Kiev would never dare to stage a large-scale incursion into Russian territory without Washington's blessing and NATO support, former Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said.
Last week, Kiev launched its largest attack on Russian territory since the outbreak of conflict in February 2022. Western officials have voiced their support for the incursion into Kursk Region but denied any prior knowledge or involvement in the operation.
”The US leadership’s claims of non-involvement in Kiev's actions in Kursk Region do not correspond to reality... Without their participation and direct support, Kiev would not have ventured into Russian territory,” Patrushev told Izvestia in an interview published on Friday.
The adviser to President Vladimir Putin, who has recently been appointed to oversee Russia’s global maritime strategy, emphasized that the “West put the criminal junta at the head of Ukraine," while "NATO countries have supplied Kiev with weapons, military instructors, and continuous intelligence while controlling the actions of neo-Nazis.”
The operation in Kursk Region was also planned with the involvement of NATO and Western special services.
The advance of Kiev’s troops was swiftly halted by Russian forces, although they maintain control over several settlements in Kursk Region. According to the local governor, at least 12 civilians have been killed and another 121 wounded due to the incursion, forcing more than 120,000 residents to evacuate.
”This criminal action stems from the premonition of the imminent collapse of the neo-Nazi Kiev regime,” Patrushev said, adding that “the residents of Ukraine are suffering for the sake of American interests, as the US has turned the country into a military anti-Russian project.”
Russian officials have stated that by attacking civilians in Kursk Region, Kiev has eliminated any chance for peace talks—an objective that Ukrainian officials claim the incursion brings closer. Moscow characterizes Kiev’s military tactics in Russia as “terrorist,” while Western nations arming Kiev share responsibility for atrocities committed by Ukrainian troops, officials have asserted.
”Washington's efforts have created all the prerequisites for Ukraine to lose its sovereignty and part of its territories, including those coveted by some American allies,” Patrushev added.
Is Ukraine's 'Suicidal' Kursk Attack Part of US Establishment's Desperate Effort to Win in 2024?
Ukraine's ill-fated Kursk terror attack could be part of the US Democratic establishment's effort to prop up their candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, in the 2024 presidential election, according to Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel.
Despite the US State Department and Pentagon denying any involvement in the Kiev regime's Kursk aggression, it has all the earmarks of US-NATO management and planning, according to Major General Apti Alaudinov, deputy head of the Russian Defense Ministry's Military-Political Directorate and Alexander Bortnikov, director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).
"At this stage, nothing likely happens in Ukraine and vis-a-vis Russia unless approved in advance by someone in the US," Wall Street analyst and investigative journalist Charles Ortel told Sputnik. "Relevant questions include: exactly who approved these offensive operations and what debate, if any, occurred in Congress before these raids happened?"
Ortel called the Kursk attack a "wag the dog 2.0" operation, saying that it "seems a reprise" of then-US President Bill Clinton’s assault on one of Sudan's biggest pharmaceutical factories in Khartoum in 1998. The US attack based on faulty intelligence was presented as retaliation to Al-Qaeda bombings of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
However, some analysts noted at the time that the US bombing came as investigations into Clinton's lies about his affair with Monica Lewinsky intensified. Dubbing the case a "wag the dog" situation, they suggested that Clinton urgently authorized the strike as a distraction, with the backing of many Democratic lawmakers including then-Senator Joe Biden.
The Kursk aggression appears to be as dubious in terms of military planning and strategic value as the senseless bombing of the Al Shifa factory. US Congressman Paul Gosar called Ukraine's border incursion "suicidal" in an interview with Sputnik, while retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski wondered whether Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan had a hand in the Kursk aggression planning.
Earlier, on August 8, CNN quoted Ukrainian officials as saying that the Kursk attack was aimed at demoralizing Russian forces and diverting them away from other parts of the front. However, as of August 12, the Ukrainian military told the New York Times and Financial Times (FT) that the Russian Armed Forces' advance in Donbass, including near strategically important Chasov Yar and Torestk, is continuing unabated.
To complicate matters further for Kiev, at least six Ukrainian brigades that previously fought near Kharkov, Sumy, Chasov Yar and Toretsk were redirected to participate in the Kursk aggression, according to FT. The newspaper cited Ukrainian soldiers' worries about leaving positions in Donbass to take part in the Kursk gamble.
On August 15, Russia's Tsentr Battlegroup destroyed a Ukrainian military stronghold in the Avdeyyevka direction in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). On August 12, the Russian military liberated the settlement of Lisichnoye; earlier, Timofeyevka and Veseloye were retaken from the enemy. Russia liberated a total of 19 settlements of the DPR in July, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Harris and Walz's 'Illusionary' Campaign Doomed to be Busted
One might ask why the US Democratic establishment would need any "prop-up" of their presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz, given that the two are currently enjoying a surge in the polls.
According to Ortel, the surge appears to be short-lived and most likely artificial and made-up by the US corporate press, especially given that Harris' poll numbers as Biden's veep had been disastrous. For instance, the Wall Street analyst referred to a recent survey published by the Hills that claimed that more voters trust Harris than Donald Trump on the economy as completely detached from reality.
"The corporate-owned press, including Fox, has lost all credibility which explains their financial losses and the rise of Twitter spaces, Tucker Carlson and alternative truth-tellers that thrive," Ortel said. "Traditional actors are resolved to sell fiction as fact to promote a singularly unaccomplished airhead to lead America out of the messes she helped create."
Indeed, US conservative commentators and pundits have recently thrown Harris' poll numbers, campaign performance and unwillingness to make one-on-one interviews into question. "[The media] are so in the tank for Harris that they are defending her decision not to talk to them," remarked US investigative journalist and author Michael Shellenberg on X on August 14. Earlier, the journalist drew attention to the fact that, for some strange reason, Harris has not put a policy agenda on her website.
Former White House Political Director Matt Schlapp tweeted that there is nothing short of a "push by the national media and Democratic National Committee (DNC) to legitimize Kamala Harris," adding that she is not giving interviews to evade criticism over her vice presidency.
Similarly, Fox News host Sean Hannity recently called Harris "an illusion, built on a mountain of lies" on X.
Rogan O'Handley, a former entertainment lawyer, claimed on X on August 7 that the Harris campaign was caught offering Instagram* influencers money to post personal stories about how the Biden-Harris administration helped them.
US conservative journalist Kyle Becker also alleged on X that pollsters are "oversampling" Democrats for no reason "except deceiving the voters." Becker believes that the reports that Harris is leading her Republican competitor in key battleground states are made up to justify her future win. "It is all designed to try to keep Harris within the margin of cheating," tweeted Becker. In 2020, Biden won the presidential election after outperforming Trump by a razor-thin margin in crucial swing states. Many Republicans believe voting procedures were rigged there.
According to Ortel, the Harris-Walz campaign "honeymoon" may end as abruptly as it started.
"The true mud-slinging will start after Labor Day [September 2] and continue thereafter. No one yet has vetted Harris or Walz and I suspect their reputations will be gutted, fairly, well before November 5, 2024. Moreover, neither are effective, battle-hardened debaters, campaigners or leaders," Ortel said.
Looming Crises Won't Allow Harris-Walz to Fool Voters
While the Harris-Walz campaign needs good news, be it record-high poll numbers, Federal Reserve interest rate cuts, or their proxy Zelensky claiming victories, the problem is that the "looming crises and worsening economic prospects" won't let "conflicted grifters" in the US establishment fool American voters again, according to Ortel.
As Ukrainian forces continue to lose ground on the battlefield, the Biden administration is still struggling to reach a ceasefire agreement amid Israel's war in Gaza, fuelling discontent with the Democratic Party among Palestine supporters. According to the New York Post, an August 14 rally supporting Vice President Harris in the New York City descended into chaos after pro-Palestinian protesters infiltrated the gathering and later started to clash with the police.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg experts warn the US economy is expected to slow down under the Biden-Harris administration, casting an additional shadow on the Harris-Walz campaign.
Commenting on the Democratic administration's chaotic domestic and foreign policies, Ortel noted:
"The period 1991 to present stands already as a rare epoch during which too many leaders combined arrogance and ignorance into a toxic cocktail, gulling voters with effective lies into bullied serfs, grateful for gruel as the donor class and their paid stooges seemingly prospered," the pundit said. "'What could have been' from 1991 forward unburdened by Harris, Walz and other incompetent, conflicted has-beens is truly a marvel to contemplate! Let’s see whether the American election is free and fair and let’s see who actually wins."
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