By Paul Craig Roberts - December 30, 2021

In 2022 two issues will come to a head: One is whether Western peoples can fight off the effort to destroy their civil liberty behind a smokescreen of an orchestrated “Covid pandemic.” If not, they will become residents of police states.

The other is whether the West has the intelligence to accommodate Russia’s legitimate security concerns. If not, at the least American power will be broken and at worse life in the Western world will end in nuclear war.

As the Old Year Closes, War Awaits Us in the New Year

https://ria.ru/20211221/ukraina-1764715058.html (machine translation)

Defense Minister Shoigu: American PMCs are preparing a provocation with chemical weapons in Donbass

Shoigu announced the preparation by the United States of a provocation with chemical weapons in the east of Ukraine.

MOSCOW, December 21 – RIA Novosti. private military companies (PMCs) US located in the Donetsk region are preparing a provocation with chemicals in eastern Ukraine , said Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu .

“To commit provocations in the cities of Avdiivka and Krasny, Liman Tanks with unidentified chemical components have been delivered,” Shoigu said at an expanded meeting of the Defense Ministry board with the participation of President Vladimir Putin.

According to the ministry, about 120 representatives of American PMCs who train Ukrainian special forces arrived in the region.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu: Comrade Putin, Supreme Commander-in-Chief,

The global military political situation is deteriorating, and tension is growing on Russia’s western and eastern borders. The United States is increasing its forward-based deployment on Russia’s borders: a total of some 8,000 US rotation troops have been stationed in East European countries.

Regarding the US group of forces in Germany, the United States has re-activated the Theatre Fires Command, which was responsible for the use of intermediate-range missiles before 1991. The new Multi-Domain Task Force was formed which will be armed with various offensive missile systems.

Infrastructure for the deployment of a US armoured brigade is being created in Poland. The Aegis Ashore anti-missile capability will become operational soon. A similar BMD facility in Romania has already been put on combat duty.

The deployment of the Pacific segment of the global US BMD system is ongoing. A Joint Force Command of the Allied Command Operations (ACO) has been established in Norfolk to control maritime communications in the North Atlantic and the Arctic.

The United States and NATO are consistently increasing the scale and intensity of military training near Russia. These drills increasingly include the use of strategic aviation and simulated nuclear missile strikes at Russian targets. The number of flights by strategic aircraft near Russian borders has more than doubled. NATO pays special attention to redeployment of troops to the bloc’s eastern flank, including from the continental part of the United States.

The military drills include various scenarios involving the use of coalition groups of forces and non-NATO troops (Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) against Russia. The desire of the Alliance to involve the Ukrainian armed forces in its military activities is threatening security, considering Kiev’s attempts at a military solution in Donbass.

The military development of Ukraine’s territory by NATO countries is underway. The situation is being further aggravated by the deliveries of US and allied helicopters, unmanned combat aerial vehicles and guided anti-tank missiles. The presence of over 120 members of US private military companies in Avdeyevka and Priazovskoye, Donetsk Region, has been proved reliably.

They are setting up firing positions in residential houses and social facilities and are preparing the Ukrainian special operations forces and far-right armed groups for active hostilities. Unidentified chemical warfare agents have been delivered to Avdeyevka and Krasny Liman for the purpose of provocations. The Ukrainian military keep up the shelling of civilian neighborhoods in Donbass and the positions of the people’s militias of the Lugansk and Donetsk republics to provoke a response.

Vladimir Putin: The United States operates independently of law and without UN Security Council authorization:

Vladimir Putin: On an informal note, I would like to add a few words to what Minister Shoigu said and what I said in my opening remarks.

What was the American pretext to bomb Yugoslavia? Was it authorised by the Security Council, or what? Where is Yugoslavia and where is the United States? The Americans destroyed the country. Indeed, Yugoslavia had an internal conflict, they had their own problems, but who gave the Americans the right to conduct airstrikes against a European capital? No one did. They just chose to do so, and their NATO satellites were running behind them yelping along. So much for international law.

Under what pretext did Washington go into Iraq? It was Iraq developing weapons of mass destruction. They went in, destroyed the country, created a hotbed of international terrorism, and then it turned out that they made a mistake: “The intelligence failed us.” Wow! They destroyed a country. The intelligence failed – that is all they had to say to justify their actions. It turned out there were no weapons of mass destruction there. On the contrary, everything had been destroyed as agreed.

How did they go into Syria? With Security Council authorisation? No. They do as they please. However, what they are doing, or trying or planning to do in Ukraine, is not happening thousands of kilometres away from our national border. It is on the doorstep of our house. They must understand that we simply have nowhere further to retreat to.

There are experts here, sitting with us, I stay in constant contact with them. The United States does not possess hypersonic weapons yet, but we know when they will have it. It cannot be hidden. Everything goes on record, successful or unsuccessful tests alike. We have a sense of when it might happen. They will supply hypersonic weapons to Ukraine and then use them as cover – that does not mean that they will start using them tomorrow, because we already have Tsircon and they do not – to arm extremists from a neighbouring state and incite them against certain regions of the Russian Federation, such as Crimea, when they think circumstances are favourable.

Do they really think we do not see these threats? Do they think that we will just stand idly watching threats to Russia emerge? This is the problem: we simply have no room to retreat. That is the question.

Armed conflicts and bloodshed are absolutely not our choice. We do not want to see events go that way. We want to use political and diplomatic means to resolve problems but we want to at least have clearly formulated legal guarantees. This is what our proposals are all about. We set them down on paper and sent them to Brussels and Washington, and we hope to receive a clear and comprehensive response to these proposals.

There are certain signals that our partners appear to be willing to work on that. However, there is also a danger that they will attempt to drown our proposals in words, or in a swamp, in order to take advantage of this pause and do whatever they want to do.

To make it clear to everyone: we are aware of this, and this turn of events, these developments, will not work for us. We look forward to constructive and meaningful talks with a visible outcome – and within a definite timeframe – that would ensure equal security for all.

PCR comments: NATO officials have thumbed their noses at Putin’s concern with Russia’s security. Trump’s National Security Advisor and neocon warmonger John Bolton encourages more provocation of Russia, which as Putin has made clear will result in war.

Clearly as 2021 comes to an end, there is no intelligence to be found anywhere in the Western World as all vie to show how tough they are with Russia.

When Putin says Russia has nowhere left to which to retreat, he is telling the idiot West that Russia has reached the extent of its ability to avoid war. “We simply have no room to retreat” means Russia has done all she can do to avoid war and now the Americans must get off Russia’s doorstep.

Putin is relying on Biden to show awareness and responsibility and to work for peace by acknowledging Russia’s legitimate security concern. But what if Biden is just a figurehead, and the shots are called by the military/security complex who will go for profits despite the risk that Putin will not back down?

What if Washington’s concern is limited to destabilizing Russia in the interest of US hegemony and Russia’s security is precisely what Washington intends to undermine, not secure.

2022 could be the year that Washington’s power is broken, with Russia taking Ukraine in an act of self-protection and China taking Taiwan as a demonstration of who is boss in Asia.

2022 could also be the year the Western world comes to an end in nuclear war.

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