Imagine being served cutting-edge information and analysis. Imagine knowing a site that serves up the correct take — the take that will be later proven right — while nearly every other website is still in blissful ignorance or deep denial.
Imagine having the rare privilege of having a bookmark to this little-known but fantastic web page. Now imagine reacting to this wonderful resource at your fingertips by…throwing a hissy fit.
Who would do such a thing?? Only an entitled, unbalanced child. And also the Anti-Empire comment section snowflakes.
Imagine accessing top rate reasoning and information — assembled completely free of charge to you, funded by other readers — only to feel personally offended and threatened by it and reacting to it with torrents of poor attempts at abuse. Imagine being that much of a brat. Imagine being a comment section snowflake.
It’s hilarious really. There are alt-media brains who were still making definite statements about Russian escalation being impossible as late as the day before the war commenced.
Anti-Empire by contrast treated it as a possibility that deserved consideration since December. And tried raising alarm about it being a possibility that wasn’t being taken seriously enough for the past two months.
In my naivete I thought that when I published the case that Russian-initiated escalation is a real possibility people would read it, consider it, and move on.
I thought the real danger was that some readers might come to love the idea of such an escalation and start rooting for it to happen. I thought that my role would be to try to remind the reader of the human cost of war, and dampen that enthusiasm a little bit.
Instead, my suggestion that in light of evidence Russia enlarging the war in Ukraine had to be treated as a real possibility was met with hatred, hysterics, and meltdown. Apparently, the mere idea that Moscow could move to enlarge the war threatened the fragile identities of some.
As I grew more concerned and worked tirelessly to warn of the war risk from as many angles as I could think of, each was received with butthurt, malice and attempted insult. The state of denial was such that I had to resort to laying out the case for a war that I didn’t even favor, just so I could show that the pro-war case was a compelling one and the war risk real.
Some of the angles I tried in order to get the danger across were:
Putin’s Next Move Is a Mystery. Just the Way He Likes It.
Russian Land Army Has 168 Maneuver Battalions. 60 of Them Are Within 300 KM of Ukraine
Every Russian Soldier Is Required to Read This 2021 Putin Article on Ukraine
Dugin: Having Pulled the Gun Russia Must Shoot or Lose
A Large War in Europe Is Now the Most Probable Outcome
We Are in Unknown Territory — Russia Is Acting in Unprecedented Ways
Putin Has Already Revealed That Russia Can Not Afford Not to Act
The Russians Have Either Biden or Zelensky Completely Duped
Lukashenko: Ukraine Will Be Returned to the ‘Bosom of the Slavs’
HUGE: Russia to Start Paying Out Pensions of Donbass Retirees
Dmitry Trenin: “Great Powers Don’t Bluff”
Russia’s Eastern Military District Has Migrated to Belarus
NATO United Around Giving Russia a Free Hand in Ukraine
‘Russia Is Behaving Like a Country That If Necessary Can Afford to Wage War’
Alexander Dugin: ‘Why a War Will be Good for Russia’
Russia Has Assembled a Fleet of Landing Ships in Tartus, Syria
Hands Up If You Were Ever Surprised by a Putin Move
41% of Ukrainians Feel They and the Russians Are the Same People
US Intel Echoes Anti-Empire’s Estimate From 2 Weeks Ago That Russians Are 70 Percent Ready
3 out of 4 Russian Cruisers Are Now Either in the Med or the Black Sea
TASS: Ukraine Requested US Deploys THAAD Missile Defense Systems in Kharkov
Putin: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and Serbia Have Seen How “Peaceful and Defensive” NATO Is
Russia’s Fleet of Landing Ships Is Crossing the Straits Into the Black Sea
UK to Arm Ukraine With Anti-Ship Missiles
In Two Months Ukraine Will Have Its Own Domestic Medium-Range Cruise Missiles
The Only Argument Against Russian Escalation in Ukraine Is Humanitarian
War Will Not Start With a Ukrainian Provocation
Zelensky Blocks 6th Pro-Opposition Channel in 12 Months
Oops! Turns Out Ukraine Is in the Russian Sphere of Influence After All
“If You Won’t Talk to Lavrov, You Will Talk to Shoigu”
Russia Expels Britain From the Ukraine
A Brilliant Move for Ukraine to Defang Russia, Avert War
Financial Times: Many in Odessa Would Welcome the Russians
Oligarchs Are Leaving Ukraine on Charter Flights
Russia Moved a Record 5200 Railway Cars Loaded With Military Gear in a Week
Americans Are Smashing Computers and Ripping Out Telephones From Walls in Kiev Embassy Evacuation
20 Years After Germany Bombed Belgrade Scholz Can’t Conceive of European War in Our Time
Russia Backs East Med Cruisers With Naval Bombers and Kinzhal-Carrying MiG-31s
Biden Suddenly Discovers That Russians, Ukrainains Share “Deep Ties of Family, History, and Culture”
Russia Is Launching a 200-Million East Slavic Superpower, Probably This Month
Russia’s “Withdrawal” Is Indistinguishable From Misdirection
Lukashenko Hints That Russian Forces Could Remain in Belarus Past February 20 Exercise-End
Surkov: It Is High Time Russia Reverses the Obscene Treaty of Brest-Litovsk 1918
I am not even going to link to all the warning articles from the last 7 days before the war because this list is already too long.
Fundamentally AE’s position was no more than that since there was clear open-source evidence that Putin was building up a force that would allow him to escalate, the possibility that he was in fact contemplating doing so could not be discounted.
And it was this profoundly conservative take that drove comment section snowflakes into a delirium of vitriol and meltdown that would make a 4-year-old blush. Pathetic.
My take was fundamentally nothing more but cautious logic. It did not claim any special knowledge.
It was precisely the people who claimed there couldn’t possibly be a Russian war who were asking you to trust their special crystal ball.
I even kept publishing some of the commentators whom I continue to respect who didn’t think such a war was likely. I studied the case they were making with interest and tried to relay it to you as best as I could. (Is Russia Only Really Aiming for the Small-Fry Stuff in Its Ultimatum?)
That’s because an adult human being is supposed to be able to reserve judgment, and not fly off the handle the first time he hears something that goes against his hunch.
That’s another thing. Anti-Empire has been around for some time now. For nearly 3 years and over 6K headlines. How long has an average snowflake been visiting?
How many times in the past did the average snowflake read something on AE with interest and benefited from it?
And then, the very first-time snowflake eyes gaze upon something not to their liking the reaction is to vandalize the comment section.
That would have been unjustifiable even if AE had been wrong, but it wasn’t even wrong. It was 100% correct and it was the snowflakes who embarrassed themselves not only with their lack of class, but their ignorance and self-delusion.
Of course, doubtlessly now that the war has kicked off, many of the people who were the most insistent that Russian escalation was impossible and that AE was out of line will now turn on a dime and become the war’s loudest and most radical cheerleaders.
Likewise, all the commentators who go this so horribly wrong. All the writers who spent two months repeating every day how ludicrous the idea of the war was — will now overnight become huge “experts” on this war and claim to have enormous understanding of it.
Such enormous understanding in fact, that they will very soon be making bold predictions once again and with utmost confidence.
I will give you some conservative and logical advice:
1. Keep reading widely and remain curious. Follow multiple outlets, including some of the ones who got it wrong this time.
At the same time:
2. Ninety-five percent of the alt-media was wrong. But Anti-Empire was right. It was right and it started raising the alarm sooner and more relentlessly than any other alt-media outlet that I know. It would probably be logical and conservative to take your AE bookmark and place it above any of the others. To read widely but start your day with AE. At least on this subject.
It’s not even so much the case that Anti-Empire was “right”, but that unlike so many others this site hates faking special knowledge, discounting possibilities in advance, or making crystal-ball predictions.
I don’t have the time to dunk on everyone who was wrong (nor do I have the desire to, since many of them I continue to respect), but somebody sent me this and it’s golden:
What happened to Comrade Alabama? He used to be the shizzle. Has his “Lockdown Is Not Enough” COVID communism melted his brain? Looks totally out of his depth here. Incredibly dogmatic and set in his ways. Has he learned anything new in a decade? Can he muster some much-needed humility and use it to get back on track, or has time run him over for good?
Now I’m off to study this actual war, and to see what can be pieced together since we can no longer trust Comrade “State-Kidnappings-Are-Good” Alabama to do it for us.
Has Vladimir the Grand-Protector really said that a world without (mother) Russia is not worth having ??
==================
Bringing in alien troops is clear indication that this war has nothing to do with regime-change, liberation. It is a war for the extermination of those who object to the rule from Moscow. Just as those who object to the rule from Washington were/are/will be exterminated. As Tecumseh, Ulysses and Sheridan exterminated the opponents of the central government. Just as those who object to the rule from Brussels will be dealt with.
As the Tsars used Kossacks to save Mother Russia from the inhabitants, Vladimir is now using the Neo Cossacks from Chechnia. the aliens will do the blood-letting (the Azov Brigade is too tough & bloody for the Slav freedom-fighters), and no one in Russia cares about their body-bags; but the use & presence of Chechen-Cossacks will insult everyone in Ukraine
___________________________
By the end of January Vladimir was painted into a corner. So far he is acting as expected.
History clearly shows that the London Oligarchy played Russian leaders like a fiddle in the past 300 years, and used Russia to accomplish their own purposes (with no benefit what-so-ever to the people of Russia). Will history be different this time ? Is Colonel KGB wiser than several generations of Tsars (from Big Veluki to Nicholas 2) and grand-dukes and general Suvorovs ?
In 1914 they played Nicholas and used the Russian soldiers, then rewarded them with bolsheviks. In Putin’s Mother Russia, Sverdlovsk county is still named after Yakov Sverdlov, a bolshevik jew, who exterminated Nicholas and his family. (how many geographic areas are named after bolshevik jews in Mother Russia ?)
In 1945 Stalin lost the war, the Russian soldier made the planet a safe place for the New World Order. How was he rewarded ? (no meat in the butcher-shop, no train in the station). How will the freedom-fighters in DumbAss be rewarded ? prosperity ? Sputnik-5 ? cultural enrichment ? QR-code ? McDonald ? VISA ? Holywood ? Democracy ? TESCO ?
Which one of you believes even for a minute that the organizers of NATO will just walk away ?! that they didn’t know 1 year ago that Putin would react this way ? (and not quietly retire to his roses, like Krushchev)
Let us say, by the end of March Vladimir (and subhuman Shenko) conquers Ukraine and exterminates every opponents of imperial rule (de-nazify), then what ? What does that do to NATO ? will NATO be weaker ? will NATO dissolve and go out of existence ? What does that do to the new world order ? Will the United States of Europe give up and disolve ?
KGB Vladimir managed to unite the Baltics, Poland and Roumania in support of Ukraine and in opposition to Russia. There will be a long border between the Mother of all Russias and NATO
Has Vladimir the Grand-Protector really said that a world without (mother) Russia is not worth having ??
Yes, I heard him…
how many geographic areas are named after bolshevik jews in Mother Russia ?
How about Ulyanovsk?
Which one of you believes even for a minute that the organizers of NATO will just walk away ?!
they will get the message…. meanwhile…
They have two options, 1, walk away live for another day. 2. fight and cause the end of the World as we know it. NO ONE WINS A NUCLEAR WAR.
Absolute drivel! You must seek immediate psychiatric help not just for you but for the protection of those around you!
So far, Grand-Protector Vladimir managed to accomplish one thing. He turned little jew-boy Zelensky into an international hero and a stateman of stature.
And he knew this, but his people mean more! now, your going to be rude?
Another thing the Grand-Protector managed to accomplish:
NATO governments and the population of NATO countries, are more unified and motivated than any time since the Berlin air-lift.
His people mean more!
Rubbish. Some folks, (especially in Europe,) simply cannot accept we are living in the 21 Century, and the past is the past, from which we are supposed to learn lessons to avoid repeating similar actions. Clearly, some folks have learnt NOTHING.
yes i couldnt understand why so much complaints and butt-hurts with a 100% FREE analysis. I was expecting a list of your most deep-thought commentetors turned snow flakes who promised never to read any of ur pieces or come back to AE. I remember reading someone saying that since your are serbian you have nothing to do except writing about Djokovic. hahaha
Just for the record, I am an avid alternative media researcher who follows the geopolitical commentary and I have been saying since probably BEFORE anti-empire’s analysis on it that Russia would likely invade. I disagreed with The Saker’s contributors, Pepe Escobar, etc that U.S. hysterics were pure propaganda. I do find some of your post invasion analysis bordering on neoliberal in its character (whether that is your intention or not), not so much the observation that Russia uses war propaganda (who doesn’t?).
In terms of on-the-ground analysis of the war, I have actually found Joaquin Flores of Fort Russ News to be far more reliable than the typical main alternative contributors who are more visible. He ferrets out the fake narratives coming out of Ukraine faster than anyone, and events almost always prove him right. So it makes it a lot easier for me to spot B.S. among other pro-Russia alternative news resources.
By the way, the analysis I’m referring to from Flores isn’t coming out of Fort Russ so much as Telegram, where he is extremely active.
Funny, how you and Marko see this as a flip of a coin… And don’t see that the dealings are step after step related to the outcome and to another step. How come? Anybody who knows the two sides, would know, that without a war nothing will change. There. I was one of those that was praying for this to happen. PCR was another.
Wow, you were praying for war far away from you. How honorary.
Is this a farce? The writer is no better than the snowflakes he complains about.
I agree you were right, and I honestly expected no invasion and standoff weapons at most (although really I want to see Odessa in Russia again), but the invasion scam has been going for 8 years, so it was perfectly alright to point to the boy who cried wolf and disagree.
Personally I find your coverage a little harsh on the Russian side. I don’t think this is Putin doing Empire, even if the Rus identifying folk vote to rejoin Russia (the way he will go imo, given Crimea), it’s not Empire building.
Following telegram live streams like colonel cassad does seem to show that Russia is being very soft, and I don’t expect my childhood city to rejoin Russia – only the two republics, but I may be wrong.. I always found Putin to be very legalistic, and unless given some justification, I see Russian troops rolling out after a short while.
Vote to rejoin Russia? Kharkiv has round 30% Russians. Did you see any of them welcoming the Russian troops?
I’m not bothered how the cookie crumbles, but the people should get a vote imo.
And maybe Russian military action will wake up the middle to who they are really getting bummed by!
Saw a photo of the Ramzan Kadyrov convoy headin out from Crimea – looks like they’re headed to Mariupol. Once Donbas and the front yard of Crimea is cleared up , the Russians can retreat and head east { set up a defense} and watch the Ukies shoot each other with all the thousands of Kalashnikovs that have been handed out to the populace. Or they can continue fighting the Ukies. Zelinsky’s gone – will the Ukies want him back? Maybe for some stand up comedy only.
Strawman arguments, every single one.
The contention was not that Russia would never invade,
the contention was and still is that the intent is limited to
protecting and stabilizing the Donbass. If that takes a few missiles
lobbed into some nearby Ukrainian military sites, then so be it.
Here’s what’s going to happen: As soon as Russia disables major
Ukrainian military assets such as tanks and missiles, Russian troops
will withdraw to the Donbass borders, and that will be the end of it.
The bankers will use Poland as a test. They will fly old jets from airbases in Poland to attack Russian forces in Ukraine. Russia will quickly shoot this junk out of the air.
I predict Russia will also attack the Polish air bases that launched the aircraft.
I would use tactical nuclear weapons to send a message to the bankers. The Russians show far more restraint.
Yes, you are absolutely correct about your unequivocal predication about the Russian invasion. I read your blog every day and I found your prediction interesting, but given the vast majority, as you point out, that disagreed, I was skeptical.
Skeptical but not critical or categorically rejectional. I was especially taken with your 2/23 article “Russian Assembly Areas Have Emptied Out…” and the accompanying picture.
Yet, you ignore one other very important war predictor. Valdimer Putin himself repeatedly said in various forms and forums that Russia would not tolerate NATO (i.e., American) expansion to Russian borders and certain missiles in Europe. He said that if NATO (i.e., America) would not negotiate, Russia would respond definitively and “asemantically”.
We now know what he meant by definitively and “asemantically”.
.
Excellent post, smack bang dead on. Funny that despite the humongous publications by Putin of his intentions, folks simply ignored it all, just as you say, including the owner of this site.
I’m a lurker and don’t comment much at all on your articles. But yes, I’ve appreciated your analysis over the past weeks & months. To me it was pretty obvious that Vlad was serious this time when he proposed that draft treaty to NATO. I mean, it was up on the Russian MoD website. You can’t back down from something like that. Not to mention all the other things Vlad was saying. As for the Moonbat of Alabama, he definitely lost me at covid.
Well I did and still do think it’s a covid diversion. Their fake virus story isn’t going very well right now.
I disagreed with Marco but I don’t think I did so in a rude way. My reasoning was most of the leaders involved in this skirmish are WEF affiliated. I did not think they would resort to a war that could morph into a possible nuclear situation as it would not benefit them or anyone else. Problem is,,, the covid narrative was not working out so well.
As for the fake virus, they have accomplished totally removing it from the news. Nary a peep, anywhere. My main complaint with AE was narrowing its coverage to the Ukraine only. There was and is still pandemic news out there. When Canada went full nazi I did not see any news on that. IMO they were losing the covid narrative and all coverage stopped. If in war (and covid is a war) if you have the enemy on the run you don’t stop the attacks once they begin to withdraw because something is happening elsewhere… you cover both.
With Putin’s latest move I have to assume the WEF has acknowledged the loss of the covid narrative and decided to allow war to continue the BBB bs. All wars are banker wars, this will be no different. This has to involve them somewhere but they are staying out of the limelight as bankers do. Just about every leader involved in this skirmish is a WEF/Davos member. You know there’s dialog in the background.
The problem with war is you never know how it will end. Going nuclear has got to be their lat choice but insanity rules these days.
Yes,,, Marco deserves a attaboy for calling the Russian skirmish. My personal attaboy for him is he did not censor anyone no matter how scornful the comment. As a person who has been removed from many sites no matter how gentile my difference was worded he deserves a well rounded applause at least from me….
No matter the subject, AE allows a venue for any opinion. That’s a fundamental prerequisite for productive discussion. Marco, you da man!
The ‘covid pandemic’ was only a full-dress rehearsal to iron out the bugs…
Congratulations, comrade Putin. You managed to turn the whole world against you and Russia, just in seven days.
Curiously, given the marked slide of Western “democracies” into technocratic Corona Chan-sponsored tyranny over the last two years, I’d wager there is more support than opposition for Russia right now among the useless eaters in Australia at least.
Might have something to do with the hope that someone will come invade Australia and save us all from the Globalists. In comparison to Dictator Dan, Hannibal Gunner and Satanic paedophile Scotty from Marketing, President Putin is actually looking pretty good right about now.
For how many Australians are you speaking, if we exclude the lobotomized ones.
They attempted mandatory vax in Russia too. Both AE and Slavsquat have amply documented this. I don’t think Putin is going to save us from anyone. There’s nobody on the global stage with any weight who is disposed to put an end to QR codes and technocracy. It’s down to the people themselves to do that.
Yes, this puts a cat among the pigeons – has Russia swallowed Bill Gates’ and Klaus Schwab’s kool-aid too? Is Russia on-board with the Globalists’ Great Reset and New World Order? Is the Russian government infested with Klaus Schwab’s Young Global Leaders just like most other countries around the globe?
Copy that. It’s getting harder to have faith in anything we used to assume would protect our interests. Thankfully pitchforks and torches and good lengths of rope can still be purchased at any decent hardware store.
I dont read any comments praising US-NATO, demanding they “Do Something !” – even the MSM is very coy about demanding US-NATO “Do Something !”
I hear you, Mr. Marjanovic.
You’ve been correct re this war, so far, and you’ve earned my respect. And this is coming from an older man with command and combat experience.
I, personally, didn’t believe the war would be of this magnitude; my son, who’d been following you pointed me to this site. You’ve been correct, as a younger man and I think civilian by education/experience, and I was wrong.
Now…I do think you are a bit harsh on Russian side but presume it’s a critique serving to improve their performance. And, hopefully, prevent all this escalating where nobody wants.
As for comments: personally, on any forum I frequent, I read 5% of them. With experience one can fast recognize quality and skip over the rest which, in this age of smart phones, is 95%. To put it another way: if you were good for those 95 % I wouldn’t be reading your posts.
Now…that does put you, as author, in a peculiar position. Traffic, hits, advertising etc.
You wouldn’t be the first thinker forced to please the masses. I hope you’ll resist as much as possible.
Re that “masses”. You’ve been talking about politics, strategy, operations and high level tactics. Say…a colonel level stuff, at least. Now, imagine that all members of the colonel unit could comment on his line of thinking, argue with him etc. How would that look like and how would that work? People who have no idea about basic concepts he’s talking about?
For example, how many people who don’t like your writings know a difference between strategic, operational and tactical?
Keep up your good work and good luck:).
If it makes you feel any better. I mentioned you by name on a livestream at ‘the Duran’ as a source of information that indicated an invasion was about to begin. Alexander Mercouris said he did not know you, and dismissed the idea, but not that strongly. The invasion began the next day. Maybe he will remember.
WOW, talk about getting your tits into a knot, you certainly have. L.O.L. AND it’s all needless. To hell with all YOUR pontificating. You did not predict anything. Sorry to point that out. The FACTS, are Putin gave a BOTTOM RED LINE, he also stated clearly and unequivicly, what the results would be, if that line was reached. No PREDICTION there my friend. Outcome clear as day. Problem is, no one was listening to him.
I’m not we are at a stage where Russia has invaded anything
Right now Russia has a peace keeper mission going on
Protecting the people of the east.
I dont understand why people keep saying its and invasion, when it clearly is not an invasion
Sure, the Russians have to take out the C&C of the Ukranian, but that because the Ukranians are turning civilians into terrorist.
Hopefully Russia will come to their senses and level everything to the Polish border.
Then replace the Ukranians with Russian nationals.
Blessed are those that follow the path of the PeaceKeepers
Remember the orange revolution in Ukraine 2004/5?
They said Yanukovych cheated. Revote. He lost.
4 yrs later, Yanukovych elected again. Sads.
Maidan 2013/14 putsch. Kiev collapse.
Yats temp installation. Sads.
Poroshenko elected. Sads.
Zelensky elected.
Russian Sads?
“Russian users who tried to go on PornHub were presented with a message saying the content is blocked along with a Ukrainian flag and a message of support to Ukraine.”
https://www.revolver.news/2022/02/the-american-response-to-ukraine-situation-is-baffling/
So, Marko, What is Russian’s to do? Let the ussa do their dirty work? Let the empire of lies have their way? Allow them to be destroyed by the ussa? What Marko what. When you keep trying to be friendly and the person across you gets more and more violent towards, what do you do? Imagine, if you were defending your wife or loved ones?
Tell me Marko, tell me! You know the facts yet?