Strategy Shelf

Dispatches & Publications on Defense, Freedom, & Security

Putin Like Hitler Invokes Christ for War of Aggression

A Russian military officer, trying to religiously motivate his troops to join the war of aggression against neighboring Ukraine, many in Ukraine also being slavs and Orthodox Christians, had this to say according to a source cited by Yahoo News: “I promise that we will win this holy war…Who is…

Utilize Russians Fleeing Draft to Write Russians at Home

There is a mass exodus of Russians avoiding Putin’s war observed by media in and outside of Russia, with up to 700,000 Russian men according to unnamed Russian official sources cited by Forbes, Russia. Reuters has been using the words “tens of thousands.”  Russian exiles have native literacy, fluency, and knowledge…

Target Logic: Shahed-136 Drones

The Russians are aiming Shahed-136 drones at Ukrainian energy nodes, buildings, and other infrastructure items, such as communications. The Shahed-136 suicide drone uses commercially available GPS as a guidance system, making it susceptible to jamming devices.  In December 2021, Israel’s Jerusalem Post published a well-informed advance warning of the capabilities of…

Appease Putin and Lose Freedom

Putin kindled then started wars against Chechnya, Georgia, and Ukraine seeking one thing: Imperialist control over two continents. His nationalists have told us so, and Putin has embraced their warmongering extremism and called it patriotism. And Putin has embraced something much deeper than that: Chinese imperial interest and interference in…

Undisciplined Communications: Medvedev, Kadyrov, Prigozhin, Solovyov

Apparently the Commander in Chief of the Russian Armed Forces nor his insiders foresaw the weakness of Russia’s Armed Forces before invading Ukraine. His insiders did not effectively warn President Putin that he did not really know his forces and their capabilities, a basic leadership requirement for anyone in command.…

Can You See The Moon in the South China Sea?

In 2014, the visionary lunar scientist, geologist, and author Paul D. Spudist (who passed on in 2018 due to cancer) forecast Chinese preparations to dominate the moon by reviewing China’s goals at the time for Smithsonian Magazine. Most of the goals Dr. Spudist discussed, China has since met. Over the summer, a popular…

Announcement by Russian MOD of Withdrawal from Lyman

Did President Vladimir Putin bless the withdrawal of Russian forces from Lyman? Recent reports claim he had become more involved in tactical decisions before it happened. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it withdrew troops from Lyman, Donetsk, Ukraine after the city was surrounded by Ukrainian Armed Forces, not the Kremlin.…

Russia in Syria: More Footprint Than Boot

A September 14th, 2022 report of the U.N.’s Commission of Inquiry on Syrian Arab Republic found  conditions similar to those that led to the wider Syrian Civil War eleven years ago. Moscow has borrowed heavily on its credited strategic gains in Syria to pay off its deep deficits in its…

Putin’s Serial Murders of Russian Energy Executives

Sundry falls suffered by Russian energy executives and CEOs may go beyond punishing criticism of Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. The targeted energy executive critics may also have had knowledge of officers, insiders, technologies, and intelligence assets acquired through Russian energy firm relationships in Western nations, energy companies, and OPEC states. The above is…

Update: Turkey

In late August 2022, Haluk Bayraktar, the CEO of Bayraktar drone company Baykar, reportedly pledged that the company would not sell its drones to Russia “no matter how much money we are offered.” This, while expressly continuing to sell them to Kyiv in solidarity with Ukraine. Yet in March, Turkish Deputy…