GRU shakeup

If you haven't seen it already, GEN Korabelnikov, Chief of the GRU, was formally "sacked", as the brits put it, over the weekend. I'm still sorting through the echo chamber, but it looks like a deputy, GEN Shlyakturov has been called out of the bullpen to take over at the head of the GRU. More to follow as I sort this one out. Sphere: Related Content

Da comrade, ve can play very good shakhmaty!

I'll hand it to the russians, they know how to play shakhmaty (chess) very well. Back in Feb 2009, Russia offered the Kyrgzygs (dammit people, it's called vowels!) some 2.15 Billion dollars in "aid" in exchange for shutting down Manas Air Base in Kyrgzygstan. For the uninitiated, Manas was (still is??) our major airfield for flying stuff into A-Stan. Its capable of handling about four C17s or C5 cargo aircraft, so it was kind of important to us, and we had kind of sunk a s--t load of money into developing the place.

Now, the Russian are playing nice-nice, but this latest move is not unexpected. Somebody, somewhere reading this blog post just went "pfft, whatever dude, we can fly the stuff in from somewhere else" Eh, not quite. Not Uzbekistan, since the Russians did the same thing to us in 2005 with the K2 airbase. Can't go to Tajikistan since the Indians have already built up the airbase at Farkhor and us shacking up with Indians in Tajikistan would just piss off our allies in the Afghan war, the Pakistani's to no end.

Turkmenistan has maintained a policy of neutrality, so a big fat nyet from them. As for Kazakhstan, yes they have airfields we could have used, but after the Russians and the Chinese, especially the Chinese bitched and moaned about an American base, that one died off to. Also keep in mind that Kazakhstan has a major oil pipeline into China ($$ bitches!) and is building a similar natural gas one into China ($$ bitches!) probably a few implied threats about these projects brought the Kazaks into line ricky ticky.

You also just can't fly stuff into A-Stan from Europe or where ever. You actually have to pile the goods somewhat close to the theater so you can quickly organize pallets of items that are in demand and get them on the next cargo plane smokin'. Its alot more efficent logistically and gives the loggies more flexibility in terms of buidling these pallets and gets the stuff into the hands of the people who need it quicker.

So, as the Romans would say, "Cui Bono?" Well the Russians, and not becuase they'll get to throw on taxes and fees and "wet the beak" a little. But you just can't move all this military stuff in a "diplo-pouch" (they don't make them that big) so that means as part of the "customs" inspections they'll get to poke around what ever we ship through Russia. Someone's probably going "hey dummy, we won't be shipping sensitive gear this way!" Yeah, got it, but you can still do alot of open source collecting this way. If this goes through, it'll be a field day for the GRU, FSB and SVR.

Touche, Ivan, touche! Sphere: Related Content

Spezwho? Spezwha?

Well, rumors of the demise of the Spetnaz continue to bubble through the Russian media, from newsru.com:

"On the Heels of the Berdsk Special Forces, the GRU Brigade in Asbest Is Being Inactivated"

In Sverdlovsk Oblast the MoD of Russia GRU 12th Special Brigade, which has for many years been based in Asbest, will in the very near future be inactivated. This was announced, RIA Novyy Region reports, by the region's governor Eduard Rossel.

"The MoD has already decided on the formation in the location of the special forces' 12th Brigade in Asbest of an MVD rapid-response regiment. I offered use of this location for the deployment of this regiment," the region's leader told reporters.

We recall that units of the Main Intelligence Directorate are being inactivated as part of the reform of Russia's Armed Forces initiated by Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov.

This follows on the heels of the deactivation of the Berdsk Brigade of the GRU last month. About the same time the Berdsk Brigade was deactivated, reports starting showing up in the Russian press about the establishment of a sort of special operations command for the Russian Military. When asked for comment on the establishment of such a command, Makarov replied with a characteristic "Nyet". So I would guess most of the officers and part of the soldiers from these deactivated GRU brigades will be the core of this new command. This is probably a deal that was cut between the GRU and Ministry of Defense to keep everybody happen for the "reforms". I think the whole SVR boogie man story of them swallowing all the other intelligence and security agencies to make some kindo of Frankenstein super intelligence agency is not true. The GRU is the GRU for a reason, to provide military intelligence, vice political intelligence that the KGB/SVR provides. We'll see some changes, but probably not much. Watch this space! Sphere: Related Content