Originally appeared at ZeroHedge
As tensions between the US, its regional allies and North Korea continue ebb and flow, depending on what and where Kim lobs the next missile and whether Kelly can block Trump from tweeting for the next few hours, Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to personally weigh in on the conflict for the first time since the UN passed new sanctions against the North earlier this month. In an article published on the Kremlin’s web site, the Russian president warned that the two sides are “balancing on the verge of a large-scale conflict,” adding that any efforts to pressure the North to end its nuclear program would prove “futile,” and that the only tenable solution to the standoff would be a “dialogue with preconditions.”
“It is essential to resolve the region’s problems through direct dialogue involving all sides without advancing any preconditions (for such talks),” Putin wrote. “Provocations, pressure, and bellicose and offensive rhetoric is the road to nowhere.”
His remarks about a diplomatic solution alluded to a “road map” to peace formulated jointly between Russia and China…. without the U.S.
According to the joint Russian-Chinese deescalation plan, North Korea would stop work on its missile program in exchange for the US and South Korea halting large-scale war games, allowing tensions to gradually subside.
Here’s more from AJ:
“Russia believes that the policy of putting pressure on Pyongyang to stop its nuclear missile programme is misguided and futile,” he wrote in the article sent to media in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – the BRICS member states.“The region’s problems should only be settled through a direct dialogue of all the parties concerned without any preconditions. Provocations, pressure and militarist and insulting rhetoric are a dead-end road.”
As recently as last week, tensions between the two sides appeared to be easing, with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson praising the country’s restraint after the North went nearly a month without a new missile test, despite restrictive new UN sanctions that took effect on Aug. 5. That quickly changed with the beginning of the US and South Korea’s annual 11-day joint military exercises, which appeared to provoke an especially vitriolic response from the North this year, prompting not one but two rocket launches over the next few days.
Two days ago, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reportedly warned Tillerson that it would be “dangerous” to push for more sanctions against North Korea.
Here’s Newsweek:
“Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Tillerson that the U.S. should avoid taking military actions against Kim Jong Un’s regime and that the Russian government believes additional sanctions could prove “counterproductive and dangerous.”Tillerson’s response to Lavrov is unclear, but the pair did condemn the North’s most recent test on Monday, when a missile sailed over U.S. ally Japan.”
Of course, the North’s missile launch earlier this week which flew over Japan airspace appeared to – at least temporarily – startle investors, triggering a short-lived selloff in global stocks. A day ago, US and South Korea insisted on a provocation of their own, conducting a bombing drill with nuclear-capable US bombers and the new F-35 stealth fighter.
Despite the bellicose rhetoric from both sides, an all-out war is much less likely than the public might believe. Echoing comments made by former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, a professor warned yesterday that the US is in “no position” to start a war with the North because of the unprecedented devastation the North’s artillery could unleash on Seoul, the densely populated South Korean capital.
As Bannon said during an interview with the American Prospect, the US doesn’t have a tenable military option for toppling Kim Jong Un.
“Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that ten million people in Seoul don’t die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don’t know what you’re talking about, there’s no military solution here, they got us.”
As the war of words stretches into its eighth month, observers will surely keep this in mind. Investors, on the other hand, are just looking for an opportunity to “buy the fucking nuclear war dip.”
“Russia believes that the policy of putting pressure on Pyongyang to stop its nuclear missile programme is misguided and futile,” Yet Russia fully supports every round of sanctions intended to put pressure on Pyongyang, Putin is a bloody hypocrite.
I believe Putin is objecting to further sanctions since the existing ones did nothing to resolve the situation. He is urging the US to stop its sabre rattling/provocations and start a dialogue. Sounds perfectly sensible to me.
Agreeing to US sanctions was keeping the US from upping and dropping bombs on them. (Which, if the US and China had vetoed sanctions, the US might well have done as there was ‘no other way to get rid of Kim’s nukes / threats to allies and Guam etc’…)
So it’s rather interesting that now he’s saying “No more sanctions.” It can only mean that Russia no longer needs to pander to placate American aggression against NK …. so what changed? Did China (or Russia or both) tell them “If you bomb North Korea – we’ll nuke Los Angeles AND San Fransisco?” (Not so unheard of – China did that once before…. unofficially of course.)
Of course, if they did – they wouldn’t tell us (and neither would the Americans.)
What changed is that USA is showing massive signs of weakness. Its losing its grip on middle east, Russia can afford to intervene in Syrian civil war and actually defeat US proxy-forces, the US population seems on the brink of a civil war, and even EU seems to not be too far away from crumbling. At the same time, Russia seems to only be growing in power despite all the various sanctions and threats from NATO (that, by the way, the MSM claimed would ruin Russia several times over by now). Amid all these changes, perhaps Russia feels that it’s time to regain its position as a counterweight to US, a superpower.
I would add that in the short term sanctions hurt, but over say a decade and more it will increase economic and technological independence and work to the benefit of the target country, which has all the resources and skills it needs, but earlier lacked the forced need i.e. motivation to implement and use them.
Also the destruction of core Europe through means of EU is of US design. Just look how much money they are plowing into the NGOs that run the migrant crisis. I think Saker wrote about a Pentagon released paper, which calls for the complete economical and cultural destruction of Europe by 2026 or so.
Idiot News.
Maybe for zionazis in Telaviv.
: )
Their ISIS freak show in Iraq and Syria certainly flopped badly. Maybe ZionIntel asset Kim Jong Un, educated in a ‘pansophic’ free-masonic boarding school in Switzerland, can do some funny faces and silly routines to cheer them up.
By the way, ZeroHedge has become almost as ridiculous as DebkaFile. I hope SouthFront realizes this soon and stops reprinting their vile nonsense.
The US Deep State and their Globalist bankster masters of “the Cabal” want war at any costs to distract the “Precariat” from the real causes and exactly who are the architects of the shortly coming “Global Financial Crisis” and the immense poverty and ruin which will be foisted on the majority of people; which , will finally bring them down to earth and make them realise what a “Fools Paradise” they have been living in for 50 years! Human stupidity has no limits, and the Cabal knows this and has used this fact to gull everyone into collosal debt and financial ruin. They are all now “slaves” in everything but name. If the Cabal gets its way and WW3 starts most of the Precariat will die (say 80 – 90% of the world’s population) and all their assets will automatically belong to the Cabal. GAME OVER
War will also allow them to (unilaterally) change the financial rules and do things like putting a moratorium on debt payments….
Highly doubtful. If mankind nearly dies, whom they want to make business with ? These parasites live for stealing others money, so they need the poor. In order to stay rich. Though they risk a war in order to complete their mission; NWO + victory in the war rich against poor.
They will create a new genetically engineered society totally under their control. Indeed the population will be 100% controlled and designed using modern genetics and bio-engineering. The world will be re- populated according to their plan. It sounds bizarre, but remember this is what the Nazi scientists were working towards in 1945.
Putin is part of the problem. Russian and CHina leaderships making the same mistakes as England and France did before WW2 started, by pleasing Hit^ler demands by conquer other countries in Europe . The difference this time is that the aggressor is america against N.K
Agreed the US has created this situation by threatening NK and actively preventing reunification after losing a war they began. The border between North and South is the most militarized border in the world. The annual war games in NK waters are an unnecessary provocation. Recall Bush’s Axis of Evil speech and the US’s penchant for invading small Independent nations. It didn’t take NK long to figure out the US never attacked nations that had atomic weapons. There are rumors that a small Zionist nation who refused to sign the NNP Treaty had something to do with NK’s nuclear arsenal. Russia and China pointing out there is no military solution to this situation and urging dialogue is hardly appeasement. NK’s security concerns are very real and must be addressed.
“There are rumors that a small Zionist nation who refused to sign the NNP Treaty had something to do with NK’s nuclear arsenal.”
——————- Really? Now that’s good for laugh!
You are getting really dumb with this comparison , now if you are referencing Trump and the US to Hitler ,that would be more accurate as these were all the same things Hitler did prior to his march for global domination.The very same aggressive tactics used by Hitler are being used by the US today and even within in it’s country it is going to great lengths to turn into a fascist nation by limiting personal freedoms and free speech.
Haven’t really heard too much about that happening in NK by the way, and even more so in SK as it is a US protectorate as is Japan where silencing any protest against the US is enforced by law.
Uhm… he IS referencing Trump/US to Hitler/Germany…. He’s saying … Putin is Chamberlain appeasing Germany “no war in our time.”
The fact the remarks are out of line and disingenuous was the point so I explained the realities of what really happened could have went deeper.
I hear you – and yes, it looks that way…. but I think the main difference here is: The longer Russia and China can prevent war breaking out – the more unlikely war becomes. (Because the US will run out of money before she can start another war.)
Of course, she might well just give up provoking and start shooting herself but then she’ll be in war against her homeland without any allies – (except maybe the UK tho’ they are unlikely to go against Europe – too dangerous for them.)
Just let NK have its nukes. All it wants is for MAD to protect it from possible US attack, not to suddenly go “lol, YOLO” and nuke Tokyo for shits and giggles. Of course, MAD would also prevent american dreams of conquering NK, which is what this entire conflict is about.
NK needs nuke to protect itself from american aggression and to be conquered by nazi america
F35 can fly?
for a whole 30 minutes I hear. (But only if the computer on the ground is bought and paid for and up and running.)
What about Israel. On the other side America funding and arming the global terrorist state Israel. Israel is a refugee state. Israel have produced 400 Thermonuclear weapons, 12000 chemical and biological weapons, 400 nuclear missiles and Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. What America wants to destroy the whole world by Israel?
American foreign policy is shaky. Where are UN security council resolutions now? UN is a completely joke. Still world powers should trust in UN Security Council resolutions?
“{and that the only tenable solution to the standoff would be a “dialogue with preconditions/b<.”
“It is essential to resolve the region’s problems through direct dialogue involving all sides without advancing any preconditions (for such talks),” Putin wrote. —————- SF – I suspect the bit in bold italics should read “dialogue WITHOUT preconditions?”
“US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson praising the country’s restraint after the North went nearly a month without a new missile test” ——————- It goes like this:- US fires 59 missiles on Syria – beautiful bombs US test fires MOAB – fantastic look at that! US test fires a gravity nuclear bomb – business as usual. South Korea test fires a missile – just another day at the office.
North Korea test fires a missile – ARMAGEDDON!
the US fake security propaganda by instilling fake fear worldwide is a bore, especially when their new world disorder is going kaputs soon, headed by the peasized brained and deflated ego, illegitimate entity (root of all evil)