Voices from Russia

Friday, 12 September 2014

Rogozin Sez Russia Isn’t Going to Build Aircraft Carriers in Near Future

00 CVA Admiral Kuznetsov. 12.09.14

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On Wednesday, Deputy Chairman of the RF Government D O Rogozin said that building an aircraft carrier in Russia just isn’t worth the expense and bother. As previously reported by the Minoborony, Russia won’t authorise any new aircraft carriers for at least another five years. The state armaments programme doesn’t plan to authorise building a new aircraft carrier until 2020, at the earliest. Rogozin told reporters after a meeting with President Putin on the 2016-20 state armaments programme, “Whether or not to build aircraft carriers is more of a geopolitical decision than a military-technical one. We proved that we had the military-technical capability to do so on 16 November last year {the commissioning date of INS Vikramaditya, built at Sevmash: editor}, when we showed that Russia had competence in building fleet aircraft carriers. If we need to do so, we’ll be able to do it. However, such a task isn’t necessary now”. Meanwhile, as reported, the idea of ​​contracting with France to build the Mistral LPHs came about as Russia needed to get experience with the technology and skills needed to build such ships. At present, the Russian Navy has one aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov.

12 September 2014

Russian Arms

http://www.arms-expo.ru/news/navy/rossiya_poka_ne_sobiraetsya_stroit_avianosets/

Editor:

Many irresponsible and uniformed Amerikantsy are bloviating about Russia building up a carrier fleet to rival their own. Firstly, that’s bullshit. Russia is a continental power that has to devote more resources to its ground forces and air forces than the USA does. All things being equal, that means that it can’t devote as many resources to the naval forces as the USA does. Secondly, the proper countermeasures to carrier task forces are cruise-missile-armed cruiser submarines, quiet diesel-electric boats (the Norwegians proved that modern diesel boats can easily penetrate a task force’s screen), and supersonic cruise-missiles. Thirdly, the waters in which the Russian Navy would conceivably operate aren’t suited to carrier task force deployment, which is particularly true of the Black Sea, Baltic, and Northern (Arctic) theatres of operation (and restricted waters such as the Sea of Okhotsk and the Mediterranean). The Russian Navy isn’t organised nor trained for blue water sea control. It has a more modest mission… protecting the Barents Sea and Sea of Okhotsk fortress areas (deployment areas of Russian boomers with SLBMs) and protecting the sea flanks of Russian ground forces (along with short-range amphibious attacks, such as Novorossiysk in the VOV). That is, it isn’t a sea control force, as the Anglosphere navies are. Therefore, CVs ARE a waste of time and money.

The Anglosphere (USA/Australia/NZ/Canada/England, along with Japan) axis is the foremost world naval power… the Chinese/Russian axis is the foremost world land power. They needn’t conflict. In any case, the USA would waste its substance by direct operations on the World Island. The economic crisis of 2008 was a direct result of the USA waging unnecessary expensive land wars in Asia (whilst cutting taxes to the grasping Affluent Effluent at the same time). General Omar Bradley’s words in 1951 still ring true today… he was speaking of a land war in continental Asia, saying that it’d be “the wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy“. Anyone who advocates land warfare on the World Island for the USA without a STRONG local ally to carry the main burden of the land fighting (much as England used the continental powers in the 18th and 19th centuries) is an ignoranus, doesn’t know history, and is dangerously demented. What does that tell you about John McCain, Chilly Hilly, Mitch McConnell, John Kerry, Marco Rubio, Benjamin Cardin, and Ted Cruz? Such people hold power… God do preserve us. However… there IS hope on both sides of the aisle… Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul… odd couple, no? However, both do see the situation aright…

One last thing… Dmitri Olegovich is the MOST anti-American figure in the Russian government… even he says that Russia doesn’t intend to challenge the USA (or its maritime allies) on the open seas. That proves that the posturing warmongers in the USA are chock fulla shit…

BMD

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Monday, 21 January 2013

21 January 2013. Sergei Yolkin’s World. The Old is the New… Or, Is the New the Old?

00 Sergei Yolkin. The Old is the New... Or, Is the New the Old. 2013

The Old is the New… Or, Is the New the Old?

Sergei Yolkin

2013

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Shoigu is in uniform, indicating that political dalliance with “civilian” control of Minoborony is over, there’s a pair of old-style boots with footcloths in the corner, and there’s a Soviet banner behind the map. All of this points up that Yolkin doesn’t believe that the Serdyukov “reforms” have any oomph or staying power. It was much the same after 1918… the Red Army became an organic continuation of the old tsarist forces in the end, just as the current forces are, essentially, an organic continuation of the Red Army. The generals LIKE the “old army”… it DID win the Great Victory, didn’t it?

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The Russian armed forces may see some of the major reforms launched by former Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov scrapped, as his recently appointed successor, Sergei Shoigu, continues to give in to generals on lesser issues that still have an impact on the big picture. Serdyukov’s reforms came under heavy criticism within the military, resulting as they did in the dismissal of tens of thousands of officers, disbanding hundreds of army units, and the closure of dozens of military training centres. To abolish the mass-mobilisation concept, which was at the base of all these painful decisions, marked a break with 300 years of Russian military culture. The counter-reform now underway is an inevitable result of the decision that President Putin made when he appointed Shoigu… the decision to make the Minister of Defence an Army General once again. When commenting on this decision, analysts close to the Kremlin insisted that the president was trying to help the newly-appointed Shoigu build up his authority… something that the fiercely-denounced civilian Serdyukov lacked. However, Russian generals are skilful manipulators. They can easily make any new commander believe that he’s part of the army machine, and each new head of the Minoborony inevitably feels like part of the military corporation.

17 January 2013

Aleksandr Golts

Russia Beyond the Headlines

http://rbth.ru/opinion/2013/01/17/new_defense_minister_at_the_mercy_of_conservative_generals_21963.html

Thursday, 16 August 2012

16 August 2012. Lest We Forget… WHY Russia Remembers Victory Day Every Year…

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One of the most disgusting things I’ve ever heard is people calling World War II “The Good War”. I’m no pacifist, I believe that war’s sometimes a nasty necessity, but it’s NEVER “good”. “Light casualties” means that some family, somewhere, is getting the dreaded “visit”. That’s why I think that the USA has been on an evil course since 1992… none of the wars or conflicts in that period had ANY relationship to American national interest or national defence. They were all hegemonising efforts… acts of naked aggression that all decent people should oppose. If anyone were to attack the American defence perimeter (GIUK gap/English Channel and a Midpac line anchored on the Aleutians, Guam, and Australia), that would be a defensible war. I’d be all for it. However, every military action since 1992 has been hubristical nonsense. It’s why Washington DC has become the “Axis of Evil” and the capital of an “Evil Empire”. We’ve fallen… and as long as we vote for rightwing pols, we won’t be able to get up.

It’s time to end this “time of madness”. Reflect on this… Wafflin’ Willy and Paul Ryan want to extend the warfare still further, and they want to launch aggression against more countries. That’s why all decent and moral (both religious and irreligious) people must vote against them. It’s your DUTY…

The text on the poster was a comment left by an anonymous Russian on my YouTube channel. I agree with it, wholeheartedly.

BMD 

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