***THE UNREPORTED TRUTH ON RUSSIA***
By J. Adams
October 29th, 1996
"Mad world! Mad kings! Mad composition!"
('King John'; Act II, sc.1)
The purpose of the coming coup is clear: to open the way for Russia to launch a nuclear attack against the West (see below).
The Washington Times
October 28, 1996
"Russian Missiles Armed and Ready"
By James Hackett
On Oct. 3 the Russian armed forces conducted a major strategic
command and control exercise that included the launch of four nuclear-
capable missiles, at least one from each of the three legs of Russia's
nuclear triad. Very few reports of the exercise appeared in the
media, which is surprising in view of President Clintion's repeated
comment that "There are no nuclear missiles pointed at the children of
the United States tonight."
In fact, there are well more than a thousand operational Russian
and Chinese nuclear missiles pointed somewhere, and, if not at the
United States, they can be retargeted here in a matter of minutes.
The Russian press reported that the military exercise, codenamed
Redoubt 96, reached its conclusion on Oct. 3 with a mock nuclear
weapon attack from land, sea and air. Tass reported that Russia's
strategic rocket forces launched an SS-25 intercontinental ballistic
missile from the Plesetsk testing ground and that "the target was
hit." The target was not identified, but the SS-25 is designed to
strike the United States.
The Moscow paper Krasnaya Zvezda reported "the presidential button
worked" on Oct. 3 when a command from the "nuclear briefcase"
triggered the launch of a ballistic missile from a Russian submarine
in the Arctic Ocean. Reuters quoted a source on the staff of the
Northern Fleet in Murmansk as saying that the missile's test warhead
successfully struck a target thousands of miles away on the Kamchatka
Peninsula west of Alaska.
In another story on the same day Tass reported that long-range
bombers of the Russian Air Force launched two nuclear capable cruise
missiles, which hit their specified targets. The report stressed the
ability of the cruise missiles to carry their nuclear warheads 2,400
miles beyond the range of the bombers. Russian military commanders,
who still view the United States as the enemy, are demonstrating that
despite internal problems they are maintaining the ability to launch
nuclear destruction at this country.
The strategic launches were monitored by Prime Minister Viktor
Chernomyrdin from the missile launch control center of the Russian
Armed Forces. Mr. Chernomyrdin's participation was in connection
with his receipt of the "nuclear briefcase" from President Yeltsin
while the president undergoes heart bypass surgery.
Defense Secretary William Perry reacted to these developments by
repeating the administration line that it has confidence in the
ability of the Russian military to maintain control of its nuclear
weapons, despite repeated warnings from Russian officials that their
military is in a major crisis. Reports from Moscow warn of a social
explosion, with millions of workers not being paid, the buying power
of wages down 70 percent, one-quarter of Russians living below
subsistence levels, and even military personnel going without pay for
as long as six months.
Yet, the administration seems determined to deny the problem. J.
Michael Waller of the American Foreign Policy Council has documented
89 occasions over the past two years when Mr. Clinton has said
America is safe from nuclear weapons. He said it before a nationwide
audience in the Oct. 6 debate with Bob Dole, and he continues to say
it.
Yet, Mr. Clinton's own CIA now is reporting that a grave danger
of the "unsanctioned use of Russian nuclear weapons" is the result of
social change, economic hardship and malaise within the armed forces,
as reported by Bill Gertz in The Washington Times on Oct. 22. Mr.
Gertz disclosed a secret CIA report warning that Russia's nuclear
command and control system is being subjected to stresses it was not
designed to withstand.
The CIA report reveals deep concerns that officers at various
levels of authority have the technical ability to launch Russia's
strategic nuclear missiles without a presidential order. Recently,
national security chief Gen. Alexander Lebed was charged with
plotting a coup and sacked. This increased the power of another
general, Interior Minister Anatoly Kulikov, but Mr. Lebed is plotting
a comeback. As Russia's generals jockey for power, the CIA properly
worries that splits in the armed forces will grow, increasing the
danger of an unsanctioned nuclear launch.
Yet Mr. Clinton and Mr. Gore, like a pair of robots programed to
say the same thing over and over, keep reassuring us there is nothing
to fear. The sad fact is that the next president may have to deal with
a societal collapse on the order of the Russian Revolution or the
German economic disaster that led to the rise of Adolf Hitler. Only
this time the collapsing society is armed with thousands of nuclear
weapons, and missiles that can deliver them in 30 minutes to any
American city.
This is something to think about in deciding who will lead this
country for the next four years.
James T. Hackett is a contributing writer to The Washington Times
based in San Diego.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Toronto Sun
October 27, 1996
"RUSSIA'S RIPE FOR ANOTHER REVOLUTION"
BY ERIC MARGOLIS
As night fell in St. Petersburg on Nov. 7, 1917, Bolshevik sailors
and soldiers, besieging the provisional government of Alexander
Kerensky in the former czar's Winter Palace, delivered an ultimatum.
Kerensky and his minister stood in the palace's great Hall of
Mirrors, debating what to do. Suddenly, powerful searchlight beams
from Aurora, a cruiser moored in the harbor that had been seized by
Bolsheviks, shone through the hall's floor-to-ceiling windows. The
message was clear: surrender, or 6-inch shells would quickly follow
the beams of light.
Russia's government capitulated. Kerensky went into exile, ending
up - of all places - teaching at UCLA. Lenin and his Bolsheviks had
seized power. Not, as Communist party propaganda was later to insist,
through a popular uprising, but by a military putsch.
Today, Russia is in the most perilous political condition since the
autumn of 1917. Government and the economy reel out of control as a
deepening power struggle grips Moscow. The stage is being set for
another coup d'etat, or even civil war.
President-czar Boris Yeltsin is gravely ill, barely able to
function. His nominal successor, stolid Prime Minister Viktor
Chernomyrdin, watches as his power ebbs away. Deep in the Kremlin,
Chief of Staff Anatoli Chubais runs his own government within the
government. The wily Chubais is relentlessly gathering the reins of
bureaucratic power. He is now the de facto Regent of All the Russias.
Chubais just got his arch rival, Alexander Lebed, fired from the
job of national security supremo. Ex-general Lebed, a T-80 tank in a
GUM department store suit, predicts Chubais will engineer
Chernomyrdin's ouster within months.
Lebed's other arch-enemy, Interior Minister Kulikov, the main
architect of the slaughter in Chechnya, claims Lebed tried to mount a
military coup using -shades of Seven Days in May - a special military
unit ostensibly formed to combat crime and subversion.
Meanwhile, the still powerful Communist party, led by Gennady
Zyuganov, howls it was defrauded of rightful victory in last summer's
elections by a conspiracy to mask Yeltsin's failing health. No more
Tovarich nice guy, say angry Reds: "On to the Winter Palace!"
Military putsches are nothing new in Russian history. Streltsi -
archers of the palace guard - were czar-makers for three centuries
until Peter the Great broke their power. Lenin, keenly aware of the
threat posed by the army, demanded constant vigilance against
"Bonapartism." Stalin had a more drastic remedy: he had 36,000 senior
Red Army officers shot. The army was later to participate in
overthrowing Nikita Khrushchev, and in the farcical, 1991 coup against
Mikhail Gorbachev.
Today, the demoralized, barely paid regular forces, commanded by
Defence Minister Igor Rodionov, have shrunk to 1.2 million men. They
may mutiny any day.
But there are also 22 other official military and para-military
groups in Russia, all coup -capable. Gen. Kulikov's interior ministry
(MVD) has 230,000 troops in 30 divisions, with armor and artillery.
The brutal, ambitious Kulikov also commands 8,000 crack OMON commandos
- ideal for putsches.
Through the presidency, Chubais commands a 50,000-man special
Kremlin security force with heavy weapons, 100,000 border guards and
25,000 mobile security troops.
The KGB's internal arm has a sizable force of troops, including
armor. There are a number of top secret "anti-terrorist" outfits that
are also ideal for coups - like the shadowy Alpha and Cascade groups
who briefly surfaced during the anti-Gorbachev coup. And, of course,
eight elite Spetsnaz commando brigades.
In the event of a coup, four regular army units will likely play
decisive roles. First, two elite units of the Moscow garrison - the
Taman and Kantimir motor rifle divisions. These Kremlin praetorian
guards could well decide who becomes the next ruler of Russia.
Second, the Tula and Ryazan elite paratroop divisions. They can
move on six hours notice. Former paratroop general Lebed is hated by
the corrupt regular military brass, but loved by his former troops.
But these divisions are useless unless air force generals agree to fly
them to Moscow. Lebed has some strong supporters in the air force, the
most progressive of the armed services. Unusual movement by these four
divisions will be the first sign of a military coup.
A chaotic power struggle in Moscow after the demise of Yeltsin, or
economic collapse, could also ignite regional warlordism, such as
China suffered in the 1920s. Siberian military units are traditionally
independent-minded and are now highly restive. Talk of setting up an
independent Far East republic is heard. Some military units in
Moldova, the Kaliningrad enclave, Sebastapol and the Caucasus are
particularly mutinous.
Russians are champion muddlers. They may stumble on downhill for
many months or years. Yet one senses a crisis approaching; there is a
smell of gunpowder in the fall air. A clearcut political resolution of
the leadership crisis appears unlikely - as does another election
soon. Either Lebed, or the Communists, would win. A Lebed-Communist
alliance - white knight on a red horse - would sweep the polls, or
simply seize power, to the joy of many Russians.
The failure of the politicians to resolve Russia's titanic problems
opens the way for the men with guns. Tough generals transformed and
enriched once impoverished South Korea and Chile. Why not that
international bag lady, Mother Russia?