Two Years Into Russia's SMO, Political West More Isolated Than Ever, Pushing For Global DestabilizationSouth Front

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Written by Drago Bosnic, independent geopolitical and military analyst

Two years ago, Russia finally decided it had had enough and on February 24, 2022, launched its counteroffensive against decades of NATO aggression in Europe. The special military operation (SMO) ushered in a tectonic shift in the geopolitical arena, with Washington DC and Brussels finally showing their true colors. Apart from the full-blown economic siege of Russia, which includes the illegal seizure of its massive forex reserves, the political West also launched a crawling war with Moscow by providing ever more advanced weapons to its Neo-Nazi puppets in Kiev. The Russian military initially used BTGs (battalion tactical groups) to take direct control over a massive area in mere days, helping shape the battlefield to Moscow’s liking and setting the stage for the SMO’s most important aspect – demilitarization.

This process would’ve been over in just two to three weeks, formalized in a peace deal that would’ve ended the Kiev regime’s brutal shelling of the Donbass and prevented further escalation of the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict. However, the political West had other plans, the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson in particular. He sabotaged the already-signed peace deal immediately after Russia withdrew from northern Ukraine, resulting in a massive escalation of the conflict. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, many of them forcibly conscripted, were sent to certain death against a technologically superior opponent able to wage war from thousands of kilometers away. The conflict evolved into a bloody WWI-style trench warfare with little maneuvering.

This resulted in little territorial change, but the positional warfare was certainly not in the Neo-Nazi junta’s favor. Namely, its forces simply lack the resources to match the Russian military’s firepower, both in air and on land. Moscow’s long-range strike systems laid waste to the Kiev regime’s military infrastructure, while its superior artillery and newly-built defenses in the Donbass, Zaporozhye and Kherson oblasts (regions) completely obliterated the Neo-Nazi junta’s forces, defeating their much-touted counteroffensive. The exact losses are yet to be determined, but the latest estimates are that at least 125,000 Kiev regime soldiers died before major operations stopped. On the other hand, the Neo-Nazi junta frontman Volodymyr Zelensky insists that his forces lost only 31,000 soldiers during the entire duration of the SMO, killing 400,000 Russians in the process.

Now, if that wasn’t laughable enough, Zelensky also said that the Kiev regime is planning for new counteroffensives, as the previous one went “so well”. This sort of dangerous self-delusion is not only present in Kiev, but also in the political West, where the mainstream propaganda machine continues to push the ludicrous narrative that the Russian military supposedly “failed” because it didn’t take nearly 600,000 km² in just three days while avoiding civilian casualties (unlike the Neo-Nazi junta) and being outnumbered approximately 2:1 or perhaps even 3:1. We should also take into account the task president Putin gave to the Russian military on February 24, 2022, best illustrated by two words — demilitarization and denazification. According to reports citing Turkish and Israeli intelligence, both tasks seem to be going exactly as planned.

The staggering losses of the Kiev regime forces (including the virtually total annihilation of a number of purely Neo-Nazi formations) have no parallel in any conflict in recent memory, anywhere in the world and most likely since the end of the Second World War. And while Russia’s losses are certainly not negligible, the casualty ratio with the Neo-Nazi junta forces is simply incomparable. If nearly nine Kiev regime soldiers dying for every Russian serviceman killed means “defeat”, then yes, the political West’s mainstream propaganda machine is certainly “right”, the Russian military is most definitely “losing”. However, in all seriousness, being one of the largest and most important systems of Russia’s state apparatus, its armed forces have made some pretty dramatic changes, significantly enhancing their already exceptional capabilities.

This is particularly true in regard to unmanned systems and ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) capabilities, both tactical and strategic. Having the ability to locate and continuously observe enemy forces is of crucial importance for improving the precision of both the frontline troops and long-range weapons. The more traditional approach of pummeling the enemy with massive amounts of firepower, while still useful, is slowly giving way to surgical strikes at ever longer ranges. In addition, Russia’s already top-of-the-line air defense units gained invaluable insights and experience on how to better counter hostile long-range precision weapons and munitions. This is particularly true for short-range/point-defense systems such as the already legendary “Pantsir” and “Tor”, as well as the medium-range “Buk”.

Other important changes include the comprehensive revamping of Russia’s military industry, which is now getting upgrades faster than at any point in the last 30 years. Many of the Soviet-era facilities have been restored and restarted, which is also helping the Russian economy to become even more self-sufficient. The massive 1990s economic contraction in defense production and procurement (halted only in the early 2000s) has now being completely reversed, which will ensure Russia’s strategic security in the foreseeable future and beyond. It’s virtually impossible to avoid problems in such a massive system, but these issues are being tackled. This is particularly true in terms of the removal of decades-old bureaucratic procedures that were largely slowing down the necessary reforms.

This will inevitably result in an even more efficient command structure, particularly as the flow of real-time battlefield information increases due to enhanced ISR. In turn, improving such capabilities will likely push further investments in Russia’s space sector, as space-based systems are becoming increasingly important. Additionally, although NATO’s vast satellite network has been preventing a complete defeat of the Kiev regime forces for two years now, this gave the Russian military precious experience to develop successful counters to such capabilities, including improvements to its ASAT (anti-satellite) weapons. This could very well undermine NATO’s capabilities in the long run, drastically reducing the chances for a potential “Barbarossa 2.0” against Russia. However, the political West also seems to be pushing for global escalation.

Namely, with the unprecedented sanctions against Moscow proving to be nothing more than a spectacle for domestic consumption, the belligerent power pole is now trying a bit of a different approach. According to the IMF, the economic siege of Russia resulted not only in a failure, but it turns out that it also pushed the Eurasian giant into a sort of industrial renaissance that the political West simply has no way of stopping. However, that certainly doesn’t mean they won’t try and that’s precisely what’s going on now. To that end, the United States just announced a new sanctions package that will effectively target half of the planet for doing business with Russia. This also includes companies from China, which will most certainly result in even closer ties between the two superpowers that are already strategic allies in practical terms.

As for the SMO itself, the political West is determined to turn it into a global confrontation by testing Moscow’s patience. The deliveries of ever more advanced and longer-range weapons to the Neo-Nazi junta are a clear proof of this. The Kiev regime itself is becoming increasingly desperate, as demonstrated by the escalation of its terrorist attacks, as well as the readiness to jeopardize even Western leaders in order to push Europe into the conflict. On the other hand, the troubled Biden administration wants to circumvent Congress by codifying the so-called “Ukraine aid”, showing that the Neo-Nazi junta is not the only desperate party to the ongoing conflict. In the meantime, Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to be a “global threat” even when he’s just speaking, so Tucker Carlson is facing sanctions for letting him do exactly that.

All things considered, the political West seems increasingly akin to a runaway train, particularly as its most powerful entities are completely ignoring their own rapidly growing issues while (over)focusing on the rest of the world that simply wants to be left alone. Some, such as the UK, are looking to hurt Russia while their own military is effectively falling apart. Others, such as the US, are disregarding the fact that their very cohesion is dangerously close to disintegrating, but they still insist on “defending” the Kiev regime’s borders instead of their own. Considering the latter’s readiness to target its most loyal henchmen, it can be argued that allying oneself with such entities is not only self-defeating, but outright mindless. However, it seems that the political West crossed that line long ago.