I can rarely resist the temptation of poking at the illusions of Russian liberals with the sharp stick of facts. It’s very funny to watch how easily they are drawn to the most primitive disinformation and then, in an even more hilarious fashion, watch as they are destroyed by facts and the application of elementary logic. It truly is hilarious. Now some Western media are writing that yet another unknown daughter of Putin has a personal aircraft carrier and castle in the Bahamas, and all the liberals are running with this fake for a few days until they'll enough of enduring the ridicule of their own idiocy.
But the fact that the patriotic public can also be misled from time to time by primitive propaganda is not funny. It’s not even sad. In the truest sense of the word, it is a threat to national security. Look at our [Ukrainian] neighbors. To this day, some of them believe that all the problems of the Ukrainian economy are due to the fact that Yanukovych brought a truck of several billion dollars in cash to Crimea. They won’t give in to logical reassurance - trust me, I’ve tried. Thus, the resonance of nonsense over the internet can sooner or later end up having very bad consequences.
Now a few words about the Chinese nuclear threat which has so excited media and social networks over the past day. Yesterday, I read more than a few comments by sincerely concerned or panicked citizens who have suddenly learned from some Taiwanese-Hong Kong rag newspaper that Chinese intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles have been caught on photo in the Chinese province of Heilongjiang which borders Russia’s Trans-Baikal territory, Amur region, and Jewish Autonomous Region. Judging by the content of these comments, it can be said that we urgently need to organize courses to improve geographical literacy in the country. It is a shame that some live in the largest country on earth, but can’t use a map. Let’s use a map and logic right now.
The missiles that were the subject of the disinformation are intercontinental. They can easily reach Russian territory from practically any Chinese region. Their deployment on the border with Russia only makes them more vulnerable to attack by a would-be Russian enemy. There is no point whatsoever in deploying missiles on the border with a hardly populated part of Russia. Look at the map. In order to reduce the time of their flight before reaching a populated Russian territory, they would need to put the missiles in another place, such as in the Xinjiang-Uigher autonomous region.
Now let’s look at the actions of the Chinese from another point of view.
Let’s assume that China is not going to war with Russia, which would be foolish and futile, but with the US, which is already preparing for an economic war with China and wants to recognize Taiwan and not recognize the People’s Republic of China’s territory in the South China Sea. In this case, the deployment of Chinese rockets in the province of Heilongjiang is logical and clear. This can be seen on a map from the American neoconservative Heritage Foundation:
The Chinese need to deploy missiles aimed at the US - the further north, the better (the rockets would fly at the US not strictly from West to East, but via Alaska). And they need to deploy them further away from the operations zone of the South Korean missile defense system - again, the further, the better. The Americans are erecting missiles in South Korea in order to defend themselves from a Chinese strike. In this sense, we have the same problems as the Chinese, only we have to deal with a missile system in Europe, while they do in Korea.
Judging by the map by American experts, the northernmost part of the Heilongjiang province is an ideal place for launching missiles at the US. From there, missiles can fly to the US even if the range of the South Korean system is higher than was publicly announced, and the flight-time to the US from this new location would be significantly reduced.
This easily explains the position of the Chinese Ministry of Defense, which has warmly thanked Russian authorities for their constructive position, but did not go into details on the deployment of Chinese nuclear forces. Well, they couldn't just plainly say “You know, we’ve found a better way to deploy missiles to launch a nuclear strike on the US.” Just imagine how Trump’s team would react to such a statement.
Finally, despite the good level of Russian-Chinese relations, our General Staff is always ready for any kind of unexpected scenarios, and well thought out plans are hidden somewhere in secret bunkers in the case of an attack by whoever: the US, Japan, Germany, China, Ukraine, Moldova and, probably even Honduras and aliens. The army knows very well what it is doing, and the lessons of history have been learned rapidly since our ancestors paid for them in blood. Even the most interesting hysteria on the internet does not contribute to improving the level of military planning. Any officer can confirm this to you. And throwing a line to those who would really like to see Russia become a victim in the battle between the West and China is clearly something not to do.
Now they’ll offer to lift the sanctions and give us money in exchange for agreeing to become a battering ram against China, whom Kissinger and many in the West consider to be the main threat to the Western world. These proposals always,
always include media cover operations and related propagandistic disinformation which is invented and disseminated by well-paid specialists.
In fact, the late Nemtsov was a big expert in pedaling the “Chinese threat”, and now his banner is being taken up by other members of the Russian liberal public. Don’t be fooled. We have enough problems to keep us from being distracted by such petty tales.
