Originally appeared at Zero Hedge
Brits woke up to read the following brazenly fearmongering headline in their daily paper today: “‘Russia is ready to kill us by the thousands’: Defence Secretary warns that Moscow could cause mass casualties by crippling crucial energy supplies.”
Recently installed in office, UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson is already beating the drums of a new Cold War while seeking to expand Britain’s defense budget, claiming a new ‘Russian invasion’ of sorts is coming. In an interview with The Telegraph Williamson warned that Russia is actively seeking to bring about Britain’s economic collapse by attacking its infrastructure which he said will cause “thousands and thousands and thousands of deaths”. Meanwhile, Russian officials were quick to mock the scenario as “worthy of a Monty Python sketch”.
Tory Defence Secretary Williamson, considered by many to be a possible successor to Prime Minister Theresa May described the ‘Russian threat’ as more subtle than an outright conventional military invasion, saying “The plan for the Russians won’t be for landing craft to appear in the South Bay in Scarborough, and off Brighton Beach.” Instead, he explained “the real threat” as term of a cyber and electronic warfare doomsday scenario of “creating total chaos within the country.”
“What they [Russians] are looking at doing is they are going to be thinking ‘How can we just cause so much pain to Britain?’. Damage its economy, rip its infrastructure apart, actually cause thousands and thousands and thousands of deaths, but actually have an element of creating total chaos within the country.”
And Williamson’s evidence for such sensational claims of an impending attack that would bring down nearly overnight civilizational collapse?
He offered the following: “Why would they keep photographing and looking at power stations, why are they looking at the interconnectors that bring so much electricity and so much energy into our country,” and said further, “If you could imagine the domestic and industrial chaos that this would actually cause. What they would do is cause the chaos and then step back.”
To underscore that in his mind, he’s not envisioning this threat of a Russian-induced apocalypse far off in either the medium-term or distant future, nor advancing hyperbole or some imagined war game scenario, he added, “This is the real threat that I believe the country is facing at the moment.”
“They are looking at these things because they are saying these are the ways that we can hurt Britain,” Williamson said. Thought not stating who “they” are in terms of specific persons or organizations caught or observed in the act conducting such surveillance and war-planning as described (other than the ominously sinister ‘Russians’), he went on to delineate some ‘what if’ scenarios: “If we lost our interconnectors, which would be something that we know that they are looking at, there would be 3 million homes without electricity. In a few years’ time there will be 8 million homes that would be dependent.”
UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson: “Russia is ready to kill us by the thousands.” Image source: AP
Shortly after the interview was published, UK energy and infrastructure experts addressed Williamson’s statement about losing electric interconnectors, dismissing the scenario of chaos, mass death, and “millions” without power as absurd and clearly based in scaremongering. One leading energy expert, speaking to The Guardian, admitted candidly, “It does sound a bit like scaremongering really. If you take out one interconnector it’s clear the UK can survive. We saw that last year with the one to France.”
Williamson’s warning echoed a scenario laid out previously by Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach in December, who warned that Russia could in an instant end 97 percent of global communications capabilities and disrupt trillions in daily financial transactions, ushering in a “catastrophic” economic collapse, as he claimed Russia has long targeted the roughly 200 international undersea network cables while seeking disruption of Western societies and the global economy (which nonsensically would undermine Russia’s economy as well).
Though a pattern of reckless Russia-baiting hysteria now seems to have become the default backdrop for any and all public discourse related to national security in the US and UK, it has remained a rarity for someone of Williamson’s rank and office – occupying the highest civilian position over the armed forces – to appeal directly to the common citizenry and Western world in general essentially with words of, “Russia is ready to kill us!”
Well, let’s just call it a slightly less sophisticated version of Condoleezza Rice’s infamous Saddam scare tactic line, “we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.” Like with the deceptive and failed Iraq war, such statements – now recognized by much of the thinking public as worn-out jingoistic clichés – by design aim to immediately shut down critical thought or inquiry, whipping up a desperate survival mode mentality, as well as of course raising those defense budgets.
Indeed on Monday Defence Secretary Williamson sent the nation’s top general to push for expanded defense spending with Moscow as the primary justification for the change in a speech before the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). As The Guardian reported early this week:
Military chiefs calling for more spending is almost as regular an event as the first cuckoo call. Usually, the calls are left to retired generals and admirals. It is safer for them to make the case; for serving officers it is harder, with the risk of clashing with political masters….
He [chief of general staff Sir Nick Carter] is making the plea now because the government is about to announce a new defence spending review and the next few months will be dominated by a push by Williamson and the MoD for a rise in the £36bn defence budget.
Moscow was swift to respond, albeit in an appropriately humorous way, with Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov saying Secretary Williamson had “lost his grasp on reason” and that the comments were “worthy of a Monty Python sketch”. The Russian Embassy in London quickly tweeted in response, “Some British politicians bear no responsibility for their words,” and later in the day issued a formal statement.
The formal statement, issued through the Russian Embassy in London’s homepage and social media, slammed Williamson’s comments as cheap manipulation of the British public using “confrontational rhetoric” for the sake of getting “a couple of billions of extra pounds from the budget.” The statement reads in part:
We can see a wide rift between the opinions prevailing in the British society in favour of repairing our bilateral relations – and those among the military and political elite, who prefer to intimidate their own population just to get a couple of billions extra pounds from the budget.
In the modern world, you just can’t build a respectable policy on confrontational rhetoric. In the long run it will turn out badly for the prestige of the country itself, just like it was after UK actions in Iraq, Libya or Syria.
“Intimidation” is right, as the same build-up of baseless media and politicians’ fearmongering and subsequent demand for conformity to the prevailing narrative of ‘doomsday is approaching’ was used in the lead-up to every direct as well as covert military interventions of recent history – all of which proved disastrous, leaving blood-soaked chaos in the wake.
This time, however, it doesn’t appear the public is buying it as we’re not seeing too many British citizens rushing for their nearest bunker or prepper store.
In the mean while , Russia just saved many English from freezing with their fist shipment of LNG .
Monty Python indeed .
Yeah russia invade britain by selling LNG to heat their houses lol
In fact that LNG ended up in the USA!
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-grigas-davos-gas-commentary/commentary-a-tale-of-a-tanker-russian-gas-sanctions-and-energy-politics-idUSKBN1FC2WK
The severe winter in the US has boosted demand for LNG and raised LNG prices there making the US more lucrative than Britain for this gas.
another clown in the government circus.
The UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson is a member of Zionist terror network Israel. He want to spend more billions on their Zionist terror network headquarter Israel in Palestine. I don’t know why they using Israel to kidnap Palestinians adults and small kids from the streets and then smuggle them and handover to terror organizations to use them in terror plots against other nations like Iraq, Syria, Russia, Afghanistan etc. Each year thousands are missing from the streets of Palestine.
Maybe a country as vulnerable as the UK seems to be should not take such an aggressive posture against Russia just to please their American masters.
Just ignore this – UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson; he is a total tool, trying to appease the dumb Yankers.
Trust me, the Brits like me with an IQ over 80 are also losing our patience with this whole scenario. effing retarded sell-outs.
“‘How can we just cause so much pain to Britain?’.”
By continuing to replace one intellectual midget and psychopath, with an even bigger one, Gavin Williamson.
Everyday when I awaken, everything seems to be in order, that is until I turn on the news and am greeted with more bs than the day before. It seems that no matter how much bs one is served, the west never tires of attempting to outdo itself. What is it about the west, that keeps it reaching down into the worst of humanity to appoint the greatest psychopathic and intellectual midgets into positions of power and leadership?
Thats what zionism is all about.War and chaos,lies and deception,and they come out the winners after all the wars they create.
I don’t know about winners, all I see are losers. It is tragic though that Israel controls the US military in the Middle East through it’s Zionist lobbies and dual citizens. However, if Israel wasn’t dictating Middle Eastern policy, the US would still be after the oil and control. I think the Saker, puts it correctly when he uses the term AngloZionist to describe the ‘Empire of chaos’.
With you there mate. I for one am sick and tired of it and wan my Country back.
Bein’ a Grand Grand Grand Nephew of King John can bring you to a lot o’ places…….
He is mad as Mad King John was.
UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson controversial statement.
It’s idiotic Cold War rhetoric like this that give my home nation a bad reputation! It’s funny how when our supply’s are interrupted we go cap in hand to Russia for LG sent by ship, trust me when I say this the normal Brit sees Russia in a positive light, and it’s the political class overstepping there authoritie and mandate!
By the way the LNG was unloaded in the UK and then shipped off to the US.
That may be part of the case but not the whole truth, as my region of the UK received parts of that supply. In actuality the port terminal it was unloaded is co-owned by the Russian energy sector and therefore was exempt from the sanctions on the Russian energy sector as partly a British firm!
The point I’m really trying to forward is deals can be done to benefit people and this type of rhetoric is prehistoric in nature, non beneficial and counter to a productive healthy bilateral relationship between nations.
Half of it was I think and then the US crazies had a hissy fit and turned it away in mid Atlantic :)
Really, I have not seen that; a link would be great please.
PS I honestly do not think that happened unless you prove me wrong.
Cheers – have a good weekend.
Here is the link Al.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-19/tanker-carrying-russian-gas-for-boston-makes-mid-atlantic-u-turn
Thanks. It is illogical, but OK. Looks like the Yankers started panicking when the news got out !!!.
It seems so and they care little about people suffering in cold homes.
But then the Americans have often been illogical.
NOT True.
The whole of Northern US from Maine to Wisconsin on down Missourri and then to Carolinas has subsidized natural gas delivered from almos exclusive Canadian sources.
Been that way for years.
Some treaty that let military in and guaranteed Canadian profit
Explain why then the British were asked to release gas to the US during the bad weather in recent weeks?
Should catch Joe Biden’s recent appearance at the CFR really eye opening on the culture of the US bully in politics. Try reading articles published by Randi Nord she has some fairly good insight and analysis she even writes for the Social Underground also co founder of Geo Political Alerts.
The more control the state has over the corp-0-rat media, the more the British take no notice and watch RT instead, despite it being a lot more crap than three years ago.
Like wikileaks exposed, the means for a false flag that would be blamed on Russia already exists and too many morons would buy it.
Old mate just wants some new guns
They should really run with that Monty Python allusion. Brits love humor after all.
UK, a country that was in fore front of the neocon efforts to sanction Russia – allegedly over Ukraine, but really over Syria – by targeting first and foremost Russian energy sector and it’s infrastructure development plans, now claims that the fact that Russia may or may not be making contingency plans for similar actions in case of war – is another proof of pre-planned Russian aggression… Loony… I think that the reason why western politicians are so fond of the whole Blame-it-on-Russian game is that the rules are far more simple then chess, for example, and therefore much more suited for their limited intelligence capabilities…The press caught me schtupping a minor – he/she was a Putin’s honeytrapp, Wikileaks releases proof of me skimming off a lucrative weapons deal to some Arab feudal dictatorship – that’s high treason because – reasons – and look Russia-something… As long as general public keeps buying the BS these morons will keep riding that dead horse and, more troubling – keep advancing up the hierarchy. Pretty soon we’ll have the same situation here as we have in the US – voters will have a “democratic choice” between parties that want a war with Russia and/or China and parties that really want war with Russia and/or China…
That is absolutely wrong and yes that is the first time I have criticised one of your comments.
The UK wanted closer ties to both Russia and China and each time they make progress, it seems they stupidly run backwards; but you need to review it on a larger scale.
BP Deepwater Horizon disaster – whilst atrocious environmental damage was done, BP was leasing the rig and paying the contractors – all Yank Corporation that had stated and signed agreements stating they fully complied to specification. BP were absolutely slated, Obama himself went on telly and called it BRITISH Petroleum, which it is not…….
http://www.nola.com/news_impact/other/oil-cause-050710.pdf
http://www.greenpeace.org/belgium/Global/belgium/report/2011/Deep-water-horizon.pdf
Then you have the huge fines on European banks, do you remember all those refinery blow outs?, what about recently where the UK gas supplies were stifled by a Norwegian rig closing down due to problems, an explosion at an Austrian refinery, a crack in the forties pipeline and and – ALL IN ONE WEEK………but then you have the Russian LNG shipment docked in the UK blah blah -> but the shipment then sent to the US……
The sanctions against Russia, Syria and Iran; all European business partners.
It is all smoke and mirrors; all crap bullying techniques…. c-word, b-word, f-word, Yankers.
Friend, I have read the article for 3rd time and still I didn’t find a word about LNG or oil. This perspective UK PM bitches about Russian cyber attack on Uk infrastructure that would potentially disrupt it’s energy supply and cause “1000s to be killed”.
Quote: The plan for the Russians won’t be for landing craft to appear in the South Bay in Scarborough, and off Brighton Beach.” Instead, he explained “the real threat” as term of a cyber and electronic warfare doomsday scenario of…”
Now I’m well aware that all political confrontations (both domestic and international) have economic roots an implications. And I absolutely agree that US hysteria on “Russian aggression” and “Chinese expansion” is all about US maintaining the grip on world economy ripping it of using petrodollar. But the fact is also that UK is a willing sidekick/stooge in this US endeavor and often at the expense of it’s own immediate political and economic benefit. In the end, with what part of my statement that this Williamson clown is just using Russia hysteria to advance up the Tory political ladder because it seems to be the easiest way to score cheap political points in western politics these days, is problematic to you?…Looking forward for a chat :-) P.S. Yo do understand when I say UK, I mean UK political class – not ordinary people some of whom are my good friends…
No, I am saying something outside the article and I was pointing out my view in contradiction (to an extent) to our view.
I honestly do not think any of us know what is really going on, s we shall work together – or should to piece it together.
Does this clown even deserve a space here..
The level of idiocy coming from British officials is setting new levels almost on daily basis.
Makes you wonder if they are all on some sort of anti-psychotic medication.
They are certainly high on arrogance and conceit.
They could also be preparing a Stuxnet-style false flag that would be blamed on the Russian fed.
Another zionist shit stirrer,they are masters of lying and milipulating their people ,or should i say occupied people, as their only concern is the expansion of israhell and zionism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Williamson
Social/political study background. Sales in pottery and design…so what qualifies this mouthpiece for secretary of defense completely lacking both foreign policy and defense/military background?
Can someone tell mister Defence Secretary Williamson to shut up please? The UK is getting Crazier by the day. AngloZionists probably also observed & studied all ways to collapse the Russian economy in the approximately the same way (for example: a plan to wipe out all major Russian cities in one Big Bang), the Pot calls the Kettle black. I think spending more on defense these days isn’t a good investment anymore, we got buttons and if you push them you can wipe out existence in seconds….. why bother using guns, tanks & grenades any longer, that is so passe. If it wasn’t so sad it would almost become laughable …… Just another desperate attempt to continue their stupid obsolete policies…. Hey Politicians! Wake the F* Up! we don’t buy your bullshit no mo’. Hollow phrases & empty words. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
One of the major reasons for this overt propaganda is of course the faux government hysteria about ‘energy supplies’ to the UK being sabotaged by the ‘ Nasty Russians’ who currently supply and therefore profit from reasonably priced gas sales etc.
In my opinion this is all about getting UK citizens to accept more expensive energy from Good Old Uncle Sam and their shyster companies.
If someone sells me reasonable priced gas… I would thank him for the reasonable priced gas, instead of trying to stab a banana in his back……
No matter what the circumstances the only weapon a politician in the west has
is to try to make the population fearful and compliant.
Indeed as fear is the greatest driver of emotion in all animals, especially humans.
Have the Brits, too, following their American cousins, gone completely soft in the brain?
Yup…… let’s hope we reach “the tipping point” soon….
Just wonder why are Western countries run by such morons . Their Western media already gone to the dogs….
Yet these guys support Terrorists the same Terrorists that kill their own people.
Really
What a twat.
I do believe we of Northern Hemisphere are witnessing a massive devolution and declining IQ of the white races populatioans, and it is most evident in the children of each nations elitist educated class, that run and own 98% of world’s lucre.
Just like you killed billions of innocent people.. its only fair.
A few thousand zionists like this scumbag killed by the Russians would do the whole world a favour,especially the occupied British people.
We always see the same tired NATO Cold War rhetoric about Russo-phobia which is imagined and yet we barely here anything about US Imperialism phobia and that isn’t imagined and is real.
Sometimes I think we yanks have all the bloody blithering Ninnyhammers in government on the planet. Then an insipid puddinghead like Gavin opens his yap and proves me wrong!
Some lines reminded me on NATO aggression on Serbia when NATO hit power lines, oil refinery and chemical factory… in the area where one quarter of Serbia’s population live. If it is their way of thinking such rhetoric is no surprise
Well ‘South Frontees’, What do you make of the UKs ‘Prize Tosser’ Zionist arse licker Gavin Williamson and his concerted daily attacks on Russia.I am not particularly worried about him as I think that there is a possibility of him doing great damage to the the re-election of the Tory Party with his uncorroborated fantasy tales off Russian Invasion and his threat of Jet attacks from the UK it would seem he was due for a session in a ‘Strait Jacket’. I saw images of him amidst a host of Pro Zionists and Jews celebrating the 70 years of illegal occupation of Palestine by Jewish Terrorists. As I have said before he and his party are the architects of the Jewish theft of Palestine from its indigenous population. Today they are still aiding and abetting the theft of the remaining Palestinian territory. He is mindless evil piece of crap hanging off the arse of humanity who is in bed with the corporate military and Netanyahu. All the attacking of sovereign populations since the last war has been been controlled by the USA,the UK and France. Their aim at the present is to destroy any form of Socialism in South America where they wish to see Colonial Spanish/Americans in control as opposed to the black faces of native populations. Hence the present onslaught against Moduru who’s country has been under siege since 2002 by the West.We need to start forming a long list with images of all who have broken international laws so we all know who the true enemy of the people are and the crimes they have commited, these folk should be tried for their crimes and not walk away with impunity.How can it be right that folk such as Bill Clinton,Bush,Blair,Hilary Clinton,Cameron,Sarkozy,Obama and their ‘Hawkish Followers’ are allowed to walk freely on this Planet of ours along with many of their fellow assassins.A massive poster would be great with a column to tick them off as they relaxed in a ‘Waterboard’ spa in GITMO type surroundings.