This Spring saw a sudden increase in the volume of articles in the so-called \u201calternative media and blogosphere\u201d about Putin \u201cselling out\u201d Syria or Iran to the Israelis and their US patrons, or both. What was particularly interesting about this campaign is that it was not triggered by any kind of event or statement by Putin or any other senior Russian decision-makers. True, Israeli politicians made numerous trips to Russia, but each time they walked away without anything tangible to show for their efforts. As for their Russian counterparts, they limited themselves to vague and well-intentioned statements. Nonetheless, the \u201cPutin sold out to Netanyahu\u201d campaign did not stop. Every meeting was systematically interpreted as T<\/strong>he C<\/strong>lear P<\/strong>roof that the Zionists control the Kremlin and that Putin was doing Netanyahu\u2019s bidding. The fact that this campaign began ex nihilo<\/em> did not seem to bother most observers. Soon I started getting steady streams of emails asking me to react to these articles. My reply was always the same one: let\u2019s do the opposite of what these supposed \u201cspecialists\u201d are doing and wait for the facts to come out and only then form an opinion.<\/span><\/p>\n Truth be told, I had already tackled that canard in my article \u201cWhy is Putin \u201callowing\u201d Israel to bomb Syria<\/strong><\/a>.\u201d I also had tried to debunk some of the most persistent and toxic falsehoods about Russia and Israel in my article \u201cPutin and Israel: A Complex and Multi-Layered Relationship<\/a><\/strong>.\u201d I also wrote an article entitled \u201cIs Putin Really Ready to \u201cDitch\u201d Iran?<\/a><\/strong>\u201d trying to debunk that stupid theory. Finally, I even tried to compare and contrast the Russian approach towards Israel (which I qualified as \u201cself-interest\u201d) with the attitude of the \u201ccollective West\u201d (which I qualified as \u201cprostitution\u201d) in an article entitled \u201cRussia, Israel and the Values of \u201cWestern Civilization\u201d \u2013 Where Is the Truth?<\/strong><\/a>\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n I was na\u00efve to think that any of my arguments would elicit any doubts amongst the \u201cPutin is a traitor\u201d crowd. After all, if being wrong for years could not convince them otherwise, no rational argument would.<\/span><\/p>\n Then, news agencies began to report that General Nikolai Patrushev, the Director of the Russian Federal Security Service and the Secretary of the Security Council of Russia, would travel to Israel to meet with John Bolton and Bibi Netanyahu. At this point, the steady stream of concerned emails suddenly turned into a deluge! After all, why would such a high-ranking (and rather secretive) Russian official travel to Israel to meet two of the worst and most evil politicians of the Anglo-Zionist Empire? Surely, he had something important to say, no? The consensus (of sorts) was that Patrushev would sell out Iran and Syria in exchange for some (entirely theoretical, quite unlikely and inevitably vague) \u201cconcessions\u201d on the Ukraine, Crimea or sanctions.<\/span><\/p>\n My reply remained the same. Let\u2019s wait until these folks actually meet and let\u2019s see if their meeting brings about something significant (as a rule, I find getting facts an essential first step before engaging in any analysis; apparently, my detractors feel otherwise).<\/span><\/p>\n So, again, I decided to wait.<\/span><\/p>\n Then something weird happened: the meeting took place, it was even reported (albeit mostly in general terms), the participants issued their statements and\u2026 \u2026nothing. The outcome of the \u201cJerusalem summit\u201d was greeted by a deafening silence and a few vapid commentaries. My first hunch was that, as the Russian saying goes, the \u201cmountain had given birth to a mouse\u201d and that nothing of importance came out of the summit. Boy, was I ever wrong!<\/span><\/p>\n The summit did<\/strong> indeed produce something of vital significance, but for some reason, the most senior-official statement on Iran that any Russian decision-maker ever made received very little attention. Unless you happened to be a Saker blog reader, you would never find out about it.<\/span><\/p>\n See for yourself and click here: http:\/\/thesaker.is\/russias-patrushev-holds-press-conference-following-russia-us-israeli-talks\/<\/a><\/u> for both the video and the transcript.<\/span><\/p>\n To my knowledge, this is the only full-length English language transcript of Patrushev\u2019s statement. (Ruptly posted a video dubbed in English, but it was hardly noticed. As for the transcript, to my knowledge it was never reposted in full).<\/span><\/p>\n Which is too bad, since the following words have now been spoken by one of the most authorized and high-ranking Russian officials to date: (emphasis added)<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe have emphasized an importance of easing of the tensions for the country (Syria) between Israel and Iran, by the way of implementation the mutual approaching steps. We have made an emphasis that Syria must not be turned into an arena for geopolitical confrontation. We have also highlighted the need for the international community to help Syria to rebuild its national economy. Among other things, Syria should be free of illegal trade restrictions, unilateral sanctions, as well as sanctions on economic operators that help Syria to rebuild. They also have to be free from all sanctions<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n We also turned everyone\u2019s attention to the relations of Syria and other Arab states that should be normalized again. Syria is once again should be a full-fledged member of the Arab League<\/strong>. Also, we pointed out an importance of establishing the contacts of Syrian government with its Kurdish ethnic minority. We stated of importance to unite the efforts to eliminate all remaining in Syria terrorists. We called for immediate disruption of all channels through which terrorists might be able to obtain weapon grade chemical materials and their precursors. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Russia, the United States and Israel should join their efforts to help peace to return to Syria.<\/span><\/p>\n In the context of the statements made by our partners with regard to a major regional power, namely Iran, I would like to say the following: Iran has always been and remains our ally and partner<\/strong><\/em>, with which we are consistently developing relations both on bilateral basis and within multilateral formats.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n This is why we believe that it is inadmissible to describe Iran as the major threat to the regional security and, moreover, to put it on par with the Islamic State or any other terrorist organization<\/strong>, Especially, since Iran contributes substantial efforts to bring peace to Syria and to stabilize the situation in Syria<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n We have called on our partners to show restraint and readiness for reciprocal steps, which must serve as the basis for the consistent advancement towards the easing of tensions in the Israeli-Iranian relations\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n To my knowledge, this is the very first time that Russia has officially declared Iran not only as a partner but as an ally! A few days later, President Putin confirmed that this was an official position which had his imprimatur<\/em> when he stated in his interview to the FT<\/strong><\/a> that:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe have established sufficiently good business-like relations with all regional countries, and our positions in the Middle East region have become more stable. Indeed, we have established very good, business-like, partner-like and largely allied relations<\/em> with many regional countries, including Iran<\/em>, Turkey and other countries\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n This is absolutely huge, especially considering that, unlike Eltsin\u2019s \u201cdemocratic\u201d Russia or western politicians, Putin does not abandon his allies (if anything, he sometimes defends them for too long even when they have been found guilty of dishonorable actions). Let me repeat this:<\/span><\/p>\n Russia has declared that Iran is her ally<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n Next, let\u2019s parse the Patrushev statement once again for some specifics about Syria:<\/span><\/p>\n It sure looks to me that Russia\u2019s commitment to Syria\u2019s integrity and freedom is as strong as ever.<\/span><\/p>\n Does that look to you like Russia and Israel are working hand-in-hand in Syria?<\/span><\/p>\n If so, please read the following for a quick reality check (excerpt from this article<\/a><\/strong>):<\/span><\/p>\n The initial AngloZionist plan was to overthrow Assad and replace him with the Takfiri crazies (Daesh, al-Qaeda, al-Nusra, ISIS \u2013 call them whatever you want). Doing this would achieve the following goals:<\/span><\/p>\n That was an ambitious plan, but the Israelis felt pretty confident that their US vassal-state would provide the resources needed to achieve it. Now this entire plan has collapsed due to the very high effectiveness of an informal but yet formidable alliance between Russia, Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah. To say that the Israelis are seething with rage and in a state of total panic would be an understatement. Do you think I am exaggerating? Then look at it from the Israeli point of view:<\/span><\/p>\n The simple truth is that Russia foiled ALL<\/strong> the Israeli plans for Syria. All of them!<\/span><\/p>\n This is an extremely important statement. It is also a somewhat ambiguous one since \u201cally\u201d means different things to different people. The Allied Powers during WWII included the Anglo nations and the Soviet Union, which did not prevent the western powers from plotting and conspiring to attack and destroy their putative \u201cally\u201d (who happened to have destroyed about 80% of the Nazi war machine).<\/span><\/p>\n ———————-<\/span><\/p>\n For those who need a reminder of how the West treats its allies, here is a small memento with three examples of how the West planned to \u201csolve the Russian problem\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n I could also list all the so-called \u201callies\u201d the West has ditched, betrayed and even murdered since WWII, but that would take too many pages.<\/span><\/p>\n ——————-<\/span><\/p>\n So what does Russia mean exactly when she says that Iran is her \u201cally\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n Patrushev uses the words \u043f\u0430\u0440\u0442\u043d\u0435\u0440 (partner) and \u0441\u043e\u044e\u0437\u043d\u0438\u043a (ally). Just as in English, the word \u201cpartner\u201d evokes some community of interests and collaboration but is generally value-neutral. This is why Russian politicians sometimes even speak of countries hostile to Russia as \u201cpartners.\u201d Not only are they sarcastic, but \u201cpartner\u201d does not invoke any particular feeling or moral obligation on anybody\u2019s part. Partner is just a polite word, nothing more.<\/span><\/p>\n The word \u201cally,\u201d however, is a much stronger one which implies not only common interests but also a real, sincere friendship and a common stance against a common enemy. Unless it is used sarcastically, the term \u201csoiuznik\u201d strongly implies a mutual moral obligation.<\/span><\/p>\n It remains unclear what that really means in the case of Iran and Russia. Theoretically, having a common enemy attack one of the members of an alliance (\u201csoiuz\u201d) could mean that Russia would intervene and offer military support or even directly intervene herself. I doubt that Patrushev (or anyone else in the Kremlin) has this kind of intervention in mind, if only for one reason which is that there would be very little, if any, popular support for a war against the US for the sake of Iran. A much more realistic interpretation of Patrushev\u2019s words would be that:<\/span><\/p>\n Total support short of any direct military intervention is what the USSR offered the DPRK and, even more so, to Vietnam, and in both cases, the West was eventually defeated. Also, \u201cshort of any direct military intervention\u201d does not mean \u201cno military aid\u201d: sending military equipment and instructors, is also below the threshold of \u201cdirect military intervention,\u201d as would be the case with political and economic support. Furthermore, Russia has formidable intelligence and reconnaissance capabilities which could play a crucial role in helping Iran resist an AngloZionist attack (look at what Russian radars, electronic warfare, and battle management systems have done to the effectiveness of US and Israeli attacks against Syria!).<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s also remember the nature of the Iranian theater of military operations: Iran is a huge country with a very large population (80M+). What this means is that Iran cannot be taken over in a ground invasion. That, in turn, means that the resistance of the Iranian people will never be crushed. And that, in turn, means that there is no need for Russia to prevent a military takeover of Iran. All Russia needs to do is to give Iran the means to effectively resist and the rest will happen naturally (just like Hezbollah did in 2006 against Israel when Iran did not intervene directly and militarily, but simply gave Hezbollah the means to beat back the \u201conly Jewish democracy in the Middle-East\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n Besides, Iranians are fiercely patriotic, and they would probably not welcome any visible Russian military intervention in their country anyway (they won\u2019t say \u201cno\u201d to covert aid, especially not the IRGC). This is a wise approach, especially when compared to cowardly little statelets which always want one occupier to boot out a previous occupier (think Poland, the Baltic statelets or the Nazi-occupied Ukraine nowadays).<\/span><\/p>\n Finally, Russia is not acting by herself or in a vacuum: the Chinese have made numerous statements (see here<\/a><\/strong>, here<\/a> <\/strong>or here<\/strong><\/a>) showing that Iran also has their backing, which resulted in a state of consternated shock<\/a><\/strong> amongst MAGA fanboys. The fact that the US\u2019s \u201cEuropean allies\u201d seemed to be getting cold feet about this entire project (attacking Iran on behalf of Israel, blowing-up the entire Middle-East while bringing down the world economy) only adds to their distress.<\/span><\/p>\n ——————-<\/span><\/p>\n The USN should rent out a few transport\/amphibious assault ships, fill them up with Polaks, Balts, Ukies, and Georgians and send them to fight for \u201cthe US\u201d (i.e., for Israel, of course). After all, these folks are locked in a desperate competition to see who <\/a>of them<\/a> can brown-nose the Empire the deepest<\/a><\/strong>, so why not give them a way to prove their unfailing loyalty to \u201cwestern values\u201d and the rest of the propaganda nonsense the legacy corporate Ziomedia feeds us (and them!) on a daily basis<\/span><\/p>\n —————–<\/span><\/p>\n Will any of the above affect the \u201cPutin is a traitor\u201d or \u201cPutin works for Bibi\u201d crowd?<\/span><\/p>\n No, most probably not. What they will do is just ignore Patrushev\u2019s very official statement just like they have ignored all the facts since they began predicting a \u201cGrand Russian Betrayal\u201d for no less than 5 years now, even if proved wrong every time: remember their whining about Syria \u201closing\u201d its (utterly useless, dangerous and expensive to destroy) chemical weapons? What about their whining about Russia not doing enough for Novorussia? Or their whining about the Russians being \u201csoft\u201d on Israel after the Israelis caused the loss of a Russian recon aircraft? All these folks who present to us the \u201cproof\u201d that Putin, Bolton, and Netanyahu are \u201cin cahoots\u201d, and have predicted that Patrushev would \u201csell out\u201d are now very busy looking somewhere else for evidence of Russia\u2019s subservience to Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n At the time of writing (July 2nd<\/sup>), the Israelis have yet again conducted an airstrike on Syria, killing four people including a baby. The MI6 sponsored \u201cThe Syrian Observatory for Human Rights\u201d reported<\/a><\/strong> that \u201cat least ten targets were hit in Damascus while a scientific research center and a military airbase were attacked in Homs<\/em>.\u201d Sounds quite impressive, no?<\/span><\/p>\n Actually, no.<\/span><\/p>\n For one thing, to evaluate the effectiveness of an airstrike, you don\u2019t list targets, you make a bomb damage assessment<\/strong><\/a> (BDA) to ascertain what in reality sustained a hit, and how severely. Now, the Zionist propaganda always issues triumphant reports about how the invincible Israeli air force can make minced meat out of any Russian (or other) air defense system. Some<\/strong><\/a>, for example, have already concluded that the Israelis have \u201cneutralized\u201d the S-300 system while others<\/strong><\/a> go even further and claim that Russia either \u201capproved\u201d the Israeli attack or even \u201ccoordinated\u201d it!<\/span><\/p>\n The Russian military has a saying \u201c\u0433\u0440\u0430\u0436\u0434\u0430\u043d\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u2013 \u044d\u0442\u043e \u0434\u0438\u0430\u0433\u043d\u043e\u0437\u201d which can be roughly translated as \u201ccivilian \u2013 that is a diagnosis.\u201d In the case of these ignorant and even silly articles about the Russian air defenses in Syria (\u201cthe S-300 don\u2019t work!!!\u201d), that is precisely the case: these are civilians who have no understanding whatsoever of military matters in general, and even less so of air defense topics.<\/span><\/p>\nThe official Russian position on Iran<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The official Russian position on Syria<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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SIDEBAR<\/h4>\n
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SIDEBAR<\/h4>\n
Facts? No! Who needs facts? <\/strong><\/h2>\n