-Caveat Lector-
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 09:45:30 -0500 (EST)
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Are the Russians plotting?
>From the March 1999 Christian Crusade Newspaper,
Vol. 47, No.3
compiled by the Christian Crusade Newspaper staff
You have heard the familiar claims: Russia cannot threaten the
United States. She has lost the Cold War. She is poor. She is
weak. She is starving. She is in chaos.
Think again, says Stanislav Lunev.
Col. Lunev is the highest ranking military intelligence
officer ever to have defected from Russia. He did so in 1992
after the Soviet Union dissolved and Boris Yeltsin had come to
power.
He recently told a Canadian newspaper, The Ottawa Citizen,
that it all has been a farce. The Communists are waiting for the
United States to drop its vigilance, then they will attack with
their nuclear arsenal -- proving once and for all who won the
Cold War.
Is Lunev crazy? Is he making it up?
You've read this sort of thing before. It's all been
discounted by the liberal press. They laugh off the ridiculous
notion that we have been deceived.
Yet, are you aware that the Communists control the Russian
parliament? Or that they forced the ailing Boris Yeltsin to
appoint a hardline Communist to run the country?
Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov is strengthening, at
an accelerating pace, his Communist-controlled regime's control
over Russia's media and strategic industries.
Primakov knows how to take control.
He headed Russia's intelligence service from 1991-1996, and
since he took office as Prime Minister in September 1998, he has
appointed former KGB colleagues to key positions throughout the
country. Former Soviet spymasters have now been installed as head
of the government administration, the Presidential Chief of
Staff, the director of the Department for Special Programs, and
the chief of the Main Control Directorate.
On January 25, the former public relations boss of the
Russian Federal Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), successor to
the KGB's international directorate, was appointed First Deputy
Director of the Russian press agency ITAR-TASS. To increase the
state control over the strategic enterprises, Primakov named a
former KGB colleague as chief of the state weapons company
Rosvooruzheniye, and launched a major restructuring of the
Russian oil and gas industry that included personnel changes in
the administration of many major companies. Primakov's
appointment of loyal Soviet-era cadres to strategic posts is not
merely building a strong political faction that is loyal
primarily to him, but one that controls the commanding heights of
the communications and large-scale industries.
Since becoming the Russian Prime Minister five months ago,
Primakov has assumed the vast majority of powers from the ailing
Yeltsin.
During this time, Primakov has systematically appointed "his"
people to key positions in Russia -- "his" people being former
officers of the KGB and its successor agencies. In September
1998, former SVR official Yury Zubakov was appointed head of
government administration. Later last year, Primakov succeeded in
installing Grigory Rapota, who has no experience in weapons
trade, as the new head of the arms exports monopoly
Rosvooruzheniye.
Rapota, who had worked for the KGB since 1966 as an agent in
Western Europe and the U.S., was named by Primakov in 1993 as the
number three man of the Russian intelligence service. Primakov
had to face serious obstacles to win the Rosvooruzheniye post for
Rapota and was able to succeed in this effort only due to his
post as a chief of the state military-cooperation committee.
A number of other former Soviet spymasters were recently
named into key positions. Former high KGB and border guard
officer Nikolai Bordyuzha was named as President's Chief of Staff
in December 1998.
According to the Russian magazine Obshchaya Gazeta,
Bordyuzha, as well as Zubakov, and the head of the president's
secretariat Robert Makaryan, were appointed to their posts late
last year on advice from Primakov.
Other posts currently occupied by former KGB agents and
bureaucrats include head of the Department of Special Programs,
held by former FSB deputy chief Viktor Zorin, and head of the
main Control Directorate, held by Nikolai Patrushev, also former
FSB official. Former KGB agent in Germany, Vladimir Putin, is now
acting as first deputy chief of the president, responsible for
the administration's relations with Russian regions.
Following the abject failure of economic reforms in Russia,
the state has been gradually increasing its control over the
industrial sector. The main contributor to the state budget in
Russia is the oil and gas sector, which had been partially
liberalized during the last couple of years.
Foreign investors have been allowed to make major investments
in the sector, and a number of joint ventures with foreign
partners were established. Foreigners mainly contributed
financial investment and technical know-how to the Russian oil
and gas sector. However, it is becoming clear that the Russian
government is now moving away from liberalization and towards
renewed dominance over this industry.
Central control is back.
The Russian Ministry of Fuel and Energy has recently designed
a plan for founding a national oil company by merging such oil
companies as Rosneft, ONAKO, and Russia-Belorussian Slavneft.
Also, the government plans a major restructuring of the gas giant
Gazprom, including all-encompassing personnel changes.
We have predicted and subsequently tracked Russia's
increasing assertiveness in its foreign policy and Russia's
rebuilding of its empire.
As Moscow, with the old Soviet crew back in charge, reverts
to familiar foreign policy patterns, the same clearly holds true
in domestic policy. Primakov, backed by his Gorbachev-era
supporters and colleagues among the security apparatus, is now
asserting control over the institutions of government, the media
and the military and extractive industries. Those Primakov has
placed in charge are quickly and systematically reasserting
familiar patterns of heavy-handed control over Russia's internal
politics.
After briefly flirting with economic and political
liberalization, the Russian polity is quickly reverting to a
familiar form -- hardline Communism.
And this is exactly what Lunev has been saying is going to
happen.
Other defectors, such as Anatoly Golitsen have been declaring
the same thing for more than a decade: Communism is not dead --
it's just hiding.
At the time of his defection Lunev was living in Washington
with his wife, working a cover job as a journalist for TASS, the
Russian news agency, while doing his real job: spying on America.
As a GRU officer Lunev's spying related to military matters:
gathering information on America's military plans; reporting on
U.S. vulnerabilities; devising special operations in the advent
of war.
Last year, Lunev detailed just some of his activities in a
new book he co- authored with Ira Winkler, Through the Eyes of
the Enemy: Russia's Highest Ranking Military Defector Reveals Why
Russia is More Dangerous than Ever published by Regnery Press.
The book has some sensational details about Russian plans to
bring suitcase nuclear bombs into America and to use special
forces to assassinate the president and congressional, military
and other leaders during the initial phases of a war.
Lunev claims in Through the Eyes of the Enemy that Russian
military leaders still view a war with the United States as
"inevitable" and that the Cold War never really ended.
Save for some talk radio outlets and the Internet, Lunev's
book got little media coverage. This comes as no surprise since
most Americans believe the United States won the Cold War. Russia
is not a threat and any suggestion that it is has to be written
off as just paranoid jingoism.
Lunev is used to unfriendly receptions. When he did defect,
higher-ups at the CIA and the Pentagon did not accept what he had
to say. What he said was rather simple. Russia is continuing its
old ways. The military is still preparing for war against the
United States. A nuclear war.
In the era of fuzzy warm feelings between the United States
and Russia, American officials were not going to upset the
applecart no matter how much evidence Lunev offered.
In the intervening years, Russia has appeared to further
disintegrate. Can she really be a threat? skeptics ask. Lunev
most certainly has been proven wrong. Lunev says think again. He
retorts that Russia still retains a formidable
military-industrial complex. She is one of the world's largest
arms exporters. She makes quality products and delivers them on
time.
Russia continues to build nuclear submarines, bombers and
missiles. Last year Yeltsin commissioned Peter the Great, the
largest ballistic missile cruiser ever built by mankind. This
past Christmas, Russia deployed a regiment of 10 Topol-M
intercontinental ballistic missiles, missiles reportedly more
sophisticated than anything we have. Recently, Russia unveiled
her stealth bomber. The New York Times reports Russia continues
to build huge underground bunkers, some as large as cities, in
case of war. She also continues to build an arsenal of chemical
and biological weapons. Russia's nuclear arsenal remains the
world's largest. She continues testing of her nuclear weapons.
He says that Russia's leaders are promoting to the Russian
public the idea that the United States is Russia's greatest foe
-- and just as America worked to destroy the Soviet Union, today
the U.S. and its Western European allies are working to destroy
Russia.
"In recent years and times, the feelings of the Russian
people toward America have begun to change. The Russian people
believe the United States is giving money to the corrupt Russian
government, which never helps the ordinary Russians. America has
identified herself so strongly with Yeltsin, and now Yeltsin and
his government are viewed as corrupt," says Lunev. "There is a
perception that America, who destroyed the old Soviet Union, is
again trying to destroy Russia."
Indeed, a senior Russian official declared just a few days
ago that, led by the United States, NATO is intent on crippling
Russia.
Yevgeny Gusarov, deputy foreign minister of Russia, told the
Munich Conference on Security Policy the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization should not even think of expanding after it inducts
Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic at an April summit in
Washington.
He said Moscow has drawn a "red line" on further eastward
expansion of NATO into lands of the former Soviet Union, such as
the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.
"Expansion to the east will inevitably lead to emergence of
new dividing lines," Gusarov said.
U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen, asked about Gusarov's
advice for NATO not to cross Russia's eastern "red line," said
NATO will not allow the Russians to stop qualified former Soviet
allies from joining the alliance if they choose to apply.
"The door remains open" to other interested candidates, Cohen
said.
"It's not geographically confined. Whichever countries wish
to become part of NATO, if they satisfy the requirements, they'll
be considered for membership.
Cohen recalled when Germany was reunited in 1990, President
Mikhail Gorbachev said the Soviet Union would never permit a
united Germany in NATO. It happened anyway. Russia also argued
strenuously against the current NATO acceptance of new members
Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, all of which were parts
of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.
Gusarov also complained about NATO's efforts to reorient
itself to what it calls 21st-century security threats such as
terrorism and the use of chemical and biological weapons.
"We shall not follow indifferently the development of a
concept which presupposes destruction of the existing world
order," he said.
Lunev says the Russian Communists will not hesitate to launch
a surprise nuclear attack against the United States. He says the
whole Russian military structure as well as the whole society
during the Soviet era was geared for a nuclear war -- and that
has not changed under the new regime.
"The Soviet plan was the use of strategic forces to destroy
strategic targets in America and the West, followed by the use of
nuclear and conventional forces," says Lunev. "This was the
Soviet way, and the Russian military still thinks the same way
today. They are much more dangerous now because the Russian
military is relying more on their nuclear weapons."
What about a first strike on the United States?
"The likely plan does not include use of missiles first,"
says Lunev. "First the Russians would use their special operation
forces, special troops, inside of the United States to destroy
targets like communications facilities, airfields, command
centers, and other targets that might be difficult to destroy
with a missile attack.
"Suitcase nuclear bombs at strategic locations are just one
small part of their arsenal. I mentioned this in my book and I
have been so surprised that the American public is so interested
in this. Why? This is not something unusual for Russian military
plans.
"Russia is a country on the edge of social explosion. The
total decline of living conditions: human, industrial, political,
social, and now the financial crisis. This could lead to war."
How do the Russians believe they could survive the
devastation of a nuclear war?
They are building a huge underground complex in the Ural
Mountains, he says. It's called Yamantau Mountain.
"Well, this is a huge underground city which could be used in
time when many Russian cities are destroyed, but the military and
political elite will survive and live until our planet will try
to restore itself.
What is keeping the Russians from attacking right now?
Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov has reportedly asked
his reformist predecessor, Sergei Kirienko, to travel to Bonn to
appeal to Western creditors to restructure Russia's debt -- and
lend more money.
Primakov's Communist economic chief has failed miserably in
talks with the IMF, and Primakov hopes that a change of
spokespersons will make the message more appealing.
But Russia's problems with the IMF are not something that can
be rephrased away, and Primakov can not give Kirienko the
authority to negotiate the necessary changes in the Russian
economic plan.
So the trip is a last desperate, and probably futile, effort,
according to analysts.
The Russian business daily Kommersant reported on February 10
that Primakov has asked Kirienko, to go to Germany to discuss
Russia's preliminary debt restructuring proposals with Western
creditors.
Remember that non-Communist Kirienko was sacked by Russian
President Boris Yeltsin last summer, following the devaluation of
the ruble and default on Russian debts.
Two things are certain. Primakov would dearly like to receive
debt relief and additional foreign loans.
Russia needs the IMF assistance not only to avoid going
bankrupt, but also to help obtain the release of loans promised
by the Japanese government and the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development.
So now Primakov has turned to Kirienko. But it should not be
taken as an embrace by Primakov of Kirienko's economic reforms.
Primakov will not alter Russia's new, Communist-drafted
economic policies. He just wants to see if the West will sell him
more rope.
posted by Christian Crusade Newspaper editor Keith Wilkerson
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Kaddish, Kaddish, Kaddish, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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