Below is an article I hoped would be published by dissident journal Pearls and Irritations when I submitted it on May 30th, after news had just emerged of the attempted assassination of President Putin as he flew to Kursk province on May 20th. The immediate trigger for my article - which aimed to put the attack on Russia and Putin in proper perspective - was the shocking revelation that President Trump was unaware of Kiev's huge drone attack on Kursk and its lethal mission. As with previous serious attacks inside Russia, such as the Kerch bridge truck bombing and Crocus City Hall terrorist attack - the involvement and coordination with Kiev of MI6, CIA and other deep state actors was clear. In the week since I wrote the article however, that involvement has become beyond dispute, with the perpetrators of the June 1st terrorist attacks on Russia's strategic bombing fleet proudly proclaiming the success of "Operation Spider's Web", and the alleged 18 months of planning that was involved in it. This now begs the further question of 'what did the President know?' - and the need to verify beyond serious doubt that he didn't know.. Given the claimed long advance planning, it would also be a question of 'What did the former President know', if it weren't so obviously a stupid question, given Joe Biden's unambiguous support for Kiev; Donald Trump wasn't even in the offing for President back in late 2023. As usual however, real substantial evidence is hard to find, and one must rely on some presumptions and judgements - or circumstantial evidence. But many things are done on such a basis and later shown to be correct. One may argue in reverse, and in this case those arguments are very persuasive - do we really think that Donald Trump would willingly sabotage his own efforts to resolve the crisis with Russia by agreeing to the most flagrant and dangerous assassination attempt, a veritable 'crime of the century'? Equally do we think that the US President is so weak and corruptible that he would allow such a crime to be perpetrated in his name without lifting a finger to prevent it? Anyway, below are my thoughts from a week ago, which may now be partly outdated but remain relevant. It's important to record them now before further events and information flood them out. Equally important is re-recording live interviews before they disappear or are forgotten; watch this and judge for yourself.. (more commentary to follow)
Defending Russia, 80 years on. 28th May Following Russia’s recent and historic commemoration of the victory over Nazi Germany 80 years ago, with the parade through Red Square attended by 30 heads of state, President Putin visited communities in Kursk who were seriously hurt by Kiev’s invasion and occupation of the region SW of Moscow. Some of Ukraine’s top Nazi brigades, accompanied by foreign mercenaries and special forces from NATO countries had launched the incursion into Russia’s home territory in August last year, but had finally been beaten back over the border just before the May 9th celebration. This defeat for the Western allies – who drove and facilitated the invasion – was catastrophic for Ukraine; thousands of military vehicles, tanks and artillery and a reported 72,000 soldiers were sacrificed for zero gain. Russia also sustained significant losses of men and armour in the fight to eliminate or expel the barbarian invaders from her home territory, but the success of the operation was obligatory, with the unprecedented and clearly illegal invasion widely seen as a resurrection of the Nazi monster defeated so many years before. This was not some paranoid fantasy, as Ukrainian forces had committed numerous atrocities against civilians caught in villages near the border, while tens of thousands were made homeless. They had been relocated and rehoused, but many had seen their homes destroyed. So Vladimir Putin’s decision to visit these communities was a symbolic show of solidarity and support, particularly given the risks of travelling to the conflict zone. It was also perhaps a move to counter claims in some quarters that Victory Day was a celebration for the elites that ignored the concerns of ordinary Russians. The portrayal of the event in Western media as an ego-trip for Putin and a demonstration of Russia’s military offensive threat also had little credibility, and I can say from my own experience on the streets in Moscow three weeks ago that this was not how it was seen by ordinary Russians. The great success of the event in the eyes of most of the world boosted their sense of community solidarity, while memories of the huge sacrifices of WW2 helped put the current war with NATO in Ukraine into perspective. While a year earlier there was uncertainty over the progress of ‘the war’ in Ukraine and the effect of sanctions, Russia had demonstrated its strength and ability to survive on its own terms, and in cooperation with its new BRICS allies. A viewpoint heard repeatedly was that this was the only way forward; the collective West had shown itself to be unreliable, untrustworthy and antagonistic. Further acts of aggression and sabotage against Russia could only have a negative effect, adding to the conviction that the war would be won, regardless of cost. It’s important for those outside to understand this ‘view from Russia’, even though it may only be properly felt from within the country – looking West, South and East and with the Siberian tundra at your back. It is a defensive position, one that has never been breached and for which Russians will fight to their last. It is well understood - and was well described by Alastair Crooke, interviewed on May 27th by Judge Napolitano. Crooke was reporting on his recent visit to St Petersburg, and echoing the points about Russian sentiment made above, which are also described here. Alastair Crooke, ex MI6 expert commentator on ‘West Asian affairs’, is now seeing play out the picture he presented 15 years ago, of ‘the Great Game’ for Imperial dominance driven by the CIA deep state, and which leads finally to Russia. He will be finding it hard to maintain his usual sanguine outlook in the face of endless European belligerence and obstruction, and no more so than following the apparent assassination attempt on President Putin as he flew to Kursk. At the time of Crooke’s conversation with the Judge, details and verification of the Ukrainian attack on Putin’s helicopter were not available, but those claims have now been certified and described in detail by the commander in charge of defending the flight, Yuri Dashkin. He details what took place in this subtitled interview with Rossiya 24, - as effectively an air battle around the Presidential chopper. There can now be no doubt as to the intent of the massive drone attack, nor little doubt as to who directed and coordinated it – at least in the Kremlin’s mind. Yet who exactly ‘masterminded’ this extraordinarily reckless and demonic operation can only be speculated upon. We might thank God that the world’s pre-eminent leader, thinker and ‘diplomat’ is still with us, but it is little comfort to know that his killers remain on the loose, and may strike again. Donald Trump famously thanked God for saving him from the assassin’s bullet, but may now also be at increasing risk from the same bunch of psychopaths. Which brings us to possibly the most disturbing part of this story -- -- After talking about the Ukrainian drone attack on Kursk, Judge Napolitano played the clip posted above of a very recent press encounter with Donald Trump at an airport. In this Trump repeated what he had posted on Truth Social – that his opinion of Putin had changed, that he had ‘gone crazy’, having launched an attack on Kiev ‘for no reason’, killing children and so on. He was visibly angry and upset, and said there would be consequences, and he didn’t know why Putin would have done this. (the clip is from 18.12 to 19.30 minutes into his discussion with Crooke.) But then a journalist from the press pack, a woman we didn’t see, said that there were claims that Kiev had just attacked Russia with a drone swarm which endangered Putin’s chopper, and ‘did he know this?’ To which President Trump said clearly “no I didn’t hear that”, and that this could be an explanation for Russia’s action. Following Kiev’s assassination attack, the Kremlin had launched a blistering attack on military targets around Kiev, and specifically its defensive systems, using Iskandar missiles fitted with radar deflection, and presumably taking out Patriots to further weaken Kiev’s ability to resist Russia’s offensive. As usual the real military targets of the Russian strikes were missing from Western reporting, replaced with the entrenched anti-Russian narrative of ‘targeting residential buildings and civilians’. Missing from both Western and ‘anti-Western’ reporting and analysis however is Donald Trump’s revelation – that he didn’t know that his own deep state and its faceless masters tried to kill his ‘great old friend’ Vladimir Putin. I hope that he will now be asking himself and his true advisers what else he doesn’t know. DM 28th May
The events of the following week, the first week of June, have called for a whole new set of analyses and actions, and much new commentary from trusted sources. The Kremlin must increasingly focus on the escalation of terrorist attacks inside Russia's former borders, and the need to respond decisively against the instigators of them, whether within Ukraine or against Kiev's NATO masters. The seriousness of the situation led finally to a phone conversation between the two Presidents, of which Donald Trump was the instigator as well as the listener - or so it would appear from his own report on the conversation. Further information on the context was provided by an aide to President Putin, as detailed here on Facebook by Tony Kevin. (his preceding comprehensive analysis on FB also is essential reading) Trump's post on 'Truth Social' was soon taken down, but is still important to record - and draw one's own conclusions; Donald Trump appears to have already done so...
It’s also relevant to note that the discussion included questions over Iran’s nuclear activities, in which both the US and Russia have been engaged; it seems an odd coincidence that President Raisi was killed last year when his helicopter was targeted by actors unknown, but presumed, and the first blow in a series of strikes on the Resistance that enabled its virtual destruction in West Asia.
DM 7th June 2025