The Rise of the Second Soviet Empire

[Toad]

^ That other half (rt.com) however is purely a propaganda mouthpiece of the Russian government.

[American Patriot]

RT IS propaganda. I post it, usually, for contrast.

[American Patriot]

I find this site is always interesting to read - just to see what the other half is saying.

http://rt.com/

They certainly are.... I was going to say "unique", but that's not true. Russia Today - are little more than an Americanized Pravda - propaganda machine.

[vector7]

PUTIN: We build another 60 warships, the priority is to strengthen the power of the Black Sea Fleet

17:21 27/07/2014.
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In SEVERMORSKU parade of Russian military ships, Severodvinsk began construction SIMULTANEOUS THREE MORE SUBMARINES



Appeared as a deck heavy destroyer "Admiral Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov", which is both an aircraft carrier, the Russian leader said this: "The power and the glory of our fleet will only continue to increase. Rašće its defensive power, its combat readiness and mobility "



Fleets for Russia - its pride, power, and dignity, said Vladimir Putin in Severomorsk.

President of the RF in the great naval port "would start" naval parade in honor of the naval fleet. He did it with a heavy deck destroyer "Admiral Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov" who is the aircraft carrier.

When this was pointed out: "The sailors and naval officers have always been an example of strict discipline, courage and heroism, such as unconditional, self-sacrificing devotion to the Fatherland. These values ​​are priceless and remains unchangeable until today. Patriotism and flag of Russia are inextricably linked. "

The Russian leader said that warships RF during the 2013th were 43 naval campaign, and said: "The power and the glory of our fleet will only continue to increase. Rašće its defensive power, combat readiness and mobility. Will strengthen its material-technical base and modernize coastal infrastructure. Build new ships. "

According to Putin's words, the last year the Russian Navy received seven new ships, and another 19 were built and being tested.

Among those who have already enlarge the naval power of Russia, there are strategic submarine "Yury Dolgoruky" and "Alexander Nevsky". For a few weeks they will be joined by the atomic submarine destroyer "Severodvinsk", armed with cruise missiles.

During the construction of another 60 warships, missile boats and auxiliary ships.



Putin's Severomorsk special attention to national defense and security on the Black Sea.

"Among our priorities is to strengthen the combat power of the Black Sea Fleet. Will receive modern ships, we will create it for modern military and social infrastructure "- underlined Putin.

On the video link addressed the participants of the ceremony in a Russian military b rodogradilištu in Severodvinsk where he now also started construction of three submarines, "Prince Oleg" (project "Boreas-A"), "Krasnoyarsk" and "Khabarovsk" (project "Jasenja" ).

The parade in Severomorsk was attended by more than ten warships and submarines.

In addition to the aforementioned "Fleet Admiral of the Soviet Union Kuznetsova," even: strategic missile submarine destroyer "Yuri Dolgoruky", the heavy nuclear missile destroyer "Peter the Great" nuclear submarine "Nižnjij Novgorod", large antisubmarine ship "Severomorsk", a large landing ships "Georgy Victorious "and" Kondopoga "small landing ship" Snezhnogorsk "little rocket ship" Iceberg "tractor" polar "and border patrol boat" Podolsk. "...

[American Patriot]

The Russian leader said that warships RF during the 2013th were 43 naval campaign, and said: "The power and the glory of our fleet will only continue to increase. Rašće its defensive power, combat readiness and mobility. Will strengthen its material-technical base and modernize coastal infrastructure. Build new ships. "

Not good.

The US doesn't sit and brag about it's forces. It says, "We can do the job. We're strong. We prepare."

Russia says, "We will continue to increase in glory and power. We will kick everyone's ass if we have to, and sometimes when we don't."

That friends is the difference in the East and West.

[vector7]

Russian military-air forces obtained this year more than 90 new aircraft

00:15 17/07/2014



ARMED FORCES RF finally became the main buyer TECHNOLOGY NATIONAL AIRLINE INDUSTRY

More than 90 new combat aircraft will receive the Russian military-air forces by the end of this year!

Announcing this, head of the Joint Aviation Corporation, Mikhail Pogosjan, said:

"While realizing their export contracts, this year we will our Military-Air Force to deliver more than 90 aircraft. Now Russia is our main market, the main buyer of our Aerospace series ".

Pogosjan added that the situation is such that even the Russian aircraft manufacturers currently have no need to advertise their opportunities in foreign markets and foreign buyers.


At the same time said that the Russian air force to get more than 15 aircraft Su-34 and the new military transport aircraft Il-476th.


-------------------------

Comments:

+9

@ reader: Well, readers, how many U.S. law? As I wrote two days ago, now I repeat, F-35, which was supposed to be the backbone of the U.S. Air Force, and which make for 13 years, on Friday did not appear on the big and important international store fair planes in Britain because he had engine fire in Florida. He could not fly over the ocean, from Florida to Britain. To them for the second engine failure, lately, and have promised to him For real for the next year and through the next fair. In America it is called "one trillion disaster", many countries (U.S. allies, as others do not buy!) Have given up buying. Russian fifth-generation aircraft T-50 (invisible death) and the Chinese J-20 and the European Typhoon, but largely successful lete.Cak Russian Mig-21 from the 1950s can destroy it (can kill easy!). There's an old story: if Americans make something good, the Russians can do even better. I see that you're still a wise guy, who should be offered to the Russians as a military advisor.


answers

reader's picture
reader (not verified) 07/17/2014 13:16.

+7

I do not know how, but I know I have currently 2.5 times more fighter jets from Russia.
Second, the F35 has a lot of problems, but do not make it a toy for small children.
Third, think about the numbers 100 aircraft per year means that Russia its air fleet of fully reconstructed for 20 years! The enemy is at the gates. I only hope that the Russians deliberately conceal information.
The worst is underestimate opponents.
My, my ....

answers

Rasputin's picture
Rasputin (not verified) 07/17/2014 14:22.

+11

How much difference is easy to learn ... but it not say how USA has planes that have long been the expense, as they have still a huge number F/15 if/16 ... only rely on the f/18 .... the smaller number of "invisible" (for the White House) is negligible. About f/22 if/35 I will not waste say they have lost 15 billion dollars and mighty because of their corruption in the Army, USA.
Russia modernizing all its planes in 4-in and 4 + + generation, a new generation of real 5 (even though he now four generations of Russian better than any Western 5-e) .... in fact what is mass production ... .. 44/45 Russia produced 30,000 combat aircraft in combat conditions and ruined the country.
But the point is that Russia today produces a huge number of air defense missile systems, such as beech, pancir1, S-300, S-400, S-500 and so on. that have no equal in the anti-air defense, and they are far cheaper than the expensive planes. When Russia wanted to be planning to conquer the other, then they will do mass production (do not forget to make the cheapest plane - the expensive maintenance). So in its military doctrine, Russia has more than enough fighters for every purpose.
No understatement, because direct conflict USA-Russia will not be because there will be no world, but not in a conventional war, 1:1, USA has no business being in a huge Russia (foot? With the famous canned "Abrams" against x2 T-95 or "armate")

reply

[Ryan Ruck]

U.S. Says Russia Tested Cruise Missile, Violating Treaty

July 28, 2014

The United States has concluded that Russia violated a landmark arms control treaty by testing a prohibited ground-launched cruise missile, according to senior American officials, a finding that was conveyed by President Obama to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in a letter on Monday.

It is the most serious allegation of an arms control treaty violation that the Obama administration has leveled against Russia and adds another dispute to a relationship already burdened by tensions over the Kremlin’s support for separatists in Ukraine and its decision to grant asylum to Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor.

At the heart of the issue is the 1987 treaty that bans American and Russian ground-launched ballistic or cruise missiles capable of flying 300 to 3,400 miles. That accord, which was signed by President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, helped seal the end of the Cold War and has been regarded as a cornerstone of American-Russian arms control efforts.

Russia first began testing the cruise missiles as early as 2008, according to American officials, and the Obama administration concluded by the end of 2011 that they were a compliance concern. In May 2013, Rose Gottemoeller, the State Department’s senior arms control official, first raised the possibility of a violation with Russian officials.

The New York Times reported in January that American officials had informed the NATO allies that Russia had tested a ground-launched cruise missile, raising serious concerns about Russia’s compliance with the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or I.N.F. Treaty as it is commonly called. The State Department said at the time that the issue was under review and that the Obama administration was not yet ready to formally declare it to be a treaty violation.

In recent months, however, the issue has been taken up by top-level officials, including a meeting early this month of the Principals’ Committee, a cabinet-level body that includes Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, the defense secretary, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the secretary of state and the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Senior officials said the president’s most senior advisers unanimously agreed that the test was a serious violation, and the allegation will be made public soon in the State Department’s annual report on international compliance with arms control agreements.

“The United States has determined that the Russian Federation is in violation of its obligations under the I.N.F. treaty not to possess, produce or flight test a ground-launched cruise missile (GLCM) with a range capability of 500 kilometers to 5,500 kilometers or to possess or produce launchers of such missiles,” that report will say.

In his letter to Mr. Putin, delivered by the American Embassy, Mr. Obama underscored his interest in a high-level dialogue with Moscow with the aim of preserving the 1987 treaty and discussing steps the Kremlin might take to come back into compliance. Secretary of State John Kerry delivered a similar message in a Sunday phone call to Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister.
Continue reading the main story

Because the treaty proscribes testing ground-launched cruise missiles of medium-range, the Kremlin cannot undo the violation. But administration officials do not believe the cruise missile has been deployed and say there are measures the Russians can take to ameliorate the problem.

Administration officials declined to say what such steps might be, but arms control experts say they could include a promise not to deploy the system and inspections to demonstrate that the cruise missiles and their launchers have been destroyed. Because the missiles are small and easily concealed, obtaining complete confidence that the weapons have been eliminated might be difficult.

NATO’s top commander, Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, has said that the violation requires a response if it cannot be resolved.

“A weapon capability that violates the I.N.F., that is introduced into the greater European land mass, is absolutely a tool that will have to be dealt with,” he said in an interview in April. “It can’t go unanswered.” Mr. Obama has determined that the United States will not retaliate against the Russians by violating the treaty and deploying its own prohibited medium-range system, officials said. So the responses might include deploying sea- and air-launched cruise missiles, which would be an allowable under the accord.

Republican lawmakers have repeatedly criticized the administration for dragging its feet on the issue. Ms. Gottemoeller, the State Department official, has had no discussions with her Russian counterparts on the subject since February. And Mr. Kerry’s call on Sunday was the first time he had directly raised the violation with Mr. Lavrov, State Department officials said. Administration officials said the upheaval in Ukraine pushed the issue to the back burner and that the downturn in American-Russian relations has led to an interruption of regular arms-control meetings.

The prospects for resolving the violation were also uncertain at best. After Ms. Gottemoeller first raised the matter in 2013, Russian officials said that they had looked into the matter and consider the issue to be closed.

The Russians have also raised their own allegations, a move that American officials believe is intended to muddy the issue and perhaps give them leverage in any negotiations over compliance. One month after Ms. Gottemoeller raised the American concerns, the Russians responded by pointing to the United States plans to base the Aegis missile system in Romania.

The Aegis system, which is commonly used on warships, would be used to protect American and NATO forces from missile attacks. But the Russians have alleged that it could be used to fire prohibited cruise missiles.

When Mr. Kerry spoke with Mr. Lavrov on Sunday, the Russian foreign minister cited Russia’s concerns over “decoys.” That may have been a reference to Russian charges that the targets that the United States uses in antimissile tests are an I.N.F. treaty violation. American officials regard that allegation, about the issue of the Aegis system and complaints about the use of targets, to be spurious.
Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story

An underlying concern of the Obama administration in dealing with the Russians is that the Kremlin may not be wedded to the I.N.F. agreement. During the George W. Bush administration, some Russians officials argued that the treaty should be dropped so that the Kremlin could augment its military abilities to deal with threats on its periphery, including China and Pakistan.

In a June 2013 meeting with Russian defense industry officials, Mr. Putin described Mr. Gorbachev’s decision to sign the accord as “debatable to say the least,” but asserted that Russia would uphold the agreement. Even some American conservative analysts say that in pursing the compliance concern, the United States should not provide the Kremlin with an opportunity to back out of the agreement.

“For the United States to declare that we are pulling out of the treaty in response to what Russia has done would actually be welcome in Moscow because they are wrestling with the question of how they terminate,” Stephen Rademaker, a former Bush administration official, told the House Armed Services Committee this month. “We shouldn’t make it any easier for them. We should force them to take the onus of that.”

These were missiles that were supposed to have been destroyed by Russia. Anyone surprised?

[American Patriot]

Yes, I'm shocked, SHOCKED!

No, wait, not really. Never mind.

[American Patriot]

Fox was making a pretty big deal out of that a few minutes ago btw. And ABC news was covering it pretty well as well. In fact Fox News is talking about it again now.

[Ryan Ruck]

Any idea what system this is? All I've seen is "cruise missile".

[Ryan Ruck]

I've only seen one mention that it was the Kh-101:

Kh-101/102 (Izdeliye 111) - developed as a very stealthy replacement for the Kh-55SM in the late 1980s, the Kh-101 has a conventional warhead and the Kh-102 is nuclear.[3] A propfan version with 5000 km range was cancelled in 2000.[3] Accuracy is reportedly 6–9 m.[6] Speeds reach over 800km per her hour. Estimates range that it will outnumber the Russian nuclear missile fleet by 5:1, making them some of the most numerous and effective cruise missiles in the world.[6] They are expected to be in service in those numbers by 2023. The new missile complex has been successfully tested and in recent years put into series production to equip modernized Tu-95MS bombers.

Don't know if that's actually the case or not as I haven't seen the information anywhere else.

[American Patriot]

Here's the treaty:

http://www.state.gov/www/global/arms/treaties/inf1.html

The Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimination of Their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles, commonly referred to as the INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces) Treaty, requires destruction of the Parties' ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of between 500 and 5,500 kilometers, their launchers and associated support structures and support equipment within three years after the Treaty enters into force.

and this:

In the mid-1970s the Soviet Union achieved rough strategic parity with the United States. Shortly thereafter, the Soviet Union began replacing older intermediate-range SS-4 and SS-5 missiles with a new intermediate-range missile, the SS-20, bringing about what was perceived as a qualitative and quantitative change in the European security situation. The SS-20 was mobile, accurate, and capable of being concealed and rapidly redeployed. It carried three independently targetable warheads, as distinguished from the single warheads carried by its predecessors. The SS-20s 5,000 kilometer range permitted it to cover targets in Western Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and, from bases in the eastern Soviet Union, most of Asia, Southeast Asia, and Alaska.

So SS-4, SS-5 being replaced with SS-20 - a 5000 km range missile.

Also this note in a news article:

“The United States has determined that the Russian Federation is in violation of its obligations under the I.N.F. treaty not to possess, produce or flight test a ground-launched cruise missile (GLCM) with a range capability of 500 kilometers to 5,500 kilometers or to possess or produce launchers of such missiles,” that report will say.

[vector7]

US accuses Russia of violating 1987 missile treaty

Published July 28, 2014FoxNews.com



The Obama administration has accused Russia of violating a 1987 nuclear missile treaty by testing a ground-launched cruise missile and says the U.S. is prepared for immediate high-level dialogue with Moscow over the matter.

An administration official told Fox News in a statement that the violation "is a very serious matter which we have attempted to address with Russia for some time now." The New York Times first reported the accusation.

President Obama informed Russian President Vladimir Putin in a letter Monday of the U.S.' determination that Russia broke the agreement. The official said the U.S. is prepared to engage in "senior-level bilateral dialogue immediately" with Russia with the goal of assuring Washington that Moscow will return to compliance with the treaty.

"The United States is committed to the viability of the I.N.F. Treaty," the official said. "We encourage Russia to return to compliance with its obligations under the Treaty and to eliminate any prohibited items in a verifiable manner."

According to the Times, Russia started testing the missiles as early as 2008, and the Obama administration flagged them as a possible violation at the end of 2011.

Russian officials have said they looked into the allegations and consider the matter closed.

Obama's most senior advisors recently unanimously agreed that the tests was a serious violation of the treaty, the Times reported. The State Department will publicly reveal the accusation in an annual report on compliance with arms control agreements Tuesday.

The treaty confrontation comes at a highly strained time between President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin over Russia's intervention in Ukraine.

In raising the issue now, the U.S. appears to be placing increased pressure on Russia and trying to further isolate it from the international community. The European Union and the United States plan to announce new sanctions against Russia this week in the face of U.S. evidence that Russia has continued to assist separatist forces in Ukraine.

The public finding comes in the wake of congressional pressure on the White House to confront Russia over the allegations of cheating on the treaty. The treaty, which President Ronald Reagan signed with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, banned all U.S. and Russian land-based ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 300 miles and 3,400 miles.

Obama, who has made nuclear disarmament a key foreign policy aim, has little interest in having Russia pull out of the treaty altogether. Obama won Senate ratification of a New START treaty, which took effect in February 2011 and requires the U.S. and Russia to reduce the number of their strategic nuclear weapons to no more than 1,550 by February 2018.

Obama last year announced that he wants to cut the number of U.S. nuclear arms by another third and that he would "seek negotiated cuts" with Russia, a goal now complicated by the accusation of a missile treaty violation.

The Obama administration has informed Congress and U.S. allies of its decision to seek Russian compliance.

[American Patriot]

If this is true....


/chuckles


Russia Violates ICBM Treaty – President Obama Sends Vlad Putin A Strongly Worded Letter and Threatens To Unfriend Him On Facebook…

Posted on July 29, 2014 by sundance

So, he’s like no, and I’m like oh yeah who’s got more twitter peeps – BOOM, right?. And he comes back with #CARE? As if he’s all that – so I bring the hammer with #NOBEL, and the dude actually fires back “LOL Captain #RedLine” ! OMG srsly, I’m so not following him again – if, like, evah right – WTF ?

WASHINGTON — The United States has concluded that Russia violated a landmark arms control treaty by testing a prohibited ground-launched cruise missile, according to senior American officials, a finding that was conveyed by President Obama to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in a letter on Monday.


It is the most serious allegation of an arms control treaty violation that the Obama administration has leveled against Russia and adds another dispute to a relationship already burdened by tensions over the Kremlin’s support for separatists in Ukraine and its decision to grant asylum to Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor. (read more)

[Ryan Ruck]

Russia Overhauls Nuclear Missile Forces as Tensions With West Flare

September 22, 2014

Russia's land-based strategic nuclear forces will go through a top-to-bottom overhaul, as the rift between Moscow and the West over the conflict in Ukraine grows, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Monday.

One hundred percent of Russia's nuclear arsenal — the biggest in the world — will be modernized by 2020 as part of a massive rearmament campaign, news agency RIA Novosti quoted Rogozin, who oversees Russia's military-industrial complex, as saying.

Moscow's current rearmament program, into which the government is pouring $700 billion through 2020, says the military should replace 30 percent of all its hardware with "cutting edge" weaponry by 2015, and 70 percent by 2020.

But the nuclear forces — the backbone of Russia's military might — appear to be getting an extra boost.

"The formation of the technical base for the strategic nuclear forces is proceeding at a faster rate," Rogozin was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying, "in fact, we will renew not 70 percent of the [strategic nuclear forces], but 100 percent."

At odds over the conflict in Ukraine, relations between Russia and the West have hit a post-Cold War low. The West's military alliance, NATO, is rejuvenating itself in the face of potential Russian aggression against former Soviet countries, while Moscow has increasingly painted the bloc as Russia's gravest national security threat.

Rogozin, an outspoken minister who headed a nationalist party named Rodina, or Motherland, in the early 2000s, cautioned against an over reliance on nuclear forces, however, saying that Russia needs a compact and streamlined army that can be quickly deployed to "any threatening theater of war." He also hinted at other military reforms that will not be made public: "Something must be preserved as a quiet secret to surprise [the enemy] at the most critical moment."


(Machine translation below)
Putin Buys New Nuclear Weapons

September 22, 2014

Russia has 1,800 nuclear warheads.

It is not enough, says Putin.

Now the country renews its entire arsenal - with over 3 000 new tanks, helicopters and fighter planes.

The price tag? Approximately 5 000 billion.

Russia gearing up.

By 2020, the country's entire strategic arsenal to be replaced, said Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said in an interview with the TV channel Rossiya 24.

Approximately 5,000 billion are thought to cost the project, according to The Moscow Times.

- The development of the technology base for our strategic nuclear arsenal is quicker and we will in fact not to renew 70 percent, but 100 percent, Rogozin said in the television interview.

2300 new tanks, 1,200 new helicopters and fighter planes and hundreds of new satellites to be included in the expanded armory. The 1800 nuclear warheads that are in the country to be completely replaced.

By 2015, 30 percent of the country's strategic arsenal to be replaced to be "at the forefront" of weapons technology. By 2020, 70 percent of the weapons are classed as state of the art.

The weapons should if necessary be moved to "all potential battle scenes" and according to Rogozin, who took the opportunity to promise a simplified asylum process for Ukrainian workers who want to participate in the process, one will hire the best specialists in the world to develop weapons.

He also explained that they will not have any problem to do without the French supply of combat helicopters which were withdrawn as a result of conflicts in Ukraine, Russia Today writes. However, the country will demand my money back.

- It's not just money that France risks losing, but their status as a reliable supplier in world trade.

And with the news follows a dig at future enemies.

- Are we going to impress others, is it really necessary to show off all our weapons to them? Some things need to be kept as secret and only revealed at the proper critical moments, said Rogozin according to Russia Today.

The country has since 2008 worked to rearm its military capability. Four per cent of GDP now goes to the defense, an increase of 0.5 percent compared with the previous year.

- It has been a long-term plan for management. Russia has not invested enough in the material. Most were constructed during the Soviet era, and is now very old. Navy, for example, is 20 to 30 years old ships, says Fredrik Westerlund, security policy analyst at the Swedish Defence Research Agency, FOI.

What does it mean for Putin's relations with the West?

- The plans of Russia regeneration has been known for some time. But in light of Ukraine conflict becomes clear that Russia's military capability influences the security of other countries. You can not get away.

Why so much nuclear weapons?

- To have a strong nuclear weapons is the main security guarantee for Russia. Putin does not trust the Russian ground forces to deter a big war with countries such as China or the United States. Based on the threat they themselves feel this is a reasonable armament.

[Ryan Ruck]

Putin Seeks Ways to Cut Russia Off From the Internet

September 19, 2014

Russia's Security Council will convene on Monday to discuss the government's ability to isolate the Russian segment of the internet from the global network during times of crisis, such as military action or foreign-sponsored protests, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday, confirming earlier speculation in Russian media.

In comments carried by Interfax, Peskov denied that Russia was planning to entirely cut off the Russian Internet — known as RuNet — but said due to the "unpredictable behavior" of the U.S. and EU, "we have to think about how to ensure our national security."

Creeping Regulation

The Russian government has been gradually encroaching on Internet freedoms in recent years, with initiatives ranging from mandatory registration to access public wi-fi to expanding limitations from the country prohibitive media law to individual internet blogs.

This year has seen the introduction of laws that allow authorities to issue arrest warrants for publishing "extremist material" online, and another forcing foreign internet companies to store Russian data on Russian soil, enabling Russian security services to access the servers at will.

On Friday, Russian lawmakers voted to move the deadline for storing data in Russia forward to January next year from September 2016.

Now, the government is looking to reorganize the Russian internet so authorities can isolate it from the world wide web in times of war and civil protest, as well as position itself as the ultimate authority on distributing IP-addresses and domain names, according to unidentified sources from Russian telecommunications companies, IT companies and NGOs quoted by the Vedomosti business daily on Friday.

Russian officials appear to be positioning themselves to take full control of the flow of information in and out of Russia via the internet, according to prominent Russian technology blogger Anton Nossik.

"There comes a moment to discuss the complete unplugging of Russia from the global Internet, so that no bytes would come here from abroad. This is the issue that has been raised and is being discussed," Nossik wrote on Facebook.

According to Vedomosti, Russia's national security council will meet with President Vladimir Putin on Monday to review a series of tests conducted by the Communications and Press Ministry in July aimed at evaluating the RuNet's stability and overall security.

The ministry found that the RuNet is vulnerable to foreign attack and influence, and several proposed measures to improve its security will be discussed, Vedomosti reported, citing unidentified sources in the Russian IT industry and various non-profit organizations involved in the RuNet's operation.

The most shocking proposal allegedly on the table is the development of a kill-switch that would allow the government to sever the RuNet from the global internet during times of war or large-scale civil protests. Telecoms industry sources told Vedomosti that they would require special equipment to isolate the RuNet, but that the government has asked that this be done by early 2015.

Under President Putin, authorities have kept a tight lid on protest in Russia. After widespread rigging was reported in parliamentary elections in 2011, a street protest movement briefly emerged, but targeted arrests and tougher legislation quickly snuffed out the movement's energy.

But although Putin remains hugely popular, Russia now faces a long period of economic hardship, as Western sanctions over Ukraine, a lack of structural economic reform and flat-or-falling oil prices negate the sources of possible economic growth. Harder economic times could feed through to popular discontent.

Kill-Switch Active

Andrei Soldatov, a security analyst, said the structure of the RuNet makes it possible to cut it off from the global network.

"We have very few Internet exchange points in the country and all are manned by national long-distance operators like [state-owned] Rostelecom, which is very close to the government," he told The Moscow Times Friday.

Previously, Russia's attempts at internet control were limited to securing government communications from foreign control, but now that aspiration has apparently expanded to include the entire national internet, Soldatov said

This is illustrated by another proposal that according to Vedomosti will be discussed at Monday's Security Council meeting — the transfer of control over the RU and .РФ domains away from the Coordination Center of Top Level RU Domains, an NGO that manages IP-address assignment on the RuNet.

"The talk about unplugging the internet is also about how to hand over control of the .Ru zone from the Coordination Center to the government," Soldatov said.

This would effectively give the government control over which servers are included on the RuNet.

Deputy Communications and Press Minister Alexei Volin said Friday he knows nothing of these plans, Novaya Gazeta reported.

Down With the Internet

Alarm over censorship of the Internet has been growing recently. The Russian government is notoriously suspicious of the internet — in particular, social media — believing it to be a tool for mobilizing society against the status-quo.

In April, Putin characterized the Internet as "a special project of the CIA," reflecting his long held suspicion of the Internet and unfamiliarity with it. Putin reportedly does not use the internet, in contrast to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, a well known technology enthusiast whose political clout has waned since he left the presidency in 2012.

In the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations about the extent of surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency, or NSA, last year, Russian officials and lawmakers began talking about the need to establish "digital sovereignty."

One move that appeared to reflect these attitude was the law requiring foreign internet companies to store Russian data in servers on Russian territory. This would ostensibly keep foreign agencies like the NSA from easily accessing the data, while giving domestic intelligence agencies like the FSB the ability to install backdoors and keep tabs on their citizen's internet activity.

The FSB — the successor agency to the Soviet KGB — has been trying to develop a system analogous to the NSA's PRISM system, called SORM. The system, currently it its third iteration, has been in development since 2009. SORM-3 allows for Russia's security services to monitor and analyze a wide range of personal data, such as the movements of cellphone users and their contacts, as well as bank transactions and household water consumptions. The program is not subject to any public oversight.



(Machine translation below)

Putin Wants To Isolate Russian Internet From Abroad

Putin wants to keep the Internet - but only if it is Russian.

The Security Council will discuss the possibility of isolating Russia from international web sites during crises, writes the Moscow Times.

The idea is to isolate the Russian segment of the Internet, RuNet, from the international network. The insulation must be deployed in times of crisis, such as the military threat or larger demonstrations. The proposal is said to be due to the EU's and the USA's "unpredictable behavior".

- We must consider how we can ensure our national security, said the spokesman for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, on Friday, according to the Moscow Times.

According to the newspaper Vedomosti, the Security Council met Vladimir Putin to evaluate RuNets protection against external threats.
"Separate Russian online from free web"

Sources in the IT industry say that the Council deems RuNet as vulnerable facing foreign attacks, and that security must be increased. The most radical proposal to increase safety is to eliminate the Russian network from the free web. According Vedemosti restrictions can be deployed in the spring by 2015.

The proposal is one of many attempts to limit internet usage for Russian citizens and be seen as a step towards creating a controlled Internet under the total control of the authorities.

An earlier bill, which was approved by Russia's lower house, requires mandatory registration for all users of public Wi-Fi networks and blogger with over 3000 readers per day. Bloggers must also, by law, relate to the same rules as for major media and can not be anonymous. Human Rights Watch activist Hug Williamson called the bill "draconian" and "another milestone in Russia's relentless dismantling ytrrandefriheten" writes the BBC.
Social Media and Google may suffer

Under the bill, all the sites that handle information about Russian citizens store them on servers located in Russia - which could mean that sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google may shut down in September 2016 if they do not follow the requirements.

- They want back the Iron Curtain, with everything written on paper, as in the Soviet Union. It feels like the Duma to lock us into a cell armor to protect us, but without asking if we need it, said Vladimir Kantorovitj, vice-president of a lobbying organization for the Russian tour operators, told AFP in July.

Putin has repeatedly stressed that he is skeptical about the Internet, including by calling it "a CIA project."

[American Patriot]

Russia Prepares To Repel U.S. On All Fronts
September 26, 2014 · by Fortuna's Corner · in CIA, DIA, foreign policy, Intelligence Community, military history, national security, NATO, POTUS, Russia, Ukraine, US Military · Leave a comment

Russia Prepares to Repel United States on All Fronts

Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 11 Issue: 169

September 25, 2014 03:52 PM Age: 15 hrs

By: Pavel Felgenhauer

(Source: RIA Novosti)

The ceasefire in Donbas (eastern Ukrainian region encompassing Luhansk and Dontesk provinces) between Ukrainian and pro-Russia forces, announced on September 5, has been solidified by an additional agreement to withdraw artillery, multiple rocket launch systems (MRLS) and other heavy equipment from the front line. The second agreement was signed on September 20, in Minsk (Interfax, September 20). The Russian state-controlled media reports that both sides in Donbas have begun to withdraw their heavy armaments from the front line under the control of observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE ). Negotiations continue between the warring parties about further prisoner-of-war exchanges and local troop deployment adjustments to somewhat straighten the line of control in Donbas (Rossiyskaya Gazeta, September 24). Local clashes, shootings and shelling continue in Donbas, in particular in Donetsk, the region’s biggest city, where heavily entrenched Ukrainian military forces have successfully repulsed all attempts by Russia-backed rebels to take control of the international airport in the western suburbs of the city. Still, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has declared the ceasefire deal he had brokered with his Russia counterpart Vladimir Putin a success: “September 24, was the first real ceasefire day—not a single Ukrainian soldier dead. Hail Ukraine!” (Segodnya, September 25).

The fighting in Donbas has significantly subsided—and with it the threat of imminent escalation by direct Russian military engagement. Nevertheless, last Sunday, September 21, the streets of central Moscow were packed with thousands of anti-war and anti-government protesters marching with Russian and Ukrainian flags. According to official police reports, the anti-war march in Moscow gathered some 5,000 protesters. The organizers and independent observers asses the number to have been some five to ten times larger—more or less the same as during the massive protest rallies and marches in 2011 and 2012 (Interfax, September 21). The relatively large numbers of pro-Ukrainian, anti-war and anti-Putin protesters demonstrating in central Moscow does not fit well with the overall propaganda viewpoint projected by the Russian state-controlled media. Daily, the Russian news spreads hateful stories about “bloody Ukrainian fascists,” supported and guided by their Washington masters, massacring innocent civilians in Donbas, while the entire Russian nation rallies around Putin against the vile West. Thus, Russian state-controlled media dismissed the Sunday protest march as an event organized by agents of the United States. The Russian news proclaimed that “traitors” had managed to rally only a handful of misguided citizens, who were lamenting the absence of French cheese and Norwegian salmon in Moscow’s supermarkets—shortages caused by a Kremlin-imposed food import ban, designed as a reply to Western sanctions, which were punishing Russia for its involvement in the Ukrainian crisis (vesti.ru, September 21).

The Duma is now rushing though a Kremlin-sponsored bill to curtail foreign-connected ownership of any media outlets in Russia. The bill is planned to be fully approved Friday, September 26, less than two weeks after it was introduced (see EDM, September 18). The new regulations will punish foreign-owned entertainment TV and mass circulated, Russian-language adaptations of glossy publications like Playboy, Vogue, GQ, Glamour, Tatler, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Men’s Health and others. According to the Finnish-owned Sanoma Independent Media publishing house—which prints in Russia magazines such as Cosmopolitan in addition to The Moscow Times and Vedomosti newspapers—thousands of journalists and other Russian workers will be out of a job, if the law is approved in its present form. In the Duma, such arguments do not carry weight: It was announced that “glossies undermine the Russian Federation,” and the vote to approve the law was almost unanimous. Apparently, the authorities believe the foreign-controlled entertainment media may, in time of crisis, be suddenly transformed into a political, US-controlled tool of regime change (gazeta.ru, September 23).
The Interior Ministry Special Separate Motor-Rifle division (OMSDON) has been officially returned its honorary name of “Felix Dzerzhinsky”—a Polish-born Bolshevik and founder of the Russian secret police, the KGB—just as it was called in Soviet times. The OMSDON or “Dzerzhinsky division” is based in the Moscow suburbs and its main mission is the armed suppression of any possible enemies of the Kremlin in the Moscow region—internal or external. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the OMSDON lost the name of Dzerzhinsky, a historical figure considered by many in Russia to have been a mass murderer. But this week, the OMSDON again became the “Dzerzhinsky division,” despite protests by human rights activists (Ehko Moskvy, September 22).

To prepare to meet the external US-led threat, the Russian military is currently carrying out the unprecedentedly massive military exercise Vostok 2014, involving 155,000 men as well as thousands of tanks, jets, naval ships and other heavy equipment. Thousands of reservists were called up. According to Russia’s defense minister, Army-General Sergei Shoigu, Vostok 2014 is the biggest war exercises in the country’s history, larger in size than any war games during the Cold War. The defense of the Russian Arctic was also practiced, according to Shoigu, as Russian forces on a newly established military base on the New Siberian Islands fired anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles. Paratroopers and marines were deployed to the Arctic island of Wrangel and on the Chukotka shore to prepare to repel an enemy invasion (kremlin.ru, September 23).

Arguably, Vostok 2014 was exclusively a preparation for war with the US. The Vostok 2014 scenario reportedly involved a foreign power called “Missouria” (a stand in for the US) provoking a clash between Russia and an unnamed Asian nation (Japan) over a territorial dispute (the South Kuril Islands). In the scenario being practiced, “Missouria,” with allied support, was using this conflict as a pretext to begin a full-scale invasion of Russia. The Russian Armed Forces taking part in Vostok 2014 were thus tasked with defending against “Missourian” (US) air force and navy attacks and invasions from the Arctic to Vladivostok in the south. In the scenario, enemy marines and army units also landed in Chukotka, Kamchatka, the Kurils, Sakhalin and other outlying regions. During the exercise, Russia is forced to mobilize all the forces and resources at its disposal to counter this treacherous air-sea-land invasion (Vzglad, September 23).

Anti-Western and anti-American rhetoric continues to dominate Russian TV channels and other state-controlled media. And this rhetoric is followed up with action to prepare to fight US-led external enemies that are presumed to be preparing to attack Russia and its interests on different fronts. Simultaneously, however, Moscow believes it must deal with an internal foe: Western agents and traitors who are preparing diversions and regime change from within. Apparently, the ceasefire in Donbas is seen in the Kremlin as a temporary armistice—essentially one between Moscow and Washington, which are both fighting a war by proxy within Ukraine, as during the Cold War in Vietnam or Afghanistan. This ceasefire is shaky and may collapse, possibly followed by further escalation and the conflict spreading, involving the entire globe.

[Avvakum]

What the writer of the article doesn't realize is that Putin and company don't care-not because they're crazy, but because they're slowly wrapping up this latest version of Lenin's 'New Economic Policy', and slowly ending Capitalism in Russia (and then everywhere else);

Op-Ed Columnist
Putin Shows His Hand




October 10, 2014

Joe Nocera


A few days ago, The Financial Times published an interview with a Russian businessman named Sergei Pugachev. Once an ally of President Vladimir Putin, Pugachev owned shipbuilding and construction interests, as well as a bank. Indeed, he was once known as “the Kremlin’s banker.” But his bank collapsed a few years ago, and, in 2012, the government seized his two shipyards. Jointly valued at $3.5 billion by the accounting firm of BDO, they were sold to a competitor, the United Shipbuilding Corporation, for $422.5 million, according to the paper.
The chairman of United Shipbuilding at the time was Igor Sechin, one of Putin’s closest associates and the head of Rosneft, the state oil company. Russian businessmen, Pugachev complained to The Financial Times, had become nothing more than “serfs” in Russia. “Today in Russia, there is no private property,” he added. “There are only serfs who belong to Putin.”
And so it goes in Putin’s Russia.
I had been making inquiries, hoping to find out whether the sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe in the wake of Russia’s takeover of Crimea were working. The answer, I believe, is yes, but not necessarily in the way you’d think.
The first point to make is that the Russian economy has been in a downturn ever since Putin returned to power in May 2012. In recent months, that slide accelerated. Economic growth has flat-lined. The ruble is in free fall. Inflation is rising. More than $100 billion of capital is expected to flee the country this year. Most ominous of all, the price of oil — Russia’s primary asset, upon which the government depends to finance itself — has been dropping.
Although the mounting problems have been coincident with the sanctions, it is impossible to say for sure whether there is a direct correlation. (One thing that is making a difference, I should note, is the boom in American oil and gas, which has produced a glut of fossil fuel and has helped depress prices.) The direct effect will more likely be felt in the near future, when, for instance, Russian companies have to refinance their debt despite being locked out of Western capital markets.
What the sanctions have done, though, is bring out the worst tendencies of Putin and his close associates, putting them on display for all to see. The rule of law has long been a fiction in Russia, but, for years, Western businessmen — and Russian businessmen as well — made excuses. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former oligarch who spent 10 years in a Soviet penal colony, had foolishly decided to take Putin on politically, they would say.
But since the sanctions have been put in place, McDonald’s restaurants, which had never had any problems before in Russia, are suddenly being closely inspected and a handful shut down. Other Western companies are having similar troubles.
Or take the case of Vladimir Yevtushenkov, a Russian billionaire who ran Sistema, a big conglomerate. One of Sistema’s assets was Bashneft, Russia’s sixth-largest oil company by output. Last month, Yevtushenkov was placed under house arrest, accused of money laundering. After a court hearing, his shares in Bashneft were seized by the government.
Yevtushenkov was not politically active like Khodorkovsky. He was no threat to Putin. But it is widely believed that Bashneft’s assets will eventually find their way to Sechin and become part of Rosneft. Rosneft had asked the government for a $40 billion bailout to help it withstand Western sanctions; handing it cheap assets is certainly one way to help.
“Rule No. 1 for Putin is that his people will be protected, and he is signaling that,” said Karen Dawisha, a Russia expert at Miami University of Ohio and the author of a new book, “Putin’s Kleptocracy.” “They have started to dip into the pension funds. There are double-digit cuts in the health budget. His people will always be served before the people.”
In imposing the sanctions, the Obama administration and its counterparts in Europe have targeted precisely the men and the companies that are closest to Putin. By reacting the way he has, Putin is scaring away not just foreign investors but Russian businessmen as well. Not that he seems to care.
Just a few days ago, the Russian Parliament began the process of passing a law that would allow the government to seize assets owned by foreign companies — and use them to reimburse oligarchs and others who have been financially hurt by the sanctions. They are calling it the “Rotenberg villa law,” named for Arkady Rotenberg, an oligarch who had four luxury villas in Italy frozen because of the sanctions. This is such a foolishly counterproductive measure that even some inside the government protested it. Nonetheless, it will almost surely pass.
Thus, in the face of sanctions, does Russia cut off its nose to spite its face.

[Ryan Ruck]

What the writer of the article doesn't realize is that Putin and company don't care-not because they're crazy, but because they're slowly wrapping up this latest version of Lenin's 'New Economic Policy', and slowly ending Capitalism in Russia (and then everywhere else);

Yep. I've got an article from the NYT from a few days ago that talks about Russia seizing foreign owned property in Russia and that was my first thought.

[Avvakum]

Yep. I've got an article from the NYT from a few days ago that talks about Russia seizing foreign owned property in Russia and that was my first thought.

It's kind of sad being right about all this, for the most part being right, that is. I think that's why I tried to get around it, modify it, deny it, anything but stare it in the face and plan accordingly. I'm ok with whatever happens to me, but my sympathy is for all these deluded souls in the West. I'm sure in Eastern Europe people aren't so out of touch that they can deny these underground structures of criminal Bolshevik agents being in existence. And now, when the Chekists in Russia openly run things, it may be too late to stop their plan in it's tracks.

It would be amazing though if New York and Los Angeles were being Defended, in effect, by Ukrainian soldiers in the Donbass region. But so it is I think, and that's why I'm posting this picture as a reminder of where the 'spirit of 1776' seems to live on;



What a mixed up world we're living in.... Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the Heroes!