World War Three Thread....

[Ryan Ruck]

Russian Spetsnaz softening up Ukraine for near future conflict?

Fire Strikes Ukraine Ammunition Dump - Ministries

An ammunition dump was on fire near a town in the east Ukrainian region of Kharkiv on Wednesday and some military personnel were evacuated from the area, the Emergencies Ministry and Defence Ministry said.

"A fire broke out in the military depot near the town of Lozovaya, we are taking steps to localise the blaze, the size of which we are checking," said a Defence Ministry spokesman.

The Defence Ministry said no one had been killed and military families had been evacuated from the area.

An Emergencies Ministry spokeswoman said the situation was "very serious" and other people were also being evacuated.

The fire first broke out in a nearby forest, where high winds prevented the fire services from extinguishing it, and swept into the ammunition dump, the Defence Ministry said.

Ukrainian news agencies quoted the police as saying the fire struck a suburb of Lozovaya where about 64,000 people live.

There have been several explosions and fires in Ukrainian arms depots in recent years. In May last year, an explosion at a depot in southern Ukraine killed two people during an operation to make ageing munitions safe.

[American Patriot]

Practice Makes Perfect, eh, Comrade?

[American Patriot]

Russian Miscalulations
08/27/2008 | RAH

A couple of points. Russia bluster against Moldova is just noise. Moldova has no intention of changing the status of Trans-Dniester. Russia is feeling an emotional high in it success in hurting Saakashvili and rubbing his nose in his impotence to do anything about it on the ground.

I am hearing a lot about who is at fault and would like to point you to Michael Totten interview in Georgia about that subject http://www.michaeltotten.com.

Supposedly in July Medevev had advised his diplomatic staff that the status had changed and that Russia was going to act from an attitude of strength and not weakness and they were all given the new promotion of more pugilistic nationalist arguments.

So this blustery comment is part of that change in direction. However the increasing antagonistic words from Russia to the US is worrisome. They seem to be derived from a calculation that the US is basically powerless to react on a military basis due several reasons: the current elections, the anti-war resurgence constantly mentioned in the US press, our wish for Russia assistance in Iran, our supply needs for Afghanistan through Russia, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They also seem to have made a political calculation that Bush will not chance military action in the Georgian and Black Sea countries. I am not so sanguine about that. Bush is quite capable of allowing a military action to occur if he gets PO enough. Bush has the courage and fortitude to take immense risks and while he usually approaches that goal slowly he get to be very stubborn about reaching the goal. His determination to get rid of Saddam is an example.

I believe that this calculation is mistaken. The US is quite capable of action if it decided it is warranted and worth the difficulty. Russia should want to reassure us it is not worth it, rather than antagonizing the US

US would like to solve Iran nuclear weapon goals with economic pressure, which has had an effect of Iran’s economy already. But Iran’s leadership has not been slowed from their goal despite the costs. However if Bush is unable to accomplish his goal through sanctions due to Russia and China’s resistance he is likely to change tactics to a military strike or green light Israel to do so. So the question of the value of Russia to solve the Iran issue is not that great. France tried to stop us from enforcing sanction on Iraq, so we invaded.

US was enjoying the end of tension and effort of the cold war, but is quite capable to get back in. Our expertise on economic warfare has been improved in the effort to eliminate AQ funding in the financial markets. This has not been reported on but has been an amazing feat. Turn this against Russia and they are very vulnerable.

The NATO fleet in the Black Sea is a very strong political message that the Black Sea is not any longer the sole property of Russia’s Navy. But we do not want to rattle Russia too much they attack us in fear.

From Russia’s perspective we are encircling Russia from the Baltics to the Balkans and now the Caucasus states. Their proprietorship on Sevastopol is endangered from an uppity Kiev. The ability of Ukraine to prevent a land grab by Russia is minor. Crimea can be taken easily and not much Ukraine can do. So perhaps the comment to Moldova was really meant to Ukraine.

Russia has made the US to review our actual military needs to fulfill NATO obligations in the Balkans and Poland. NATO’s purpose has been reinvigorated. Before the invasion of Georgia the western perception that words and paper was enough to protect these states. That perception has been shown to be invalid. The question is if we want to make the Caucasus states also part of our defensive umbrella is being more realistically reviewed. If we decide to fully protect Georgia then naturally Azerbaijan comes into view and the protection of the independent flow of the Caspian oil to Europe and the west.

These oil pipeline deals were meant to assure an independent source of Caspian oil to Europe to relieve their dependence on Russia oil and gas. Now we have to rethink if the protection should be more overt with military might like we have assured Iraq’s oil will be.

Russia was unwise to move us to rethink our strategies and tactics.

[American Patriot]

A New “Cold War” Looms
MensNewsDaily.com ^ | August 27, 2008 | Chris Adamo

Russian President Dimitri Medvedev has floated a not-so-subtle warning of Russia and the West descending into a new “Cold War,” the blame for which he places, in traditional Russian fashion, squarely on America. As a follow up, Vladimir Putin has since hinted at the possibility of a direct conflict between Russian and American naval forces in the Black Sea. If these events of the past few weeks are a reliable indication, the world may indeed see a replay of the harrowing years of Soviet aggression.

Such a possibility stands in stark contrast to all of the meaningless “fluff” and pandering on display this week at the Democrat National Convention, which is awash with empty platitudes intended to garner the support of a gullible and ignorant public. Yet the threat of a burgeoning Russian “bear” is no more likely to abate, simply because liberal America wishes to ignore it, than was the malevolence of militant Islam during the last decade.

In truth, the original Cold War never completely ended, ...

(Excerpt) Read more at mensnewsdaily.com ...

[American Patriot]

Russia and Georgia: The cost for Russia
The Economist ^ | August 28, 2008

AFTER barely 100 days in office, the soft-spoken Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s president, has been cast in the unlikely role of war leader. His initial job appeared to be as Vladimir Putin’s spokesman. But he quickly got a taste for war. On Tuesday August 26th he stood beneath the two-headed Russian eagle and solemnly announced the Kremlin’s decision to recognise the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The decision, Mr Medvedev argued, was forced on him by Georgia’s “genocide” against South Ossetia. But the argument is spurious. It is true that, in the early 1990s, when Georgia was barely a state, its nationalistic leaders committed atrocities in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. But it is also true that more than 200,000 Georgians were driven out of Abkhazia, and that Russia backed Abkhazia militarily.

Abkhazia had the trappings of a nascent state, but South Ossetia was a chessboard of villages (Georgian and Ossetian) which suffered under a Moscow-sponsored, thuggish and corrupt regime whose main job seemed to be to provoke Georgia. Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's president, made mistakes: he was in too much of a rush to take back the enclaves and did too little to disown Georgia’s nationalist past. His worst mistake was to order the shelling of Tskhinvali, South Ossetia’s capital, on August 7th. But this was not, as Russia claimed, genocide; the death toll was under 200. Moreover, the ethnic cleansing of Georgians in South Ossetia is all too evident: Georgian villages have been destroyed and thousands of Georgians displaced by South Ossetian militia.

And although the latest conflict was triggered by Georgia, the deeper roots of Russia’s invasion lie in events that go back to 2003-04: the destruction of the Yukos oil company, and Russia’s perception of the colour revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine as a Western plot to undermine its sovereignty. Mr Saakashvili’s support for Ukraine’s orange revolution particularly irked Mr Putin.

Lilia Shevtsova of the Carnegie Moscow Centre argues that the political system built by Mr Putin requires the images of an enemy and a besieged fortress. “This war is not about South Ossetia, Abkhazia or Georgia,” she says. “It is about the matrix of the Russian state and its survival. The beast needs feeding.” Konstantin Zatulin, a Duma deputy handling relations with former Soviet republics, is more belligerent. “The time when we needed Western applause is over,” he says.

After years of cultivating xenophobic sentiment and persuading Russians that they face an enemy, the Kremlin had prepared the population psychologically for war. That, says Boris Dubin, a sociologist, is why Russia’s propaganda fell on fertile ground. In the public mind, he claims, the cause of the war is to be found in “America’s expansionist plans and desire to establish control over Russia’s neighbours.”

With its troops still in Georgia, Russia has also made a mockery of the French-negotiated ceasefire. The war has cemented the victory of isolationist ideology in Russia, which will shape both domestic politics and foreign relations for years to come.

The partition of Georgia may cause a long-term confrontation between Russia and the West. Too bad, Mr Medvedev said this week: “Nothing scares us, including the prospect of a cold war”. (“If it’s only cold, that’s not a problem,” Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister retorted.) Russia’s elite is convinced that the West is weak and will swallow Russia’s decision. “When you cross the road you have to check for dangers,” declares Mr Zatulin. “The West can apply psychological pressure. But Europe cannot afford to turn down our gas and America needs our help with Afghanistan and Iran.”

The fallout may be felt most inside Russia itself. Hopes for liberalisation and modernisation under Mr Medvedev have evaporated. In the past few days the Kremlin has rejected Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s parole application and briefly detained protesters in Red Square who held a banner “For Your Freedom and Ours” in a repeat of a protest against the invasion of Czechoslovakia staged by dissidents 40 years ago.

Mr Medvedev’s recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia may also have unpredictable consequences for Russia’s north Caucasus. Russia has bolstered separatism in Georgia but crushed it brutally in Chechnya.

Indeed, Russia’s recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia could easily reignite separatist sentiment in the north Caucasus. Chechnya may be too exhausted to fight another war with Russia at present, but in ten years’ time “the question of independence of Chechnya will arise again,” says Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya of Memorial, a human-rights group. Russia maintains stability in the Caucasus by military force and fear. Even as Russia was “liberating” South Ossetia, its security services were intimidating human-rights activists in Ingushetia and Dagestan. The methods they use differ little from those of the separatists and terrorists they are fighting. Inevitably, this leads to further radicalisation of the population, says Magomet Mutsolgov, a human-rights activist in Ingushetia.

[American Patriot]

White House: Scrapping U.S.-Russia Civil Nuclear Deal under discussion
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/WAT009957.htm ^

28 Aug 2008 15:03:46 GMT Source: Reuters WHITE HOUSE: SCRAPPING U.S.-RUSSIA CIVIL NUCLEAR DEAL UNDER DISCUSSION

[American Patriot]

For those too young to remember the Cold War...



Before the days of flat screen monitors... and Perestroika

By Finlo Rohrer BBC News Magazine

The conflict in Georgia has awoken fears of a new Cold War between Russia and its allies and the West, nearly 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. But will the animosity come back to haunt Western imaginations as it once did?
"We share the same biology,
regardless of ideology.
Believe me when I say to you,
I hope the Russians love their children too"
That couplet might be a mere piece of lyrical doggerel to any listener born after 9 November 1989, but when Sting released the single Russians in 1985, it came out of a deep mine of anxiety in the West about the course of the Cold War.

A good period in which to make profound statements...

For nearly five decades, the Cold War provided a rich seam running right through popular culture in the West, throwing out films, music, novels and even computer games that carried the fears, conscious and subconscious, of millions.
In the 1950s, science fiction movies were often allegories about different aspects of Cold War politics. Invasion of the Body-Snatchers was interpreted as a reference to McCarthy-era paranoia, Invaders from Mars as a parable of communist infiltration, and the Day the Earth Stood Still as a simple fantasy that some higher supernatural power would come to try and sort everything out.
After the world reached the brink of war during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, there was another wave of Cold War-inspired fiction, with Stanley Kubrick's Dr Strangelove perhaps the most notable example.
With the detente of the 1970s the Cold War thread became less noticeable, but with worsening relations in the early 1980s, both sides of the Atlantic were suddenly replete with fictional Cold War dystopian scenarios.
On the British side people were treated to the agonisingly poignant graphic novel When the Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs and its film adaptation, as well as 1984's Threads, about the terrifying aftermath of a nuclear strike. On the other side of the Atlantic, there were the mini-series Amerika and World War III, and the gruesome The Day After with its vivid montages of men, women, children and even horses being vaporised.

...and ripe for sensational scare-mongering

On the silver screen WarGames explored the issue of computer hacking against a background of mutually assured destruction , while Red Dawn took the usual brat pack characters complete with preppy letterman jackets, and armed them with AK-47s to fight a Soviet invasion of the US. Popular attitudes towards the Eastern Bloc were shaped by movies like Rocky IV, where the drug cheat Ivan Drago was emblematic of suspicions held against Soviet athletes.
As well as Sting's Russians, Frankie Goes To Hollywood's chart-topper Two Tribes provided a musical accompaniment to the era. It seems strange to discuss now what was, even then, viewed as often laughable ephemera, but the course of popular culture reflected deep-seated fears, particularly significant among those too young to temper their concerns with a grasp of the political context.
Almost as soon as it had intensified, the Cold War quickly ebbed away, and by the end of the 1989, with the Berlin Wall coming down and relations defrosting across the whole of eastern Europe, it suddenly became a bit silly to pick the Soviet state as baddies.
Hollywood had to find new protagonists for a new zeitgeist, and fast.
Bond sabbatical
While rarely casting Russia itself as the main enemy in a storyline, and indeed often featuring a sympathetic KGB general, the James Bond franchise was unmistakably driven by Cold War themes of espionage and fear of weapons technology. It was inevitably affected, says film critic James King.

It was a competition to be modern - consumer society was used as a bulwark against communism Jane Pavitt

"Bond went into limbo for seven years, for many reasons, but one was that it didn't feel relevant any more.
"The first film I remember that actually caught up was True Lies. When that came out it was almost a James Bond film and it had a new Hollywood enemy, which was an Arab - this was the new thing."
Post 9/11 there has been a glut of movies either tackling the threat of terrorism, attacking the politics of the war on terror and Guantanamo Bay, as well as a host of television programmes that have explored the fall-out for Muslim communities on both sides of the Atlantic. A poster for the current movie Shoot on Sight - with its tagline "Is it a crime to be a Muslim?" - is typical.
In the space between the end of the Cold War and Islamist terrorism entering the mainstream mindset as the main threat to the West, movie producers did their best to come up with convincing action movie baddies.
Having been conceived long before the fall of the wall, the Hunt for Red October, an adaptation of Tom Clancy's 1984 novel, still performed well at the box office in 1990. But in projects conceived after the end of Cold War hostilities, the baddies are very often neo-nationalists or rebels trying to destabilise a friendly Russia (Crimson Tide and Air Force One) or are avaricious terrorists and gangsters of other nationalities (Die Hard).
Cold War the Sequel
The effect of the end of the Cold War on secret services and military personnel came to be a major theme. John Le Carre was one of those spy novel authors who made the transition smoothly. The Russia House marked the last of his novels released during the Cold War, the next three deal with the effect of the thaw on intelligence operatives, while the subsequent four, including the Tailor of Panama and the Constant Gardener are not directly related to the Cold War. But Hodder and Stoughton, his publisher, maintain sales of the Cold War novels were unaffected by the events of 1989.

Threads - not your average prime-time BBC drama

King is sceptical about whether current Cold War fears will quickly feed back into popular culture.
"Films take a while to get on the screen - I don't think we will see anything for a year."
Film producers and publishers may also feel that with the long lead times, tensions could be defused by the time anything gets to market.
They are returning to Cold War classics but not necessarily because of modern fears over relations between the West and Russia. WarGames was recently remade as a straight-to-DVD release although terrorism underpinned the story rather than a renewed Cold War. It has also been recently reported that Red Dawn is to be remade, although the exact plot is unclear.
But as well as those cultural products directly referencing or making allusions to the Cold War, the conflict also provided the backdrop to massive shifts and vigorous battles in everything from product design and modern art to fashion, says Jane Pavitt, curator of the Cold War Modern exhibition opening next month at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
"It was a competition to be modern," says Pavitt. "Consumer society was used as a bulwark against communism in Europe in the 1950s. That's why fashion and kitchen goods can be seen as part of this."
For those who were too young to remember the Berlin Wall coming down, or were born afterwards, the unique fears of the Cold War era, and the popular culture they steered, may be hard to appreciate.
But for anyone over the age of 25 in the West, they remain a deeply significant part of our psyche.

[American Patriot]

After Georgia, US fears interests at risk in Ukraine, Azerbaijan

by Sylvie Lanteaume Thu Aug 28, 12:15 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States is worried that after the Georgian conflict, US strategic interests in Ukraine and Azerbaijan -- especially in oil -- could be at serious risk.

The clearest sign of US concern: Vice President Dick Cheney next week will travel to Georgia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan.

The White House, on announcing the trip Monday, said President George W. Bush had given Cheney the job of discussing the United States' common interests with these key partners.

The White House did not specifically identify these interests, but analysts say there is a common thread in these former Soviet republics: the strategic Black Sea region, where major powers have played out power struggles ever since oil was found around the Caspian Sea in the early 20th century.

Even that far back, Azerbaijan, which does not have direct access to the Black Sea, shipped its oil to the Georgian port of Batumi to gain access to Europen markets, said Edward Chow, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

It is no fluke that during the Georgian conflict, US officials firmly spoke out against Russia's brief control of port facities at Poti, now a key site in Caspian Sea oil and gas shipping.

Meanwhile, an attack in Turkey in early August claimed by the Kurdish rebel PKK underscored the vulnerability of the BTC oil pipeline (Bakou-Tbilisi-Ceyhan) linking Azerbaijan and Turkey. It follows the Russian border.

"The transit route through Georgia previously thought to be relatively secure and reliable is now seen as vulnerable and threatened by regional hostilities," Chow stressed.

US oil giants ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips have major stakes in Caspian sea oilfields, he noted.

With its broad opening on the Black Sea, Ukraine also is a key strategic US ally in the region. The United States is keen to diversify its suppliers of oil to reduce dependence on the Middle East, and to limit Moscow's influence.

Washington is strongly in favor of expanding NATO to include Ukraine and Georgia. But for Stephen Larrabee, of the Rand Corporation: "Georgia is a sideshow. What the Russians are really concerned about is Ukraine.

"Georgia's entry into NATO wouldn't have major strategic consequences for Russia. Ukraine, on the other hand, is a very different matter," Larrabee added.

If Ukraine joins NATO Russia would not only be forced to remove its ships based in Crimea; it also would see dashed its hopes of founding a Slavic union with Ukraine and Belarus, he said. What's more, Russian and Ukrainian defense industries are closely linked.

For Dmitri Trenin, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, "it is Ukraine... that moves into the center stage of the new geopolitical rivalry.

"No Russian leader could have failed to respond to a direct attack on Tskhinvali," he added in an opinion piece in Newsweek.

"But, more ominously, no Russian leader can remain in power if he 'loses' Ukraine to the United States as a member of NATO," Trenin stressed.

Crimea, a peninsula attached to Ukraine in 1954 under Nikita Kruschev, is two-thirds Russian speaking.

[American Patriot]

Reports: Russia Plans Military Bases in S.Ossetia, Abkhazia
Civil.ge ^

Russia and South Ossetia will sign a military agreement next week allowing Russia to set up a military base in the breakaway region, Tarzan Kokoity, the acting vice-speaker of the South Ossetian parliament, said on August 29.

He said that the agreement was expected to be signed on September 2, Interfax news agency reported.

Interfax quoted an unnamed “military-diplomatic source” in Moscow as saying that Russia was planning to establish three military bases in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

In particular, he said, the plan envisaged bases in Gudauta and Ochamchire in Abkhazia. Georgia has long claimed that the Gudauta military base was in fact never closed down, with the Russian military continuing to use the infrastructure there. As far as Ochamchire is concerned, there is a port in this district of the breakaway region.

The Russian news agency also reported, quoting the source as saying that a Russian military base was planned for Java. The Georgian authorities claim that the Russian side started construction of military infrastructure in this South Ossetian stronghold long before the invasion of Georgia.

[American Patriot]

Syrian leader thought Cold War is back, but Russia made it clear Assad was wrong
YNET ^ | 08.28.08 | Guy Bechor

Guy Bechor
Published: 08.28.08, 17:10 / Israel Opinion

The Syrian army’s aging generals couldn’t believe their eyes: The Soviet Union is back. After seeing Russian tanks entering Georgia, they thought that time can be turned back two decades, to the era where the Soviet superpower backed President Hafez al-Assad; an era where Soviet advisors stayed in Syria, Soviet warships docked at the Tartus port, and Moscow transferred missiles and tanks to Damascus for free. Most importantly, it was an era where the Soviet Union provided Syria with protection against Israel.

Bashar Assad’s advisors therefore gave him the worst possible advice. The time has come to make Russia an offer it cannot refuse, they told him. And Assad, the perpetual rookie, of course took the advice. And so, the Syrian president headed to Moscow with a series of proposals, which the generals thought both sides will benefit from.

1. Syria agrees to Russian deployment of advanced ground-to-ground missiles in its territory as a counterweight to the American missile deployment in Poland.

2. Syria agrees that Russian Air Force jets will use Syrian territory and airspace.

3. The seaport at Tartus will be reopened.

4. Russia will be granted a friendly military outpost in the Middle East, at the gate to Europe, and go back to being a regional power.

In exchange, Assad intended to request advanced ground-to-ground missiles, as well as other weapons. His gut-feeling was excellent, and he mentioned his proposal in a briefing with Russian reporters ahead of his trip to Moscow.

The Syrian leader was stunned when the Russians slapped him in the face. Putin and Medvedev’s answer to his request was “not interested.” They have no interest in embarking on a new cold war. The slap was even worse because the Russians refused to sell advanced missiles to the Syrians, and added a few conditions: Firstly, they will be selling Syria defensive weapons only, rather than offensive ones. Secondly, they will not be selling Syria arms that would change the status quo of full Israeli supremacy over Syria. Thirdly, everything they sell will be paid for in cash, in advance.

The Russians know very well that Syria’s economy is unstable. They know that the Iranians help the Syrians with payments, but they also know that Iran itself is facing great difficulties. Assad swallowed the insult and returned to Damascus.

Why was there no chance for Assad’s “golden package” to begin with? Because Russia is not the Soviet Union. What Assad’s generals failed to grasp is that by invading Georgia Russia caused itself economic and political damage that would take years to repair. Russia is a capitalistic country that relies on its economy, and the economy responded with immense anxiety to the Georgia events.


The investors who lifted the Russian economy are simply running away now: $12 billion were taken out of Russia in the past two weeks. The Russian stock exchange’s RTS index declined by 32%, and the Russian Ruble was depreciated. Russia had no ability to continue this conflict.

Moreover, at this time Russia is closely associated with Israel no less so and possibly more so than with Syria. A million and a half former Russians reside in Israel, and Israel’s high-tech industry is highly important for the Russian economy. The world in the era of globalization (a word that Syria is still unfamiliar with) will not go back to being black and white, and no Russia babushka will be waiting for Assad with a magic solution.

[American Patriot]

Georgians Protesting in Tbilisi Say Freedom of Karelia, Sakha, Yamalia
finchannel ^ | 8/28/08 | unknown

People have gathered on Tbilisi 's streets to condemnt recognition of Georgia's separatists regions by Kremlin. "Now its time to speak about independence of Russia's separatist republics like Yakutia, Yamalia, Khanti Mansia, Komi, Chechnia, Ingushetia, Dagestan.."

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree recognizing Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states, a day after the Russian parliament passed resolutions to this effect, ignoring protests from the West.

The Russian Federation comprises 83 federal subjects. These subjects have equal representation—two delegates each—in the Federation Council.However, they differ in the degree of autonomy they enjoy.

STRATFOR U.S. based analytical agency said many in North Ossetia wish to merge with Georgia’s South Ossetia and become an independent state.

"Similarly, while Siberia is dominated by Russians, many there resent the control of distant MOSCOW and would like to see the entire region east of the Urals break off and form a new country. Additionally, within Siberia there is no shortage of potential separatism based upon nationality. The most economically significant area is the Sakha region, where nearly all of Russia’s diamonds are produced. The regional government is fighting to maintain its shares in national diamond firm Alrosa, in explicit opposition to Putin’s wishes.

The Kuril Islands in the Russian Far East harbor only a weak separatist movement, but this is territory taken from Japan in the final days of World War II — territory that Tokyo would prefer fall back under its flag.

The Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad is regularly ignored in planning by MOSCOW . Now that its neighbors Lithuania and Poland have joined both the EU and NATO , Kaliningrad resentment is beginning to rise. Kaliningrad used to be known as Konigsberg and was a core portion of German Prussia.

There are a number of people of Finno-Ugric extraction in Russia’s Karelia region in the country’s northwest who resent MOSCOW ’s rule. Additionally, the Karelian Isthmus — once home to one quarter of the Finnish population — was taken from Finland in World War II, and Finland remains quietly engaged in this border region.

While the people of the St. Petersburg region — Putin’s home city — obviously think of themselves as Russian, they often identify themselves with all things European rather than continental Russian".

As the inhabitants of the Kaliningrad Oblast’ are searching for their new identity, there comes the Baltic Republican Party with the idea of upgrading the status of the enclave to that of the autonomous republic within Russian Federation, Russian media reported in early 2002. "This idea is gradually gaining popular support among Kaliningraders along with the motion to return the name of Koenigsberg to the capital city of the wished for republic. Among supporters are influential personalities like former chairman of the Federal Council, Shumeiko and former governor of the Kaliningrad Oblast’, Gorbenko".

In the end of 19th and at beginning of 20th century, Siberian nationalists led by Potanin and Yadrintsev formed a legal opposition to Russian colonialism in Siberia.

[Ryan Ruck]

Syrian leader thought Cold War is back, but Russia made it clear Assad was wrong

Sorry, not buying it.

Actions speak louder than words and Russia's action have CLEARLY demonstrated they are courting Syria and plan on bringing them closer into the fold. Hell, they ARE currently modernizing Tartus as a major Russian naval base.

[American Patriot]

I don't buy it either. lol. I posted it because I found it. Thought you'd get a kick out of that.

[American Patriot]

WORLD

Russia Tests New Nuclear Missile
2008-08-29 11:07am

Russia on Thursday said it had tested a new long-range stealth nuclear missile, inciting fears of a new Cold War.

Military chiefs in Moscow military said their Topol intercontinental stealth rocket had been fired successfully.

The declaration was made to spark alarm over the armed conflict in the Caucusus, said diplomats.

"The experimental warhead section of the rocket hit its pre-determined target with high accuracy at the firing range," said Russia's Interfax news agency.

The RS-12M Topol, designed to dodge defence systems, has a range of 6,125 miles with a 550-kiloton warhead capable of devastating a 14-mile wide area.

(c) 2008 Newsroom.

[American Patriot]

Russia Puts on a Brave Face


This is a guest post by our old friend Noah Tucker.


Even Yahoo has taken upon itself to inform the Western world that Russia was pooh-poohed by the SCO this morning in Dushanbe as all members (with the exception of Iran, an observer-only state in the alliance) and Medvedev went home without recognition for the independence of South Osettia and Abkhazia that it had been pushing for behind the scenes already before the conference began.


What is less visible and generally overlooked, with the exception of NPR’s All Things Considered today, is that the Russian media has generally treated this completely differently (as usual). NPR in the first hour of ATC had only one Russian media source as reference for their story, so out of curiosity I dusted off the long-neglected section of my brain where Russian major newspaper URL’s were stored (I stopped reading Russian papers about a year ago because propaganda can only be entertaining for so long) and did a quick overview. Much to my surprise, the story was not so much rewritten as pro-Russia propaganda (ORT-Channel 1 is reporting that “influential Asian countries support Russian actions in South Ossetia”) as it was buried under celebrity gossip and stories about Yuschenko supposedly shaking in his boots and sputtering about Crimea in papers like Moskovskii Komsomolets and Izvestia, which didn’t even mention the conference in its headlines.


Of the major papers, only Kommersant (which has a reputation for failing to toe the line, even though it’s owned by our friend Usmanov) led with the story that Dushanbe had been a failure for Russian foreign policy.


Novaya Gazeta, former home of the late Anna Politkovskaya and the last truly independent paper in Russia (with support from Gorbachev’s NGO, to make things complicated as they always are in Russia), also doesn’t cover the conference at all as far as I could find, though they do bring up the problem that several of the papers are starting to wake up to: the potential consequences of boycotts on Russian natural gas in the EU.


Thanks to the miracle of satellite TV, I’m actually watching ORT news right now, and they’re leading with a long clip of Putin in his CNN interview today hinting that he thinks the US provoked the conflict in order to influence its own presidential election.


Things are looking very lonely in Russia today, though perhaps not as lonely as it feels to be an Ossetian or Abkhazian nationalist. The irony of Russia supporting breakaway regions after so much condemnation for NATO intervention in Kosovo and so much blood and treasure spent over a decade to retain Chechnia is perhaps finally sinking in as the possibility of not even Venezuela and Cuba joining the Russian side of the table on this one.


—By Noah Tucker.

[American Patriot]

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Reuters
Russia bans poultry imports from 19 U.S. suppliers
08.29.08, 2:43 PM ETRussian Federation - (Updates number of Tyson plants, adds names of some other affected U.S. companies)

By Aleksandras Budrys


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia, the biggest market for U.S. poultry exporters, will ban imports from 19 producers in the United States and warned on Friday that another 29 suppliers face a possible ban on health and safety grounds.


The ban will take effect from Sept. 1 and includes three plants belonging to U.S. meat giant Tyson Foods Inc (nyse: TSN - news - people ) Russia's animal and plant health watchdog said, a day after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin first spoke of the measures.


"Joint Russian-U.S. inspections of U.S. poultry processing plants at the end of July and the beginning of August showed a number of inspected plants do not fully observe the agreed standards," the watchdog, Rosselkhoznadzor, said in a statement.


"The inspection showed that many plants have not taken steps to eliminate faults discovered by previous inspections."


The United States last year exported nearly $1 billion worth of poultry, mainly frozen chicken leg quarters, and other meat products to Russia. The ban comes as Moscow prepares separate cuts to existing meat import quotas to help domestic suppliers.
Rosselkhoznadzor said its inspectors had not been allowed to visit some poultry farms and had not received results of a probe into a possible excess of arsenic in some U.S. poultry supplied to Russia.


It said it wanted to receive these results within one month.


"A timely reception of this information by Rosselkhoznadzor will prevent the imposition of restrictions on poultry imports to Russia for 22 plants belonging to Tyson Foods, four plants of Peco Foods and three plants of the Equity Group," it said.


DANGEROUS BACTERIA


Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev, in a separate statement, said inspectors had more than once found an excess of arsenic, salmonella, E.coli and other dangerous bacteria in shipments of U.S. poultry to Russia.


He said the bans on 19 U.S. poultry producers would not damage the Russian poultry market, as domestic output had risen.


"In the last seven years, poultry meat output has been rising annually by 15 percent," Gordeyev said. He said Russia planned to raise poultry meat output by more than 300,000 tonnes this year from the 1.9 million tonnes produced in 2007.
The minister said poultry meat and pork import quotas should also be cut by hundreds of thousands of tonnes.


"It is time to change the quota regime and to cut imports, which, lamentably, have been rising in the last few years."


Russia regulates imports of poultry and red meat by tariff quotas, which have been fixed for 2005-2009. The United States has the largest share of the poultry quotas.
U.S. industry sources told Reuters on Thursday, after Putin's remarks to U.S. broadcaster CNN, that Moscow had not yet contacted its poultry industry or government on the ban [ID:nN28334888].


In March 2002, Russia banned all U.S. poultry for about one month, citing safety concerns such as salmonella contamination. The lifting of the ban involved top level politicians, including U.S. President George W. Bush and Putin, then Russian president.


Rosselkhoznadzor identified the banned suppliers by numbers. In addition to the three Tyson plants, the list includes two Sanderson Farms Inc (nasdaq: SAFM - news - people ) plants, one Hormel Foods (nyse: HRL - news - people ) Inc turkey plant, and a Butterball turkey plant. Smithfield Foods Inc (nyse: SFD - news - people ) is part owner of Butterball.


The list of 19 banned plants did not include any of Pilgrim's Pride (nyse: PPC - news - people ) Corp , the largest U.S. chicken producer.


The numbers are listed below, and the full names of the plants can be found on the Food Safety and Inspection Service's (FSIS) Web site:


http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OFO/export/RussiaPoulst.htm


Supplier numbers subject to the ban: P-00003, P-164, P-190, P-239, P-244, P-247, P-519, P-522, P-550, P-667, P-727, P-758, P-6510, P-6616, P-7101, P-7769, P-8727, P-19128, P-20979. (Additional reporting by Bob Burgdorfer, Chicago; editing by Robin Paxton, Peter Blackburn and Jim Marshall)

[American Patriot]

Putin tells Europe: don't serve U.S. interests
29 Aug 2008 18:45:11 GMT
Source: Reuters

MOSCOW, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned European states against serving the foreign policy interests of the United States as he sought to deflect Western criticism of Russia's policy in Georgia.

The West is debating how to put pressure on Moscow, which supplies a quarter of the European Union's gas needs, after it recognised two breakaway regions in Georgia.

"If European states want to serve the foreign policy interests of the USA, then, in my opinion, they will gain nothing from this," Putin said in an interview with German television station ARD that was shown on Russian television.

"A country -- in the current case Russia -- which can stand up for the honour and dignity of its citizens, defend their lives... will not be isolated, despite the bloc-like thinking of our partners in Europe or in the United States."

"The world doesn't end with Europe or the United States," said Putin, who stepped down as president in May after eight years as the Kremlin chief. He was shown speaking in Russian in the interview, which was aired on Friday.

Putin said Russia had acted fully in accordance with international law in defending South Ossetia, a breakaway Georgian region which was attacked by Georgian forces on Aug 7-8, sparking an international crisis.

Russia launched a huge military operation, repelling Georgian troops and then pushing deep inside Georgia.

Putin said Russia did not want tense relations with anyone but wanted international law applied properly and evenly.

"We want good, neighbourly, partner-like relations with everyone. We do not intend to play by some special rules of our own: we want everyone to work according to one set of rules, known as international law," Putin said.

"We don't want anyone to manipulate that concept." (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Jon Boyle and Philippa Fletcher) (guy.faulconbridge@reuters.com, +7 495 775 12 42))

[American Patriot]

Aug 29, 2008 22:20
Putin says Russia won't be isolated over Georgia conflict
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW

Vladimir Putin says Russia will not be isolated over its conduct in Georgia and implies he does not fear any Western sanctions.

The Russian prime minister also warned Europe on Friday not to do the bidding of the US.

An animated and at times angry-looking Putin spoke in an interview with Germany's ARD television before a European Union meeting on the Georgia crisis and relations with Russia. He was shown on Russian TV.

[American Patriot]

South Ossetia to merge with Russia

Fri, 08/29/2008 - 4:25pm
That was quick.
Only three days after Russia recognized the independence of South Ossetia, officials from the disputed territory now say they plan to become part of Russia in the near future:

Soon there will be no North or South Ossetia — there will be a united Alania as part of Russia," [Deputy Parliamentary Speaker Tarzan] Kokoiti said, using another name for Ossetia.
"We will live in one united Russian state," he said.

Only this morning, the New York Times ran a feature on Ossetian nationalists imagining a future as the Andorra or Liechtenstein of the Caucasus. Oh well.

[American Patriot]

Saakashvili Offers ‘Patriot Act’

Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 29 Aug.'08 / 23:12

Saakashvili said late on August 29:


• Russia wants regime change in Georgia;
• ‘Patriot Act’ is needed;
• No civil liberties will be restricted;
• State should resume party funding.


President Saakashvili said on August 29 Georgia needed, what he called, “a patriotic act” to deter possible attempts of government overthrow through foreign intervention.


Speaking with the local authorities in the port town of Poti late on August 29, where the Russian forces maintain two outposts, Saakashvili said that Russia’s major goal in Georgia was to overthrow his government.


“It obvious that their goal was not taking over Tskhinvali, which is Georgia’s provincial town - only few people in Russia may know where it is located,” Saakashvili said at the meeting, which was televised live by the Rustavi 2 TV. “Their [Russia’s] goal was to take over Tbilisi and to overthrow the government.”


He said that Russians made it clear even publicly few days ago – apparently referring to the Russian Foreign Ministry’s August 26 statement in which it said “the Saakashvili regime does not at all meet the high standards set by the world community” and added it was sure that “sooner or later” the Georgian people would have “worthy leaders.”


Saakashvili said that he planned to propose the parliament to develop “the patriotic act” and added that this new legislature – details of which he did not elaborate – would no way infringe the civil liberties.


“This will be carried out under the condition of maintaining democracy; freedom and liberties,” he added and repeated it for coupe of more times.


He said that the act was needed to prevent “external attempts to destabilize the country.”


The first time when the ruling party politicians started talking about the need for, what they called, “a U.S. Patriot Act-style” legislature, was in the summer, 2006, shortly after the Kodori events.


When some opposition politicians condemned the Georgian forces crack down on rebel warlord Emzar Kvitsiani’s militia groups in the upper Kodori Gorge in July, 2006, they were immediately labeled by the ruling party politicians as traitors. Nika Gvaramia, who is now the Justice Minister, and at that time was a lawmaker, said on July 29, 2006 that the Parliament had to develop “a legislature similar to the one which is in the United States, I mean the Patriot Act… which will be directed against treacherous statements against the motherland.”


The issue, however, was shelved shortly after that and no one has ever raised the matter again up to now.


Also on August 29, President Saakashvili said that the authorities should revise decision on suspending funding of several parties from the state budget.
“We should finance the political parties and impose strict control to prevent any funding coming from the foreign countries – I mean from one particular country,” he said obviously referring to Russia.


In a highly controversial move in July the Parliament passed an amendment to the law that denied six opposition parties, which boycotted the new Parliament, state funding. The move was mainly perceived as a punishment for those opposition parties, which refused to enter into the new Parliament, citing that the May 21 parliamentary elections were rigged.


President Saakashvili said on August 29, that there have been “certain disagreements” over the party funding issue, but these disagreements, he said, should now be removed.


He also said that despite of “some exceptions,” the opposition political groups in general acted in a very appropriate manner at the time of the Russian invasion.