Russia Imposes Trade Embargo And Threatens Airspace Restrictions Against US And Her Allies

According to the Prime Minister of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev:

For a long time, Russia has not responded to the so-called sanctions declared against it by certain countries. Until the last moment, we hoped that our foreign colleagues would realise that sanctions lead to a blind alley, and that no one benefits from them. But they didn’t realise this, and now we have been forced to respond.

Yesterday, the President of the Russian Federation signed an Executive Order On Applying Certain Special Economic Measures to Ensure the Security of the Russian Federation. This basically means an embargo on importing entire categories of products from those countries which have declared economic sanctions against Russian organisations and individuals. I have signed a Government resolution on enforcing this Executive Order.

Russia has completely banned the importation of beef, pork, fruits and vegetables, poultry, fish, cheese, milk and dairy products from the European Union, the United States, Australia, Canada and the Kingdom of Norway.

Whoa! That's not all. After some typical Russian propaganda, Medvedev makes some dangerous threats:

[W]e are also developing measures to retaliate against the EU sanctions against Dobrolyot for its service to Simferopol. As you all know, on 4 August our first low-cost carrier was forced to suspend operations as a result of these unfriendly acts. All of its European partners refused to meet their obligations to lease, provide maintenance or insurance for planes or to provide air navigation data. This has brought many problems to our people that we’ve had to deal with. In this context, the Russian Government is considering a series of responses. I’ll name them. This doesn’t mean they’ll be taken right away, but they are on the table.

First, they include an airspace ban against European and US airlines that fly over our airspace to Eastern Asia, namely, the Asia-Pacific Region. This is a very tough measure indeed. Nevertheless, it should be mentioned.

Second, we are considering changing the so-called Russian airspace entry and exit points for European scheduled and charter flights. This, of course, will affect transportation costs and fare prices for the Western carriers.

There's more, and you can read more about it from the Saker, who certainly deserves several hat-tips for all the hard work he's done to keep his readers up to date regarding Russia, Ukraine, and related matters.

But as you read Saker's commentary, you should keep a few things in mind, especially:

3. Whatever we do is Good. Otherwise we wouldn't do it.

4. Whatever we say is True. Otherwise we wouldn't say it.

5. Our enemies are whoever we say they are. (See rule 4.)

6. Whatever they do is Evil. Otherwise they wouldn't do it.

7. Whatever they say is False. Otherwise they wouldn't say it.

As you already know, the Russians are our enemies (rule 5). So it goes without saying that this reckless trade embargo to be imposed by Russia is not only Evil (rule 6) but also an act of War. And it is clear that any future airspace restrictions to be imposed by Russia would also be Evil (rule 6) and acts of War. These are hard things to say, but we wouldn't say them if they weren't True (rule 4). As for the Russians: Who do they think they are? How dare they interfere with our way of life?

By the same token, it goes without saying that all the carefully considered sanctions that have been imposed against Russia by the US and her allies were not only Good (rule 3) but actually acts of Peace. It is equally clear that any future sanctions, to be imposed by the US and her allies, would also be Peaceful and Good (rule 3). But in the usual Russian manner (rule 7), Medvedev and Putin are using these Good acts as a pretext in a doomed attempt to justify acts of Evil, beginning with an unprovoked disruption of trade, and including unconscionable threats against to our use of their airspace. Who do they think they are? How dare they retaliate against us for interfering with their way of life?

The Russians claim to be upset about what's been happening in Ukraine, but any serious analyst will tell you that the reign of terror in Ukraine is their fault (even if we provoked it), because they created the conditions which allowed us to provoke it. (And in any case, we didn't really provoke it, see rule 8.)

But this is the Russian way. This has always been the Russian way. And that's why they have always been our enemies (except when they were our allies). For all their supposed intelligence, the Russians have not yet accepted us (rule 2) as their great leaders (rule 1). And I think sooner or later this is going to be their downfall.

It's easy to see the situation is volatile. And it's just as easy to see that, if it escalates further (or even if it doesn't), the Russians will have no one to blame but themselves, because they are our enemies (rule 5). We cannot trust them because whatever they say is False (rule 7), and we cannot ignore them because whatever they do is Evil (rule 6).

And anyone who says otherwise is not only anti-American (rule 9) but also anti-American-allies: thus anti-EU, anti-NATO, anti-Israel, and (especially) anti-Semitic (rule 10) -- therefore no better than Hitler, and beneath contempt.

This much is clear, surely. Anyone who has stopped thinking can tell you that. But many people -- including the Saker himself -- don't seem to understand this. So they continue to put themselves on the same level as Adolph Hitler.

But I don't think it's deliberate. I think they just don't understand How Not To Be Anti-American, Anti-Semitic, No Better Than Hitler, And Beneath Contempt.

If you wish to comment, click here to join the discussion.

Some Accident: Dissident Russian Website Owner Shot Dead By Police

The owner of a dissident Russian website has been shot dead after being detained by the police.

Magomed Yevloyev [photo] was apparently shot in the temple while in police custody, in what the police are calling an accident.

Yevloyev's website, ingushetiya.ru, was very critical of the Kremlin.

The government had made repeated attempts to shut it down.

If at first you don't succeed ...

There's much more to this story; if you're interested in more details, here and here are good places to start.

To comment on this post, please click here and join the Winter Patriot community.

While the Russian Cat's Away ... the Georgian Mice Start a HOT WAR!

Under cover of the allegedly spectacular (missed it!) opening ceremony of the Olympic Games (on purpose!), and with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin in China, the former Soviet "Republic" of Georgia, now a "friend" of the USA, has opened a new hot phase in the allegedly "former" Cold War.

Chris Floyd, one of the very few writers I read every day (hint, hint!), lived for several years in Moscow, where he reported on world affairs for the English-language Moscow Times.

Me, I've been east of Cincinnati a couple of times. A mighty world traveler. So who are you gonna believe on this one?

In the past few days Chris has put together two excellent posts, which I hope you will read in full (and I hope you will make it a habit of reading Chris in full every day). I'll give you the links in a moment; first please read a few excerpts:

from Friday:

With the world distracted by the glitz and glam of the Olympic opening ceremonies in Beijing -- where George W. Bush (after some entirely rote criticism) nestled down with his long-time family business partners and fellow crony-capitalist authoritarians in the Chinese leadership -- the new Cold War fuelled by the old Cold Warriors in Washington took a sharp and bitter turn in Georgia.

Yesterday, Georgia's American-educated, pro-NATO president, Mikhail Saakashvili sent a heavy force into the breakaway region of South Ossetia, which has enjoyed de facto independence since the early 1990s. Georgian forces shelled the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali, and sent thousands of refugees fleeing north into Russia. Several Russian peacekeepers, which have been stationed in South Ossetia for years as part of earlier ceasefire agreements, were killed in the attack. Saakashvili announced that his invasion had "liberated" much of the region.

Today, in retaliation, Russian troops and tanks began moving into South Ossetia (where up to 90 percent of the population hold Russian passports) and reportedly bombed some installations in Georgia proper. Saakashvili immediately appealed to his chief patron, George W. Bush, to step in and save him from the Russian bear: "It's not about Georgia any more," he told CNN. "It's about America, its values. We are a freedom-loving nation that is right now under attack."

and on Saturday:

... at the Guardian, David Hearst provides an excellent analysis of the current conflict. Here's an excerpt:

Observers had little doubt the operation to take South Ossetia back under Georgian control bore the hallmarks of a planned military offensive. It was not the result of a ceasefire that had broken down the night before. It was more a fulfillment of the promise the Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili, made to recapture lost national territory, and with it a measure of nationalist pride.

The assault appears to have been carefully timed to coincide with the opening of the Olympic games when the Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, was in Beijing. Tom de Waal of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting and an expert on the region said: "Clearly there have been incidents on both sides, but this is obviously a planned Georgian operation, a contingency plan they have had for some time, to retake [South Ossetia's capital] Tskhinvali.

"Possibly the Georgians calculated that with Putin in Beijing they could recapture the capital in two days and then defend it over the next two months, because the Russians won't take this lying down."

... the fighting is rapidly spreading [...] with Russian planes bombing targets in the Georgian city of Gori (Stalin's birthplace), killing several civilians. This brutal assault -- including a murderous airstrike on an apartment house -- only underscores the savagery that awaits if the conflict cannot be tamped down quickly.

It seems clear at this point that Georgia has taken an enormous gamble in launching the initial attack into South Ossetia, hoping for a quick knock-out blow and then strong support from Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili's Terror War pals in Washington ...

Saakashvili's tenure in Tblisi -- which began as a self-proclaimed reformist revolution -- has deteriorated into a regime marked by much of the same kind of corruption, cronyism and repression that it puported to overthrow. One of Saakashvili's partners in the revolution, Irakli Okruashvili, had a dramatic falling-out with the boss last year. When he announced he was running for president against Saakashvili, he was arrested "and taken to Tbilisi’s notorious Isolator Number 7, the scene of well-documented torture of political prisoners since 1991," as Mark Almond of Oriel College, Oxford, noted in an article last year. After subjection to "strenuous interrogation techniques," Okruashvili "recanted" his charges against the president, and coughed up $6 million in shakedown "bail" money to win his release.

And what were Okruashvili's charges? Almond provides this quote from the former defense minister in Saakashvili’s government:

“The style of Saakashvili’s governance … has made dishonesty, injustice and oppression a way of life. Everyday repression, demolition of houses and churches, robbery, ‘kulakization’, and murders, I would stress, murders, have become common practice for the authorities.”

You can see why George W. Bush has embraced Saakashvili so enthusiastically. Saakashvili is also a war criminal, albeit at a much smaller level than his patron Bush or his enemy Putin. Saakashvili has eagerly taken part in the greatest war crime of our still-young century (I'm sure we ain't seen nothin' yet): the war of aggression against Iraq, which has already led to the slaughter of at least a million innocent people. No one forced Saakashvili to be an accomplice to this horrendous crime; he chose to do it willingly, and he cannot escape the guilt. ...

Saakashvili ordered the heavy bombardment of the South Ossetian capital just hours after declaring a supposed "cease-fire" ... Georgian forces targeted and killed several Russian peacekeeping troops that had been stationed in the region for years. These brutal and boneheaded moves provided the perfect excuse for the Kremlin to flex its muscles and secure an even tighter hold on Georgia's breakaway regions...

The ultimate outcome of this war will be, as always, death and ruin for multitudes who have nothing to do with the violent aggression of corrupt elites on every side.

I agree completely with the last bit. And as for all the preceding details, it's beyond my capacity to comment. I'm still learning. And there's a lot to learn.

Chris Floyd's coverage provides much more depth than these short excerpts can convey; you should read these pieces in full (and follow the links too!):

Marching Through Georgia: Cold War II Proxy Conflict Turns Hot

Marching Through Georgia II: The Kremlin Surge

Then bookmark the site, and/or add it to your list of favorites, and/or subscribe to Floyd's site feed.

You can thank me later, but that won't be necessary. Once again, virtue is its own reward.

Tom Toles: Don't Worry!

Gas Blasts In Russia And Texas: Terrifying But 'Not Terrorism'

BBC:
Blast hits Russian gas pipeline

A huge explosion and fire have hit a gas pipeline outside the Russian city of St Petersburg.

There were no reports of deaths or injuries and officials said they did not suspect an act of terrorism.
...

The main pipeline for Russian gas lies well to the south of the blast, but a pipe supplying Finland is nearby.

Witnesses said the massive explosion, at just after midnight on Wednesday (2000 GMT) in St Petersburg's northern suburbs, shook buildings several kilometres away.

How do they know whether or not to suspect an act of terrorism?

Does it depend on how much they want to frighten us?

Rocky Mountain News:
Faulty connector triggers Dallas explosions

A series of explosions at a gas facility sent flaming debris raining onto highways and buildings near downtown today, injuring at least three people.

Authorities evacuated a half-mile area surrounding the Southwest Industrial Gases Inc. facility and shut down parts of nearby Interstates 30 and 35 as the explosions continued for more than half an hour. Video footage showed numerous small fires burning in the area as stacks of gas cylinders exploded.

Three hours after the explosions started, fire crews were hosing down the charred metal wreckage. About a dozen cars in a parking lot and a grassy highway median were damaged.

Fire Department Lt. Joel Lavender said the explosions started around 9:30 a.m. because of a malfunctioning connector used to join acetylene tanks during the filling process.

And how do we know that faulty connector wasn't Islamic?

Study Calls Norway (And Iraq) The World's Most (And Least) Peaceful Nation(s)

It's kind of interesting to see how the BBC reports this story: Norway rated most peaceful nation

A study has ranked Norway as the most peaceful country and Iraq as the least in a survey of 121 countries.

The Global Peace Index, compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit, looked at 24 factors to determine how peaceful each country was.

It places the US at 96th on the list and the UK at 49th, while New Zealand ranks second and Japan fifth.

Clearly whaling was not among the considerations.

The authors say it is the first attempt to produce such a wide-ranging league table of how peaceful countries are.

Factors examined by the authors include levels of violence and organised crime within the country and military expenditure.

The formula seems to require some adjustments, but the results are still interesting.

The survey has been backed by the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former US President Jimmy Carter and US economist Joseph Stiglitz, who are all Nobel prize laureates.
...

Scandinavian and other European countries generally performed well in the survey.

But Britain's ranking comes partly from its involvement in Iraq and other conflicts.

The United States is 96th - between Yemen and Iran - [...] because of such things as its military spending, its involvement in Iraq, violent crime at home, and a high prison population.

The survey also places Russia and Israel at the wrong end of the scale - 118th and 119th respectively.
...

TOP FIVE COUNTRIES
1 Norway
2 New Zealand
3 Denmark
4 Ireland
5 Japan
...

BOTTOM FIVE COUNTRIES
117 Nigeria
118 Russia
119 Israel
120 Sudan
121 Iraq

There's more, and you can read about it here.

Qatar Joins Other Persian Gulf Countries Opposing Military Action Against Iran

Here's more coverage of the reaction to what appears to be a US buildup for a possible attack against Iran, from the Russian news agency RIA Novosti:

ABU DHABI, April 12 (RIA Novosti) - Qatar shares the position of other Persian Gulf countries in opposing any military action against Iran and stands for good neighborly relations with the Islamic Republic, the foreign minister said Thursday.

Iran is under UN sanctions over its failure to halt uranium enrichment, and Washington has refused to rule out a military operation against Iran as a way of forcing its compliance with the demands of the global community, which fears Tehran is seeking nuclear weapons.

To me it seems like quite a stretch to cast the USA's position -- which is quite at odds with international law -- as "the demands of the global community", especially since the global community, to the extent that such a thing exists, appears to be coalescing against the USA. But on the other hand bogus analysis is everywhere and we've only come here for the news:

"Qatar will not participate in any military actions against Iran," the Qatari Al-Raya newspaper quoted Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Ahmad Abdullah Al-Mahmud as saying.

The minister said that all six member-countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Persian Gulf are seeking to maintain friendly relations with Iran, based on geographical proximity, common history and mutual interests.

The Council is a regional trade bloc comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

All six of these countries are shown on the map below.

(You can click on this map to enlarge it.)

The United States has reportedly been building up its Air Force and Navy contingent near oil-rich Iran, while Russian intelligence experts have even suggested that the U.S. could launch tactical nuclear strikes on the country's underground nuclear sites.

It doesn't take a Russian intelligence expert to know that the US has been on a long slow march to war on Iran for the past six years, nor does it take a memory expert to remember that Israeli leaders have been urging the US to attack Iran for quite some time now.

Meanwhile, Russia's first deputy prime minister said Wednesday that a war against Iran would lead to a catastrophe.

"The Iranian problem needs to be resolved in a political and diplomatic way, as a threat of war is a road to nowhere, or to a catastrophe," Sergei Ivanov, Russia's former defense minister, said in the Armenian capital, Yerevan.

Ivanov admitted Tehran's "nuclear dossier" was controversial, but said the nation had the right to pursue civilian nuclear energy. He said uranium enrichment activities should be controlled by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

RIAN reported on the deputy prime minister's remarks here.

Iran, which insists its nuclear program is peaceful, said Monday it had begun producing nuclear fuel on an industrial scale, and reiterated plans to continue enlarging its nuclear fuel production capacity.

Experts from many other countries believe Iran is bluffing.

How surprising would that be?

"This is a country that routinely lies about conventional weapons developments and production," said Anthony Cordesman, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Well that makes at least two countries which do that. For this we are prepared to kill hundreds or thousands or maybe hundreds of thousands of people?

Or is it about oil?

Or is it about money?

How about power? Bases? A footprint in the Middle East?

Oh no, please move along; there's nothing to see here. We're just rebuilding America's defenses.

Report Says Russia Is Axious About Military Action Against Iran Near Its Border

Russia anxious about military action against Iran near its border

MOSCOW, April 3 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is concerned about a possible attack on Iran and insists that military action near its border is totally unacceptable, the first deputy foreign minister said Tuesday.

Russia, which is separated from Iran in the south by three tiny South Caucasus nations and shares a sea border with the Islamic Republic, has been actively promoting a diplomatic solution to the Iranian issue.

"Any military action near our border is totally unacceptable," Andrei Denisov said. "We are strongly against it and we are doing our best to prevent it from happening."

Media reports in late March said Washington was preparing to strike at Iran in early April but Denisov denied the information.

"Our partners say movement of military structures in the Persian Gulf is part of a planned rotation," the diplomat said.

Yury Baluyevsky, the head of the Russian General Staff, warned Washington earlier Tuesday that it should think twice before launching a military campaign against Tehran as it would have global implications.

"Our strategic partners have already got bogged down in Afghanistan and Iraq," he said.

The U.S. Administration sees Iran as a "rogue state" and is determined to stop the Islamic Republic, diplomatically or otherwise, from obtaining nuclear weapons. Washington now plans to deploy a missile defense shield in Central Europe allegedly to protect itself from potential missile strikes from Iran or North Korea.

The UN Security Council passed a new resolution on Iran March 24 toughening economic sanctions against the country suspected of a covert nuclear program. Russia, which is building a $1-billion nuclear power plant in Iran, has resisted any strict sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Operation BITE Set To Attack Iran April 6th; Russians Call For Emergency Session Of UNSC -- Tarpley

Webster Tarpley is fluent in about six different languages and he's been reading the Europeans. Here's his most recent report, via Portland Indymedia dot org:

OPERATION BITE: APRIL 6 SNEAK ATTACK BY US FORCES AGAINST IRAN PLANNED, RUSSIAN MILITARY SOURCES WARN

GENERAL IVASHOV CALLS FOR EMERGENCY SESSION OF UN SECURITY COUNCIL TO WARD OFF LOOMING US AGGRESSION

By Webster G. Tarpley | Washington DC, March 25

The long awaited US military attack on Iran is now on track for the first week of April, specifically for 4 AM on April 6, the Good Friday opening of Easter weekend, writes the well-known Russian journalist Andrei Uglanov in the Moscow weekly "Argumenty Nedeli." Uglanov cites Russian military experts close to the Russian General Staff for his account.

The attack is slated to last for twelve hours, according to Uglanov, lasting from 4 AM until 4 PM local time. Friday is a holiday in Iran. In the course of the attack, code named Operation Bite, about 20 targets are marked for bombing; the list includes uranium enrichment facilities, research centers, and laboratories.

The first reactor at the Bushehr nuclear plant, where Russian engineers are working, is supposed to be spared from destruction. The US attack plan reportedly calls for the Iranian air defense system to be degraded, for numerous Iranian warships to be sunk in the Persian Gulf, and the for the most important headquarters of the Iranian armed forces to be wiped out.

The attacks will be mounted from a number of bases, including the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Diego Garcia is currently home to B-52 bombers equipped with standoff missiles. Also participating in the air strikes will be US naval aviation from aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, as well as from those of the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. Additional cruise missiles will be fired from submarines in the Indian Ocean and off the coast of the Arabian peninsula. The goal is allegedly to set back Iran's nuclear program by several years, writes Uglanov, whose article was re-issued by RIA-Novosti in various languages, but apparently not English, several days ago. The story is the top item on numerous Italian and German blogs, but so far appears to have been ignored by US websites.

Observers comment that this dispatch represents a high-level orchestrated leak from the Kremlin, in effect a war warning, which draws on the formidable resources of the Russian intelligence services, and which deserves to be taken with the utmost seriousness by pro-peace forces around the world.

Asked by RIA-Novosti to comment on the Uglanov report, retired Colonel General Leonid Ivashov confirmed its essential features in a March 21 interview: "I have no doubt that there will be an operation, or more precisely a violent action against Iran." Ivashov, who has reportedly served at various times as an informal advisor to Putin, is currently the Vice President of the Moscow Academy for Geopolitical Sciences.

Ivashov attributed decisive importance to the decision of the Democratic leadership of the US House of Representatives to remove language from the just-passed Iraq supplemental military appropriations bill which would have demanded that Bush come to Congress before launching an attack on Iran. Ivashov pointed out that the language was eliminated under pressure from AIPAC, the lobbing group representing the Israeli extreme right, and of Israeli Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni.

"We have drawn the unmistakable conclusion that this operation will take place," said Ivashov. In his opinion, the US planning does not include a land operation: " Most probably there will be no ground attack, but rather massive air attacks with the goal of annihilating Iran's capacity for military resistance, the centers of administration, the key economic assets, and quite possibly the Iranian political leadership, or at least part of it," he continued.

Ivashov noted that it was not to be excluded that the Pentagon would use smaller tactical nuclear weapons against targets of the Iranian nuclear industry. These attacks could paralyze everyday life, create panic in the population, and generally produce an atmosphere of chaos and uncertainty all over Iran, Ivashov told RIA-Novosti. "This will unleash a struggle for power inside Iran, and then there will be a peace delegation sent in to install a pro-American government in Teheran," Ivashov continued. One of the US goals was, in his estimation, to burnish the image of the current Republican administration, who would now be able to boast that they had wiped out the Iranian nuclear program.

Among the other outcomes, General Ivashov pointed to a partition of Iran along the same lines as Iraq, and a subsequent carving up of the Near and Middle East into smaller regions. "This concept worked well for them in the Balkans and will now be applied to the greater Middle East," he commented.

"Moscow must expert Russia's influence by demanding an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council to deal with the current preparations for an illegal use of force against Iran and the destruction of the basis of the United Nations Charter," said General Ivashov. "In this context Russia could cooperate with China, France and the non-permanent members of the Security Council. We need this kind of preventive action to ward off the use of force," he concluded.

Tarpley provides the following links: L'Iran serait attaqué début avril (experts militaires russes) and Le Pentagone va attaquer des cibles militaires iraniennes (expert russe).

These pages are in French and I do not have time to translate them myself (at least not at the moment) but I have posted machine-translations as follows:

RIA Novosti (March 19): Iran would be tackled at the beginning of April (Russian military experts)

RIA Novosti (March 21): The Pentagon will attack Iranian military targets (Russian expert)

RIA Novosti: The Pentagon will attack Iranian military targets (Russian expert)

Published in RIA Novosti

Translated from French by Babel Fish

MOSCOW, March 21 - RIA Novosti. The Pentagon projects to conduct soon a massive attack against the Iranian military infrastructure, estimates the General Leonid Ivachov, vice-president of the Academy of geopolitical sciences.

"I do not have any doubt as for the reality of this operation or, more precisely, of this aggression against Iran", the General Russian in a maintenance with RIA Novosti Wednesday declared.

According to him, testify to it in particular the conference at the beginning of March in Washington to the Committee américano-Israeli (AIPAC), which decided to support the Bush administration, as well as the fact that a few days after the US Congress revoked his own amendment prohibiting to the president to attack Iran without its downstream.

"We drew from it the conclusion which this operation would have well place. In other words, the Israeli community of the United States and the Israeli direction - represented with this conference by the Foreign Minister of the Hebrew State - formulated the directive to attack Iran ", noted the expert.

But the United States does not project a terrestrial operation. "According to any obviousness, there will be no terrestrial invasion. It will be strike air massive and of wear, with an aim of destroying the military potential of resistance, the centers of administrative direction, the economic installations key and, if possible, a part of the Iranian direction", the expert underlined.

The Ivachov General did not draw aside the possibility of strike by means of tactical nuclear weapons against the Iranian nuclear sites. _ "It himself be that one call appel upon some load nuclear of low power", have it suppose.

The action of the Pentagon will be able to paralyse the life in the country, to sow panic there and, generally, to found a climate of chaos and uncertainty", the expert affirmed.

"That could revive the fights to be able it inside Iran. A mission of peace will have to follow to put at the capacity to Teheran a government pro-American", estimated the Ivachov General.

The purpose of all that will be to regild the blazon of the republican administration which will be able to thus declare that the Iranian nuclear potential was destroyed, it added.

Among the possible consequences of the military operation, the General quoted the dislocation of the country like Iraq. According to him, "this design gave results in Balkans, now it will be applied - if this one is not it already - with regard to the Large Middle East".

Questioned on the question of knowing if Russia were in measurement, by the diplomatic way, to influence the evolutions around Iran, the expert affirmed that "Moscow must exert an impact, requiring an urgent convocation of the Security Council of UNO to study the question of the aggression not sanctioned in preparation against Iran and of the non-observance of the principles of the Charter of UNO".

"And there Russia could cooperate with China, France and the nonpermanent members of the Council. Such preventive measures could contain the aggression", affirms the Ivachov General.

RIA Novosti: Iran would be tackled at the beginning of April (Russian military experts)

Published in RIA Novosti

Translated from French by Babel Fish

Iran would be tackled at the beginning of April (Russian military experts)

MOSCOW, March 19 - RIA Novosti. The Russian military experts estimate that the planning of the American military attack against Iran passed the point of nonreturn on February 20, when the director of the IAEA, Mohammed El Baradei, recognized, in his report/ratio, the incapacity of the Agency "to confirm the peaceful character of the nuclear program of Iran".

According to the Russian weekly magazine Argoumenty nedeli, a military action will proceed during the first week of April, before Easter catholic and orthodoxe (this year they are celebrated the 8), when the "Western opinion" is on leave. It may be also that Iran is struck Friday 6, public holiday in the Moslem countries. According to the American diagram, it will be a striking of only one day which will last 12 hours, 4 hours of morning to 16 hours of afternoon. The code name of the operation is to date "English Cock" (Bite). A score of Iranian installations should be touched. With their number, centrifugal machines of uranium enrichment, centers of studies and laboratories. But the first block of the nuclear thermal power station of Bouchehr will not be touched. On the other hand, the Americans will neutralize the DCA, will run several Iranian buildings of war in the Gulf and will destroy the key positions of command of the armed forces.

As many measurements which should remove in Teheran any capacity to counteract. Iran projected to run several tankers in the strait of Ormuz with an aim of cutting the provisioning of the international markets of oil and of striking with the Israel missile.

The analysts affirm that strike them American will be launched from the island of Diego-Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, from where will take off of the bombers with long operating range B-52 with on their board cruise missiles; by the embarked aviation of the American aircraft carriers deployed in the Gulf and forming part of the 6th American Fleet in the Mediterranean; cruise missiles will be also drawn since the submarines concentrated in the Pacific and with broad from Arabia.

Result, the Iranian nuclear program will be rejected several years in back. In private talks, American Generals suppose that the times of deployment of American anti-missile defense in Europe can be postponed. Another event envisaged, the oil barrel could fly away to 75-80 dollars and this for one prolonged period.

Meanwhile, the new resolution on Iran and whose project was adopted by the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany should be voted with CS as of this week. The text envisages sanctions against 10 Iranian public companies and to three companies concerned with the Body of the guards of the Islamic revolution, unit of elite to the orders of the spiritual leader of the Islamic Republic, the ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Sanctions are also envisaged against 15 physical people: eight leaders placed high of companies of State and seven key characters with the Body of the guards of the Islamic revolution.