Syria-Russia: Update. This week, the New York Times reported that Russia is delivering not only the S-300 advanced air defense missile systems to Syria, but also Yakhont “ship killer” missiles, which would make it a lot more painful for any foreign navies trying to intervene in Syria or provide supplies to the rebels by sea
In 2007, the two countries signed a contract for 72 Yakhont missiles which are supersonic and have a range of about 200 miles. Some missiles were delivered in 2011 but the Russians have not said how many remain to be provided. They are among the most deadly anti-ship missiles in the world.
Comment: Details about the S-300 system delivery remain undisclosed, including whether Russians will install and operate it. A member of the Russian parliament confirmed the Russians consider the Yakhont delivery a part of a longstanding weapons contract. The effect of these deliveries is to deter a UN resolution approving creation of a no-fly zone in Syria, as occurred in Libya which evolved into a NATO air combat campaign with limited ground intervention.
Russia: Russian navy ships from the Pacific Fleet entered the Mediterranean Sea for the first time in decades this week. The task group includes the destroyer Admiral Panteleyev, two amphibious warfare ships Peresvet and Admiral Nevelskoi, as well as a tanker and a tugboat.
Earlier we reported that the US has now officially landed a Marine force in Israel as well as an assault ship, in a visit that the US Navy promptly assured “is not associated with, nor a reaction to, any world events.” It seems we were not the only ones who read this justification somewhat skeptically: so did Russia.
And in a historic event, the Russian Pacific fleet, for the first time in decades, crossed the Suez Canal and entered the Mediterranean, direction Cyprus' port of Limasol (hi Cyprus – Russia will be arriving shortly) in what is now the loudest implied warning to the US and Israel amassing military units across Syria's border that Russia will not stand idly by as Syria is used by the Israeli “Defense” Forces for target practice.
Russian Amphibious Ship Admiral Nevelskoi – Click on Image to Enlarge
“The task force has successfully passed through the Suez Channel and entered the Mediterranean. It is the first time in decades that Pacific Fleet warships enter this region,” Capt. First Rank Roman Martov said. This is what is also known as dropping hints, loud and clear.
Admiral Panteleyev destroyer – Click on Image to Enlarge
The group, including the destroyer Admiral Panteleyev, the amphibious warfare ships Peresvet and Admiral Nevelskoi, the tanker Pechenga and the salvage/rescue tug Fotiy Krylov left the port of Vladivostok on March 19 to join Russia’s Mediterranean task force.
The task force currently includes the large anti-submarine ship Severomorsk, the frigate Yaroslav Mudry, the salvage/rescue tugs Altai and SB-921 and the tanker Lena from the Northern and Baltic Fleets, as well as the Ropucha-II Class landing ship Azov from the Black Sea Fleet. The task force may be enlarged to include nuclear submarines, Navy Commander Admiral Viktor Chirkov said last Sunday.
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Shore leave for a whole lot of submarines just a few hundred kilometers from Syria? Surely. From Rian.
The Defense Ministry said in April Russia has begun setting up a naval task force in the Mediterranean, sending several warships from the Pacific Fleet to the region. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in March a permanent naval task force in the Mediterranean was needed to defend Russia’s interests in the region.
A senior Defense Ministry official said the Mediterranean task force's command and control agencies will be based either in Novorossiysk, Russia, or in Sevastopol, Ukraine.
Admiral Vladimir Komoyedov, head of the parliamentary defense committee, previously told RIA Novosti that the Mediterranean task force should be comprised of 10 warships and support vessels as part of several tactical groups tasked with attack, antisubmarine warfare and minesweeping.
The Soviet Union maintained its 5th Mediterranean Squadron from 1967 until 1992. It was formed to counter the US Navy's 6th Fleet during the Cold War, and consisted of 30-50 warships and auxiliary vessels
It appears that the squadron is being reincarnated and quite rapidly at that.
It also appears that the two key naval forces in the Mediterranean are finally starting to position themselves for what may soon be a face off.
Hopefully Europe's “anti-manipulation” task force can spook enough majors to push the price of Brent much lower before the moment such an escalation becomes reality.
It is clear that Jamestown and its CIA bosses are stoking Salafist radicalism in Russia in the same manner as the CIA’s «Al Qaeda» spurred the radical revolts that led to the ouster of Muammar Qaddafi in Libya and that are currently attempting to oust Bashar al-Assad in Syria. Jamestown has also called for Russia to accept thousands of Circassian refugees from Syria into the North Caucasus, clearly an attempt to infiltrate additional «Al Qaeda» elements into the volatile region.
One goal of the neo-cons and Salafists is the creation of a Commission of Inquiry led by a globalist – Zionist South African Judge Richard Goldstone has been mentioned as a possibility – to investigate human rights abuses in Chechnya. Of course, the end game is to seek International Criminal Court (ICC) indictments against Chechen and Russian government officials.
Syria:For the record. Multiple internet monitoring services reported that Syria has dropped off the Internet. One reported it is a total blackout for the country of Syria. Supposedly this has happened at least once before, prior to the start of a government offensive.
Israel-Syria: Israel is not getting involved in Syria's civil war, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Tuesday, but said Israel would not permit the transfer of arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Yaalon did not mention the Israeli air attacks in Syria over the weekend.
Comment: Israel has shown that it will protect its interests and that the Syrian Integrated Air Defense System is penetrable. On the other hand, Iran has demonstrated the ability to use its proxies to drag Israel deeper into the Syrian uprising and thereby expand the fighting and ease pressure on the Asad government.
It is not clear that Israel is prepared to accept a Sunni fundamentalist regime in Damascus. Israel knows it can live with an Alawite government. The air attacks serve its short term interests in hobbling Hezbollah, but they also remind Arabs that the larger struggle is with Israel.
The Iranian foreign minister admonished Arab leaders today by asking the question, in paraphrase, why are Arabs fighting Arabs when Israel is the enemy?
Libertarian pundit Justin Raimondo has written a splendid analysis of the Boston bomber's overseas and other connections in his column today. The bad news is he makes a convincing case they did indeed have not only Islamic extremist connections but also connections to the Chechen mafia – a very bad mix of especially vile people. Read the entire article, it is well worth the effort, but here's a few select tidbits from it:
“To begin with, the brothers engaged in a firefight with police and held their own, throwing bombs at the police as they attempted to flee. Tamerlan was killed in a fusillade of gunfire, but Dzhokhar managed to get away. At least one of them was very familiar with firearms and knew how to use them. Neither has any known military experience: somebody trained one or both. The question is: who?…There are unconfirmed reports that the explosive devices which caused such mayhem at the marathon were set off by a sophisticated triggering mechanism, which, according to an unnamed law enforcement official, aren’t the kind of thing you can jigger from information garnered from a Google search. The same unconfirmed report says authorities are frantically trying to uncover what they believe is a “12-man sleeper cell,” and although this seems like an extravagant claim – how did they come up with the number 12? – I wouldn’t discount it entirely.”
“Nearly unnoticed in the dramatic denouement of Dzokhar’s capture: the apprehension of three people, including Dzokhar’s alleged girlfriend, in nearby New Bedford. The three were later released, but authorities reappeared at their apartment complex on Saturday and apparently detained two of the same men, who are reportedly from Kazakhstan: a van with consular license plates had earlier turned up in front of the complex, and a young woman was seen entering the van in a hurry. The Tsarnaev brothers weren’t lone nuts: they had help.”
The news that Boston’s bombers were ethnic Chechens was a bit surprising to me, as the signature of the strike was closer to domestic right wing extremists.
I wasn’t that surprised, because I have collected maps of the Caucasus region, written about past and anticipated future conflicts there, and I spent some time abusing RecordedFuture in an attempt to fish out information on the remote, restive republics and oblasts of the Caucasus. I will be working through the weekend to provide a solid update. This post is sticky – it’s an index to prior work and anything new that I do.
Here are a few snapshots from my crystal ball that date back two to four months:
China-Russia: Xinhua published today a summary of President Xi Jinping's remarks for different audiences in Moscow.
“During talks with President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Friday, Chinese President Xi stressed that China and Russia are each other's major and most important strategic cooperative partners, and both accord priority to deepening their comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in their overall diplomatic agenda and foreign policy,” according to Xinhua.
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“When meeting with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday, the Chinese leader said that in recent years, the China-Russia relationship has withstood the tests of changing international circumstances and made substantial progress.”
“He added that there is a greater need now for the two nations to deepen their comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination as the world has seen continuous profound changes.”
Xi told Medvedev the visit “far exceeded my expectations.” Chinese media reported President Xi is the first foreign leader allowed to visit the Russian Armed Forces Operational Command Center, according to China's Global Times.
