THE SAKER—There are roughly two camps vying for power inside the Kremlin: I call them the Atlantic Integrationists and the Eurasian Sovereignists. The former group is a pure product of the 1990s. We can think of them as “liberals”, IMF/Washington Consensus/WTO/WB types; folks who came to power thanks to the regime of oligarchs which ran Russia from about 1990 to 2000 and which was both deeply pro-American and which had extremely close ties to Israel and the various political Jewish and Zionist organizations in the West. The latter group is primarily a product of the armed forces and the security services. The “bridge” between the two is, by the way, the Russian military industrial complex in which both groups are represented.
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STEPHEN LENDMAN—Current Syrian air defense systems were produced by Soviet Russia, way inadequate for current needs. Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport is ready to supply S-300s if approved by the Kremlin. It’s not forthcoming, not now at least. According to Putin’s military technical cooperation aide Vladimir Kozhin, Russia will not supply S-300s to Syria’s military – nor are talks about possible delivery being held. Kozhin falsely claimed Syrian armed forces have “all” the air defense systems “they need” – a shameful remark, clearly untrue.
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RICK STERLING—Life’s complexities are portrayed in the Iranian pilots where the younger pilot has left his pregnant wife to be alongside his father. While the story is fictional, the portrayed setting, human drama and conflict between forces of moderation versus extremism and violence is real. Hundreds of thousands of real Syrians and Iraqis have died due to the creation and promotion of the Frankenstein monster represented by ISIS.
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MOA—The Israeli government claims that Iranian support for Syria is a threat to its country. That is a bogus claim. The Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahoo uses the “Iran threat” as boogeyman to divert attention from other issues like the various corruption cases against himself. [In that aspect this abject scoundrel operates somewhat like Trump, another shameless sociopath—made for each other.—Eds]
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VIKTOR MIKHIN—The West, the United States, first of all, think little of international law, and consequently, no agreements and treaties based on international law are operational anymore. There is no use in concluding them, while following them is optional, depending on the circumstances and interests of your own country.
