Russia Prepares for Direct War with US & Europe

After revealing himself to be a total moron by attacking Iran, Trump abandons the spirit of Anchorage.

I just returned from a fly fishing trip to Slovenia during which I had a long conversation with my fishing guide about Balkan history. My main day on the Krka River was June 28—the 112 anniversary of the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. For many years I lived near the Habsburg Imperial Palace in Vienna, and I often thought about the fateful events that followed this disaster.

On July 23, 1914, at 6:00 PM, almost one month after the assassination, the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum—which led directly to World War I—was delivered to Serbia.

The document was presented in Belgrade by Baron Wladimir Giesl von Gieslingen, the Austro-Hungarian ambassador to Serbia, to the Serbian Minister of Finance, Lazar Paču, who was the acting deputy of the Serbian Prime Minister, Nikola Pašić.

The document was a formal diplomatic memo and a list of ten demands, designed to be unacceptable to secure a pretext for war. The note demanded a response within 48 hours—by 6:00 PM on July 25, 1914.

The Austrians delayed delivery until 6:00 PM to be sure that French President Raymond Poincaré and Premier René Viviani had left St. Petersburg after their Russian visit to prevent a rapid and coordinated diplomatic action between allied Russia and France.

The Austrian schemers formulated their demands so that the Kingdom of Serbia could NOT accept them without surrendering its sovereignty to Austria-Hungary. In other words, the Austrian court was NOT seeking concessions from Serbia that Serbia could deliver, but WAR with Serbia.

This set in motion a chain of events that led to World War I, which resulted in the death of 20 million people, the downfall Austria-Hungary, and the end of the 600-year-old Habsburg Monarchy.

Most ordinary Austrians had no idea just how risky the Serbian gambit was until it was too late and it became painfully evident that they were going to lose everything.

This morning I read an essay (Russia Hearing the European Clamor for War, Announces it is Ready) by the former British diplomat and MI6 intelligence officer, Alastair Crook, that reminded me of the summer of 1914. The latter section strikes me as the most cogent.

According to the Financial Times, Trump was “hugely impressed and enthusiastic” with Ukraine’s recent campaign of long-range strikes on targets deep inside Russia at last week’s G7 summit. At the summit, Trump also agreed to increase sanctions on Russian energy.

It is clear that the E3 had been plotting a major psy-op to convince Trump that Ukraine was not on the back-foot against Russia (as Trump may have been briefed); but rather had regained the front foot, and that the US should support the European agenda to force a Russian capitulation agenda (ceasefire, borders unchanged, reparations paid by Russia and war-crimes trials for Russian officials indicted with crimes, etc).

These developments have brought two major developments out of Russia...

Firstly, senior Kremlin aides, notably Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s spokesman, have been saying over the past three days the “spirt” of the Anchorage summit, and its concomitant understandings, “have effectively collapsed” — “The US abandoned them.” Moscow no longer expects those commitments to be honoured and is focused solely on securing its own “victory” through military means.

Foreign Minister Lavrov went further, describing the Alaska meeting as an American “ploy” designed to buy time for Ukraine to rebuild and rearm its military — essentially likening them to the Minsk Accords that similarly were mounted as a deceit.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said: “We also see Washington’s line moving closer to the most rabid anti-Russian policies pursued by the US’s closest European allies – namely, the UK and France.”

This represents a huge strategic shift. Russia no longer seeks a relationship with Washington, though contact with DC will continue.

The second development stems from President Putin’s address at the St George’s Hall to military cadets on June 23. Putin, in summary, told the young officers that the West manufactures a Russia threat, then accuses Russia of creating that very threat. This, said Putin, is a historically repeated pattern going back to 1941.

Putin implied that a threshold had now been crossed: He stated that whilst, until recently, NATO countries had limited themselves to supporting the Kiev regime to wage war on Russia, the West today is openly talking about preparing for a war against Russia, and is building up their military offensive budgets. German Chancellor Mertz has been quite vocal in this regard, Putin said.

Russia’s response, he said, is focused on modernizing its nuclear triad and its Army, and strengthening the combat capability of the Aerospace Forces and the Navy. The explicit mention of the nuclear triad in direct proximity to the discussion of Western preparation for war against Russia was certainly a pointed message to Trump and the Europeans.

Russia has heard the European clamor for war. It has now made the strategic decision in response to prepare for war in Europe.

One thing that has become painfully obvious in recent years is that Europe and the United States are run by reckless and malevolent nincompoops who don’t care in the least about their ordinary citizens. I’m not predicting World War III will soon break out in Europe, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it does.