The military security section of Putin’s two hour speech to the Russian Federal Assembly on March 1 began some two-thirds into his remarks, after extensive discussions of plans to lift the economy, transform health care, improve education.
The keystone of Putin’s security remarks, ignored in mainstream western media coverage, was the Russian response has been to the “unilateral US withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the practical deployment of their missile defense systems both in the US and beyond their national borders.”
The strategic significance of that decision by the Bush-Cheney Administration was not lost on Russian military defense planners. It opened the door for the Pentagon and for NATO to encircle Russia with a ring of ballistic missile defense systems aimed at Russian nuclear missile launch sites. Putin clarified that that 1972 ABM Treaty had made nuclear war unthinkable, the foundation of Mutual and Assured Destruction or MAD: “the ABM Treaty not only created an atmosphere of trust but also prevented either party from recklessly using nuclear weapons, which would have endangered humankind, because the limited number of ballistic missile defense systems made the potential aggressor vulnerable to a response strike.”
When Washington unilaterally pulled out of the ABM Treaty in 2002, the US Government began an aggressive series of moves including bringing NATO to the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe, fomenting a coup and civil war in Ukraine and other provocations that have led to construction of anti-ballistic missile bases in Romania and Poland—both NATO members, as well as in the Russian Far East in Japan and South Korea. Additionally, as Putin noted, “The US global missile defense system also includes five cruisers and 30 destroyers, which, as far as we know, have been deployed to regions in close proximity to Russia’s borders.” This is no minor deployment in Russian eyes.
Trump Nuclear Posture Review
The decision by the Russian leadership now to unveil a daunting
array of its cutting-edge military technologies including
nuclear-powered hypersonic cruise missiles and underwater drones was no
election ploy. It was a clear and direct reply to the January 2018 State
of the Union address to Congress of the US President and publication
days later of their 2018 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), and Putin says
so. The Trump 2018 NPR document is a radical shift from previous administrations. It abandons the earlier declarations of “no first use” of nuclear weapons, and boosts nuclear modernization efforts including the intention to bring on “new” nuclear weapons, restoration of submarine-launched cruise missile capability and low-explosive-yield submarine-launched ballistic missile warheads, and to sideline arms control. In one section the new US Nuclear Posture Review declares that, “The United States would only consider the employment of nuclear weapons in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the United States, its allies, and partners. Extreme circumstances could include significant non-nuclear strategic attacks…” (emphasis added-w.e.). No definition of what Washington calls a “significant non-nuclear strategic attack” is made. In brief, as one US nuclear analyst noted, the new US nuclear doctrine is based on competition and confrontation.
After describing repeated Russian efforts with Washington to reinstate the ABM Treaty after the Bush Administration unilaterally abandoned it in 2002, Putin noted, “At one point, I thought that a compromise was possible, but this was not to be. All our proposals, absolutely all of them, were rejected. And then we said that we would have to improve our modern strike systems to protect our security. In reply, the US said that it is not creating a global BMD system against Russia…”
That of course was a calculated strategic lie. Russia concluded, after repeated efforts at negotiation, that Washington, following the destruction of Russia’s military and economy in the 1990s Yeltsin era post-Soviet economic collapse, was determined to “pursue ultimate unilateral military advantage in order to dictate the terms in every sphere in the future.”
Nuclear Primacy
Nuclear First Strike or Nuclear Primacy as it is technically called,
is the ultimate unilateral military advantage Pentagon strategists have
dreamt of since the 1950’s when the USSR tested its first H-bomb and
ICBMs. The primacy is the ability to launch a nuclear first strike
against Russia with little fear Russia will be able to counter
convincingly because US missile defense arrays have been able to knock
out the vast majority of Russian nuclear weapons. The US missile defense is not at all defensive. It is offensive in the extreme. If the United States were able to shield itself effectively from a potential Russian retaliation for a US nuclear First Strike, then the US would be able to dictate its terms to the entire world, not just to Russia. That would be Nuclear Primacy. As the late Lt. Colonel Robert Bowman, former director of the Reagan US Missile Defense Program expressed it to me some years ago in a private exchange, “Missile defense is the missing link to a First Strike.”
In his latest speech Putin describes the strategic reality Russian military security planners face: “The US is permitting constant, uncontrolled growth of the number of anti-ballistic missiles, improving their quality, and creating new missile launching areas. If we do not do something, eventually this will result in the complete devaluation of Russia’s nuclear potential. Meaning that all of our missiles could simply be intercepted.”
When the stakes involve unleashing a nuclear holocaust, even if it begins with “low yield” nuclear weapons, against a backdrop of virtual new Cold War confrontations with Russia in recent years, it is no surprise that Russia’s military and security council have decided at just this precarious point in a growing East-West confrontation to unveil a sober response.
Blocking Nuclear Primacy: The Russian Response
Putin unveiled for the first time measures the Russian military
R&D has pursued quietly since 2002 to counter the ever-more clear US
Nuclear Primacy agenda. He noted that Russia has “developed, and works
continuously to perfect highly effective but modestly priced systems to
overcome missile defense. They are installed on all of our
intercontinental ballistic missile complexes.” However, the real new
element Putin revealed is a staggering list of new advanced next
generation missiles able to evade US or NATO anti-missile defenses. First he showed a film of the new Sarmat missile. Weighing over 200 tons with a short boost phase, it is very difficult for US missile defense systems to intercept. Sarmat can be equipped with powerful nuclear warheads, including hypersonic, and the most modern means of evading missile defense. It has virtually unlimited range and capable of attack over both North and South poles.
Sarmat was only the first mentioned response to the growing NATO threat. Putin then described the Russian defense industry development of “a small-scale heavy-duty nuclear energy unit that can be installed in a missile like our latest X-101 air-launched missile or the American Tomahawk missile – a similar type but with a range dozens of times longer, dozens, basically an unlimited range. It is a low-flying stealth missile carrying a nuclear warhead, with almost an unlimited range, unpredictable trajectory and ability to bypass interception boundaries. It is invincible against all existing and prospective missile defense and counter-air defense systems.”
Then in terms of new Russian cutting-edge pilotless weapon systems, he revealed the successful development of Russian “unmanned submersible vehicles that can move at great depths (I would say extreme depths) intercontinentally, at a speed multiple times higher than the speed of submarines, cutting-edge torpedoes and all kinds of surface vessels, including some of the fastest. It is really fantastic. They are quiet, highly maneuverable and have hardly any vulnerabilities for the enemy to exploit. There is simply nothing in the world capable of withstanding them.”
Putin added that the new submersibles “can carry either conventional or nuclear warheads, which enables them to engage various targets, including aircraft groups, coastal fortifications and infrastructure.”
So much for the US doctrine of force projection supremacy via its ten aircraft carrier strike groups, which now become so many sitting ducks.
Putin went on to note that the nuclear power unit for the unmanned submersible has been tested over a period of many years, and that it is “a hundred times smaller than the units that power modern submarines, but is still more powerful and can switch into combat mode, that is to say, reach maximum capacity, 200 times faster.”
Kinzahl and Avangard Additionally Putin unveiled the Russian hypersonic Kinzhal or Dagger system. This is as Putin describes it, “a high-precision hypersonic aircraft missile system… the only one of its kind in the world. Its tests have been successfully completed, and, moreover, on December 1 of last year, these systems began their trial service at the airfields of the Southern Military District.”
In other words it is not hypothetical, rather it is operational. The definition of hypersonic is an aircraft flying 5 or more times the speed of sound. The Kinzhal goes Mach 10 or ten times. As Putin describes it, “The missile flying at a hypersonic speed, 10 times faster than the speed of sound, can also maneuver at all phases of its flight trajectory, which also allows it to overcome all existing and, I think, prospective anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense systems, delivering nuclear and conventional warheads in a range of over 2,000 kilometers.”
Finally, the Russian President revealed development of Avangard, a hypersonic missile that flies at speeds in excess of Mach 20: “In moving to its target, the missile’s gliding cruise bloc engages in intensive maneuvering – both lateral (by several thousand km) and vertical. This is what makes it absolutely invulnerable to any air or missile defense system. The use of new composite materials has made it possible to enable the gliding cruise bloc to make a long-distance guided flight practically in conditions of plasma formation. It flies to its target like a meteorite, like a ball of fire. The temperature on its surface reaches 1,600–2,000 degrees Celsius but the cruise bloc is reliably guided.”
Putin’s remarks conclude with the statement, fully ignored in the West, that, “We have repeatedly told our American and European partners who are NATO members: we will make the necessary efforts to neutralize the threats posed by the deployment of the US global missile defense system.” He makes clear what Russia has warned Washington and NATO of since 2004: “Despite all the problems with the economy, finances and the defense industry, Russia has remained a major nuclear power. No, nobody really wanted to talk to us about the core of the problem, and nobody wanted to listen to us. So listen now.”
One of the most succinct assessments of the Putin military revelations comes from The Saker, one of the most clear and sober commentators on Russian and Western military capabilities. In his blog the day of the Putin speech he remarked, “It is indeed set, match and game over for the Empire: there is no more military option against Russia.”
FATIMA AND ANNIHILATION OF NATIONS:
Why Annihilation of Nations or Not?
Our Lady of Fatima warned that if Her requests were not heeded, Russia would "spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated." However, in His infinite mercy, God has offered us a way to avoid this terrible punishment. Through the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we will not only avoid the predicted chastisements, but we will be granted the inestimable gift of peace throughout the world for all mankind.It is important to particularly note two of Our Lady’s words: nations and annihilation. Heaven has chosen those words with infinite wisdom. Our Lady did not say "states" would be annihilated, and was not, therefore, referring to civil governments or sovereignties. The word "nations" refers to peoples. For example, when in 1795 Germany, France, Russia and Austria-Hungary overran Poland and divided it among themselves, the Polish state was annihilated, but the Polish nation was not annihilated; the Polish people remained. In 1919 the Polish state was reconstituted. Obviously, the Polish nation had not been annihilated. So when Our Lady declares that nations will be annihilated, She’s referring to nations of people, not physical states marked by borders.
Likewise, the word "annihilated" is very significant. It comes from the Latin word "nihil," which means "nothing." Literally, annihilated means "made into nothing." If Our Lady had meant to say that there would be a near total, but not quite total destruction of peoples, She would have chosen another word, such as "devastated." So, distressing as it is to imagine, we must conclude that entire peoples will be obliterated if we do not first have the Consecration of Russia. Until now, Our Lady’s most dire warning and prophecy, "various nations will be annihilated," has not taken place. However, the world moves closer to its fulfillment daily, as is explained below.
Moving Toward Annihilation
The extermination of vast multitudes of people is not only possible, it has happened with alarming frequency since 1917. On the heels of the French Revolution, Robespierre publicly declared his desire to wipe out around ten million Frenchmen through his reign of terror; there weren’t many more than that in France. He was stopped short of his goal, but others weren’t.Lenin stated that he would be willing to kill 75% of the world’s population if it meant that what was left would be communist. Stalin boasted, "If you kill five men it’s murder; if you kill five million, it’s a political movement." The two men combined to kill at least 60 million, and maybe as many as 110 million during their reigns as head of Russia and the Soviet Union. Throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s Stalin starved to death approximately twenty million people in the Ukraine alone. Mao killed tens of millions in China during his reign. Half the population – approximately three million people – of Cambodia was killed in the 1970’s. The list goes on: Rwanda, Ethiopia, the Balkans, Lebanon in the 1980’s, etc. The greatest modern holocaust, however, has been the war waged on the unborn. Abortion was illegal everywhere in the world when Our Lady appeared at the Cova da Iria in 1917. Yet since 1970, around 800 million children have been "legally" killed in their mother’s wombs, and the numbers are growing every year.
The current population of the world stands at about six billion people. Who would want to annihilate large numbers of these six billion? The following is one example: There is a monument in Georgia that displays the viewpoint of some powerful and wealthy people, particularly the Georgia Guidestones environmental movement. It stands over 19 feet tall at the top of a hill beside Highway 72, about seven miles north of Elberton, Georgia. On it is written ten principles for the environmental movement and the "new age of reason" it claims is coming.
The first principle reads, "Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in Perpetual Balance with Nature." Since there are six billion people in the world, this monument is essentially calling for the extermination of more than 90 percent of the world’s population. Under this principle, each individual would have only less than ten percent chance of survival (see "Monument In Our Midst Calls For Extermination of 9/10ths of World Population").
Of course, we can be sure that those people who put up this structure, or support its tenets, won’t volunteer for extermination. Christians, in particular, can be sure that they will be targeted. The monument’s fourth principle is to "Rule Passion, Faith, Tradition and all Things with Tempered Reason." Under this principle, if a Catholic takes his Faith to the public domain, as he is bound to do under conscience, he could very well be judged as not having subjected his "faith" to "tempered reason."
What of the future?
We do not know which nations will be annihilated from the face of the earth if the Consecration of Russia continues to be delayed. Our own nation could be one of them. Thousands of nuclear warheads exist throughout the world. Russia and Communist China, which are allies, both regard the United States as their enemy. While the nuclear warheads in Russia and China – or those possessed by other countries – may not be currently aimed at the United States, they could be aimed there within two minutes.In her interview with Father Fuentes, (see "Published Testimony: Father Fuentes (1957)") Sister Lucy stated, "many times the Most Holy Virgin told my cousins as well as myself, that many nations will disappear from the face of the earth, that Russia will be the instrument of chastisement chosen by Heaven to punish the whole world if we do not beforehand obtain the conversion of that poor nation. ..." The results of the Pope and the bishops failing to consecrate Russia have affected all of us; and until it is done, we will continue to experience God’s chastisement. Only the Consecration of Russia can prevent the annihilation and chastisements that yet await us. Therefore, our own lives and the lives of our friends and family members are at stake. Truly, our fate and the fate of the world depend upon the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
And what if the consecration of Russia is not done?
At Fatima, Our Lady warned that if the
consecration were not done as She requested, then “Russia will spread its
errors throughout the world, raising up wars and persecutions against the
Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to
suffer, and various nations will be annihilated.” OUR LADY TO BLESSED AIELLO, "RUSSIA WITH HER SECRET WEAPONS WILL BATTLE AMERICA AND OVERRUN EUROPE. THEY SHALL RAISE THEIR FLAG OVER THE DOME OF ST. PETER'S
