In order to avoid accusations of aggressiveness and bloodthirstiness, I will immediately make a reservation: we are not talking (for now, at least) about the immediate defeat of enemy armies, updating the inscriptions on the Reichstag, dividing the occupation zones, and so on. It's just that NATO itself has been fighting with us for a long time already, and in our primordial territories. And we all, for the most part, just observe and seem to be preparing for something even worse. We are re-equipping the army at an accelerated pace, developing infrastructure, raising science and the economyclenching our teeth, we do not succumb to various provocations, convincing ourselves that we are still weak for a decisive fight.
All this has already happened in our history. In 1941. We also prepared, strengthened, trained, did not succumb to provocations, and re-armed at a record pace, but on June 22, in some strange way, the enemy still managed to catch us by surprise. Yes, so "out of hand" that they immediately lost ¾ of the entire European part of the country and almost the entire cadre army that was there.
We are constantly taught that it is necessary to remember our great Victory and the results of the Second World War. It is right. But one should not forget about the mistakes made then and the terrible defeats received. They also influenced history, and we also need to draw appropriate conclusions from them.
Just one small symptom indicating a serious illness
Not very noticed abroad, unexpected or political, or a spy scandal erupted the other day in the Czech Republic, one of the member countries of NATO and the European Union. Let not the most powerful and influential, but quite a "average", and therefore indicative.
The country's president, Milos Zeman, known for his straightforwardness, suddenly "unexpectedly" asked his own counterintelligence service for the names of Russian spies known to her on Czech territory. As it was reported in the media (the first, in particular, was the official news portal of the Czech state television and radio broadcasting "Radiojournal" 30.11.2020/XNUMX/XNUMX), the head of state asked the Czech BIS (Bezpečnostní a Informační služba - security and information service) to provide details of the "live" operations carried out and / or recently conducted by the Czech special services against their "counterparts "From the Russian Federation, as well as the names of real Russian agents on the territory of the country, about whose presence this very Czech counterintelligence constantly speaks, without giving any particular specifics.
But all this was initially connected not with a certain sharp activation of the Russian special services in the Czech Republic, as at first glance it might seem to the uninitiated public in Europe itself and beyond, but with the next introduction of the chief of local counterintelligence to the rank of general. The point, apparently, is simply that the head of the Czech BIS, Colonel Michal Koudelka, has already corny "got" the quite sober-minded Czech president with his absolutely groundless anti-Russian and anti-Chinese statements, which have recently increasingly complicated both international political and economic relations of the Czech Republic.
How to (not) become a general
We must start, apparently, with the fact that Koudelka is a kind of record holder - already five times he was nominated for the rank of general, which, in principle, corresponds to his position, but five times President Zeman rejected this submission. This has never happened in the history of the country. Michal Koudelka was appointed to his last position on July 27, 2016 on the recommendation of the Czech Parliament, which is actually in charge of such personnel decisions. Then the appointment is approved by the government appointed by the same parliament, and the president, in fact, is formally only obliged to sign the document. That is, Milos Zeman had no choice here, but with the ranks everything is different - only the president of the country can make a Czech officer a general and only by his own decision.
The first time the chief of the Czech counter-espionage was supposed to become a general back in May 2018, but Zeman then did not sign the order due to the first pan-European scandal with Novichok and, as a result, the subsequent expulsion of three employees of the Russian embassy from the Czech Republic. Zeman then, according to informed sources, was literally enraged, since he considered the work of the special services on this topic unprofessional and tendentiously fabricated to please some "third party". What kind of "third party" is this, we all, of course, understand. Then Koudelka was promoted to general in October 2018, in May 2019, in October of the same year, and the last time in October 2020, and again unsuccessfully. The president of the country, probably, could not express his attitude towards this individual and his “achievements” more harshly and intelligibly for those around him.
Who is Colonel Koudelka?
Michal Koudelka was born in 1965 and graduated in 1989 from the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the Prague Technical University (ČVUT). He served in the army in 1991, that is, after receiving higher education and disappearing from the political map of the world of Socialist Czechoslovakia. Koudelka got into counterintelligence in April 1992. Twice during his service he underwent training in the notorious British Mi-6 (the second time even in the course of “leadership in conducting special operations”), also under the NATO line he did a long-term internship in the intelligence department of Canada, in March 2019 at the headquarters -the CIA headquarters was awarded the American Prize and the George Tennett Medal for foreign employees of the department and persons actively helping the US intelligence services abroad. He is fluent in Russian and English. That is, what kind of character this is, by whom and for what purpose, it is quite clear. But the trouble is that Koudelka, apparently, wanted to please his western curators so badly that he overdid it. Moreover, directly to the detriment of their own state, and this damage is definitely considerable. So big that even the president of the country himself could not ignore it.
If you listen to or read the periodic open abstracts issued by the organization under the leadership of still Colonel Koudelka, it turns out that Europe in general and the Czech Republic in particular simply have no other important problems, except for the pervasive ramified networks of Russian intelligence and the detrimental influence on the democratic processes there, again Russian propaganda, plus, as it were, in the background, Chinese industrial espionage infiltrated everywhere through Chinese gadgets and even consumer electronics. Moreover, Koudelka, without a shadow of a doubt, even records Czechs-reenactors as Russian spies, that is, those citizens who, as a hobby, participate in events of military history clubs in Soviet or Russian military uniforms, not excluding tsarist ones.
Apparently, for a positive attitude towards enemy attributes and symbols. The same people, for example, in the form of the Waffen-SS, bother him much less. Also, the chief of the Czech counterintelligence is very upset by the fact of teaching modern history in Czech schools in a "too pro-Soviet" way. This, they say, morally corrupts the younger generation. From the point of view of Koudelka, again, there is nothing more “morally corrupting” for young people in modern Europe - there is almost widespread brainwashing by LGBT propaganda, loss of family values, massive infiltration of terrorism through the window of “multiculturalism and tolerance”, actual legalization of drugs and prostitution in the EU , the Internet, in which everything is freely available - from pornography to schemes for making explosives at home, etc. etc. These are all, apparently, trifles in comparison with the "wrong" teaching of the history of the Second World War ...
Although from the "pro-Soviet" in the school curriculum, there was probably only the very fact of the USSR's participation in the war and the fact that half of Europe, including the capital of Germany and the Czech Republic itself, was occupied by Soviet troops. They occupied, I emphasize, they did not release, this is exactly the interpretation in Czech schools now, but Colonel Koudelka, apparently, does not like it either. Yes, they also have not yet corrected the position that it was Hitler's Third Reich who unleashed the war and attacked the USSR, and not vice versa. But this, apparently, is already a matter of time ...
Where are the Russian spies?
But back to today. It would seem, what happened? Well, the president of the Czech Republic, who, by the way, according to the country's constitution is also the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, asked his own counterintelligence to provide certain information, just directly related to the state of affairs in the state entrusted to him. As you know, open and closed reporting and information briefings for presidents or commanders are carried out by almost all intelligence services in the world - this is a standard practice. Especially considering that they, these same special services, are engaged in their activities with state funds and are obliged to report for their use for the good of the country. But in the Czech Republic, the local so-called "intelligence community" suddenly got angry: This is unacceptable! What does this Zeman allow himself? How can you interfere with the activities of the special services? This will disrupt many operations! Will reveal classified agents! Such information can nullify all efforts to fight the enemy, and even give the enemy some "trump cards" against the EU and NATO! And then endlessly in a similar style ...
A sober reader in this place, apparently, will be very surprised - and who, if not his own Supreme Commander-in-Chief, in this case, is all this information accumulated by the special services intended? For yourself for internal use? Or the already mentioned "third parties"? Who, then, does the whole system work for, whose interests it protects and to whom is it accountable, even if the president of his own country, as they say, “does not order”? Then who is the "decree"? Or is it just that all these stories about the mass of infiltrated Russian agents are outright nonsense and lies? And the Czech BIS actually does nothing and throws huge taxpayers' money down the drain? And Koudelka is afraid that this is what will come to light, and he will be left without a position and the longed-for general's rank?
It seems even more senseless one of the main excuses why counterintelligence does not want to provide the president with classified information: it turns out that many members of the presidential office, including the press secretary and translators, do not have the right to access classified information, since they have not passed certain levels of checks on this the same organization under the command of Colonel Michal Koudelka. Nonsense? Yes, to say the least ... But just for this one "nonsense" Koudelk himself should not only not be made a general, but generally expelled to the devil's grandmother from service with deprivation of rank and content. Certain untrustworthy people at the very top of the country's leadership are a complete failure and counterintelligence's failure to fulfill its own direct functions and responsibilities. But for some reason no one takes any such actions and does not even ask such questions.
Maybe the Czech "committeemen" have so much work to catch Russian spies and local "pro-Russian" military reenactors that since March 2013 (which is how long Milos Zeman is the president of the Czech Republic) they have not found time for the office of the head of state? This, theoretically, should be clear just from this very report, which the Czech president demands from his own special services, and they refuse to provide him with all their might. It is extremely interesting where this marasmic vicious circle will finally end and what will we learn about the activity of Russian agents, or, conversely, about its absence. Interestingly, so far no one is accusing Russia of anything - even somehow strange and unexpected.
Considering that lately, for such accusations against our country, no one in the West has even bothered to look for some at least plausible evidence, we can assume the following: they have lied and played so much that any next step can work as a rake, on who jumped with a running start. At least for the Czech counterintelligence service and its leader. Milos Zeman himself, seeing an unexpected reaction, continues to insist even harder on providing him with the requested data. Under the current conditions, the only logical and completely customary way out of the situation for Colonel Koudelka would, apparently, be the announcement of the Czech president himself as Moscow's agent. Western curators would probably appreciate this - Eastern European leaders, who have their own opinions on various issues, often differing from the “party line” of the EU nomenclature, have long been there as a “bone in the throat”. We will look forward to the outcome.
Nevertheless, some conclusions should be obvious to us already now.
General diagnosis based on a single symptom
General Michal Koudelka, who has failed five times, at his post in one of the economically, technologically and industrially well-developed states of Europe - this is no exception today, this is the norm. Unfortunately for the EU and NATO, it should be fortunate for us if such facts are used in time and correctly. The European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance, of course, will not collapse on their own in the very near future. But against the backdrop of a protracted economic recession, exacerbated by a pandemic, and a migration crisis, complicated by an increase in crime and outbursts of natural terrorism itself, Europe is rapidly "righting" in its political aspirations. This is a spontaneous and already known mechanism of self-defense of the population. Something similar and for quite similar reasons happened about a hundred years ago - in the chaos of the 20s of the XX century. How it ended in the 30s and where it led the same Europe to the mid 40s, we all also remember. We remember, but "they" somehow seem to have forgotten already. Otherwise, the German Defense Minister, Mrs. Kramp-Karrenbauer, would not have publicly declared the need to talk with the Russian Federation "from a position of strength." It is clear that modern Russia is not due to the power of the USSR, but also the FRG now, in terms of its power capabilities, excuse me, is not even a shadow of the Third Reich, which was West Germany back in the very late 80s - early 90s.
Based on the above, I believe that Russia, for the sake of solving its geopolitical tasks and problems, does not need to wait for "better" times, which, most likely, will not come. And we have a lot of these tasks and problems: Ukraine, Belarus, Transnistria, and indeed the entire former USSR, the Arctic, oil and gas, foreign bases for our Armed Forces and the Navy, etc., etc. A lot of everything. And you need to decide quickly and tough. I personally think it's just right now. The United States, choosing Biden, avoided a civil war or at least full-scale unrest, but the deepest crisis in the country's history of mistrust of the authorities has not disappeared. For now, at least. And in Europe, again, for the time being, the intelligence services of states are commanded by citizens like Michal Koudelka, the armies of ladies like Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, and all this vaudeville is run by politicians like Ursula von der Leyen (who, being the previous Minister of Defense of the Federal Republic of Germany, is destroyed all the remnants of the former German military power) - all these are people with self-esteem inflated to heaven, but at the same time clearly intellectually limited, nationally notorious, and also absolutely incapable of any independent decisions and actions. And this, I repeat, is the norm in today's Europe, not the exception. Such an opponent is much better than an intelligent, calculating and independent one, but with the same complexes. Fighting narcissistic idiots, of course, is not easy - you never know what to expect from them. But with really smart and independent enemies, such as the same Mueller in the special services, von Manstein or Schörner in the army, and Speer or Hitler in the leadership, it will definitely be more difficult. We also remember.
No need, in short, to waste time. And then it will be too late, it will only be more difficult to fight, but you will still have to return the lost position and territory again. Remembering the Victory, let us not repeat the bitter mistakes that led to defeats. Seize chances by ignoring incoming information. And also keep in mind that war is not always something that is waged openly with the help of tanks, aircraft or missiles. You can fight in another way, although one does not exclude the other. It was so then, it will be about the same now.