It's All Getting Weird And Dangerous

Several days after the drone attack on the Kremlin speculation continues to swirl. Despite official US denials, the betting is—understandably—that the US was behind the attack. I mean, who believes official US denials, especially denials coming from this regime? Given that the attack was at least a simulation of an attack of President Putin personally, this was a major escalation—nevermind how ineffectual it may have been in reality. My view is that this doesn’t look like a Russian version of the Tonkin Gulf Incident or the Reichstag fire—for starters, if that was their intent, I’m sure they could have done a much more convincing job of it. That leaves us with Ukraine or the West (US/UK) as the actors.

The Russians appear not to be amused and have raised their own rhetoric a notch—or maybe several notches. They’re accusing the US of direct involvement in what are, by any calculation, acts of war. Not for the first time, but this time seems more fraught.

Russia Says US Behind Overnight Drone Attack On Oil Refinery

While all eyes were on the small drone attack against Kremlin buildings in Moscow yesterday, given Russian allegations of an assassination attempt against President Putin, a separate but very significant cross-border strike was reported in southern Russia overnight.

Multiple drones targeted an oil refinery in southern Russia, resulting in a large fire. …

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The last weeks have seen a noticeable uptick in cross-border drone attacks out of Ukraine on key Russian infrastructure, including oil facilities and even trains of late. 

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But what's "new" about this attack on the oil refinery is that the Kremlin is very directly pointing the finger at the United States for helping the Ukrainians conduct the attack: 

So these events were followed by the attack on the Kremlin and, at least notionally, on Putin. The Russian response:

White House Rejects Kremlin Statement US "Undoubtedly" Behind Drone Attack On Kremlin

Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Kyiv could not have carried out the attack without Washington’s involvement.

"Attempts to disown this — both in Kyiv and in Washington — are, of course, absolutely ridiculous," the Kremlin spokesman said, Russian news agency TASS reported.

"We know very well that decisions on such actions, on such terrorist attacks, are not made in Kyiv. Namely, in Washington. And Kiev is already doing what what he is told to do," he added. …

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— SANTINO (@MichaelSCollura) May 4, 2023

In a simultaneous blistering statement also aimed at Washington on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the US and its allies are ultimately responsible for the actions of the Kiev regime.

"They destroyed the lawful government in Ukraine [in 2014], put crooks and bandits in charge, provided them with money and weapons, imbued them with a sense of absolute impunity and provided political cover and military support," Zakharova said, asserting further that Russia holds "Washington, London, and NATO in general" accountable for Ukrainian leadership's actions. But more and more of Moscow's "red lines" have been incrementally crossed, and so far it looks like the Kremlin has remained somewhat restrained. However, some are calling for going gloves off on "Zelensky and his clique". 

Of course Russia isn’t saying exactly how they came to this fairly obvious conclusion, but a post at The Duran offers some suggestive details that expand on what we discussed yesterday. Note that Martyanov’s comments mirror those of Larry Johnson, regarding Russian intelligence regarding the Kiev regime:

I just finished listening to Andrei Martyanov's latest video and at the end he said something that was chilling and yet we all knew it would get to this point. While he wasn't sure if 'Elensky would return to Ukraine he said that be of no doubt that the people around 'Elensky are known to the Russians...where they live where they eat their daily habits. If you 🤬k around you WILL find out. And they have most definitely 🤬k'd around now they are about to find out. He also said 'Elensky traveled to Finland and Germany with the help of the US government. As per a pull quote from the posted article. He is in the arms of the CIA right now...that is probably not as good as 'Elensky might think. He's VERY expendable at this point.

... Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported earlier in the day that a US administration Boeing C-40B had been parked at Helsinki Airport. It is protected this was the plane aboard which Zelensky arrived in Finland...

Consider...he had to board the plane in Ukraine. He was IN Finland by the time the event occurred at the Kremlin. Which to my mind means only one thing...US involvement. Like I said...the Ukrainians may have sent the drones but it flew from Nuland's house. This isn't the first time she has been implicated in drone attacks. Remember the Engels Air base right after her chummy sleep over in Kiev? Just saying.

Zelensky plane left Finland, destination unknown: Reports

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has departed from Finland toward an unknown destination in light of Kiev allegedly launching an attack on the Kremlin residence.

The dangerous part of all this is that it increasingly appears that the US Deep State may be trying to provoke Russia into a response that could justify some form of direct warfare between Russia and the collective West—that is, the Deep State may be seeking to lay the foundation for justifying such an escalation to the American public, who are not at this time interested in war with a peer nuclear power. This is the response of a cornered Rat. Note that Mark Milley, who most insiders believe is ultimately responsible for the drip of leaks suggesting that we need a negotiated end to our war on Russia, was trotted out to make this statement in public:

Spriter

@Spriter99880

Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:

If Ukraine falls, the current world order will collapse

The “current world order”, of course, translates into the the Rules-Based Order, the American Imperial Order. A threat of collapse of that order is, of course, an existential threat to the Deep State—maybe not so much to normal people (while the link goes to an article relating to dollar hegemony, it’s all part of the imperial order). Would the Deep State incite open war with Russia to preserve that order? To put in place a Deep State regime to control our constitutional order? Who knows? For their part, and FWIW, the Russians have previously made statements about their views on the instability of the US government.

A statement by the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov, appears to address this concern, in part, while also insisting that Russia will respond firmly. The statement in clearly aimed at the Russian domestic audience, but is relevant to the West as well:

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov: We are working to keep relations with the United States from falling into the abyss of open armed conflict. We are already on the brink, on the edge of this abyss. But infer that the restraint, the calm tone, the responsible nature of our statements, send a signal to the entire international community that Russia's relations with the United States will not be pushed into the abyss of a direct, open war. But [Russia] will do everything, and is doing everything, to ensure that under any circumstances and any turns of this drama it is guaranteed to protect sovereignty, protect the territorial integrity of the country, and the security of the country's leadership. I want to emphasize that the people for whom the doctrinal directives of the Russian Federation in the military sphere, in the sphere of ensuring national security, seem to matter as a kind of material for analysis and not as a guide for our actions these people are mistaken. We are literally ready to use all the means at our disposal to ensure that encroachments on the security of the country, encroachments on the security of the president, on the political leadership, are not carried out by anyone.

Now, Alex Krainer has written an interesting, speculative, article regarding the role that China could play in the Ukraine endgame.

Can China checkmate the west in Ukraine?

Zelensky may be the target of last night's drone attack against the Kremlin.

I begin this excerpt with a reference to the involvement of Sir UK Deep State himself, Richard Dearlove, in the emergency delegation to Kiev just one day after Zelensky went off the rez and called Xi Jinping. The purpose of the delegation was clearly to read the riot act to Ukraine—they are required to continue the war:

The Brits send the "give peace no chance" delegation to Kiev

Last week it was the former MI6 chief, Sir Richard Dearlove who led the mission to Kiev. Interestingly, this delegation's visit is almost impossible to find in any news media. You can find it however, on the pages of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. The delegation brought the message of "strengthening the support of international partners for Ukraine on its path to victory," and stressing that, "we should not be afraid of Russia." ...

Another member of the "give peace no chance" delegation was the uber-warhawk and UK's Defense Committee Chair Tobias Ellwood. It is the same Tobias Ellwood who pounded the table in a recent interview that, "we are now at war in Europe, we need to move to a war footing. We are involved in that,... we need to face Russia directly rather than leaving Ukraine to do all the work."

To be sure, the Neocon faction in the Biden Administration and the leadership of the EU and NATO are every bit as keen on seeing the hostilities continue, but the party that's played the key role in setting the agenda is the official London, which also played the key role in orchestrating the previous two world wars. As the commitment to war against Russia began to founder in Washington, it was again Boris Johnson who flew to the US, chumming up to the new Republican leadership and urging for "Western unity and support for Ukraine and what more can be done against the threat Russia poses."

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The Chinese - will they try to extricate Zelensky?

I very much doubt that the Chinese leadership is naive about brokering a peace deal in current circumstances and I suspect that the promised peace delegation might be more like a military intelligence cleanup crew whose role would be to protect Zelensky and try to extricate him from his political, business and intelligence entanglements with the west.

Liberating Zelensky from the clutches of NATO / CIA / MI6 clutches could make him a hugely important asset for the Russian and the Chinese side. Chinese peace delegation's role could be to identify the key exponents of the western control in Ukraine and buying them out or eliminating them in some way. I ventured to propose this idea in a recent CryptoRich podcast with Tom Luongo and Alexander Mercouris.

Mr. Mercouris thought that the former Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev might have corroborated this idea in a cryptic message on his Telegram channel, saying that it was necessary to find and eliminate the most dangerous people in Zelensky regime. It is all but certain that Russia and China are now coordinating their strategy on Ukraine, which is already crawling with Russian intelligence assets.

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... Since 2019, China has already been Ukraine's #1 trade partner, accounting for 14.4% of imports and over 15% of exports). Ukraine had in fact already joined the BRI in 2014 and a BRI trade and investment center was established in Kiev in 2018.

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The Drone attack on the Kremlin: is Zelensky the real target?

… Speaking from Finland, Zelensky himself denied that this was a Ukrainian attack. In a way, he might be telling the truth.

While the drone was probably launched from Ukraine, it was most likely a NATO orchestrated attack aimed not at Putin but at Zelensky. …

In calling Xi Jinping, Volodymyr Zelensky has clearly defied his western handlers and in this, he might have become a liability. If the Chinese or the Russians managed to extricate him from Kiev, he could become valuable witness to events that had led up to this war and a massive liability to the western war party. ...

We might just witness further surreal twists over the coming days.

Well, Zelensky has been whisked out of Ukraine aboard a US flight. He’s out of reach of Russia and China. Will he return to Kiev? We shall see.