RUSSIA’S OPEN AND ACTIVE REARMAMENT

It is someday going to be obvious to ordinary Americans that Russia is the new enemy as she becomes more and more aggressive in dealing with Europe. But the government won’t warn Americans or even speak ill of Russia until Russia’s hostile intentions and rearmament are too far advanced to counter.

Here are three major stories just this week showing how the Russians are beginning in earnest to divest themselves of the “fallen Soviet” reputation.

Bruce Pannier of Radio Free Europe writes, “Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has outlined plans for military reform and rearmament that would see the Russian government spending 23 trillion rubles (some $770 billion) over a 10-year period.”Naturally Putin couched his remarks in defensive terms, just like Hitler.

"It’s obvious we cannot strengthen our international position, develop the economy and democratic institutions if we are not able to defend Russia."“ The Russian prime minister complained that up until recently there have been military units that require up to five days to fully assemble. In the article he said that ground forces have ‘more than 100 regular and special brigades’ that should be able to fully assemble in ‘one hour and be deployed to potential combat theaters within 24 hours.’

“To support these forces, Putin said money will be spent to build ‘more than 400 modern intercontinental ballistic missiles’ for ground and sea forces [while the US is heading for 300 warheads], 28 submarines armed with nuclear missiles, more than 50 military surface vessels, and more than 600 modern warplanes, as well as a broad deployment of the new S-400 antiaircraft system and Vityaz anti-missile system.“

Putin also wrote about reforms for servicemen saying that the armed forces would have approximately 1 million members by 2017 and 700,000 of these would be ‘professional’ soldiers as opposed to conscripted troops. Putin said by 2020 only 145,000 of the 1-million man armed forces would be conscripts. Currently, Russia still heavily relies on a conscripted army [and will always have to due to the awful reputation of Russian army life for the common soldier].”

Bloomberg News picked up this tidbit, which belies the tale that the “Oligarchs” are the enemy of Putin. “Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he owed a debt of gratitude to oil companies TNK and OAO Surgutneftegas for providing the cash needed to keep Russia’s seaborne nuclear forces in the Pacific afloat in 2002.“

Then-President Putin asked the non-state companies [owned initially by former Communist leaders, who were given state “loans” to buy the wealth and assets of Russia. These became the Oligarchs, living in foreign luxury, who Putin claims are the enemy of Russians] to provide the funding needed to keep the Vilyuchinsk base on the Kamchatka Peninsula operating after the military proposed to stop funding and close the facility, Putin said in an article published in the government’s official Rossiiskaya Gazeta today.

But the really dangerous weapons Russia is building (for which the US has no effective anti-missile response) are the new generation of ICBMs [with manuevering warheads]: Ria Novosti reports: “Russia’s armed forces will receive over 400 modern intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), more than 100 military spacecraft and over 2,300 new tanks within the next ten years, Prime Minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin said [If he is admitting to 400, you can bet the real number is much more. Communists always understate their military potential in public].

“Earlier media voiced fears that by 2020, Russia’s ICBM arsenal could reduce by more than half as over 400 missiles would go beyond their maximum service life without timely replacement [They been extending the life of their biggest SS-18 missiles for decades, despite having promised to dismantle them].

“Within the next decade, the armed forces will receive more than 400 modern ground- and sea-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, eight ballistic missile submarines, about 20 general purpose attack submarines, over 50 surface ships and some 100 military-purpose spacecraft,” “Putin said the number will also include “over 600 modern aircraft, including fifth-generation fighters, more than a thousand helicopters, 28 regimental sets of S-400 [SA-21 Growler] surface-to-air missile systems, 38 division sets of Vityaz air defense systems, 10 brigade sets of Iskander-M (SS-26 Stone) tactical missile systems, more than 2,300 modern tanks, some 2,000 self-propelled artillery systems and guns, as well as more than 17,000 military vehicles.”

I have always believed that one of the key signs of Russian aggression will be justified by a“defense of Russians in former Soviet states, now part of NATO.”

Itar-Tass writes that, “Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin believes that only economic and diplomatic ways are not enough to counteract to the growth of conflicts near Russian borders. In his article devoted to the problems of national security and published in the Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily on Monday, the prime minister recalled about the growth of regional and local conflicts, the emergence of zones of instability and ‘an artificially fueled, controlled chaos.’”

This is right out of Hitler’s playbook—blame the unrest on Western influences and agents to justify military intervention. It’s several years off, but Putin is already laying the groundwork:“Deliberate attempts are obvious to provoke such conflicts in the immediately proximity from the borders of Russia and our allies,” Putin noted. “We witness the basic principles of international law were devaluated and disrupted, particularly in international security,” he pointed out.

Now, here’s the military justification: “The Armed Forces, security services and other power-wielding agencies should be ready for a quick and efficient response to new challenges,”he said. “This is a compulsory condition for Russia to feel safely, and the arguments of the country will be taken by its partners in various international formats,” Putin said.

Anti-Americanism is becoming the key to Putin’s presidential campaign. Ever since our attack on the civilian infrastructure of Serbia during the Kosovo war, ordinary Russians dislike the American government. Vlad Isachendov of the AP reports, “It’s a mantra of Vladimir Putin’s presidential campaign: The US is working to weaken Russia and push it back into the chaos that followed the Soviet collapse. In a wave of anti-Americanism reminiscent of the Cold War, the prime minister has cast his opponents as US lackeys and the new American ambassador has found himself under unprecedented attack, including being targeted in an offensive.

‘The current campaign is laden with anti-Americanism,’ said Sergei Oznobishchev, head of the Institute of Strategic Assessments, a Moscow think tank.”

China too: I’m the only analyst predicting a Russia/China joint attack on the West, but the growing evidence of Chinese aggressive military development back my theory.

Bill Gertz of the Washington Times reported this week that, “Adm. Locklear admitted what U.S. security officials have been saying privately for years. That is, China is engaged in pervasive warfare preparation against the United States through a combination of cyber and traditional military development.

“A more nefarious objective for the Chinese military's cyberwarriors is the planting of electronic‘Sleeper Agents’ - difficult to detect software that rarely communicates with China but can be activated to sabotage the U.S. military during a crisis.”

The Chinese are also expanding their nuclear forces. Army Lt. Gen. Ronald L. Burgess Jr., said in recent Senate testimony the current [Chinese] long-range missile arsenal that could deliver a nuclear warhead to the United States is ‘fewer than 50 ICBMs.’“

Gen. Burgess said the strategic missile force ‘will probably be double that number by 2025.’

Gen. Burgess also said China is modernizing its nuclear missiles forces by adding harder-to-hit road-mobile missiles and enhancing silo-based missiles. It is also building up nuclear-missile submarines.”