Ugly storm clouds are gathering over the Ukraine and Russia

Yesterday some very serious riots took place in Kiev.  The Yanukovich government has passed a new law which attempts to restrict the kind of rioting the Ukraine has seen in the past months, and the response of the rioters was a full scale assault on the riot police.  What I find the most appalling is that the government is ordering the riot cops to just stand there and hold their position, but not to fight back.  That, of course, only serves to heighten the already strong sense of impunity of the rioters who now attack the cops with Molotov cocktails, large rocks, metal bars, teargas, knives and fire extinguishers.  Numerous cops were hospitalized yesterday after begin attacked by the rioters.  Still, the cops are under strict orders not to fight back while the US is demanding that the riot police be removed from the streets.  And in the meantime, what does the Yanukovich government say?  They are offering to negotiate with the opposition.

With every passing day, Yanukovich reminds me more and more of Alexander Kerensky, and I am afraid that, just like Kerensky, Yanukovich will end up running for his life while thugs and terrorists seize power.

To get a feel for what took place on Sunday, please check out this Russian TV report (in Russian, but the images speak for themselves):



In the meantime, the website Vilayat Dagestan, which is linked to the so-called Ansar al-Sunna terrorist organization has published a video featuring footage of the two men who committed the recent suicide attacks in Volgograd.  Entitled "Appeal of  Suleiman and Abdurakhman before the martyrdom operation in Volgograd" the video shows how they built their bombs and it includes a threat directly made to Vladimir Putin who is told that Ansar al-Sunna is preparing a "surprise" for him and for the Olympic tourists to avenge the blood of Muslims which is shed worldwide.  The video is 45min long and in Russian, but if you want to check it out for yourself, here it is:




Now, the two guys on the video are dead, as are many, possibly most or even all, of their accomplices which were located and killed by Russian special forces.   Still, the threat, I think, is real and should be taken very seriously.

There is more than just threats made by all sorts of Wahabi crazies.  There seems to be a concerted propaganda campaign by the Western corporate media to convince the general public that these Olympic games have some kind of special meaning for Putin who, as the BBC put it recently, "has staked his reputation on this event".  I have no idea where they got this notion, but it is most definitely not based on anything factual, if only because "staking his reputation" on a sports event is not at all the kind of stuff Putin would do.  Yet the Western propaganda machine is in full swing telling us that these upcoming games are somehow a crucial test for Putin.  This tells me that the western special services are, again, up to no good and that for all the US promises to work with the Russians for the security of this event, the reality is that somebody somewhere is preparing a big attack on these games.

The Russian author and dramatist Anton Chekhov used to say that if you put a gun on stage in the first act of a play, it should be fired in the second act.  Well, the gun is clearly hanging on the wall and the first act is about to begin.  Whether it will be fired in the second act is now in God's hands.

The Saker