Comment: Biden and Trump at the bottom edges of the country: Cue the fireworks.

Comment: Indeed, whilst direct Western involvement has been admitted by its propaganda outlets in the early days of Russia's SMO, and intermittently since, Russia, perhaps in the hope of bringing peace to the region, has been open with some evidence, but it certainly has also held some of the most revealing information back.

It seems that at least part of the reason the West is coming clean is because it feels compelled to escalate the situation:

• Germany's Scholz implies British troops operating long-range missiles INSIDE Ukraine, is slammed by counterparts for intel-leak
• Pentagon chief's 'Freudian slip' reveals US war intent - Moscow
• US Defense Sec Lloyd Austin goes into intensive care due to 'bladder problems'

It's also notable how this increasing number of 'slips' from the West's leadership are occurring alongside an increasing number of significant military blunders - see the following link for a list: Embarrassing': German Navy Frigate Hessen MISFIRES two missiles which mistakenly target US drone over Red Sea

Comment: Things are about to get very uncomfortable for the parliamentary class in the UK House of Commons. Galloway has never been reticent about voicing plain truths.

• British MP George Galloway: ISIS was created, directly and indirectly, by the US-UK regimes
• George Galloway: Drones, Palestine, 'Tony Blair belongs at the Hague'
• UK crackdown on rich Russians is 'politically driven by Cold War mentality' George Galloway mocks Macron lecturing UK on democracy while France burns every Saturday
• George Galloway announces public inquiry into BBC's reporting (lying) on events in Gaza
• George Galloway: The NATO virus is spreading

And a post-election interview with a Sky News reporter. Must-watch!

Comment:

• US spies behind 'Russiagate' conspiracy - report
• Honor among thieves: Five Eyes allies spy on and for one another
• Five Eyes: The global spy network that controls us all, and how it works

Comment: For further insight, see: Transnistria appeals to Russia for 'protection', reviving fears for Moldova breakaway region

There's a myriad of reasons to believe that the West is indeed feeling compelled to escalate tensions on its multiple war fronts; as well as against its citizens at home:

• US to deploy 5 aircraft carriers in western Pacific in latest provocation against China
• Korybko: Russia's Avdeevka win will reverberate across Europe and accelerate geostrategic shifts
• 'Embarrassing': German Navy Frigate Hessen MISFIRES two missiles which mistakenly target US drone over Red Sea
• Transcript released of purported German discussion on attacking Crimean Bridge

Comment:
1) For the comment from Llyod Austin:


And from Sergei Lavrov:


2) See also:
West flirting with nuclear war - Putin

President Putin insisted that recent claims by Western officials, that Moscow is planning to attack NATO, are "nonsense." At the same time, those same nations are "selecting targets to conduct strikes on our territory," the Russian head of state claimed, adding that there is now talk of "deploying NATO military contingents to Ukraine."

Putin reminded would-be aggressors that all previous attempts to conquer Russia have ended in failure, warning that "now the consequences for potential invaders would be far more tragic." He pointed out that Russia has a massive nuclear arsenal, which is in a state of "complete readiness for guaranteed deployment."

"Everything that they are thinking up now, that they are scaring the world with, it all really poses the threat of a conflict involving nuclear weapons, and therefore, the destruction of civilization. Don't they understand this?"

The Russian president suggested that Western politicians making those escalatory remarks "have already forgotten what war is."

Unlike Russians, who have faced "difficult trials" in recent decades, Westerners apparently "think that these are just some cartoons," President Putin opined.

His remarks came after his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, toyed with the idea of a potential ground deployment of Western militaries to Ukraine while talking to reporters on Monday, saying "in terms of dynamics, we cannot exclude anything."

Sovereignty, US hypocrisy, nuclear warnings: Key takeaways from Putin's Federal Assembly address

Russia will overcome attempts to constrain it

The president stated that Russia has proven that it is capable of solving the most difficult problems and challenges, has been able to repel "the aggression of international terrorism" and preserve national unity, despite Western attempts to tear Russia apart like it did Ukraine and to turn it into a "dependent, fading, dying space where they can do whatever they want" by sowing national conflicts.

Moving forward, the president stressed that Russia will continue to defend its freedom, preserve its history and traditions, further develop its democratic institutions and protect its sovereignty, not allowing anyone to interfere in its internal affairs.

Best of the Web: Did the West intentionally incite Putin to war?

Conclusion

So, the question arises just how much the US and NATO tried to draw, provoke, incite Russia into war in Ukraine or at least made Kiev so robustly prepared for war that it made war inevitable - the late stage of the proverbial self-fulfilling prophecy about perceived (in this case, sans NATO expansion, misperceived) threats. Long before the Maidan putch, the US and NATO were on course for war in Ukraine by expanding NATO as some warned at the time. Continuing NATO expansion particularly to Ukraine would spark a NATO-Russia war. Throughout post-Cold war history and particularly in the 2004-2014 period, the US and NATO increased support for Ukraine's military and integrated it into NATO operations in Kosovo and Afghanistan. A 'high point' in this process was the 2008 NATO summit that promised that Ukraine and Georgia would become NATO members in future. From 2010 to 2014, as NATO's website notes, "Ukraine pursued a non-alignment policy, which it terminated in response to Russia's aggression".

The NATO statement naturally leaves out the Maidan revolt that overthrew the government conducting the neutrality policy that preceded 'Russia's aggression" and was nurtured by Western money and networks in Ukraine. In Western analyses, Western actions have no effect on Russian calculations about its own security. Meanwhile, the US and NATO took no steps to oppose the rising influence of ultranationalism, neofascism, and anti-Russian feeling in Ukraine beginning with the Orange Revolution. In this period the West tirelessly cultivated pro-NATO networks in Ukraine in order to amass pro-NATO, pro-EU sentiment and promote regime change or 'color revolution' in Ukraine on the Maidan 'revolution' in 2013-2014, but I and others have already made that point and exhaustively so [see Gordon M. Hahn, Ukraine Over the Edge: Russia, the West and the 'New Cold War' (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland Books, 2018).

Best of the Web: CIA has 'many bases' in Ukraine - FSB boss

The CIA has "many" bases in Ukraine, the head of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Aleksandr Bortnikov told Russian television on Thursday, when asked about a New York Times report on the spy network.

The US newspaper described a decade-long record of cooperation between the American spy agency and Ukrainian special services.

According to the article, which was published last Sunday, the CIA has 12 secret bases on Ukrainian soil which are actively working against Russia. The paper wrote that over the past eight years, the CIA has trained and equipped Kiev's intelligence officers in underground bunkers, some of which are nestled deep in the forests of Ukraine.

Bortnikov told Channel 1:

"They [US intelligence] had entered there a long time ago and are using this resource to do the dirty work, on their own and with the hands of the Ukrainian special services."

He said "work is ongoing," when asked whether Russia can get to the CIA sites.

Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov suggested that the Americans have far more outposts in Ukraine than the 12 bases reported by the NYT. Russia was not oblivious to the clandestine Western activities within the borders of its hostile neighbor, officials in Moscow have said.

Biden's attack on Nord Stream pipelines was aimed at Germany - Seymour Hersh

The attack on the Nord Stream pipelines commissioned by US President Joe Biden was primarily aimed at Germany rather than Russia, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh has claimed. The decision to destroy the key pipelines was prompted by US fears that Berlin might not follow Washington's lead amid the Ukraine conflict, Hersh wrote in a new article on the affair on his Substack blog on Friday.

The sabotage of the pipelines was ordered weeks before the conflict between Russia and Ukraine began in February 2022, Hersh wrote, adding that the American operatives assigned to it believed it was meant to deter Moscow. The attack on the pipelines was ready by late May, but "the plan was called off on short notice by Biden," the journalist claimed.

Instead, the team was tasked with planting explosives on the pipelines, which could be detonated remotely at a later date, he said. The timing of the attack, which ultimately occurred in late September 2022, appeared to be aimed at Berlin rather than Moscow.

"Biden's timing seemed aimed at Chancellor [Olaf] Scholz. Some in the CIA believed that the president's fear was that Scholz, whose constituents were lukewarm in their support for Ukraine, might waffle with winter coming on and conclude that keeping his people warm and his industries prosperous was more important than backing Ukraine against Russia," Hersh wrote.

To avoid losing control of Europe, the U.S. has a war plan for Europe and Russia (2014)

A close relationship between Moscow and Europe would remove the rationale for America's military role in NATO and thereby its political influence in Europe.

The US is prepared to plunge Europe into a war with Russia in order for Washington to preserve its hegemony over the transatlantic axis.

The key issues are the prevention of Russia and Europe developing closer trade and political ties - stemming primarily from a vast trade in energy fuels; and, secondly, the survival of the American dollar as the world's reserve currency.

Pentagon's plan for Europe? Make it the frontline in a war with Russia (This was 2017!)

The plan is clear and is already underway: to transform Europe into the firing line for yet another confrontation with Russia. The announcement made on 4 May, confirms this: that the US Army in Europe had built a new headquarters at Poznan, Poland, to command more than 6,000 US soldiers that have been lined up in Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Germany, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria in order to "strengthen Nato's Eastern flank, serving as a deterrence to Russia".

In this lining up on the Eastern flank, which includes armoured forces, fighter bombers, war ships and missile units (including nuclear ones) - are participating Nato European powers. This is demonstrated by France sending her troops and Britain her tanks, to Estonia.

And what about the European army? At the meeting of the EU Defense Ministers, on 27 April at Malta, the Nato Secretary General, Stoltenberg left no room for doubt: "it was clearly agreed by the European Union that its objective is not to build a new European army or structures of command in competition with Nato's, but something that may complement what Nato is doing".

The sceptre of command thus remains squarely in the hands of the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, a US general appointed by the US President.

3) As if preparing for a conflict in Europe even after a collapse of NATO, the US has in recent years made a number of bilateral military agreements with European NATO states. Even if a few NATO countries throw their cards on the table, and sign out before or after a first round of shock and awe, war can still continue, since some US bilateral agreements are phrased such that the agreements can not be cancelled from the point of beginning and for the duration of its terms, say ten years. In addition, some European NATO states, like Germany, France, Britain, Denmark, The Netherlands ... have recently signed mutual defence agreements with Ukraine. From this perspective it does not matter How Macron's latest Ukraine comments blew NATO apart or that Germany's Scholz implies British troops operating long-range missiles INSIDE Ukraine, is slammed by counterparts for intel-leak NATO or not, the ground is being prepared for war involving the European NATO area. This does not mean it will happen, but it is possible.

Vladimir Putin once said that one lesson he learned in his teenage years from the rough areas in what was then Leningrad, was that if a conflict becomes inevitable, be the first to strike. By pushing Europe over the edge the US may hope to present the image of Russia that they want, as they have done, or tried to do, with what has happened in Ukraine. At the same time however, nefariousness is increasing in the US and Europe to the point that more Western Europeans are beginning to see something is amiss.

Comment:
1) From the same source:

1 Mar, 2024 15:45 World War III possible - former French PM

Defeating Russia is essential and everything possible must be done to achieve that goal, Manuel Valls has said

The possibility of the Ukraine conflict escalating into World War III cannot be ruled out, former French Prime Minister Manuel Valls claimed on Thursday in an interview with the Europe-1 news channel.

According to Valls, the fate of the French people and others across Europe is "closely tied" to the hostilities between Moscow and Kiev, meaning they should "act much more decisively" to support Ukraine, including militarily.

"We cannot accept the hypothesis of a victory for Vladimir Putin which would represent the end of Ukrainian democracy and the strategic, military, political, and moral defeat of Europe," Valls stated.

"Defeating Russia is essential, and for that, we must act much more strongly and quickly, and not forbid anything," he added, apparently referring to French President Emmanuel Macron's recent comments that sending NATO troops to Ukraine should not be ruled out.

Following Macron's remarks earlier this week, a range of countries - including Poland, Germany, the US, Italy, the UK, and other NATO members - rejected the idea that they could deploy forces to Ukraine. The chief of the US-led bloc, Jens Stoltenberg, has also dismissed such a scenario.

Meanwhile, a public survey conducted by the French newspaper Le Figaro on Thursday also revealed that over two-thirds of French citizens disapproved of Macron's comments on a possible NATO deployment to Ukraine.

Nevertheless, Macron has doubled down on his remarks, insisting that they were "weighed, thought-through, and measured." So far, only two other NATO members, Estonia and Lithuania, have supported the French president, suggesting that sending troops to Ukraine should not be excluded.

Moscow has condemned Macron's statements, warning that the deployment of NATO forces to Ukraine would "inevitably" lead to a direct confrontation between Russia and the US-led alliance.

• See also:
• Sovereignty, US hypocrisy, nuclear warnings: Key takeaways from Putin's Federal Assembly address
• Macron stands by remarks on NATO troops in Ukraine
• How Macron's latest Ukraine comments blew NATO apart
• Putin allies tell Macron: Any French troops you send to Ukraine will suffer fate of Napoleon's army
• Who's brain-dead now, Macron?
• EU panics over failing Project Ukraine: France creates coalition to arm crumbling military with long-range weapons
• Nuland accidentally reveals the true aim of the West in Ukraine
• Putin defeated US plan for Russia - Nuland

2) What to say, what to speculate?
It must be very frustrating to belong to a Western elite that in some corners might prefer to reduce the human population to what they think are sustainable levels, at least if some big changes are expected even if not widely known.

Quite a lot has been tried already: They tried mass injections, with some success, but many caught onto the game that was afoot. They try and keep trying global warming and green agenda, but the electric cars do not do well in cold weather and burn out too easily when they are not supposed to. World Economic Forum advertising you will be happy and own nothing has also been a bit of a miss. They try making farming difficult and succeed partially, but neither the farmers nor the people think that is a great idea. They get somebody to sabotage infrastructure, but a few figured out the number had increased beyond mere chance. Russia sanctions have worked well but not as advertised against Russia. War in Ukraine has been a success against the Ukrainians and their own citizens which are slowly, slowly, slowly catching up to what is going on, making fundraisers more difficult.

On the balance sheet, the continued strategy could be to keep trying using a wide selection of options, including pushing Russophobia. Do they wish to push that a bit more, get some conflict going that can help make living conditions even worse, blame Russia and be done with their opposition? Will people then get busy with their own suffering and not have time to worry about a bit of genocide here and there, or have the ability to oppose more authoritarian measures? Or is it rather that these strategies will backfire? Think of the opposition of Yemen to the war in Gaza. Sometimes suffering does not only make a lot of people weaker it can also make some objectively weak people using their remaining energy to reconsider their options including relating their own suffering to that of others.

This is not the end of speculations, after all how many would have imagined just five years ago that we would be where we are now? Will what we will live in five years from now be equally beyond our current imagination, even beyond our wildest imagination? How long might this trend continue?