USSR2 File: Russia responds to NATO summit in Chicago, launches new ICBM; Putin, Medvedev attend Victory Day parade as 14,000 troops march past with tanks and missile launchers, Red Square festooned with enormous hammer-and-sickle banners; Kremlin crushes dissent with draconian fines

– Communist Party of the Russian Federation Receives 5,000 Boys and Girls into Young Pioneers in Red Square Ceremony; Bolsheviks Founded Pioneers in 1922 to Indoctrinate Youth for Party Membership

Pictured above: No, this is not a photo of Red Square in 1982 but, rather, 2012. The Putinist regime uses the Victory Day military parade to glory in Russia’s Soviet legacy. Canada’s National Post has a gallery of pics of this May 9 event here.

Two days after the NATO summit wrapped up in Chicago, Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces launched a brand-new intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwest Russia. The projectile with its dummy warhead successfully struck a designated target thousands of miles away on the Kamchatka Peninsula, in Far East Russia. “The new ICBM will strengthen the combat capability of the strategic missile forces thanks to its ability to penetrate prospective missile defence systems,” boasted the Russian Defense Ministry, no doubt referring to NATO’s anti-missile batteries in the “ex”-communist states of Poland and Romania.

The latter is a bone of contention between Moscow and Washington, which insists the North Atlantic Alliance needs to be protected from missile attacks from “rogue states” like Iran and North Korea. NATO has acknowledged its willingness to cooperate with Russia on European security, but has rejected Moscow’s proposal to jointly operate the missile defense network. Without a cooperation deal, the Kremlin has sought guarantees from the USA that any future missile defence will not target Russia, and on several occasions has threatened to take military countermeasures if no deal is inked.

The Russian Defense Ministry did not offer a name for the new ICBM, but some military analysts suspect the weapon is a modified Topol-M that uses a more advanced propellant. The Kremlin did admit, however, that the missile was launched from a road-mobile carrier. The Russian military also announced that it had commissioned a new early warning radar this week. The Voronezh-M-type facility in Irkutsk has an improved range compared to older Soviet-era radars.

Two weeks ago, on May 7, “ex”-communist and career Chekist Vladimir Putin re-occupied the Russian Federation presidency, after four years of holding the post of prime minister. As before, in 2008, Putin switched posts with lackey Dmitry Medvedev. In both capacities, Putin has been the visible and not-so-pleasant face of the neo-Soviet leadership since 1999.

To make sure the West trembles before Russia’s military might, Putin was not content to launch the country’s latest ICBM but also, two days after his re-installation, presided over the annual Victory Day military parade. At that time, 14,000 impassive Russian servicemen marched past his Red Square platform, followed by rumbling T-90 tanks and mobile ICBM launchers. In his Victory Day speech, which commemorates the Allied triumph over Nazi Germany, he intoned:

Russia consistently conducts its policy for strengthening security in the world, and we have the great moral right to fundamentally and insistently stand up for our position. Your courage and ability to love and defend your homeland will never recede into the past and will remain the hallmark of morals, patriotism and sense of civic duty in the eyes of the younger generation.

To reassure Western communists that Russia’s rulers are still committed to world revolution, notwithstanding Putin’s nationalist rhetoric, the soldiers and military hardware passing through Red Square on May 9 did so under enormous hammer-and-sickle banners. We got the message, Vlad, loud and clear.

To make sure freedom-loving Russians, who objected to his re-election back in March, no longer voice their opposition, Putin directed the State Duma to pass heavy fines for unauthorized protests. The new law raises fines for participating in unsanctioned rallies from 5,000 rubles (US$160) to 1,000,000 rubles (US$32,250). Although United Russia lost its supermajority in December, Putin’s political support group in the Russian parliament still commands a small majority over the other three parties represented there (Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Just Russia, and Liberal Democratic Party of Russia).

The day before Putin’s inauguration, a demonstration of 20,000 people turned ugly after some protesters tried to march on the Kremlin but were repelled by Moscow’s “finest.” Scores were injured in clashes and hundreds were detained as police chased oppositionists around the Russian capital.

On May 22, Moscow police again quickly rounded up several members of the liberal Yabloko party, who attempted to protest the new bill outside parliament. Yabloko leader Sergei Mitrokhin contended that the law was intended to crush dissent. “A direct signal is being made by those in power: Sit down and keep quiet!” Mitrokhin told reporters before his detention. Just Russia leader Sergei Mironov, who fell out with the Kremlin several years ago, described the anti-protest bill as “odious” and intended to “shut the people’s mouth.”

During the debate in parliament, Communist deputy Valentin Romanov asserted that the Kremlin concocted the new sanctions against protests “in anticipation of anger against upcoming unpopular social reforms.” Comrade Romanov said: “It’s a pre-emptive move preceding a rise in social protests across the country.” During a round-table discussion on Thursday, party boss Gennady Zyuganov opined: “This law is a provocation. We will not support it. The main reason for the mass protests is the deepening [European] financial and economic crisis, turning into a political one.”

Since the stage-managed collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Soviet communists have held aloft the red banner of world revolution. This week they passed this banner to a new generation. Kremlin-run Russia Today reports that on Monday more than 5,000 boys and girls be-draped with red ties and side caps flooded onto Red Square to be received into the ranks of the Young Pioneers. The Bolsheviks founded the Pioneers 90 years ago to indoctrinate the youth of the newly captive nation and, after 1993, the CPRF resurrected the organization to recruit youth.

Historically, after passing through the ranks of the Young Pioneers, Soviet children graduated to the Communist Youth League, which prepared young adults for full membership in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. For example, Russian Prime Minister Medvedev and Julia Tymoshenko, the imprisoned former PM of Ukraine, were both subjected to Komsomol indoctrination. The CPRF maintains its own version of the Komsomol too.

Addressing the burgeoning communists, Chairman Zyuganov said: “Pioneers have always been model examples of how to love one’s motherland, how to be a good and honorable student, and how to help one’s elders and juniors alike.” The children who were sworn in on Sunday came from Moscow and surrounding regions. CPFR spokesman Yury Afonin explained that there were also delegations from 30 different regions across the country, including Siberia and beyond. Afonin insists “It isn’t just a tradition; they are doing real work with the children.” Yes, indeed, real work like inculcating Marxism disguised as Russian patriotism.

Buncha Commies Corner: Ongoing US-Russian paratrooper drill in Colorado, President Putin’s no-show at G8 meeting, and PM Medvedev’s farcical fill-in at Camp David sink below MSM “radar”; communists descend upon NATO summit as alliance leaders swap notes in Chicago

– Flashback: 150 Russian Troops Trained at Fort Riley, Kansas in 1995, Carried Out Peacekeeping Scenario with US Soldiers

Pictured here: Chicago’s “finest” arrest anti-NATO protester, presumably on the second day of protests on Monday, May 21.

What is most disturbing about the US-Russian military drills at Fort Carson, Colorado, which began on May 15 and will continue until May 31, is how little coverage the MSM has allocated to this politically significant event. The fact that only 22 Russian airborne (VDV) commandos, Russia’s “blue berets,” are whacking “terrorists” alongside the US Army’s “Green Berets” is beside the point. From the vantage of Kremlin-scripted East-West convergence and the creation of a third-party threat (radical Islam), the camel’s nose is in the tent. Not to fear, the Russians view the joint exercises with a healthy dose of historical perspective:

When Baby Boomers [and their offspring, the Baby Busters, such as your resident blogger] think of Russian paratroopers on American soil, they may recall the Hollywood movie “Red Dawn,” in which the American heartland [ironically, Colorado]  is occupied by the Soviet Union, and only Patrick Swayze and his high-school friends can fight the invaders. 

“Plans are in place,” says Russia Beyond the Headlines, above, “to send a handful ofUS service members toRussia next year for similar training [indoctrination?].”

“Some people have seen sinister motives behind the appearance of troops from America’s longtime Cold War enemy at a U.S. Army post,” remarked Lt. Col. Steven Osterholzer, public affairs officer for the 10th Special Forces Group, which is based at Fort Carson. “Conspiracy theorists are alive and well,” he said, adding: “Some people who’ve called me have said President Barack Obama is a communist, or that the Russians plan to kidnap Americans and take them back to Russia, or that the training is a step toward universal world government.” He concluded, somewhat tongue in cheek: “It’s been an interesting two weeks at the public affairs office.”

To dispel any fears that the Russian special forces might use their “R&R” to conduct a little espionage and sabotage in nearby Colorado Springs, the Denver affiliate of CBS informs us that “The Russians will be escorted around the clock by senior ranking U.S. military officers and no classified information will be exchanged.” Whew, what a relief! The same source, too, reassures us that reports claiming “the drills would involve the Russians seizing CIA computers in Denver and taking over the city’s airport” were false.

Feigning ignorance, Kremlin-run Russia Today says: “It is unclear where these reports originated, as RT verified with Russian Airborne Forces spokesperson Col. Aleksandr Kucherenko that he had said nothing pertaining to the capture of Denver airport.” Sure, comrade, we believe you!

As it turns out, according to an ABC News story correction, this is not the first time Russian soldiers have trained on US soil. In 1995, four years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, 150 Russian troops participated in a joint peacekeeping exercise at Fort Riley, in Kansas. While we can all squirm under the embarrassment of reporting this month’s drill at Fort Carson as the first such exercise, the fact that it is the second known US-Russian military exercise in North America exposes the apathy of the shopping mall regime.

While friendly Russian commandos take in a baseball game in Colorado Springs, the leaders of the G8 nations arrived at Camp Davidto offer solutions to the Eurozone debt and monetary crises. Noting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s conspicuous absence, the Montreal Gazette yawned: “In what has been widely viewed as a snub, Russian President Vladimir Putin skipped the summit, sending Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in his place.” A snub indeed. In all likelihood, “ex”-communist Putin did not want his international counterparts to chew him out over the Kremlin’s harsh crackdown on anti-Putin protests on the eve of his May 7 re-inauguration.

Commenting on the AWOL Russian president and his comical office rotation with lackey Medvedev, the Moscow Times more astutely noted:

If Putin cannot find a way to influence Western leaders in the G8, perhaps his best option is to try to belittle them. Thus, Putin came up with a ridiculous excuse for his inability to attend the G8 summit at Camp David and sent Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in his place. As a result, the leaders of the G7 were forced to sit alongside a powerless stand-in, who seemed to play this role with masochistic pleasure. For example, Medvedev cheerfully posed for photographs with world leaders and posted them on the Internet as if he was sending friends pictures from his vacation, not a global summit.

Thankfully, the Moscow Times cut to the chase by noting the policy differences among the G8 leaders, not to mention the generally useless nature of the meeting:

But in reality, the G8 members split into two opposing camps over how to solve the economic crisis. U.S. President Barack Obama and a host of European leaders contended that increased investment in the economy is necessary to expand production and create more jobs. Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the solution lies with strict controls over spending and the money supply to limit inflation. The final communique issued by the summit reflected the delicate balancing act between those two approaches.

For his part, the cocky Medvedev, a Soviet Komsomol graduate, chortled: “For now, the overall situation with our [Russia’s] economy is fine because we had a budget surplus last year. Naturally, this year will be more difficult, but we’ll manage just the same.”

Following the rather pathetic G8 pseudo-summit, master of ceremonies Barack Hussein Obama scurried to his hometown of Chicago to host leaders of NATO. In tow were thousands of the president’s comrades in the US Left, including anti-war protesters, anti-globalization agitators, socialists, communists, and anarchists, who marched down Michigan Avenue from Grant Park to the conference center containing the military alliance’s leaders. The Chicago Police Department hauled away 45 protesters, who carried placards that blared slogans like “War Criminal Summit.”

“We want to show the world that there is a powerful worker movement in America,” said 57-year-old Adam Shels, who spoke on behalf of the little-known American Socialist Movement. Historically, there are at least two reasons communism has never totally corrupted working-class America, namely, the country’s flag-waving unionized workers make too much money and are loyal to the principles upon which the American Republic was founded. Widespread affluence and staunch patriotism do not typically breed proletarian revolution.

Not surprisingly, the websites of the Communist Party USA, Revolutionary Communist Party USA, and Workers’ World Party urged cadres to stir up trouble on the streets of the USA’s third-largest city.

Looking for ideological and tactical inspiration, some protesters referenced the anti-Vietnam War demos surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. “This will partly help Chicagolive down 1968,” said Dick Simpson, a former Windy City alderman who attended that infamous meeting as a state campaign manager for presidential candidate Eugene J. McCarthy. “The images of ’68 will never go away, but what I saw this weekend was that in many ways Chicago has grown up since then.” Yes, if only communists everywhere would also “grow up.”

EU File: Moody’s downgrades solvency of 16 Spanish banks, including two biggest lenders, Banco Santander and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria; Santander’s UK customers pull US$316 million in deposits on Friday; Moody’s downgraded 26 Italian banks on May 14

Communism flourishes when people lose faith in capitalism. Spain and Italy are next.

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Event Convergence Alert: Putin bows out of G8 meeting at Camp David as USA, Russia hold first-ever military exercise on US soil; US Army 10th Special Forces Group, Russian Airborne Troops to suppress “terrorists” at Fort Carson, Colorado

Moscow: “We’re here to help!” The camel’s nose is in the tent.

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Breaking News: Bank “jog” begins in debt-stricken Greece: Customers withdraw 700 million euros on May 14 alone as European Central Bank “cuts off” some Greek banks; Athens forms emergency government until June 17 election

And so the global economic collapse begins? Are Spain and Italy next?

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EU File: Greek president announces new election in June after national unity talks collapse over terms of EU bailout; 37-year-old leader of Radical Left Coalition, “ex”-KKE cadre poised to become next PM; popular support for Eurocommunist Syriza jumps from 17 to 28% since May 6 vote

– Syriza Committed to Halting Repayment of National Debt, Nationalizing Banks, Imposing 75 Percent Income Tax on Wealthy, Withdrawing Greece from NATO

– Cyprus’ Communist President Deplores Rise of Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn in Greece, Hosted Russian Communist Party Boss in 2008

On Tuesday, a spokesman for Greek President Karolos Papoulias announced that five-party talks aimed at cobbling together a government of national unity committed to enacting a European Union bailout package, which would impose deep financial austerity upon the country, had collapsed. A second election has been called for June.

“For God’s sake, let’s move towards something better and not something worse,” Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) leader Evangelos Venizelos told reporters after the meeting. “Our motherland can find its way. We will fight for it to find its way.”

The announcement came only nine days after Greek voters delivered a stinging rebuke to the two mainstream parties—the center-left PASOK and center-right New Democracy —by directing one third of their support outside the political establishment. After New Democracy, the Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza) achieved the highest percentage, but other parties fared well too, including the venerable Greek Communist Party (KKE), the small Democratic Left party, the centrist Independent Greeks and, surprisingly, the far-right Golden Dawn party.

The KKE rejected an invitation to attend the national unity talks, while Golden Dawn was ignored completely.

In the May 6 election, the far-left Syriza received 16.8 percent of voter support, but its principled stand against the EU’s terms and conditions for a 130 billion euro loan, combined with the “sexy” charisma of 37-year-old party leader, Alexis Tsipras (pictured above), has in less than two weeks bumped up Syriza’s popularity to 28 percent of decided voters. The dashing, unmarried Tsipras is a former KKE youth cadre and civil engineer by training.

Some political analysts believe Syriza could potentially form the next government with the support of only one junior partner, like the disgraced PASOK, Democratic Left or, maybe, KKE. Indeed, polls show Syriza is now on course to win outright, a result that would bestow an automatic bonus of 50 seats to the party in the 300-seat parliament.

After Tuesday’s talks, the Greek president’s office released transcripts of an earlier multi-party meeting, held on Sunday, during which Tsipras stated that there was not sufficient “common ground” with the other parties. “It would be irresponsible to say one thing before the elections and something else afterward,” Tsipras was quoted as saying.

Unlike the eco-friendly, socially liberal Eurocommunist Syriza, which does not advocate a complete departure from the Eurozone, the pro-Moscow working-class Marxists in the KKE refuse to have anything do with the EU’s monetary union. “The Greek Communist Party,” reports the Iranian media, “believes the European financial model is set up so that it cannot function as a unified welfare state, or offer an alternative, lenient fiscal policy towards debt-ridden countries like Greece.” Still, on key points Syriza’s manifesto is similar to that of the KKE: Tsipras would withdraw Greece from NATO and close its bases, halt repayment of the national debt, reverse privatizations, seize banks, eliminate sales tax, and impose a 75 percent tax on the rich.

According to the Toronto Star, Tsipras’ support “now reaches far beyond the confines of the radical left — he is a saviour, the only leader bold enough to seize power from the inept and crooked old men who squandered the future of Greek youth.” The same news site points out: “The economic crisis that has crushed Greece over the last five years has badly hurt its young people, more than half of whom are now unemployed.” One adoring female Tsipras groupie posted on Facebook: “I would marry you in a sec!!”

By contrast, Alekos Alavanos, the veteran communist who picked Tsipras to take over the Syriza leadership, has urged party supporters to acknowledge that rejecting the bailout package probably means leaving the Eurozone. “The left must warn the people responsibly. Not only by telling them that the road away from the bailout is also the road that leads to exiting the euro, but also that it will be particularly painful, but with prospects,” he wrote in an online editorial. This policy move, of course, would reduce the ideological differences between Syriza and KKE even more.

A caretaker government will rule Greece until June, at which time the country may see its first communist regime since the KKE proclaimed the short-lived Provisional Democratic Government in 1946. The Greek Civil War, which ended with the capitulation of Yugoslavia-backed communist insurgents in 1949, is often regarded as the first “hot” conflict of the Cold War period.

Meanwhile, WordPress has removed the Golden Dawn website from its servers, citing a violation of terms of service, especially the propagation of “hate speech” and the inciting of “violence towards individuals or entities.” A poll published on May 13, in the local Greek newspaper, To Vima, indicated that in a new vote, Golden Dawn support would dwindle to less than four percent, which could still exceed the threshold figure (three percent) needed for parliamentary representation.

Three days after the Greek election, Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias, the EU’s only communist head of government, deplored the rise of the Golden Dawn. “It is with shock and horror that we saw a movement which is defined as being Nazi and fascist registering seven percent of the vote about 450,000 votes,” Christofias said in a speech in the capital, Nicosia. “This is a pillaging of modern Greek history. Nazism was responsible for the genocide perpetrated against the people of Greece during the years of its fascist occupation,” Christofias said.

In 2008 the Soviet-educated Christofias hosted Russian Communist Party boss Gennady Zyuganov, who visited the Republic of Cyprus as an official representative of then President Dmitry Medvedev. This month, conceding his inability to reunite northern and southern Cyprus, Christofias declared his non-participation in the 2013 presidential election. However, his Marxist Progressive Party of Working People still commands a majority in parliament. Turkish troops have occupied the predominantly Muslim, northern third of Cyprus since 1974.

EU File: Socialist wins French presidential run-off vote, Hollande vows to renegotiate eurozone bailout terms; Sarkozy first president in 30 years to fail re-election bid, resigns party leadership; 1 in 3 Greek voters follow French counterparts, choose far-left and neo-Nazi parties in parliamentary election

– Breeding Ground for Political Radicalism: Spain, Greece, Portugal and Ireland Struggling with 14-25 Percent Unemployment Rates

– Together Greek Communist Party and Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza) Secure 26% of Voter Support, Syriza Leader Rejects National Unity Government, Vows to “Reverse Course of EU Bailouts”

– Belarusian Dictator Lukashenko: Pal Qaddafi Financed Sarkozy’s 2007 Election Bid, Even Though Libyan Strongman Spurned French President’s Union for the Mediterranean

Pictured above: Greek neo-Nazi politician Nikos Michaloliakos. For the first time since its founding in 1993, his Golden Dawn party has secured representation in the Greek Parliament: 21 seats.

The rise of Bolshevism in Russia (1917), the harsh terms of reparation placed upon Germany in the Treaty of Versailles (1919), and the economic collapse of the Great Depression (1929) led to considerable political turmoil in Europe between the two world wars. In the wake of the 2009 eurozone crisis, similar times of hardship have returned to Europe, although this time Germany is dictating the terms of financial and monetary bailout

Several weeks ago, we blogged about the results of the first round of the presidential election in France, noting President Nicolas Sarkozy’s poor showing vis-à-vis socialist rival Francois Hollande. We also related Gennady Zyuganov’s smug, approving comments concerning the French electorate’s shift to the left. Zyuganov is chairman of the Communist Party of theRussian Federation.

Lastly, we duly noted that one third of the voting electorate in Francecast ballots for extremists on the left and right. For example, the neo-fascist National Front candidate, Marine Le Pen, taking advantage of anti-immigrant sentiment and France’s economic stagnation, scored an all-time high of 18 percent, while the main far-left candidate scooped up 11 percent.

On Sunday, voters delivered a coup de grace to Sarkozy, who had tried in vain since 2007 to downsize the French state, awarding him 48 percent of the poll in a run-off vote to Hollande’s 52 percent. Sarkozy is a close ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was the prime mover behind the tough austerity measures that the European Union has implemented over the past two years in an effort to correct monetary and financial crises provoked by huge sovereign debt in Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland. These four countries also suffer from double-digit unemployment rates, especially Spain, which has a disastrous unemployment rate of nearly 25 percent.

President-elect Hollande has pledged to press Germanyto renegotiate the European agreement to enforce budget discipline and at the same time add a clause to stimulate job formation. He has also promised to raise France’s minimum wage, lower the retirement age to 60 from 62 for some workers, and create 60,000 teaching jobs. Sarkozy opposed every one of these policies.

The once ambitious Sarkozy, advocate of a European army and architect of the nascent Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), accepted “full responsibility for the defeat. He also announced that he would resign leadership of the Union for a Popular Movement, France’s main center-right political party, before parliamentary elections in June. That vote will determine whether Hollande will be able to win approval for his program.

Sarkozy’s last day in office will be May 15. Ironically, one of the more controversial accusations about the outgoing French president, who is half-Jewish, filtered into the MSM only this week. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, known as “Europe’s last dictator,” insists that Libyan strongman Muammar al-Qaddafi told Lukashenko during a 2008 visit to Minsk that he had funded Sarkozy’s presidential campaign the previous year. Qaddafi perished in a NATO airstrike last October, after countering a months-old popular uprising backed by a United Nations-sanctioned no-fly zone over the North African country.

Lukashenko, speaking Tuesday in an annual address to the Belarusian parliament, said that Qaddafi told him the amount was more than 100 million. The Belurusian president did not specify the currency. The claims were first made by a Tunisian lawyer retained by former Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi, who said that according to his client the Libyan dictator transferred €50 million (US$65 million) to Sarkozy’s campaign coffers. Sarkozy has strongly denied the claims. Qaddafi, a long-time proponent of the African Union, later refused to admit Libya into Sarkozy’s pet project, the UfM.

Incidentally, in the past we have examined Sarkozy’s career in the light of end-times Bible prophecy. We still believe the outgoing French president, who is a Gentilized friend of Israel and whose last name means “Prince of Terror/Tribulation” (in ancient Sumerian), is a man to watch, especially if he rematerializes in a high post in the EU bureaucracy or at the head of his UfM. Frankly, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Sarkozy.

Elsewhere in the EU, economic despair has drivenGreecetoward political extremism. On Sunday, the 60 percent of Greek voters who shunned their country’s sunny beaches in favour of civic duty trooped to the polls to express their despair over a shipwrecked economy and subservience to EU powerhouse Germany. The ruling center-right New Democracy party watched as its support based was slashed from 33.5 percent of the voting electorate in 2009 to a paltry 20.5, while the socialist PASOK, which as dominated Greek politics since 1981, withered away to 14 percent.

Like their French counterparts, Greek voters looked to the far left and far right for hope, throwing nearly 17 percent of their support to the Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza), which is further to the left than PASOK; nearly nine percent to the venerable Greek Communist Party (KKE); and, shockingly, seven percent to the militants of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, whose party flag sports a stylized swastika.

From a balcony at the building housing the Golden Dawn headquarters, Greek fuehrer Nikos Michaloliakos proclaimed victory before a crowd of 800 supporters. “Veni, vidi, vici” (I came, I saw, I conquered), he said, quoting from Julius Caesar’s triumphal arrival in Rome in 47 B.C. “You slandered me, you angered me, I defeated you,” he added, referring to attacks by other parties and the Greek news media.

Under Greek election law, which awards an extra 50 seats to the party with the largest plurality, New Democracy may be able to form a fragile right-left coalition government with PASOK. Gritting their teeth, Antonis Samaras, leader of New Democracy, and Evangelos Venizelos, head of PASOK, acknowledged the need for a government of national unity that will preserve the euro as Greece’s currency. If a New Democracy-PASOK government pushes ahead with the EU-sponsored austerity package, though, the Greek government will be forced to raise taxes, sack public workers, and reduce wages in exchange for US$240 billion in bailouts.

Between November and this weekend’s election, New Democracy was the junior partner in the Greek government with the socialists. Now the tables appear to have turned.

Ex-New Democracy member Panos Kammenos said his centrist Independent Greeks, which won about 10.4 percent of the vote on Sunday, was willing to join a government of national unity, but only if Syriza does too. However, Syriza leader Aleksis Tsipras said his priority is to lead a government of the left that would reverse the course of the EU bailouts.

Red Dawn Alert: Obama Admin may be conditioning US public for future Russian invasion with incrementally larger joint “anti-terrorist drills” even as Kremlin’s top general threatens NATO with “pre-emptive destructive force” over missile shield plan

– US-Russian Paratrooper Exercise in Colorado quid pro quo for NATO Plan to Transit Non-Military Cargo to Afghanistan via Airport in Russia’s Volga Region

– Flashback: Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 Began when 100 Soviet Airborne Troops Tricked Prague Air Traffic Controllers, Arrived on Aeroflot Flight, Secured Airport for Invasion Force

The Kremlin-run Russia Today has taken note of the “hysteria” and “fearmongering” occurring in US patriotic circles over the announced arrival of 20 Russian paratroopers at Fort Carson, Colorado later this month. Near Cheyenne Mountain, where NORAD operated its underground commander center until 2006, this handful of Russian airborne troops will join their US counterparts in subduing (presumably Muslim) “terrorists” in a week-long drill.

The bilateral military exercise was arranged by the Russian Airborne Troops (VDV), which commands a total of 35,000 paratroopers, and a US military delegation in Moscow last December. The story appears to have been first published in the Communist Party of China organ on April 20. Less reputable sources like the European Union Times, citing the notorious Sorcha Faal, maintain that the VDV will practice seizing the Denver International Airport and the Central Intelligence Agency’s National Resources Division in the “Mile High City.”

In any event, this sort of cooperation between US and Russian soldiers on US soil is unprecedented and has rightly provoked concern among patriots, even though the number of participating Russians is small. The Obama White House’s acquiescence to this arrangement is probably a quid pro quo for allowing NATO aircraft to transport non-military cargo to Afghanistan via an airport in southwestern Russia.

In much the same way US patriots are incensed by the mere thought of Russian paratroopers floating through the skies over Colorado ala Red Dawn, Russian communists are incensed that the Putinist regime has given NATO permission to set up a “base” at the Ulyanovsk airport. Communist Party boss Gennady Zyuganov has denounced NATO’s plan to “occupy the Volga,” predicting that NATO will transform the city of Ulyanovsk into “a major drug trafficking point.”

“An ulcer is forming in the centre of Russia, which will not only be a transit base for military cargo, but also one of the main drug dens on our territory,” Zyuganov told a rally of 2,000 communists in Moscow’s Pushkinskaya Square on April 7. “We have to say a decisive ‘No’ to this betrayal of national interests.” Ulyanovsk was the birthplace of the Soviet Union’s first dictator, Vladimir Lenin and, thus, is sacred to Russian communists.

“We are helping the [North Atlantic] coalition… primarily out of our own national interest,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in defense of the Kremlin policy. “The transportation of non-military cargo to and from Afghanistan is regarded by us as a means of helping those who are eradicating the terrorist and drug threat in Afghanistan.” Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin quipped: “I don’t think that the transit of NATO toilet paper can be regarded the betrayal of the Fatherland.”

Even though Russia is no longer openly communist, the country’s “ex”-communist leaders are no friends of the USA. The remarks of both Zyuganov and Lavrov, for example, are deceptive because on many occasions at Once Upon a Time in the West we have documented the roles of the Soviet Union, Red China, and other communist states in the illicit narcotics trade. This past week, moreover, Moscow once again expressed its displeasure over NATO plans for a European-wide missile defense shield, ostensibly to protect US allies from a ballistic missile attack from Iran or North Korea.

The latest warning from Russia came after Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said talks on missile defence were close to stalling. Nikolai Makarov, chief of the Russian General Staff, rumbled, “A decision to use destructive force pre-emptively will be taken if the situation worsens.” Russia’s top general went on to state that if the European shield was built, Russia would respond by placing more powerful warheads on its own ballistic missiles.

Washington and Moscow have sparred over the issue of NATO missile defence since 2002, ever since President George W. Bush withdrew the USA from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. President Obama, who succeeded Bush in 2008, scrapped plans for a network of bases spread across Poland and the Czech Republic with the capacity to intercept long-range missiles.

In 2010, after downsizing its plans, the USA signed an agreement with Poland to use an old airstrip at Redzikowo, near the Baltic coast, as a missile defence base. US troops currently operate a Patriot missile battery at this site in the “ex”-communist state. In response, Russia set up a new radar system in its Kaliningrad exclave, which borders northern Poland, to monitor missile launches from Europe and the North Atlantic.

In view of the two faces that the Kremlin presents to Washington—one friendly, the other belligerent—we must ask ourselves some strategically astute questions. Could 20 Russian soldiers take over the USA? No, of course not. Could 100 Russian soldiers take over the USA? No, not very likely. Could 500 Russian soldiers take over the USA? Possibly. How about 2,000? Very possibly.

If, say, 2,000 Russian special forces (Spetsnaz) execute a decapitation strike against the US political-military leadership—followed by a surprise missile attack from Russia’s “nuclear triad” and, after radiation levels subside somewhat, a ground invasion in concert with other Communist Bloc states, like Red China—then the US Armed Forces could be rendered impotent in a matter of days or weeks.

If the US president, moreover, is already committed to creating a socialist country under the control of the United Nations, such as is the case with Barack Hussein Obama, the process of neutralizing the US military, already bogged down by international commitments, would be greatly hastened. A communist invasion force would still have to subdue 50 state governments and millions of well-armed private citizens. This could take months or years.

Geopolitical analyst Jeff Nyquist paints this scenario of a Communist Bloc attack against the USA in his 1999 book Origins of the Fourth World War.

Infiltrating 2,000 special forces into the USA would pose a challenge for the Russian General Staff, but they have successfully done something like this before in the East Bloc. During the early hours of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, 100 Soviet Airborne Troops arrived at Ruzyne International Airport on an Aeroflot flight, totally surprising Prague air traffic controllers. The VDV quickly secured the airport in preparation for a major airlift consisting of still more Soviet paratroopers equipped with artillery and light tanks. Meanwhile, Warsaw Pact forces hurled 2,000 tanks and 200,000 ground troops at Czechoslovakia, crushing the so-called “Prague Spring.”

Czechoslovakia, of course, was a small country with a unitary government structure. In a similar scenario, however, relying on stealth and some degree of collusion with socialist/ globalist elements in the US government, Russian troops could carry out a series of incrementally larger “anti-terrorist drills” with their US counterparts on US soil. This procedure could conceivably lull patriots in the federal government, military, and public at large into a false sense of security.

In the first war game, only 20 Russian soldiers participate, learning how to use US special forces weapons. Nothing out of the ordinary happens. The Russian paratroopers return to their homeland. CNN ridicules patriots for their “fearmongering.” A few months later, the US and Russian armed forces carry out another joint drill on US soil. This time 100 Russian soldiers arrive. Again, nothing suspicious happens. Again, the visiting paratroopers return to Russia. Many US patriots relax, concluding that perhaps, “The Russians are our friends, after all.”

Meanwhile, another terrorist attack, attributed to some Chechen warlord with shady links to Russian military intelligence (GRU), takes place in downtown Moscow. The White House is eager to help America’s “Russian friends.” A few months later still, 500 Russian soldiers arrive for more “anti-terrorist drills.” This tactic of incrementalism, or gradualism, may be the plot underway at Fort Carson this month.

Neo-Sandinista File: Last living FSLN founder Borge dies, Ortega declares three days of mourning for 1980s interior minister; Red China links up with Havana/ Caracas-led bloc of socialist states, builds US$6 billion refinery and 1.8 barrel storage facility in Nicaragua

– CIA-Trained Contra Rebels Targeted Sandinista-Held Petroleum Facilities on Nicaragua’s Pacific Coast in 1983 and 1984

Several weeks ago we reported that Tomas Borge Martinez, last living founder of the Sandinista National Liberation Front and Nicaragua’s dreaded interior minister during the 1980s, had been admitted to Managua’s military hospital in poor health. On Monday the 81-year-old Maoist died of complications related to pneumonia, prompting President Daniel Ortega to declare three days of national mourning. Since Borge is no longer around to offer “Comandante” ideological inspiration and financial benefactor Hugo Chavez faces re-election in October, opportunistic Marxist-turned-capitalist Ortega is enlisting the help of his “market socialist” buds in Beijing.

Pictured above: Borge and Ortega in 1994.

On April 27, Reuters reported that China’s CAMC Engineering Co. Ltd. will build a 1.8 million-barrel oil deposit tank and submarine pipelines for a refinery in Miramar, near the Pacific coast city of Puerto Sandino. CAMC’s deal with Albanisa is worth US$233 million. Albanisa is a joint enterprise between Nicaragua and Venezuela and one of several front companies of the Havana/ Caracas-led Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA).

Francisco Lopez, vice president of Albanisa, was quoted as saying that the refinery will produce 150,000 barrels per day and then send this oil to other ALBA states. The entire refinery will cost around US$6 billion and take about 20 months to complete. Shen Wei, CAMC executive, told Cuba’s Prensa Latina that the hydrocarbon base in Miramar will consist of 15 tanks for fuel oil, diesel, aviation fuel, gasoline, and liquid gas. Venezuelan engineer Deibris Aguilera said that construction of the 104-acre refinery and storage facility could begin as early as May.

The Miramar project was first announced in 2007, when Ortega returned from a 16-year political exile to reclaim the presidency, but has languished since then, lacking capitalization. In the 1980s, Nicaragua’s economy was shattered by a devastating civil war between the first, Soviet/Cuban-backed Sandinista regime and the US-backed Contras or, to use President Ronald Reagan’s terminology, “freedom fighters.”

Although Nicaragua is the poorest country in Central America, over the last several years it has enjoyed the region’s fastest growing economy. Nicaragua also benefits from international investment in projects that will enhance its energy independence. “Despite the anti-imperialist ideological content of the Miramar project,” opines the leftist World War Four blog, “Nicaragua is putting out the welcome mat for Western companies too—especially in the mineral sector.”

During the civil war, CIA-trained Contra rebels staged at least two attacks against oil storage facilities in Corinto, another port city on Nicaragua’s Pacific coast, but further north. On April 18, 1984, The New York Times reported:

Three months before the mining of Nicaragua’s harbors, the Central Intelligence Agency directed a sabotage raid against the Nicaraguan port of Corinto, destroying 3.2 million gallons of fuel and forcing the town’s evacuation, Congressional sources say. The sources said that like the mining, the Oct. 10 [1983] raid on Corinto was carried out by Latin American mercenaries hired by the C.I.A. They reached the port by speedboat from an offshore ship where American C.I.A. agents directed the operation, the sources said in interviews on Monday and today.

The C.I.A. declined to comment today on the report of its role in the operation. ”This was totally a C.I.A. operation,” one Congressional source said, adding that the raid, not the mining, which began in January, was the first time the C.I.A. had directly entered the fighting against the leftist Nicaraguan Government.

The successful October 1983 speedboat raid against the Sandinista-held oil facilities at Corinto appears to have followed by about four weeks an unsuccessful Contra air attack. On September 10 of the same year, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported:

Two small planes flown by rebel exiles rocketed oil tanks at Nicaragua’s deep-water Pacific port of Corinto Friday, 24 hours after a bomb raid on Managua airport 50 miles to the east, the Nicaraguan military said.

The [Sandinista Popular] army spokesman, Commander Roberto Sanchez, said there was slight damage to oil storage tanks in Corinto, and that the planes tried to destroy a key bridge but were driven away by anti-aircraft fire. There was no report of casualties.

The London-Based Institute for Strategic Studies says Honduras and Nicaragua [own] four T-28s. The single-engine two-seater training planes were first produced in 1948 by North American Aviation, and can be converted to warplanes. But they are no longer in US Navy or Air Force inventories.

“One of the planes fire several rockets against port installations. Two rockets impacted near the oil storage tanks but did not cause much damage,” Sanchez said. “The places where the attackers launched rockets and bombers are not military objectives. Only civilians work there—night and day.”

The army official said the planes came in from Honduras and fled in that direction, but gave no details. He said Nicaraguan authorities protested to the Honduran government.

The shrapnel-riddled tanks at Corinto, observed the San Francisco Chronicle in 2007, as it covered Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Nicaragua, “stood until just four months ago, when new Sandinista port directors decided to tear them down.” Contra rebels, according to the March 6, 1985 issue of the Wall Street Journal, also attacked Puerto Sandino over the preceding two years:

Armed speedboats and a helicopter launched from a CIA ‘mother ship’ attacked Nicaragua’s Pacific port, Puerto Sandino, on a moonless New Year’s night in 1984. A week later, the speedboats returned to mine the oil terminal. Over the next three months, they laid more than 30 mines in Puerto Sandino and in the harbors at Corinto and El Bluff.

In air and sea raids on costal positions, Americans flew-and fired from-an armed helicopter that accompanied the U.S. financed Latino force, while a CIA plane provided sophisticated reconnaissance guidance for the nighttime attacks. The operation, outlined in a classified CIA document, marked the peak of U.S. involvement in the four-year guerrilla war in Nicaragua.

The most celebrated attack, by armed speedboats, came Oct. 11, 1983, against oil facilities at Corinto. Three days later, Latino frogmen sabotaged an underwater pipeline at Puerto Sandino. The message wasn’t lost on Exxon, Esso unit, and the international giant informed the Sandinista government that it would no longer provide tankers for transporting oil to Nicaragua.

Nicaragua has no significant port facilities on its Caribbean coast, although five years ago the sympathetic Islamic fundamentalist regime in Tehran promised to finance the construction of a port at Monkey Point. These promises have yet to materialize. However, CAMC’s joint venture with Albanisa is one more example of Communist China’s economic ascendancy in Latin America, while Ortega’s mining concessions prove that the region’s leftist leaders will accept “imperialist” cash if there are no strings attached.

Meanwhile, Roberto Rivas, the head of Nicaragua’s Supreme Electoral Council who is widely perceived to be an Ortegista (Ortega croney), has invited all registered political parties to participate in the November municipal elections. The contested results of the 2008 municipal elections led to the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front securing a majority of the country’s mayoralties, precipitating months of street fighting between mortar-wielding Sandinista thugs and harried oppositionists, and the termination of financial aid from the USA and European Union.

In order to deflect further international criticism of his dictatorial direction, President Ortega is proposing electoral reform that, significantly, does not include the removal of Sandinista loyalists from the Supreme Electoral Council. “Comandante,” who vows to continue his original Sandinista Revolution, was re-elected last November with a handy but suspect majority.