RUSSIAN FEDERATION SITREP

SAUDIS SWITCHING SIDES AGAIN? In 1945 US President Roosevelt met with Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, the ruler of the eponymously named Saudi Arabia. Formerly allied with, and dependent on, Britain, this account makes it clear that the meeting was at Abdul Aziz's initiative; he chose to move away from the old world power to the new one. Note the assumption of the author that Roosevelt had the initiative. I don't agree; far from being an illiterate tribesman from the back of beyond, Abdul Aziz was a man of great courage, charisma and intelligence ever prepared to take a risk, as he had in the raid on the Rashidis. I ask viewers who the dominant man in this photo is. Be that as it may, with the meeting in St Petersburg, have we just seen his descendants move, once again, to the ascending power? If not, they're considering it.

PROJECTION. The latest utterance of NATO's GenSek uses the idiotic phrase "hybrid war". What? When we go to war we're supposed to look like this? How childish. And how meretricious: "We're not interested in a fair fight with anyone," Gen Hodges said. "We want to have overmatch in all systems." The GenSek did not, however, speak of Putin's "troll army" or "information weaponisation" as he has done in the past. That may be because, thanks to Edward Snowden, internet trolling, false names and all the rest are actually practised by the UK and others in the West, The amount of psychological projection in all this is immense. The only way to decode these utterances is to understand that when NATO accuses Russia of doing something it's an admission that NATO's actually doing it. For example, when he said NATO would "endorse a defence capacity building package to help Moldova", he meant that Moldova and Transdnestr are to be a new front.

CORRUPTION. At long last a sentence on the defence embezzlement case. Nothing on Serdyokov though.

IT'S WORKING. The three Baltic nations, after the overload of panic about the "Russian invasion" are spending the money. And NATO countries are receiving it. Poland ditto. And Germany. Sweden too. But, it's not catastrophic yet, NATO still accounts for well over half of the world's spending on weapons and better than ten times Russia's spending.

SANCTIONS. Have been extended for the preposterous reason of making Moscow live up to its side of the Minsk II agreement. Read it; there is no obligation on Moscow at all. Kiev has broken it by refusing to talk to the people in Donetsk and Lugansk. Medvedev thanks Europe for the sanctions. But they're hurting Europe. Losing Russian tourists too. And maybe that's the point.

Economy in tatters? The World Bank has revised its predictions and sees small growth next year.

A JOKE. BUT NOT A FUNNY ONE. I know they're not real polls; I know they're satire; I know they're carefully edited, but a frightening number of Americans seem to think nuking Russia would be a good idea. Not so many in Russia want to nuke the USA.

DISCUSS. A Russian Army recruiting video; an American. Interesting difference of emphasis, isn't it?

DEFECTIONS. Two brothers, one claiming to be from the Ukrainian security service and the other to have worked in Ukrainian Embassy in France, defected to Lugansk: "Traitors, fascists, various intelligence agents have taken up the reins of the country, and are leading it to ruin". A week later a major general and advisor to Kiev's defence minister defected too: he said morale in the Ukrainian Armed Forces is very low and many more were ready to defect: "All generals and officers who are aware the authorities’ actions are criminal have no wish to fight the war". Google doesn't show any report in the WMSM, so this must be more Putin trollery.

THE ALL-HEARING EAR. WikiLeaks tells us the NSA has been listening to the last three French Presidents.

EASY DEDUCTION. Russia challenges USA to publish its information on MH17, USA refuses.

COLOUR REVOLUTIONS. A colour revolution attempt is underway in Armenia. Why do I say that? An American company bought a power generator. Victoria Nuland visited. Familiar faces. A slogan: "Electric Yerevan". Background. Intentions. Meanwhile, in theKyrgyz Republic, an opposition member has met the US Chargé. Why? Let Hillary Clinton explain. One hopes that enough has been learned about these things to stop them. But if we can't afford to lose Greece to Russia, then what will we have to do?

WESTERN VALUES™. A Spaniard at Kaunas University says he was told to stop with the "Russian propaganda" or lose his job. Follow him on Facebook here.