J. Flores with R. Quintanilla — Putin throws down the gauntlet - takes aim at US, calls Poroshenko ''puppet" [+Video]

The US also may have timed the provocation itself, perhaps to escalate tensions with Russia in the run-up to the elections. It would perhaps bode poorly for Trump if a heated or even hot exchange with Russia made Ukraine a major focus, and was the focus of media during an election where clearly Clinton is favored among imperialists and hawks. 

This would certainly distract from the US failures to topple the government in Syria, and would also detract from Russia's successes against terrorist groups there, which the US (despite their actual aims at arming said terrorists) has apparently 'failed' to make any traction against.…

You heard this here first.

Fort Russ
Putin throws down the gauntlet - takes aim at US, calls Poroshenko ''puppet" [+Video]

J. Flores with R. Quintanilla

Since Trump is designated as Putin’s American agent, then playing the “Ukraine card” is a logical assumption for an “October Surprise.” The Trump campaign is wary of sending more military assistance to Ukraine – remember Ukraine is not a member of NATO and the situation in Ukraine in no way threatens America’s security, nor that of Europe’s. But in the world politics facts hardly get in the way of personal ambitions. Poroshenko and his government have been waging a low-level war of skirmishes and cross border attacks on Crimea and the breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine. The American public is already well conditioned to accept all of this is Russia’s fault. What is now needed and is probably being planned is a manufactured incident to make it look like Russia attacked and invaded Ukraine. The American public will be rallied with the usual mantra “something must be done” and the Trump campaign will be left flat footed, red faced, and denounced. Joe McCarthy will smile with glee from the grave.

Sounds like fiction? If it does, then you simply have not been paying attention – this is how Washington thinks and works.…

The Duran
Peter Lavelle: Donald, Hillary and Vlad – is Ukraine the “October Surprise?”

Peter Lavelle

Alexander Mercouris takes an opposing position.

As for Ukraine, though there are undoubtedly individuals there who are fully capable of starting a war and who show every indication of wanting to do so, I personally doubt that in the end Ukraine will take the plunge and go to war. Behind the ritual statements of support I expect both the US and the Europeans in private to be urging Ukraine to show restraint for two reasons: firstly, because whatever they may pretend in public I am sure they have guessed the truth that it is the Russian account of the Crimean incident which is true; and secondly and far more importantly because they know that in any war between Ukraine and Russia – or even between Ukraine and the two People’s Republics of the Donbass – Ukraine would lose.

Obama certainly does not want another defeat in Ukraine in the middle of a US Presidential election campaign on his hands, especially since this would probably play into the hands of Donald Trump, though unfortunately the same cannot be said of some of the more psychopathic individuals who support Hillary Clinton, who seem to be yearning for confrontation with Russia on just about any pretext. More to the point I just cannot imagine that Angela Merkel, facing criticism in Germany for her open-door refugee policy and with her anti-Russian policy coming under growing criticism from the SPD, the CSU and the German business community, wants another debacle in Ukraine on her hands.

In fact I suspect that some people both in the US and Europe are privately furious with the Ukrainians for landing them in this mess, whatever they may feel obliged to say in public. Whether or ot that is so I expect that the telephone lines between Western capitals and Kiev are currently burning with urgent calls for restraint. Despite the strength of the war party in Kiev I doubt that the Ukrainian authorities in the end feel strong enough to disregard these calls.

The Duran
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko preparing to attack Donbass and Crimea
Alexander Mercouris