War Games in the South and Talks in the West.
Today Russia started enormous military exercises in the South of the Russian Federation in the Caucasus area. The participating military units are from Russia’s North Causcasus Military District, military brigades from Abkhazia and South Ossetia as well as units of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, of Russia’s Caspian Flotilla, the Russian Air Force and the Russian Airborne Troops. A total of 8,500 troops, up to 200 tanks, 450 armored vehicles and up to 250 pieces of artillery will take part in the exercises.
The exercises are called ‘Caucasus 2009′ (‘Kavkaz 2009′) and will take place from June 29th until the 6th of July. The main purpose of the exercise is to assess combat readiness in the South-West district of Russia and to improve military interactions of military administrations in the North Caucasus. The exercises are structured around a theoretical crisis situation that spirals out of control into open fighting. Read More; Wikipedia.
This week’s Russian show of power in the Caucasus area and close to Georgia is directly a reaction to the NATO exercises in Georgia for about a month ago but can also be seen as a direct warning to Georgia as the Georgian government claimed to have rearmed its armed forces and still seeks a full NATO membership. Russia also tries to signal NATO, the West and especially the US that it will no longer tolerate ‘losing’ former Soviet Union republics to the West and especially to NATO.
The huge military drills in the South of the Russian Federation near Georgia of course remind us of the five-day war August last year, however, these drills now serve a more political aim. ’Caucasus 2009′ will end on 6th of July which is the day US President Barack Obama for the first time will visit Moscow for a very important summit with RF President Dmitry Medvedev. Russia again tries to put pressure on the Obama administration.
In reaction to Russia’s five-day war in Georgia NATO stopped military cooperation with Russia but last Saturday Russia and NATO resumed military cooperation after 11 chilly months, this during a meeting of the ‘NATO-Russia Council’ (NRC) on the Greek island of Corfu. The 29 Foreign Ministers of the ‘NATO-Russia Council’ reviewed the current state of relations and discussed the way forward for the Council. Afterwards NATO Secretary General de Hoop Scheffer told the press “The ‘NRC’ which has been in the neutral stand for almost a year, is now back in gear”.(Source: nato.int).
Today NATO officially invited Russia to join NATO’s anti-piracy operation ‘Allied Protector’ off the Somalia coasts. Russia already had several war ships in the Somalia area to fight piracy but until now was part of any officially coordinated operation. NATO also invited Russia to participate in NATO’s anti-terrorism operation ‘Active Endeavor’ in the Mediterranean. Russia’s participation in ‘Active Endeavor’ was blocked last September because of the five-day war against Georgia.(FLH).
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About ‘DutchIntell’
The ‘Dutchintell’ weblog is a non-professional weblog on the Russian Armed Forces in general and especially (more specific) on the Russian Navy. ’Dutchintell’ is especially interested in Russian Navy submarines and their movements and in Russian Navy ships movements in general. As a weblog we also try to list the submarines and other ships of the Russian Navy.
‘Dutchintell’ tries to get an up to date view on the Russian Navy ships and submarines. We try to paint a picture, sometimes literally, on the Russian Navy ships and the Russian Navy submarines; how many of these ships and submarines are really active, where has this one particular submarine gone since it was taken out of service, what happened to this new build frigate and also: is the new developed SSBN already active?!
The ’Dutchintell’ weblog is also about Russian politics concerning military matters in general and about Russian military background information, also in general but more specific on the Russian Navy, its submarines, ships and their movements.
‘Dutchintell’ especially comments on the Russian Navy and more specific on the Russian submarines, on Russian submarine weapons, on Russian submarine movements and on Russian Navy ship movements in general (Task Forces, Russia’s Carriers, etc.).
‘Dutchintell’ does not only comment on Russian Navy submarines in general but will also comment more specific on the Russian submarines; Russia’s new submarines, Russia’s new submarine launched misilles and other submarine weapons, Russia deploying its submarines to somewhere in the world, repairs on Russian submarines, the scraping of Russian submarines, the building of new Russian submarines, Russian Navy shipyards, etc. etc.
Next to that we will also try to paint the picture on old and rusting Russian submarines, rusting away in ports, docks and open waters somewhere in Russia. We will try to show how big a problem this is right now. To do so we will use ’Google Earth’ images, ‘Google Maps’ images and other satelite images, just to show and prove what the status is of environmental circumstances in the Russian Federation but also to show and prove what Russia is doing with its old submarines and other Navy ships (just watch this image:).
Russian Navy matters and Russian military politics in general will be ‘on topic’ on the ’Dutchintell’ weblog; Russian navy submarines, Russian navy fleet manoeuvres, Russian navy ship movements, Russian navy ship deployments, Russian navy ship building, Russian navy ‘tactics’ and ’strategies’, Russian military politics, Russian ‘Cold War’ tactics, Russian ’Cold War’ rhetoric, Russia’s ‘New Cold War’, etc. etc.
Next to all that ‘Dutchintell’ will also and frequently use ’Google Earth’-images, ‘Virtual Earth’-images, ‘Google Maps’-images and other satellite images to show Russian military matters in general. These images will all be used to add, to prove, to show and to enrich what ’Dutchintell’ is posting about concerning the Russian Navy and Russian military matters in general. But we will also use satellite images to fill our own ’Photo Gallery’.
‘Dutchintell’ will try to be updated on what the Russians are doing (military spoken) and what Russia is about (politically spoken); military-wise, navy-wise, but also in terms of politics and in terms of other Russian……! (fill it in yourself!)
‘Dutchintell’ will especially post about Russia and ’The Second Cold War’ (TSCW). ‘Dutchintell’ will frequently comment on ’The Cold War’, ‘The Second Cold War’, ’Cold War-rhetoric’, ‘Cold War-threats’ and other ‘Cold War’ related ‘items’ and also ’Cold War-Developments’. ‘Dutchintell’ will keep an eye on Russian ‘Cold War Matters’ and comment on them, such as; Russia and NATO, Russia and Georgia, Russia and oil and gas, Russia and the North Pole, Russia and former Soviet Republics, Russia and nuclear energy, Russia and environmental risks, Russia and…… etc. etc. etc.
‘Dutchintell’ also comments on other Russian ’items’, especially on Russian military related ’items’ and more especially on Russian navy related ’items’; we will monitor Russian navy ships travelling around the world but also other Russian military ‘assets’ deployed to somewhere in the world. (Example: “Russian navy ships fighting piracy off Somalia”).
This weblog also comments on the ‘Kursk’, the Russian ‘Oscar-2′ submarine that went down in the Barents Sea the 12th of Augustus 2000. ‘Dutchintell’ very especially focuses on the ‘Kursk’ disaster in which 118 very brave Russian sailors died. We will provide you a long ’story’ (‘part-01 to part-many’) about what happened to the ‘Kursk’ before the disaster, during the disaster and after the disaster.
We will also provide you lots of images and video’s on the ‘Kursk’ and on the salvage operation, including images of the ‘Kursk’ after it was salvaged; images of the ‘Kursk’ in dry dock, of workers entering the ‘Kursk’ and workers dismantling the ‘Kursk’.
‘Dutchintell’ will show you what happened to the ‘Kursk’ after it sank, give information about how the ‘Kursk’ was salvaged, give information about how the divers and other men did their work. ’Dutchintell’ will ’tell’ you how Dutch companies and other companies eventually salvaged the ‘Kursk’ and brought ’her’ back ’home’, to a dry dock in Murmansk.
We will of course also report about the way the Russian Navy dealt with this terrible disaster, how they reacted, not reacted and eventually kept telling lies about what happened. But also about the Russian leaders and others acting after the ‘Kursk’ went down at approximately 11.30 hours on the 12th of August 2000. How did they handled the bad news and how did they act towards the families, the media and other governments offering help and assistance.
‘Dutchintell’ will keep you informed about the ‘Kursk’ by means of our special The ‘Kursk’ File. In this special file we will also present you a whole (hole) ’new theory’ on the ‘Kursk’ disaster in which 118 brave people died. We, ‘Dutchintell’, are not able to present you the truth about the ‘Kursk’, no! But, yes, maybe, the truth is closer, closer than we all together think, see and perceive.
The Russian Navy (top brass) and the Russian government (President Putin) apparently tried to make the conning tower (the sail) of the ‘Kursk’ disappear without a trace, some how. They did not succeed thanks to some clever Russian journalists. The sail or conning tower of the ‘Kursk’ now more or less is a symbol for the way the Russian authorities tried to hide what happened to the ‘Kursk’ but also for the way they tried to handled the entire ‘Kursk’ disaster.
“How is the Russian government, how is Putin or how is Medvedev finally going to explain how these 118 very brave men died?”. “Is Medvedev, is Putin or is some other Russian president finally going to tell the Russians what happened that day in August 2000?!”. “Is Medevedev finally going to tell the truth or do the Russians and does the world have to wait for another more open Russian government and Russian President?”. ”What about the final truth?”.
Are the families of the 118 very brave men finally told the truth about the 12th of August 2000? Is Medvedev, is Putin, is ‘the Kremlin’ finally going to give way for the truth so that every family of those who died on board the ‘Kursk’, so that every Russian and so that every one in the world can see, hear and read about what really happened to the ‘Kursk’: the truth of the 12th of August 2000!
We, ‘Dutchintell’, are a non-professional weblog on wide issues concerning the Russian Federation and its Navy. ‘Dutchintell’ comments on a wide variety of Russian happenings. Very wide!
We, ’Dutchintell’, kicked off this weblog December (Christmas) 2008, so we are actually just beginning. (FLH).
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