I predict that Putin will let others overplay their hand and make the big mistakes, even if he has to take some casualties. Through all of this, he and Lavrov are the most highly respected statesmen on the planet… Jim W. Dean ]
By Jim W. Dean, Managing Editor on February 14, 2016
… from Press TV, Teheran
[ Editor’s Note: Timing, timing… the Russians are getting these
ships out to the Med maybe before a shooting war might close the Black Sea
route, which would be a big, but not terminal logistics problem for
Russia. Putin will play a cool hand here as always.
When the Russian tourist plane was taken down in Egypt
by unknown attackers (the story has totally disappeared as to what the final
black box determinations were), I wrote that Moscow would seek its revenge on
the Syrian battlefield, which we are watching happen now before our very eyes.
I predict that Putin will let others overplay their
hand and make the big mistakes, even if he has to take some casualties. Through
all of this, he and Lavrov are the most highly respected statesmen on the
planet… Jim W. Dean ]
____________
– First published … February 13,
2016 –
The Russian Navy has dispatched a new warship equipped
with cruise missiles to the Mediterranean, with reports saying that it is bound
for Syria.
The Russian Defense Ministry’s head of Black Sea Fleet’s
information department said on Saturday that the Zeleny Dol Buyan-M class
corvette, armed with Kalibr anti-ship missiles, departed for the Mediterranean
to join the country’s permanent naval task force there, Russia’s Sputnik news
agency reported.
“Today, the Zeleny Dol missile corvette and the
Kovrovets minesweeper of the Black Sea Fleet left [the Crimean port of]
Sevastopol to begin carrying out tasks as part of Russia’s permanent naval task
force in the Mediterranean,” Vyacheslav Trukhachev said.
The Russian official added that the patrol ship will
conduct tasks in the Mediterranean for the first time. The Russian news
agency further quoted a security source in Crimea – where the Black Sea fleet
is based – as saying that the corvette will join the Russian warships
operating off the coast of Syria in the coming days.
“The goals of the ship are not public but considering
that it is carrying long-range cruise missiles, its participation in the
military operation should not be excluded,” the source said.
The report comes as on Saturday, Russian Prime
Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned against any ground intervention in Syria by
countries in the US-led coalition allegedly fighting Daesh Takfiri group,
saying it would unleash another war.
“Don’t threaten anyone with a ground operation,” he
said in a speech at the Munich Security Conference, stressing that Moscow is
doing its utmost to pave the way for a lasting peace in the conflict-stricken
country.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and
Bahrain have recently expressed willingness to send troops to Syria to join the
US-led campaign.
“It is important to save a united Syrian state,
preventing it from falling apart into religion-based [fragments]. The world
can’t afford another Libya, Yemen or Afghanistan. The outcomes of such a
scenario would be disastrous for the entire Middle East,” Medvedev said.
Russia launched its own aerial campaign against the
Daesh Takfiri terrorists and other militant groups in Syria on September 30,
2015, upon a request from the Damascus government. The air raids have expedited
the advances of Syrian forces against militants.
The Russian strikes have drawn criticism from Western
governments and their allies in the Middle East, which have been supporting the
militants operating in the region
The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which began
in March 2011, has claimed the lives of some 470,000 people, according to the
Syrian Center for Policy Research.
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