Angry Grizzly

uploaded by moonwolf August 19, 2008 at 01:10 pm
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After the fall of the Berlin Wall the Western powers, led by the USA missed every opportunity to engage Russia peacefully regardless of repeated friendly overtures coming out of the Kremlin. Rather, Russia has been subjected to an ever increasing crescendo of provocations and attempts by NATO and the USA to encircle and isolate the injured super power. Recent events in Georgia indicate beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Bear's wounds have healed and Russia has finally decided to enter the fray. Though many pro-US pundits are suggesting action against Russia, that is all bluster and bravado as there is no direct action that can be taken against Russia as she flexes her formidable muscles in the region.

Flush with the flow of dollars into the Kremlin's coffers from oil and gas revenue, after several years of quietly making shrewd international business and political alliances that have already upset the west's applecart globally, and finally goaded into action by the hubristic actions of the USA and NATO, Russia is about to take a number of strong actions internationally which will derail many of the USA's imperialistic plans in the Middle East and elsewhere. The days of the USA and its western partners having a free hand are over. Regardless of the causes, the battle in South Ossetia is the signal that Russia is going to aggressively reassert itself and take its place as the 'other' global superpower. The USA and NATO have backed themselves into a corner and tied their own hands in many ways, and thus will have to live with the consequences of their actions and inactions which have awakened and fattened The Bear after its long slumber. The unipolar world as we have known it for the last two decades is over, and a new Cold War in a far more polarized world is emerging as this is written.

DEBKAfile's military sources report Moscow's planned retaliation for America's missile interceptors in Poland and US-Israeli military aid to Georgia may come in the form of installing Iskandar surface missiles in Syria and its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad.

Russian Baltic and Middle East warships, submarines and long-range bombers may be armed with nuclear warheads, according to Sunday newspapers in Europe.

In Georgia, Russian troops and tanks advanced to within 30 km of Tbilisi Saturday, Aug. 15. A Russian general said Sunday they had started pulling out after president Dimitry Medvedev signed the ceasefire agreement with Georgia and president George W. Bush called again for an immediate withdrawal.

After routing Georgia over the breakaway enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Moscow appears to be eying Poland, the Middle East, and possibly Ukraine, as the main arenas for its reprisals.

One plan on the table in Moscow, DEBKAfile's sources report, is the establishment of big Russian military, naval and air bases in Syria and the release of advanced weapons systems withheld until now to Iran (the S-300 air-missile defense system) and Syria (the nuclear-capable 200 km-range Iskandar surface missile).

Shortly before the Georgian conflict flared, Moscow promised Washington not to let Iran and Syria have these sophisticated pieces of hardware.

The Iskander's cruise attributes make its launch and trajectory extremely hard to detect and intercept. If this missile reaches Syria, Israel will have to revamp its anti-missile defense array and Air Force assault plans for the third time in two years, as it constitutes a threat which transcends all its defensive red lines.

Moscow's war planners know this and are therefore considering new sea and air bases in Syria as sites for the Iskander missiles. Russia would thus keep the missiles under its hand and make sure they were not transferred to Iran. At the same time, Syrian crews would be trained in their operation.

DEBKAfile's military sources report Syrian president Bashar Assad will be invited to Moscow soon to finalize these plans in detail.

Military spokesmen in Moscow said Saturday and Sunday that Russian military planners to started redesigning the nation’s strategic plans for a fitting response to America's decision to install 10 missile interceptors in Poland and the war developments in Georgia.

The chairman of the Israeli Knesset foreign affairs and defense committee, Tzahi Hanegbi, spoke out strongly Sunday, Aug. 17, against treasury plans to slash the defense budget. He warned that the military faced grave confrontations in the coming year - possibly on several fronts.