Russia! Russia!! Russia!!!

[Smitty-48]

Is there a good resource for information on the War in the Donbass? The MSM doesn't really cover it any more, and I've had no luck finding any on my own.

CBS news reported a few weeks back that the Ukrainians are maintaining their transportation blockade, and that although some wealthy Russians have been sending food aid in from the Russian side, the Rebel forces have been seizing that food for their troops, so the Russians have suspended their aid distribution as well.

[Alexander PhiAlipson]

GDP=3.0! More collusion please, Mr. President.

[Smitty-48]

See, the way the Russians operate in the Donbass, is effectively deniable and covert, but not to NATO, they're not trying to hide it from NATO, they're trying to hide it from the Russian population, Putin and Russian state press deny that Russian troops are there, but what this means is, they have to maintain a very small logistics footprint.

What they do, is hand pick elite Battalion Tactical Groups of contract soldiers and deploy those behind a screen of DPR Rebel irregulars, a Battalion Tactical Group is basically a battalion packing a whole lot of extra firepower, particularly artillery, with its own integrated combat service support.

But, in order to keep it low profile back in Russia, they don't operate with the kind of huge logistics tail which the Russian army normally would, as that would give it away to Russians that there was something big going on, with something like that flowing over the border, so the BTG's really only have enough supplies for their own troops, they're not able to supply their rebel proxies.

Think; Reagan Administration and Iran-Contra, deniable and covert, but to your own people most of all, that's how Putin is operating in the Donbass.

[apeman]

GDP=3.0! More collusion please, Mr. President.

And think of all the windows that need replacement in Texas!

[Xenophon]

See, the way the Russians operate in the Donbass, is effectively deniable and covert, but not to NATO, they're not trying to hide it from NATO, they're trying to hide it from the Russian population, Putin and Russian state press deny that Russian troops are there, but what this means is, they have to maintain a very small logistics footprint.

What they do, is hand pick elite Battalion Tactical Groups of contract soldiers and deploy those behind a screen of DPR Rebel irregulars, a Battalion Tactical Group is basically a battalion packing a whole lot of extra firepower, particularly artillery, with its own integrated combat service support.

But, in order to keep it low profile back in Russia, they don't operate with the kind of huge logistics tail which the Russian army normally would, as that would give it away to Russians that there was something big going on, with something like that flowing over the border, so the BTG's really only have enough supplies for their own troops, they're not able to supply their rebel proxies.

Think; Reagan Administration and Iran-Contra, deniable and covert, but to your own people most of all, that's how Putin is operating in the Donbass.

Is the Russian objective just to hold on to the seized territory in order to secure the ports of Crimea and Donetsk? I guess an added bonus would be to destabilize the Western sympathetic government.

[Smitty-48]

Is the Russian objective just to hold on to the seized territory in order to secure the ports of Crimea and Donetsk? I guess an added bonus would be to destabilize the Western sympathetic government.

Multiple objectives, destabilize the regime in Kiev, take the pressure ofF Crimea by giving the Ukrainians a worse problem to deal with, jumping off point for a drive along the coast if Crimea came under direct threat, test Russian equipment and new TTP's in a live battlelab, keep the best Russian troops sharp with combat experience, and most of all, as a bargaining chip, if the Ukrainians want the trouble to stop, then they'd better recognize the annexation of Crimea in a peace agreement at some point.

[kybkh]

For any Russian president to "give back" Crimea would be a total dereliction in their duty to secure the Motherland.

[Smitty-48]

For any Russian president to "give back" Crimea would be a total dereliction in their duty to secure the Motherland.

Yes, but Putin wants it to be formally recognized by Ukraine, the EU, and NATO, it's more than just taking it, it's taking it, keeping it, and getting the international community to recognize it formally as Russian. Which would of course include lifting the sanctions.

[ssu]

Russia's objective is to keep Ukraine, just like Georgia, out of NATO. And by these hostilities it had made both unlikely to join anytime soon.

Anyway, next time we can see just what Russian capabilities are is when ZAPAD 2017 starts. And it will start soon next month.

Some in Belarus are worried that the Russians might come there and then overstay.

(CNBC) There is alarm that Russian President Vladimir Putin could use the Zapad joint military exercises next month with Belarus as a sort of Trojan horse or pretext for an annexation of the former Soviet republic, which borders Poland. Russia claims there's fewer than 13,000 troops going to the quadrennial war games but some reports suggest the actual amount maybe as many as 100,000 people — and one defense expert tells CNBC "everything points to probably the largest military exercise in post-Soviet history."

The above speculation if it would happen, would be surprising and spectacular. Yet the most likely reason why some people in Belarus worried about such things openly is to give room for Belarus to maneuver between Russia and the West.

[Smitty-48]

Russia's objective is to keep Ukraine, just like Georgia, out of NATO.

Nope, the opposite in fact, the Russians never believed that Ukraine was going to be formally inducted into NATO, but the Siloviki need NATO at the gates in order to justify their existence, so they are deliberately inciting a conflict to draw NATO closer, which is working, because there's more NATO in Ukraine now than ever, and more coming all the time.

The Siloviki want Cold War 2.0, NATO being drawn into Ukraine is all part of the program.