Monthly Archives: March 2024

The “Crimean” War misnomer – A bigger picture

Posted on by

What is known as The Crimean War was much larger and had far-reaching consequences not only for Russia but for many other states. In a way it is as much about Crimea as the “Caribbean Missile Crises” was about the Caribbeans. The theatres of war of 1853-1856 covered the Danube delta, the Baltic Sea, the Far East – the Kamchatka and Petropavlovsk-on-Amur that were under siege and partially captured during 1854-55.

While it is true, that one of the main battles happened in Crimea, it could better be described as the “Eastern War”. It was closer to a “world war”, and was definitely the second large “information war”.

The “Crimean” War – The Baltic Front, prevention of the British Navy assault at St.Petersburg

Telling are the stated goals of the warring parties.

Initially, it was a war that Russia initiated against the Ottoman Empire. Ideologically, it was started to liberate the Orthodox Christian people of the Duchy of Moldavia (Romania did not yet get created – that would happen after that war). The more pressing geopolitical goal of Russia was to secure the Southern flanks and get control over the Bosphorus and the Dardanells, and influence over the Balkans. That decision did not come out of the blue, and was not a simple whim of Nicolas I. The Ottoman Empire had moved a 50,000 strong army that included Polish and Hungarian revolutionaries to the border of Austria, while at the same time trying to conquer Chernogoria (known in the West as “Montenegro”).

The “Crimean” War – Danube Theatre

Russia had two military strategies – one assumed a large-scale assault along the Black Sea coast with landing parties deployed to the Turkish ports and to the straits. The other strategy was a limited “military operation” with crossing of the Danube, avoiding direct confrontation with the Turkish army, with the outlook that this limited display of force would lead to a favourable peace treaty with the Turks. The latter strategy was adopted. Drawing a historical parallel, it is similar to the peacekeeping operation in Georgia on the 8th of August 2008, when such strategy worked, or the start of the SMO in 2022, when it almost worked before the British forbade Ukraine to sign the peace treaty.

The same happened in 1853-54. The British used this opportunity to accuse Russia of aggression against Turkey, and build a coalition that fought with Russia on behalf of Turkey. France joined its not so recent adversary, Britain, partly for the sake of Poland and partly as a revenge for the 1814 defeat.

Continue reading →

25 years of US-NATO’s terrorist attack on Yugoslavia

Posted on by

Presenting a translation of an article taking a close look at NATO’s terrorist attack on Serbia in 1999, putting it into perspective of the current NATO’s destructions of Ukraine that is being used as a ram against Russia. The quote from the article summarises its whole message:

It was not just a military operation, but a barbaric demonstrative execution, an act of intimidation, let’s face it – a terrorist act without any quotes, because “terror” means “fear”, and “terrorism” is actions committed with the goal of intimidation.

The topic of Yugoslavia has been covered on this blog for some time, with the following articles being of special interest: Democracy of Mass Destruction. A Documentary by Pavel Selin (with English subtitles), “The Murder of Yugoslavia. The Shadow of Dayton.” A Documentary by Alexei Denisov with English subtitles., and The Murder of Yugoslavia. The Final Acts. Abduction of Milosevic to the Hague. While “The Great Gas Game” – An Excellent Documentary from Vesti touches upon the NATO strikes on the oil and chemical infrastructure of Serbia.

25 years of the terrorist attack on Serbia, which stood in the way of US domination in Europe

by Dmitry Rodionov

A quarter of a century ago, in 1999, a unipolar world was being born in Yugoslavia, the one which will soon end in Ukraine.

NATO airstrikes on Serbia in 1999

This spring is full of anniversaries. we have been remembering the 10th anniversary of the events in the former Ukraine throughout February and March, and somehow undeservedly forgot another landmark date – NATO attacking Serbia on the 24th of March 1999.

During the two and a half months of this aggression, up to 5,700 civilians were killed, including about 400 children. Houses, infrastructure, and facilities critical to the economy were destroyed…

Continue reading →

People against NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia – archived documents of solidarity from 25 years ago

Posted on by

25 years ago, on the 24th of March 1999, NATO began bombing Serbia, disintegrating the state of Yugoslavia, and Time magazine authoritatively explained why this was a good thing, under a cover title “Bringing the Serbs to heel. Massive bombing attack opens the door to peace”.

This was a stark example of applying “white gloves to the bloodied hands”, that was so aptly illustrated in a Soviet caricature from 1980 that we showcased yesterday on our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”!

Already several months before the aggression against Yugoslavia started, it was clear what the USA was planning.

This article is comprised of four archival materials that have been waiting in my digital archive for the past 25 years.

  1. The warning from October 1998.
  2. “Hey, Joe! – Message to the Troops of NATO”.
  3. April 24th, 1999 – Stop the War, a small rally in Heidelberg.
  4. May 1st, 1999 – reportage from the large anti-war campaign throughout Germany.

The first, is a warning that was written by yours truly on the 12th of October 1998 – five months before US-NATO started its act of terrorism – and posted on several forums and message boards. A warning, not dissimilar to the one appearing in this blog in 2014 with regard to the coup in Ukraine: Is the West gearing up to invade Russia once again?.

NATO bombed Yugoslavia on the 50th anniversary of its existence, raining on the country the radioactive democracy of mass destruction (a link to a must-see documentary on the blog!). Today NATO is depopulating Ukraine on its 75th anniversary.

The Warning

The United States are about to start an aggression against an independent state – Serbia. I say the United States, and not NATO because NATO-countries would do exactly what USA tells them to do.

This mindless aggression can bring us to World War III. The USA have learnt nothing from its earlier experiences – Hiroshima and Vietnam. I wish to remind everybody that several years of bombing in Vietnam didn’t break the will of Vietnamese liberation army. Meddling with internal affairs of a state (especially with a case of civil disagreements) brings nothing but misery and destruction to all the nations involved.

The USA and the world are utterly inconsistent in their moves. When Russia had a case of civil war with Chechen republic, the world community (read USA) did not react in any way – more precisely, they did not send bombers to crush Russia. Why? Because Russia could fight back, because Russia had atomic weapon, after all, because Russian territory is so large. Serbia does not have atomic weapon, Serbia, marauded by rebels, cannot fight back, and Serbia is small. Thus it can be attacked without any great fear for being hit back. That’s cowardice! The following quote only confirms it: “The six B-52s that arrived Sunday at a British air based would be used to launch cruise missiles from outside the range of Serb’s air defences.” (from http://www.msnbc.com/news/204272.asp)

So why to launch this assault at all? The answer is: to justify NATO’s existence and to show who is the boss. Since the threat from Soviet Union disappeared NATO was in acute lack of enemies. So the enemies and wars should be created to justify budgets. Iraq was first, Serbia is next.

Why World War III? Russia has newly declared its support to Serbia – diplomatic and military – as to a bother-state. In an utmost case this would mean that any country declaring war on Serbia, declares war on Russia, meaning that Russia can strike back, targeting any European country.

USA behaves now like “the wold’s hooligan”, striking the one who is weaker, but avoiding the one who is equal or stronger. It was not so long ago we saw banners “USA out of Vietnam”. I am afraid that soon we will see banners “NATO (USA) out of Serbia!”

This paragraph is for Americans only in connection with their constant paranoia: No, I am not a communist; I am a person who loves the thing that Americans lost long ago – freedom.

The 12th of October 1998.

Hey Joe! Where ya going with that gun in your hand?

Message to the Troops of NATO

Continue reading →

Crimea That Sailed Away From NATO – Vesti, 23.04.2014

Posted on by

One of the publications from our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”, dedicated to the 10th anniversary of Crimea reuniting with Russia. Please subscribe!

On the 18th of March 2014, exactly 10 years ago, Crimea returned to the home shores, based on the results of the referendum.

The news program that we present was aired a month later, on the 23rd of April 2014, and tells about the unhealthy interest that NATO displayed for Crimea before it managed to escape its clutches.

An American military hospital and a CIA-affiliated school would have been the cherries on top of the Sevastopol Bay naval base.

This clip also marks 10 years of my acquaintance with Lada Ray, when I first came across her article Breaking! US Planned to Turn #Crimea into Military Base Against Russia on the Futurist Trendcast blog. That article is still worth re-reading, 10 years later, as it contains additional information, not present in the news clip.

One of the readers there pointed to “US government/US Navy solicitation for “Renovation of Sevastopol School #5″, dated September 05, 2013” with a link to the official site. As expected, the tender documents are no longer there, but they were archived by the WebArchive, and are therefore still available to the public, including all the PDF files, the front page of one of which – EUCOM Humanitarian Assistance Program – Renovations to School#05 – Sevastopol, Ukraine OHASIS ID-20420 – you can see here.

Transcript of the program:

Continue reading →

Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Crimea’s Reunification with Russia

Posted on by

Congratulations to the people of Crimea on the 10th anniversary of their sailing back home to Russia! Much of what can be said, has already been written in the article, commemorating the 5th anniversary, but let us once again admire the cover image of the “Argumenty i Fakty” newspaper, published 10 years ago, on the 18th of March 2014.

Here are the earlier celebrations: Celebrating 3 years of Crimea’s reunification and Crimea Celebrates the 2nd Anniversary of Reunification – Legendary Sevastopol.

On our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden” we marked the occasion with several posts, and the translation of Lavrov’s congratulatory speech, now presented below with a complete transcript at the bottom of this article.

Continue reading →

The Illusion of a Free Market

Posted on by

The article you are about to read take a close look at the nature of Capitalism, and its highest manifestation – Imperialism.

The article is comprised of four posts from our Telegram Channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”. Please subscribe for daily materials!

In 1952, Iosif Stalin warned:

The principle of equality of people and nations has been trampled on, it has been replaced by the principle of the full rights of the exploiting minority and the disenfranchisement of the exploited majority of citizens.

Yet mere 40 years later the Soviet Union was dismembered both through internal betrayal and through external manipulations.

The era of Capitalism began in Russia, and, as it often happens with Russia, she dived into this social experiment to the full.

The Capitalism of the «Wild ‘90s» was of the most predatory kind, with a few individuals gaining all control over the finances and means of production in the country. The Oligarchy, created in the image of the American one, but without the deceptive façade of the corporations hiding behind the brands. Controlling every aspect of the political life. Capitalism in its essence.

In Russia, the state is gradually taking back some of the control and responsibilities, thus giving capitalism ‘a human face’ and making it appear as if it is not all that bad.
Anyway, the future is open, and the Russian peoples have now a good foundation for choosing the just and collective direction.

Elsewhere in the world, the corporations that hide behind the brands are themselves being devoured by the even bigger entities that by all means fight to stay out of sight:

“Imperialism, the highest stage of Capitalism”

Continue reading →

Russian Fleets in America in 1863 – a condensed lecture by Webster Tarpley from 2013

Posted on by

What does it take to create a war?

– Forget history. Re-write history. Divide people. Pit them against each other. Conquer. Make war. Cash in the profit for the military-industrial complex.

How to undo that and stop a war?

– Learn the real history.

This is what has been done to Ukraine and Russia on a short-term time scale. But did you know that the same was done to the people of the USA vs. Russia?

Presenting a condensed and informative video of Webster Tarpley’s lecture, edited by Putinger’s Cat.

As the complimentary reading to this lecture, the book “The U.S.-Russian Entente That Saved The Union” by Konstantin George, first published in July of 1978 in The Campaigner magazine.

This is a condensed version of the lecture given by American historian Webster Tarpley in Washington, DC, in 2013, on the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Russian navy squadrons to New York City and San Francisco to assist the Union against the Confederacy in the fall of 1863.

Webster Tarpley discusses the contribution of Russian Tsar Alexander II to a northern victory in the US Civil War. Sadly, this great chapter of Russian-American relationship has been nearly forgotten in the US, even though it played a very important role in the very existence of the United States of America as we know it.

The entire talk is about an hour and a half long. It contains a lot more information about the Russian-American relationship than was cut to put this video together. It is filmed as a single-camera shot, so it won’t have any graphics in it, but it is well-worth the time!

It is available for viewing on C-SPAN as well as on YouTube:

I highly recommend watching (or listening to) this entire very informative lecture!

Русский перевод лекции:

Heroines of Russia. Putin visited the Higher Military Aviation School.

Posted on by

The day before the 8th of March – the International Women’s Day – President of the Russian Fe deration, Vladimir Putin and the Defence Minister of Russia Sergei Shoigu visited the Krasnodar Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots named after Hero of the Soviet Union A. K. Serov. below is a translation of an article from “Argumenty i Fakty”, telling about the visit. More photographs are available at the end of the original article in Russian.

Heroines of Russia. Putin revealed unknown details about himself to military women

Russian President Vladimir Putin is photographed with graduates of the Krasnodar Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots named after Hero of the Soviet Union A. K. Serov. On the right in the center is Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu

The strategic bomber that President Vladimir Putin flew in, has not yet been put into operation, he personally made a “barrel” on the Su-27, he has been hardening since childhood, and respects women’s work on an equal basis with men’s. The head of state told about this in a frank conversation with graduates of the Krasnodar Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots on the eve of March 8. And in the end, he wished the female participants of the SMO to return home as soon as possible.

During the conversation with the military pilots, the head of state noted that in any profession women show a responsible attitude to work, carefully work out all the little details, therefore they achieve good results. He called the School a “heroic educational institution”, whose graduates performed many feats during the Great Patriotic War, were prototypes of books, films and opera. And he expressed confidence that the graduates will continue these traditions.

“There are certainly elements of the romance of the sky, but it requires good professional training and a serious attitude to the work at hand. You need to know the technique, be able to control it. Today, our women and young lasses are serving in the zone of a special military operation, and that in different fields, and everywhere they serve the Motherland with dignity,” Putin assured.

Continue reading →

Germany Is Chasing the Cat Back Into the Bag

Posted on by

In this follow-up article to German Cat Is Out of the Bag – representatives of the Bundeswehr discussed the strikes on the Crimean Bridge we are taking a look at how the Germany handles the embarrassment. The article was first published as a post on our “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden” Telegram channel. Please subscribe!

With the much-discussed conversation of the Bundeswehr officials, (https://t.me/BeornAndTheShieldmaiden/2956) the Germans tried yesterday to chase the cat back into the bag, in much the same way and with as much success as when they pushed the gas back into the US-blown Nord Streams.

Maria Zaharova commented it thus on her Telegram channel:

Bild: “The Bundeswehr insisted on blocking accounts on the social network X, which distributed the recording of a conversation between the German military, who discussed the Taurus missile strike on the Crimean Bridge.”

It’s called “covering your tracks.” Will everything follow the same scenario as the German “investigation” of the terrorist attacks on the Nord Streams?

German citizens must learn from Scholtz about the rights of foreigners in Russia, Belarus, China, but not about their own German rights.

♦️♦️♦️

However, the only thing that blocking of X-accounts and the subsequent publication in the “Bild” can achieve, is the Streisand effect – an unintended consequence of attempts to hide, remove, or censor information, where the effort instead backfires by increasing public awareness of the information.

Continue reading →

German Cat Is Out of the Bag – representatives of the Bundeswehr discussed the strikes on the Crimean Bridge

Posted on by

If you are coming here from our Telegram post at “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”, you can continue reading the transcript from where you left off. If you are using the translation, please reference t.me/BeornAndTheShieldmaiden to help our channel grow!


Photo: German Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz.
Master in Aero-nautical Science

RIA Novosti writes, that the conversation in which representatives of the Bundeswehr discussed the strikes on the Crimean Bridge, took place on February 19th 2024.

The topic was discussed by the head of the operations and exercises department of the Air Force Command Graefe, Air Force Inspector Gerhartz and employees of the air operations center Fenske and Frostedte.

At the same time, one of the officers mentioned a planned trip to Ukraine on February 21st to coordinate strikes on Russian targets. 

Russia’s MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova notes on the Telegram channel of the ministry:

I’m interested in Annalena Baerbock’s perspective on this matter. This presents a prime opportunity for German media to demonstrate its independence by asking probing questions and for Russian media to seek the opinion of the German Embassy in Moscow.

Margarita Simonyan, Editor-in-Chief of RT (https://t.me/rtnews):

Our people in uniform shared some intriguing information with me on the day when Scholz said that NATO was not and would never be involved in the Ukrainian conflict.

The information and videos are so riveting that I immediately wanted to share them with our audiences to bring them joy.
In that captivating footage, high-ranking German officers discussed the bombing (would you believe it) of the Crimean Bridge and methods to execute it discreetly so that Scholz could keep up to his talk of non-involvement.

The Bundeswehr officers have also spilled the beans about the Americans and the Brits who, they said, had been directly involved in the conflict for a long time.

In short, it’s 40 minutes of pure delight. In this connection, I have an official journalistic inquiry for the German Ambassador, the German Foreign Minister and Chancellor Scholz personally:

What does this mean, gentlemen? Should Russia jog Germany’s memory about what happened last time when Germany blew up Russian bridges?

As your media usually say, we expect an answer today.

Because nobody knows what may happen tomorrow.

Following is our English translation of Margarita Simonyan’s publication of the…

Transcript of a conversation between high-ranking Bundeswehr officers dated 02/19/2024

On February 19th 2024, the following conversation took place between the Head of the Operations and Exercises Department of the Bundeswehr Air Force Command Graefe, the Bundeswehr BBC Inspector Gerhartz and the employees of the Bundeswehr Space Command Air Operations Center Fenske and Frostedte.

Gerhartz: Hello everyone! Graefe, are you in Singapore now?

Graefe: Yes.

Gerhartz: Okay. We need to verify the information. As you have already heard, Defence Minister Pistorius intends to carefully consider the issue of supplying Taurus missiles to Ukraine. We have a meeting planned with him. Everything needs to be discussed so that we can start working on this issue. So far I do not see that the start date of these deliveries has been indicated. It was not like the Chancellor told him: “I want to get information now, and tomorrow morning we will make a decision.” I haven’t heard anything like this. On the contrary, Pistorius evaluates this entire ongoing discussion. Nobody knows why the Federal Chancellor is blocking these supplies. Of course, the most incredible rumours appear. Let me give you an example: Yesterday, a journalist who is very close to the Chancellor called me. She heard somewhere in Munich that the Taurus missiles would not work. I asked who told her this. She replied that someone in military uniform told her this. Of course, this is a low-level source of information, but the journalist latched onto these words and wants to make a big deal out of it with the headline: “Now we know the reason why the Chancellor refuses to send Taurus missiles – they won’t work.” This is all stupidity. Such topics are available only to a limited circle of people. However, we see what kind of nonsense is spreading in the meantime, they are talking complete nonsense. I want to coordinate this issue with you so that we do not move in the wrong direction.
First of all, I now have questions for Frostedte and Fenske:
Has anyone talked to you about this topic? Did Freuding contact you?

Frostedte: No. I only communicated with Graefe.

Fenske: The same thing, I only communicated with Graefe.

Gerhartz: Perhaps he will contact you again. I will probably have to participate in hearings in the Budget Commission, because problems have arisen related to rising prices for the conversion of infrastructure for the F-35 in Büchel. I have already conveyed my recommendations through Frank so that we have slides to visualise the material. We showed him a test presentation where Taurus missiles were installed on a Tornado carrier or on another carrier required by the assignment. However, I have a hard time imagining this. It is necessary to remember that this is a half-hour meeting, so you should not prepare a presentation of 30 slides. There should be a short report. It is necessary to show what a rocket can do, how it can be used. It is necessary to take into account, if we make a political decision to transfer missiles as aid to Ukraine, what consequences this may lead to. I will be grateful to you if you tell me not only what problems we have, but how we can solve them. For example, if we talk about delivery methods… I know how the British do it. They always transport them in Ridgback armoured vehicles. They have several people on site. The French don’t do that. They supply Q7 with Scalp missiles to Ukraine. Storm Shadow and Scalp have similar technical specifications for their installation. How will we solve this problem? Will we be transferring to them the MBDA missiles with Ridgback? Will one of our people be assigned to MBDA? Graefe, report to us what our position is on this issue. Misters Fenske and Frostedte, please report how you see the situation.
Continue reading →