of nuclear war with Russia is a joke. Most people in this country believe that it could never possibly happen.

But an increasing number of experts are starting to wake up and realize that if we stay on this road that it could be a very real possibility. For example, author Daniel Estulin had some very interesting things to say during one recent interview…

The United States and its European allies are seeking to overthrow the Russian government by escalating the confrontation with Moscow up to the “threshold of a thermonuclear war,” an author in Madrid says.

US President Barack Obama is orchestrating a regime change to topple Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Daniel Estulin, author of The True Story of the Bilderberg Group.

The US and Britain have “reactivated a policy of threatening tactical nuclear warfare against Russia and China to force them to submit to the crumbling transatlantic financial empire,” Estulin said during a phone interview with Press TV on Wednesday.

“That submission will not happen, however, as the Russian leadership has repeatedly made clear,” he added.

For much more on a potential war with Russia, please see my previous article entitled “While Obama Guts The U.S. Military, Russia Prepares For War“.

But before a shooting war happens, Russia will attempt to use other means at their disposal to hurt us if we start shipping military equipment to the government in Ukraine.

So let us hope that does not happen.

If the Obama administration backs off, things may have a chance to cool down.

However, if the Obama administration publicly announces that we will be arming the new Ukrainian government, that will be an absolutely critical moment for U.S.-Russian relations. Once that happens, there will be no turning back.

So let us keep a close eye on what Obama decides to do, because what he decides to do next could literally set us on a course toward World War III.

(Originally published on End of the American Dream)

While Obama Guts The U.S. Military, Russia Prepares For War

The Russian military and the U.S. military are going in two very different directions. Military spending in Russia is increasing by a whopping 33 percent this year alone, and the Russians are feverishly preparing as if a major war with the United States is inevitable. But despite the fact that the conflict in Ukraine has raised tensions with Russia to Cold War levels, the Obama administration is still acting as if we were living in a “post-Cold War” era. Even while the Russians are arming themselves to the teeth, the U.S. military is being gutted. In fact, the U.S. Army is in the process of being cut down to the smallest size that we have seen since the end of World War II, and the U.S. Navy is already the smallest that it has been since World War I. There is very little political debate about this gutting of our military at the moment, but someday we may look back and bitterly regret not being more prepared.

No matter what your view of U.S. foreign policy is, we should all be able to agree that the U.S. Constitution mandates that it is the job of the federal government to protect this nation. Sadly, according to one recent report the cutbacks that are happening right now have left the U.S. military only “marginally able” to defend this country…

The US military has become so depleted by cuts that it has been left only ‘marginally able’ to defend the nation.

Decreases in the number of soldiers and naval ships have led to armed forces falling short of President Obama’s national security strategy, a report by The Heritage Foundation claimed.

Yes, we are spending far more on our military than anyone else on the planet is. But a tremendous amount of that is pure waste.

When it comes to the things that really matter for national defense, corners are being cut. For example, as I mentioned above, the U.S. Army is in the process of being reduced to the smallest size that it has been since World War II…

The Quadrennial Defense Review announced last year that the Army would be cut from 570,000 soldiers to 440,000 – the fewest since World War II.

The Army historically commits 21 brigade combat teams to one war but would struggle to do this and leave reserves if there were two simultaneous conflicts, the report said.

And according to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Navy is already the smallest that is has been since World War I…

With the U.S. Navy arguably at its smallest since 1917, we don’t have many ships that are actually at sea. Only 35% of the Navy’s entire fleet is deployed, fewer than 100 ships.

But that is not all. According to Stars and Stripes, the size of the U.S. Air Force is going to shrink by about 500 planes over the next five years…

The Air Force plans to cut nearly 500 planes from its inventory over the next five years if the Defense Department’s Fiscal 2015 budget request is approved by Congress, the service announced Monday.

The reductions — which would affect the active duty, Guard and Reserve — would be implemented in 25 states and the District of Columbia, according to a diagram provided by the Air Force. Only 47 planes would be eliminated overseas at a time when officials are emphasizing the importance of maintaining a strong forward presence to deter adversaries and respond quickly to crises.

For much more on how the U.S. military is being gutted, please see my previous article entitled “The Incredible Shrinking U.S. Military“.

At the same time all of this is going on, Russia is acting as if they knew that World War III was right around the corner.

According to CNN, the Russians plan to spend more than 20 trillion rubles to modernize their military by the year 2025…

Russia has begun investing heavily in upgrades to its military capabilities. President Vladimir Putin plans to spend more than 20 trillion rubles ($700 billion) bringing equipment up to date by 2025.

The modernization program is continuing despite an economic crisis that has already forced Russia to adopt an austerity budget for next year.

Even while the U.S. military is shrinking, the Russian military is getting larger. The following infographic was published by TASS, and it shows some of the new equipment that the Russian military will be receiving by the end of this year…

In addition, the Moscow Times is reporting that the Russian navy will be getting 50 new vessels in 2015.

So why are the Russians conducting such a massive military buildup?

Certainly the civil war in Ukraine is on their minds. If there was a civil war up in Canada, the U.S. government would definitely be freaking out. So it is understandable that the Russians are deeply concerned about what is happening to their neighbor.

But this military buildup by the Russians suggests that there is something more going on.

And I think that we can get a clue by looking at how the Russian military has been behaving.

For instance, the Russian air force recently conducted a drill which simulated an attack on NATO warships in the Black Sea…

Russian fighter jets are practicing attacking NATO ships in the Black Sea in another dramatic sign that tensions over Ukraine continue to build despite a fragile ceasefire agreed last month.

“Russia’s newest Su-30 fighter jets and Su-24 attack bombers are using two NATO ships in the Black Sea to practice penetrating anti-air systems,” reports Sputnik, citing a source at the Sevastopol naval base.

Asserting that the NATO ships are conducting drills based around “repelling air attacks,” Moscow is taking the opportunity to practice “maneuvering and conducting aerial reconnaissance” outside the range of the ships in order to “practice attack scenarios”.

In addition, Russian strategic bombers have been making increasingly aggressive movements in recent months. The following is from an article that described an incident in which two Tu-95 bombers buzzed Norwegian airspace…

But on January 28 two more Tu-95 bombers, escorted by tankers and Russia’s most advanced MiG-31 fighter jets, showed up off the coast. One of them was carrying “a nuclear payload,” according to the London Sunday Express, which cited intercepted radio traffic. And last fall, a Russian Tu-22 supersonic bomber skirting Norway’s northern airspace was photographed carrying a cruise missile in launching position, according to the Barents Observer blog. Similar examples abound.

Adding to the potential for an unintended catastrophe, Russian warplanes typically lift off without filing a flight plan and cruise the busy commercial flight lanes with their transponders off, riling airline and NATO pilots alike. In recent months Russian warplanes have been engaging in Top Gun–style stunts far from home, popping up unannounced aside an SAS airliner on a flight between Copenhagen, Denmark, and Oslo and buzzing a Norwegian F-16 pilot.

And in the Pacific, two Tu-95 bombers recently buzzed Guam…

Russian strategic bombers conducted a third circumnavigation of the U.S. Pacific island of Guam last week as other bombers flew close to Alaska and Europe, defense officials said.

Two Tu-95 Bear H bombers made the flight around Guam, a key U.S. military hub in the western Pacific, on Dec. 13. No U.S. interceptor jets were dispatched to shadow the bombers.

One of the reasons this is done is to test our defenses.

They want to see how we would respond if it was the real thing.

In a future war with Russia, the key to winning will probably be to strike first. The Russians know this, and so they are putting a special emphasis on modernizing their strategic nuclear forces…

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on December 19 that the Russian strategic nuclear forces will receive more than 50 ICBMs in 2015. Putin also reaffirmed plans to modernize the fleet of Russian strategic bombers and nuclear-powered submarines.

According to the new Russian military doctrine signed by Putin Friday, Moscow reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in response to the use of nuclear weapons or any other types of weapons of mass destruction against Russia or its allies, as well as in the case of an attack with conventional weaponry that threatens the very existence of the state.

It is being reported that Russian Strategic Missile Forces are planning to conduct more than 100 drills in 2015. Meanwhile, the Obama administration is treating the U.S. strategic nuclear arsenal as if it was an unwanted leftover from an era that is long gone.

I have written much more about this in the past, and I will not repeat all of it here. If you would like to dig even deeper into all of this, please see my previous article entitled “10 Signs That Russia Is Preparing To Fight (And Win) A Nuclear War With The United States“.

To most Americans, a war with Russia is not even a remote possibility.

But there is a much, much different mindset inside Russia these days.

During one recent military parade, a large missile was paraded through the streets with a message to Barack Obama written on the side. Roughly translated, the message says “to be personally delivered to Obama”…

The Russians are preparing for war.

The United States is not.

So who is right and who is wrong?

Please feel free to share what you think by posting a comment below…

(Originally published on End of the American Dream)

The U.S.-Backed Government In Ukraine Is Starting To Lose The Civil War

The mainstream media in the U.S. is being very quiet about this, but the truth is that the U.S.-backed government in Kiev is starting to lose the civil war. This week, the separatists captured the very important railway junction of Debaltseve despite the fact that a ceasefire is supposed to be in place. Buoyed by a constant influx of Russian weapons and supplies, the separatists have gained a clear upper hand in the conflict. But this was not supposed to happen. When protest groups that were funded, organized and advised by organizations in the United States violently overthrew the democratically elected Ukrainian government, the Obama administration was hoping that the Ukrainian people would rapidly embrace their new pro-western leaders. Instead, the nation was plunged into a very bitter civil war that could go on for many years. And as the battlefield stands right now, the government in Kiev will probably be forced to concede even more territory in the months ahead as more weapons and fighters arrive from Russia. The Obama administration could decide to intervene by shipping large amounts of weapons and supplies to the Ukrainian government, but that could turn the civil war in Ukraine into a proxy war between the United States and Russia. And the thing about proxy wars is that sometimes they turn into real wars.

Earlier this month, the world rejoiced when a ceasefire between the government in Kiev and the separatists was announced.

But it didn’t last long.

As I mentioned above, this week the separatists took full control of Debaltseve. The following is how CNN described the situation on the ground…

The scene of devastation is staggering in Debaltseve, the town at the heart of the battle between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists in recent days.

Barely a house is unscathed by shelling. Elderly civilians trapped by the fighting still cower in basements. After most Ukrainian forces pulled out Wednesday, the separatists are now in control.

It’s obvious there’s been a seismic shift on the battlefield. But it’s not yet clear what the Ukrainian withdrawal means for the shaky peace deal that came into force Sunday.

Will the separatists halt their offensive, satisfied with the territory they hold? Or will they be emboldened to push for more?

And of course this is all part of a much larger trend. The separatists have been winning new territory for months.

I want to share with you a couple of maps. This first map shows what the conflict looked like last summer. As you can see, the territory held by the separatists was mostly limited to areas around the cities of Luhansk and Donetsk…

This next map shows what the conflict looks like today. As you can see, the separatists have captured an enormous amount of territory…

So have you heard about this from the mainstream media in the United States?

If not, why not?

Could it be that we aren’t supposed to know that the U.S.-backed government in Kiev is actually losing the war?

Needless to say, this would never have been possible without the direct involvement of Russia. Publicly, the Russians are denying that they are funding, supplying and arming the separatists. But everyone knows that they are. The Russians consider the civil war in Ukraine to be a fundamental matter of national security. And it is hard to blame them. Just imagine how the U.S. government would be responding if there was a civil war in Canada.

So with massive Russian backing, the separatists have been able to turn the tide of the war very much in their favor. The following is an excerpt from a recent Business Insider article…

The battlefield gains by the separatists throughout the east of the country can be attributed to the constant inflow of Russian weaponry. In Nov. 2014, Russia moved a column of tanks and artillery into eastern Ukraine drastically changing the battlefield calculus.

In addition to tanks and artillery, Russia has provided the separatists with arms ranging from grenade launchers and mortars to anti-tank weapons and anti-aircraft guns.

As a result, Russian-backed rebels have huge military advantages over Ukraine. Crucially, the rebels receive logistics and armaments from the Russian military while also being able to take refuge in Russia during a Ukrainian assault.

This is not how the Obama administration wanted things to go.

And now the Obama administration is faced with a choice. Either they do nothing and watch the government in Kiev continue to lose ground, or they arm the government in Kiev and risk turning the conflict into a proxy war with Russia.

So what is Obama going to do?

It is hard to say. But there is little doubt about what the hawks in Congress want to do…

On Capitol Hill, however, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle had a clear message Thursday for the president: arm Ukraine.

“It is time to give Ukraine the ability to defend itself,” Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., said. “It is past due.”

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., top Democrat on the armed services committee, said the “key here is to give the Ukrainians the ability to defend itself and to get back to a political solution.”

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said the non-lethal aid the U.S. already is sending “is not enough when you are facing the Russian bear.”

But do we really want to start a proxy war?

As I mentioned above, proxy wars can ultimately lead to real wars.

And in the case of the United States and Russia, a real war could mean the use of nuclear weapons. For much more on this, please see a couple of my previous articles…

-“10 Signs That Russia Is Preparing To Fight (And Win) A Nuclear War With The United States”

-“While Obama Snoozes, Russia Is Preparing For Nuclear War With The United States”

We should have never interfered with the democratically elected government in Ukraine in the first place.

And now that war is raging in Ukraine, I fear that the United States and Russia have been put on a collision course which will end very, very badly someday.

So what do you think? Please feel free to add to the discussion by posting a comment below…

(Originally posted on End of the American Dream)

NORAD Head Says Russia Increasing Arctic Long Range Air Patrols

While Russian military aircraft have stepped up their activity everywhere from the North Sea to the Baltic to the Black Sea in the last year they have also been spotted more frequently closer to the U.S. territory in the Arctic, the head of U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) told USNI News on Tuesday.

In particular – flights of Tupolev Tu-95 Bear ‘H’ Bombers have increased recently NORTHCOM’s Adm. Bill Gortney said.

“They’ve been very aggressive – under my NORAD hat – for us in the Arctic,” he said to USNI News following a keynote address at the WEST 2015 conference. “Aggressive in the amount of flights, not aggressive in how they fly.”

(Read the rest of the story here…)

‘Russian Invasion Survival Manual’ To Be Issued To Citizens In Lithuania

While most Americans discount the possibility of a major conflict with Russia, Europeans who have seen two great wars in the last century know better.

The country of Lithuania, much like its neighbors, is preparing for a full-out invasion by Russian forces and their government is issuing a survival manual to its citizens. Though the complete details have yet to be released, the manual, among other things, advises citizens to “keep a sound mind, don’t panic and don’t lose clear thinking.”

Lithuanian Defense Minister Juozas Olekas unveiled the 100-page public information pamphlet last Tuesday at a press conference in Vilnius. The book, “How to act in extreme situations or instances of war” aims to educate the country’s citizens on what to do in the case of an invasion.

The manual instructs Lithuanians how to “act during the organization of civil resistance, but also how to act under battlefield conditions,” in addition to containing information on governmental changes following a declaration of war and procedures for evacuating a building, according to Olekas.

The book suggests demonstrations and strikes or “at least doing your job worse than usual” as means of resisting foreign occupation. It also advises citizens to use social media to organize resistance and promotes staging cyber-attacks against the enemy.

In typical government fashion, the manual seems to discount the possibility that a Russian invasion will include the horrors often associated with war, advising citizens not to worry because “gunshots just outside your window are not the end of the world.”

Of course, should gunshots erupt outside of your window as a result of a massive onslaught of tanks, armored personnel carriers and infantry, it would be, by definition, the end of the world one has come to know.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Russia to Boost Military Capabilities in Crimea, Kaliningrad, Arctic

In 2015, the Russian Defense Ministry plans to focus on boosting military capabilities in Crimea, the Kaliningrad region, and the Arctic, while carrying out other planned modernizations of the armed forces and drafting a new long-term defense plan.

“We are drawing up a new Russian Federation Defense Plan for 2016-2020 to ensure timely placing and obligatory fulfillment of state defense orders in 2015 to have modern models of weapons and military equipment as planned,” Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said, as Moscow refocuses its major rearmament plan, worth over 20 trillion rubles ($310 billion) over the span of 10 years, according to a new military doctrine.

Russia’s chief of General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, said that in 2015 Russia will focus on reinforcing its military on the Crimean peninsula, the Kaliningrad Region, and in the Arctic.

“In 2015, the Defense Ministry’s main efforts will focus on an increase of combat capabilities of the armed forces and increasing the military staff in accordance with military construction plans. Much attention will be given to the groupings in Crimea, Kaliningrad, and the Arctic,” Gerasimov said on Tuesday.

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Russia’s stealth ‘black hole’ submarine prepares for 4,000km trip, deep water trials

A new Russian advanced stealth submarine, dubbed a “black hole” by NATO for its ability to be undetectable, has begun preparations for deep water tests. However, it must first make a 4,630km journey to the Barents Sea in Russia’s north.

“The crew of the electric diesel submarine Rostov on Don which was handed to the Russian Navy by Admiralty Shipyards has started the preparation for the passing from the Baltic Sea zone to the Barents Sea,” Captain Igor Dygalo from the Ministry of Defense said.

Before the submarine begins its test operations, it must travel about 2,500 nautical miles (4,630 km) from St. Petersburg to the Barents Sea in Russia’s north. After finishing all scheduled tests, the submarine will travel to its future permanent place of service in the Novorossiysk port in the Black Sea. It is the second submarine out of six planned for the Black Sea Fleet by the end of 2016.

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The Hunt for Red October: UK forced to ask U.S. for help in search for Russian submarine thought to be lurking off North Atlantic coast

The Ministry of Defence has been forced to ask the US for help as it hunts for a suspected Russian submarine believed to be lurking off the coast of Scotland.

Two U.S Navy aircraft were this week drafted in to carry out patrols in the North Atlantic in a bid to bridge the ‘gaping chasm’ in Britain’s anti-submarine capability.

It comes after the RAF’s £4bn fleet of ‘spy-in-the-sky’ Nimrod surveillance aircraft was controversially scrapped in 2010, amid warning it would weaken Britain’s defences.

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Russia faces ‘perfect storm’ as reserves vanish and derivatives flash default warnings

Russia’s foreign reserves have dropped to the lowest level since the Lehman crisis and are vanishing at an unsustainable rate as the country struggles to defends the rouble against capital flight.

Central bank data show that a blitz of currency intervention depleted reserves by $26bn in the two weeks to December 26, the fastest pace of erosion since the crisis in Ukraine erupted early last year.

Credit defaults swaps (CDS) measuring bankruptcy risk for Russia spiked violently on Tuesday, surging by 100 basis points to 630, before falling back slightly.

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