Verdicts
Thursday 3 August 2017
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"This is an open exercise and we invite or have already invited a huge number of observers. Please come and watch it."
Despite such assurances from Lukashenka and other officials from Russia and Belarus, the likelihood of Zapad 17 being transparent is unlikely. Since 1991, Russia has declared that every military drill it has conducted has included just under 13,000, a threshold over which Moscow would be obligated to invite outside observers. -
“In an effort to compete with more technologically advanced forces, the U.S. Army is investing in new programs to develop autonomous drones and create a network of battlefield devices that communicate with each other… The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) released a report that found the US Army has fallen behind other technologically advanced states after spending nearly two decades fighting technologically inferior adversaries in the Middle East.”
The U.S. Army actually enjoys “an overall qualitative advantage” over all of its counterparts, including Russia, despite a narrowing gap in capabilities -
"An old acquaintance, a common past with the president definitely is not an indulgence."
Sergei Chemezov, a former KGB officer who served with President Vladimir Putin in East Germany, is among his close associates whose careers with high positions in government have greatly benefited by his friendship, usually while serving in the KGB. -
“On April 13, the U.S. dropped a non-atomic bomb in the Achin district of the Afghan province of Nangarhar, known as the 'Mother of All Bombs' or MOAB. Following the incident, the citizens who survived are showing signs of horrible diseases.”
The Russian government's international broadcaster Sputnik, citing anonymous “survivors,” reported that the U.S. MOAB bomb, used against Islamic State targets in Afghanistan in April, caused “radiation” diseases among local civilians. The MOAB has no radioactive components and locals refute the allegations as “lies”. -
“Four times fewer Russian citizens are going to the European Criminal Court [sic]. Because today the European court doesn’t meet our ideas of justice. It takes a long time to consider things, selectively.”
Russia’s human rights ombudsman, Tatyana Moskalkova, claims Russians are turning away from the European Court of Human Rights, but her figures are hard to back up. -
“America is carrying out policies against Russia, against the nation’s leadership. They know I am one of those ready to give my life for Russia, and that I have a good army capable of attacking and defending. We will see who comes out on top.”
Chechnya’s Kremlin-appointed head threatened the U.S. with his “army.” His claims are baseless: by military standards, Chechnya has no army. -
“The militia did not shoot down the Boeing [MH17]. I only had Igla and Strela anti-aircraft missiles.”
Three years after 298 people lost their lives, Igor Girkin, aka Strelkov, still tells the lie that Russia-backed fighters in eastern Ukraine could not have shot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. -
“The creation of such a state [‘Malorossiya’] is possible and likely inevitable, judging by what is happening in Ukraine.”
Leonid Kalashnikov, chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, claims that it may be “inevitable” that Ukrainian regions fall into a new entity proposed by Donetsk separatist leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko as ‘Malorossiya’ (little Russia). But neither Moscow nor Zakharchenko’s fellow separatists seem very keen, to say nothing of other Ukrainians. -
"[N]o one from the command ever met with [Viktor] Ageyev and couldn't have signed a contract with him...he signed the so-called contract...in Luhansk, where there have not been and are no active Russian servicemen."
While the Russian military denies it has troops in Ukraine and that Ageyev was on active duty, he testified that he was, as did his mother, friends and a fellow serviceman, and his ID does not show a discharge. -
“The conclusion [U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) report] reached is quite dangerous, however: ‘Moscow’s long-term goal is building a military prepared to expand the range of conflict from local war through regional conflict to a strategic conflict that will lead to a nuclear exchange.’ That is to say that Russia is deliberately provoking a nuclear war.”
In fact, the DIA says Moscow seeks to create a military capable of engaging in different types of conflict, including a nuclear one -
“Racist posters in Kiev. Russian language equal to infection and bad IQ. Food for thought.”
Despite Russian embassy claim, no such posters have been spotted in Ukrainian capital outside of an exhibition at a Kyiv art gallery in 2015. -
“Russia has emerged stronger than ever after these three years of economic defense. It has now achieved the unprecedented role of a quadruple superpower: industrial superpower, agricultural superpower, military superpower and geopolitical superpower. Russia now has the world’s most self-sufficient and diversified economy… .”
Russia remains heavily dependent on oil and gas, and is far from being an “industrial superpower,” let alone a “quadruple superpower.”