A terrorist attack on a tiny Russian village called Sushany was executed by a group which lists itself as the 'Russian Volunteer Group'. The Russians refer to them as 'Tik-Tok'-warriors, since their only goal seems to have been to film themselves on Russian soil, killing civilians. The men have been partly identified, and their pictures and background information have been published. It is a rag tag bunch proudly portraying themselves as extreme right wing, even though one of its members, born in Moscow, came to Germany with his mother in 2001 on a program for Jewish immigrants. They settled in Cologne, where he joined 'skin-head' fans of the local soccer club to make his mother proud, beating up immigrants when they were not in the stadium cheering for their club. During the 2014 coup in Ukraine he visited Kiev regularly, joining extreme right wing hooligans, and in 2017 he settled in the country, a true paradise for people such as he, apparently.
It is not my intention to draw attention to these 'heroes' by posting links and revealing more background on the others, with highly similar profiles, save for the fact that the others are missing the Jewish pedigree. I have no clue as to why someone with a Jewish background would even want to become part of such an organisation, but clearly these things are not rare in Ukraine. The blind hatred of 'Everything Russian', or some opportunistic streak to 'follow the money' being poured into the corrupt country at breakneck speed, or to live an 'interesting life' on the edge, or perhaps 'this girl' they met through some sort of on-line dating service being pushed as spam. Who knows?
Some authorities in Kiev claimed they didn't order such an attack, which may be true. Implicated by the author of the article I read, which had pictures and the stories of their twisted life, with one of the 'heroes' claiming his grandfather was an 'Austrian painter', parading the well known image of a German gentlemen considered responsible for the killing of six million Jews, was one Kirill Budanov, the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. This gentleman with this odd grandfather also listed the Russian opportunist Navalny as his favourite politician in Russia, now in a Russian jail, but soon to be paraded as a hero of the 'Oscars', or so I'm told, through a 'documentary' made in his honour. I have no way to confirm any of the above, obviously, but it contains too much detail to be dismissed out of hand.
Actions like this, as with the largely failed drone attacks on 'Engels AFB', or the recent attack on an AFB in the vicinity of Minsk, the Belorussian capital, do not serve a tangible military purpose as far as I'm aware of. They are 'PR-stunts', meant to be used in a propaganda-war, but since Russia decided to drop out of the START-Treaty, referring to attacks on 'Engels AFB' as an attack on its strategic deterrent capacity, for which it holds the NATO-countries responsible, as sponsors, suppliers and planners of this war, there are always unintended consequences of such improvised provocations. Or are we to assume these pin-pricks are attempts by NATO, through Ukrainian 'cut outs', to 'feel the water', in search of Russia's 'Red Lines'? That most certainly is an option, considering that NATO is desperate. Everything they do, militarily, diplomatically and economically, is exploding in their face.
Although one columnist in my newspaper, claiming to be the 'Go To Guy' on geopolitical matters, citing the 'Lowy Institute' in Australia, stated that Russia is down and out. Militarily degraded, economically ruined, and diplomatically marginalised. But this same 'Institute' has the US as the most powerful country in all of Asia, while my perception is far different. Read up on who is behind this 'Lowy Institute', and you may understand why its 'research' may not be all that reliable. In fact, the ASPI organisation, also Australian, has China already leading at the technological level, and the diplomatic 'cloud' of both the Chinese and the Russians may not reveal itself in 'votes' for watered down resolutions in the UN, but the 'client states' allowing their votes to be bought are already counting the days to the moment when they too can make the switch away from the 'Dollar', and serving 'Wallstreet' honcho's. There is no love lost between them and the leader of the 'Rainbow-alliance'.
Medvedev, the former Russian president, and more 'hawkish' today than Putin, made it clear that NATO training Ukrainians on NATO-supplied weapons, and providing strategic 'advise' while paying for NATO-military serving as mercenaries, revealed that Russia was fighting NATO, and not Ukraine. But if fighter jets were going to be supplied, the gloves would come off. At the same time the 'Usual Suspects' are openly talking about going to war with China, and ways to provoke such a war by supplying arms to Taiwan, a Chinese province after all. Imagine that the Russians, or the Chinese, would start to arm Texas after a few years of meddling in internal affairs. Or show up in Brussels to offer support for demonstrators, and promising to support them for 'as long as it takes' if only they got rid of the unelected Ursula von der Leyen and her team of 'Commissars'.
A few decades ago, a terrorist in Bosnia opened fire on a wedding party, to kick off the first serious military conflict on European soil since the end of the second World War, and the rest is history, as they say. But this is 'the real thing', and it could become the 'End of the World' through some 'Tik-Tok'-warriors seeking excitement, or wanting to impress their 'date', while eagerly awaiting their 'bounty' if they manage to kill a few civilians inside Russian territory, and make it back alive. Doesn't that scare you? It sure does scare me! But, on the other hand, I'm not really scared to drown tomorrow if I don't replace my gas-stove forthwith, and endorse the 'Rainbow-Alliance' as the only authority on gender. Where did our brains diverge? At what moment in time did the 'rest of us' learn to 'Love the Bomb', as Stanley Kubrick would have it? Is there anything I can do to help my fellow men to understand the the concept of 'Imminent Danger', compared to 'Imagined Danger'?