by John Helmer, Moscow
@bears_with
In anticipation of the start of end-of-war negotiations between President Donald Trump’s retired general Keith Kellogg and the Kremlin, Dmitri Rogozin has proposed three fresh principles for the Russian outcome – acceleration, decapitation, mobilization.
Since 1996 Rogozin is the longest running contestant for the Russian presidency — longer running than Vladimir Putin, Dmitri Medvedev, Sergei Glazyev, or Alexei Kudrin; only the serial loser, Gennady Zyuganov of the Communist Party, has been running for longer.
At 61, Rogozin is eleven years younger than President Putin, two years older than ex-president Medvedev, and more than ten centimetres taller than both of them. If sources for Kremlin election strategy are to be believed, the most likely vote-getter to succeed if Putin retires in 2030 will be recruited from the Time of Heroes legion who are being placed into political circulation each December since the Special Military Operation (SVO) began.
With a family of Russian military leaders extending from the 13th and 17th centuries to his father, two doctorates, and state service as Putin’s ambassador to NATO, deputy prime minister for the military industrial complex, and head of the Russian space conglomerate Roskosmos, Rogozin is a unique figure in current politics. As the sitting senator for Zaporozhye region engaged in running an active military unit on the front, Rogozin is combining the military and civilian qualifications for the succession.
He has also remained relatively free of oligarch ties; his line on domestic economic planning and investment priorities is anti-oligarch and war mobilizational alongside Glazyev and Mikhail Delyagin. Not even the hit jobs organized by political rivals like Alexei Navalny and the Kiev regime, have been able to silence or kill him.
Rozogin’s principles of war policy are acceleration on the offensive; decapitation of Vladimir Zelensky; and comprehensive militarization of the Russian domestic economy.
Last week in a nationally circulated press interview, he called for “victory so that the armed conflict ends faster, so that we can begin a peaceful life faster…The war changes every three months. It becomes impossible to fight in the old way. New means of destruction are emerging. We must keep in mind that here we are fighting against the entire military-industrial complex of the Western countries — they are testing their weapons on us. Therefore, not only do we have no right to lag behind, we must be ahead of the curve.”
“We need solidarity of the rear and the front. Moscow, St. Petersburg, other major Russian cities should stop living their carefree life, pretending that nothing is happening. We will never return to the state that was until 2022. Never. Everyone needs to understand that. Society must understand the depth of the problem and help the army with everything it can. Only victory will bring an end to the conflict. The war cannot be frozen. Or else the war will be inherited by our children and grandchildren.”
For background detail and analysis of Rogozin, read this. For direct, daily access to Rogozin’s campaigning, follow his Telegram channel.
The new statement appeared in interview with Alexei Klimenkov in Gazeta.ru on January 14. The text has been translated verbatim. The photographs are from the original publication.
Source: https://www.gazeta.ru/
You can’t fight in the old way: Dmitry Rogozin on the SVO, Zelensky and drones
When the Special Military Operation is over, what is denazification? Will the drones of the people replace the wars of the future? These and other questions from Gazeta.ru were answered by the senator from the Zaporozhye region Dmitry Rogozin, who is engaged in the testing of new weapons and equipment at the combat front.
Q: In the Federation Council you represent the Zaporozhye region. What is it like to be a senator from the real warfront region?
In a region such as the Zaporozhye region, the main task of the authorities is, first of all, to ensure the safety of citizens. Also, to promote victory so that the armed conflict ends faster, so that we can begin a peaceful life faster. It is very difficult to build in conditions when there is a war a few dozen kilometers away, and in the city of Melitopol, where rockets and drones continue to strike.
In October 2022, after learning about the dramatic development of events near Kharkov, I came to Donetsk and soon became a volunteer. First, I applied to the 1st Army Corps of the DPR [Donetsk People’s Republic], went to the post of chief of intelligence, then to the vacant post of deputy commander of the 6th battalion, who had fought in Avdeyevka. As a result, I started working with BARS-11.
I helped the Donetsk guys with fire, including as a sniper in the Ugledar direction.
In 2023, together with BARS-11 I relocated to the Zaporozhye direction, helped what the regiments of the 58th army and volunteer detachments could prepare to repel the so-called counteroffensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (APU).
When in August 2023 I was invited to represent the Zaporozhye region in the Federation Council, I asked for my intention to be understood to continue to do what I was doing before; that is, to fight and to create conditions for the improvement of military-technical training of the armed forces.
I am grateful to Governor Yevgeny Balitsky and the other interlocutors who supported me. We agreed that to a greater extent, I will do not so much legislative, representative work as working with the army to liberate our historical territories from the fascists.
Q: In addition to security, what socio-economic problems does the region face?
For a happy life, people should not only be safe, they should eat well, live in normal conditions, with a developed infrastructure. With the advent of Russia, the situation in the region began to improve. What to say, if since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the roads were not repaired and rebuilt. I have probably visited all regions of the country in my life, but since 1990 I have not seen such a state of roads.
One example of our work – in the village of Ocheretovat, near Tokmak, the gas pipeline was had been cut, so that the residents – mostly elderly people, children – were left without heat at the onset of the cold weather. The civilians could not work under constant shelling and drone strikes. With the governor’s consent, I took up this issue. The decisive role in this case was played personally by Lieutenant General [Vladislav] Yershov, the Military Commandant of the Zaporozhye region. Our military provided cover for the builders and local residents during the laying of new pipes. The village received warmth and was able to survive the winter. And there were many such tasks combining military and civilian aspects in a year.
Q: You have repeatedly said that the Ukrainian authorities set themselves the goal of seizing the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant for nuclear blackmail of Russia. Is that a threat that remains now?
Definitely. Moreover, after the destruction of the Kakhovsky reservoir, the Dnieper went into its old channel, and it became shallow. There are possibilities for forcing it through the construction of pontoon bridges or by other means. The landing of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is a very real scenario, therefore, the required group of the Armed Forces of Russia has been formed there to prevent such a seizure. The nuclear power plant is a tasty morsel for the enemy. They like such symbolic things — to kill and commit terrorist attacks on some anniversaries, holidays, to seize objects and territories for the purpose of PR. Zelensky is a showman, he understands the meaning of such PR campaigns, and, apparently, he sets the tone. I am sure that all this terrorist activity on the part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is not so much the planned work of their General Staff as it is of their PR blood teams.
Q: You have repeatedly expressed the idea that the conflict in Ukraine can be ended by eliminating its perpetrators – ‘the heads of the Nazi regime in Kiev’ – with the help of Oreshnik, for example. Why do you think this method is effective?
In substantiation of my position, I will give you some examples. The first is the NATO strike on Yugoslavia in 1999. Where did they start? With attacks on the organs of political and military control, the destruction of all bridges on the Danube, the defeat of all power plants,and even a blow on the TV tower to calm down the Serbian journalists.
From the point of view of the military, this was done — sorry for the realism – correctly. The Americans understood what kind of army they would deal with. The Yugoslav People’s Army was determined to fight the enemy, to defend its lands, but it turned out to be a boxer with a short arm. Their weapons could not reach the Americans. And the Americans were not going to land on the ground. All their blows they, in turn, inflicted with a long boxing hand. They disorganized the political and military administration of the country, then deposed President Milosevic, ensured his arrest and subsequent assassination in The Hague.
The second example – how Israel behaves. The whole world is screaming, the UN is making some decisions, the Secretary General is stamping his foot. But they don’t care. They kill successively every leader of Hezbollah or Hamas. The first, the second, the third. That is, everyone who claims to lead these movements automatically becomes a target of suicide bombers in advance. And the Israelis do not consider whether there are any collateral victims. Whether it’s children, women or old people. This, of course, does not fit with the postulates of Christian or universal morality. But from the point of view of the military, these are absolutely effective actions to achieve the goal.
I, of course, have never proposed any strikes on civilian targets, despite the fact that the enemy in the Donbass and Novorossiya hits our civilian targets, deploys its defences in civilian buildings, uses the civilian population as a human shield.
And my third example is the Iran-Iraq conflict. Remember, a huge number of soldiers from both sides died on the battlefields. But the war ended when both sides acquired longer-range missile weapons, allowing them to strike at the capitals of the two states. And the elites were immediately alarmed. That’s exactly what I’m talking about. Zelensky should have been made to fear our retribution, so that he would jump like a rabbit, hide like a rat in bunkers and be afraid to stick his nose out into the fresh air, not to fly abroad. All the blame for the current conflict lies entirely with him. He’s a scoundrel and a war criminal.
Denazification is not the elimination of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the Ukrainian army, most of whom ended up at the front against their will. Many of these are “betwitched Russians” — that is, their character is consistently Russian, but their brains have been poisoned by 30 years of Bandera propaganda. The Anglo-Saxons have achieved their goal — Russians are killing Russians, thinking that they are not Russians. And fascist scum and Western Bandera like the bastard and sadist Robert “Madyar” Brovdi are leading this massacre from cozy bomb shelters.
Denazification is, first of all, the destruction of those who impose this misanthropic Russophobic spirit, which has turned the fraternal republic with a huge number of mixed families into our fierce enemy.
Q: A few Russian experts are talking about the need for a demonstrative nuclear strike. How do you feel about these statements?
I treat such statements with great caution, because for more than ten years I have been directly involved in the rearmament of strategic nuclear forces and the rearmament of combat control systems. Of course, thank God, I’ve never seen this weapon in action, but I know its characteristics and power.
It must be borne in mind that any use of nuclear weapons is an escalation. And it will end with the death of the entire civilization on Earth. And no one will remember who started it, who is to blame, and who is not to blame.
I believe that we have a lot of other possibilities to use, including even strategic weapons, but in the non-nuclear version. Moreover, such tests have been successfully conducted here.
Q: Soon Donald Trump will enter the White House in Washington. What are your hopes of changing political power in the United states?
The only thing that can be recommended to him — just let him stop military assistance to these scoundrels. Americans call themselves a democracy and they are trying to impose it everywhere, but there are limits. And then, as for the political system in Kiev, this is no longer a democracy, but modern fascism, so Trump will do a great job if he just stops helping the fascists.
However, it’s my absolute belief that the war will end on the battlefield. And only a Russian soldier will be able to put an end to this conflict.
Q: According to the recent poll, more than a third of Russians, if they wrote a letter to Santa Claus, would ask him for Russia’s victory in the special military operation. You are not Santa Claus, but a man with rich diplomatic and managerial experience, so I will still ask this question: given the current dynamics of events on the ground, how long can the SVO continue to last – months, years?
It depends on many factors. First, you need to stop lulling yourself into victorious celebrations. Our army is achieving victory in the most difficult conditions. The entire Western military-industrial complex is helping the enemy. Secondly, the solidarity of the rear and the front is needed. Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other major Russian cities should stop living their carefree lives, pretending that nothing is happening. We will never return to the state we were in before 2022. Never. Everyone needs to understand this.
The society must understand the depth of the problem and help the army in any way it can. Only victory will bring the end of the conflict closer. It cannot be frozen, otherwise it will be inherited by our children and grandchildren.
Q: How do you see the society of the future?
People who have experienced a lot will come back, walking on the edge of a knife, under bombs. They will, of course, want life to be different. They will require solutions to the urgent problems.
For example, there is a problem of illegal migration in the country, and the formation of chronic ethnic crime. People are starting to move out of their apartments and take their children out of school, because they see that there is a very rapid process of settling the country with migrants.
Another problem is that we are simply experiencing the extinction of the Russian people and other indigenous peoples. The issue of economic and social justice is acute.
After the end of the military conflict, it is necessary to address these problems. Otherwise, Russia will be very vulnerable to both external and internal threats.
Q: You are the head of the volunteer military-technical detachment B.A.R.S. Sarmat, which is engaged in combat testing of weapons and equipment, created on an initiative basis by the enterprises of the defense industry, teams of the “people’s military-industrial complex”, and the volunteers themselves. The detachment is formed for the third month now – can you (without violation of the secrecy regime, of course) talk about some of the first results of its work?
More than 50% of the personnel have already been recruited. We have more every week, 30-40 volunteers, we place them, train them. These are drone operators, programmers, engineers, designers, technologists, highly skilled workers.
Many of them have combat experience; others are developers of civilian systems that we are trying to apply to achieve military goals. Our combat testing companies conduct tests of products or technologies along the line of contact. We, although we have barely entered the battle, have already scored against ten units of Ukrainian and Western military equipment.
Some of the developments transferred to us for testing, which does not show its effectiveness in real combat conditions, we cut off. Some developments that previously could not break through for testing in the active army, on the contrary, we confirm the characteristics and advise to serial purchases. We work with large and medium-sized enterprises of the defense industry, “people’s military-industrial complex”, with initiative groups of the Russian engineering community.
Everything is very mobile at the front. The war changes every three months. It becomes impossible to fight in the old way. New means of destruction are emerging. We must keep in mind that here we are fighting against the entire military-industrial complex of Western countries, they are testing their weapons on us. Therefore, not only do we have no right to lag behind, we must be ahead of the curve.
Q: And the military-industrial complex has been able to rebuild?
Some businesses work in three shifts. People fall off their feet from fatigue. There are, of course, some bureaucratic delays, which, I believe, are unacceptable. But in general, the military-industrial complex, of course, has been rebuilt. I see that, at least, my partners in the military-industrial complex are aware of the needs of the army.
Let’s give a typical example. A few months ago, the chief designer of the Kalashnikov concern for small arms came to us in the Dnepr group. At the meeting with him came storm troopers –soldiers, the command staff of our division. There were comments, suggestions. After a while, the concern delivered us the first batch of completely updated weapons, which largely meet the requirements of the special operation.
A landmark event is the inclusion of civil engineering teams in the overall work. In recent months, enterprises of a new type of industry have begun to form on their basis. We are on the verge of a new technological breakthrough.
Q: Between such “garage” collectives and the monsters of the defence industry is competition developing?
Private engineering teams are not engaged in the production of tanks, large defence industry enterprises are engaged in this. But for tanks, for example, modern radio communications are needed, which integrate with the commercial radio stations widely used at the front. And this is a matter for a private company. The same UAVs are largely manufactured by private engineering teams. Such teams work mainly in niches that have not been filled by the large defence industry.
Q: You have been dealing with the problem of robotic, unmanned systems (UAVs, etc.) for several years. What trends do you see here, where are the same UAVs evolving, for example?
In military business, the sword and shield always compete with each other. The more powerful the sword becomes, the stronger the shield becomes. And so it goes step by step. Drones appeared, and accordingly, more powerful drone suppression systems began to appear. Drones began to operate at variable frequencies, and electronic warfare systems were rebuilt.
During the Battle of Kursk, fibre-optic drones appeared, which were guaranteed to overcome the electronic barrier. But there was also an understanding of how to deal with these fibre-optic systems.
Now there are drones that work in free hunting mode.
Q: Are they looking for a goal for themselves?
Such devices have a library of goals and there is a priority in their selection. For example, the barrel of a cannon or part of a caterpillar track sticks out of the forest belt. The drone’s control system reads this picture and realizes that it’s not just a piece of hardware.
And if the device sees several targets, the control system chooses the one that is ‘fatter’.
But mostly such expensive drones are used to break through the enemy’s defence system, to suppress control points, to strike at radiating electronic warfare systems, and Wi-Fi centers. And then the simplest and cheapest drones fly into this ‘window’.
Q: In future wars, will drones be able to replace humans on the battlefield?
For example, now streaming video from drones moving along the route is sent to the hardware and software complex, where it is processed. Changes are being made to the detailed map of the area — where new footholds and fortifications have appeared. Plus, this complex includes information from space surveys and stationary optical-electronic reconnaissance equipment. Machine learning helps to process a huge amount of information coming from the battlefield in real time.
Drones used at the front are replacing airplanes, helicopters, precision-guided missiles, and ATGMs.
But nevertheless, after the war, there will be a wide variety of drones — land, sea, river, surface, underwater, aerial, reconnaissance, shock, night, daytime, kamikaze, reusable — Still, victory will not be achieved until the soldier’s boots get to the ground of the enemy.
Q: You have your own channel on YouTube, it has almost 10,500 subscribers and a total of almost 5 million views. How do you feel about YouTube’s ‘slowdown’?
I haven’t used it for a long time. And never again — it’s not interesting. There are a huge number of anonymous bots clogging up the airwaves on YouTube. It’s impossible to argue with people if you don’t understand whom you’re dealing with. Plus, it is impossible to respond to the dirt that appears there – that’s no way to achieve justice.
I’ve experienced it firsthand. I used to laugh, I thought it was nonsense, I thought the people were smart, they would figure it out. Then I look, and see that people believe in lies. And if I, the senator, cannot defend my rights, then what about an ordinary person who does not have such opportunities to write to the prosecutor’s office and demand that they answer you?
We understand that we live in an information era where information is a weapon. If it’s a weapon in the hands of the enemy, it’s directed against you. The same example from YouTube, when in 2022 the administrators of the platform removed most of my video speeches on the subject of the SVO without any explanation. Where is the freedom of speech?
Q: Has participating in the SVO changed you personally as a person?
I think it’s very strong. In war, you have to live for today, appreciate every single day. After all, tomorrow may not come. Therefore, you have to weigh every word, every step, not waste time on trifles. If they kill me tomorrow, what will I leave behind? I think about it all the time and try to put everything I know and can into the victory.
Well, I’ve practically stopped joking. I’m not joking at all.
In war, attitudes towards human life change. War, in a sense, divides people into friends and strangers, into black and white, without any shades.
Leave a Reply