PUTIN MEANS BUSINESS: After Striking Ukraine With New Medium-Range ‘Hazel’ Hypersonic Missiles...

...Russian President Delivers Sobering Message To Western Leaders (VIDEOS)

I guess by now we all miss the time when we didn’t have to worry daily about incoming nuclear war.

But things being what they are, we have to address the continuous escalation that is ongoing, and not to fall prey to a normalcy bias (a cognitive leaning which leads one to disbelieve or minimize threat warnings).

Doing that can be fatal, right now.

Watch: Oreshnik missile 'en route' to Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been presented by the MSM as the ultimate foe, a real-life Bond villain - but if you pay attention now, there are two conflicting narratives in tandem:

On the one hand, Putin is presented as a vicious criminal, a mass murderer, ‘literally Sauron’.

At the same time, now that the escalations have come to the brink, he has started to be presented as weak, vacillating, risk-adverse – all bark, no bite.

So western leaders alternate, as they escalate against mighty ‘Sauron’, but treat all his red lines as if he is nothing but a weakling.

But Putin means business. He has taken Crimea, he has taken more than 20% of the Ukrainian territory, including almost all coastal areas, he has reportedly amassed 1500 missiles to punish Kiev, that only has 50 ATACMS and a dozen Storm Shadows.

Putin did a 7-minute address to Russia and the world that we would do well to pay attention to. Below are some excerpts:

"Continuing the course of escalating the conflict in Ukraine provoked by the West, the United States and its NATO allies have previously announced that they are giving permission for the use of their long-range precision weapons systems on the territory of the Russian Federation. Experts are well aware, and the Russian side has repeatedly emphasized, that it is impossible to use such weapons without the direct participation of military specialists from the countries that produce such weapons.

On November 19, six US-made ATACMS operational-tactical missiles and on November 21, during a combined missile attack by the UK-made Storm Shadow and US-made HIMARS systems, military facilities were struck on the territory of the Russian Federation – in the Bryansk and Kursk regions. From that moment on, as we have repeatedly emphasized earlier, the regional conflict in Ukraine provoked by the West acquired elements of a global nature. Our air defense systems repelled these attacks. As a result, the goals that the enemy obviously set for itself were not achieved."

“In response to the use of American and British long-range weapons on November 21 of this year, the Russian Armed Forces launched a combined strike on one of the facilities of the Ukrainian defense industry. In combat conditions, one of the newest Russian medium-range missile systems was tested, in this case with a ballistic missile in non-nuclear hypersonic equipment. Our missilemen called it ‘Oreshnik’. The tests were successful, the launch goal was achieved. On the territory of Ukraine in the city of Dnepropetrovsk, one of the largest and well-known industrial complexes from the times of the Soviet Union was hit, which today produces missile technology and other weapons.”

“Let me repeat: we are conducting combat tests of the Oreshnik missile system in response to the aggressive actions of NATO countries against Russia. The issue of further deployment of medium- and shorter-range missiles will be decided by us depending on the actions of the United States and its satellites.

The targets for destruction during further tests of our newest missile systems will be determined by us based on the threats to the security of the Russian Federation. We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against military facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities, and in the event of an escalation of aggressive actions, we will respond just as decisively and in kind. I recommend that the ruling elites of those countries that are hatching plans to use their military contingents against Russia seriously think about this.”

"There are currently no means of counteracting such weapons. The missiles attack targets at a speed of 10 Machs - that is 2.5-3 kilometers per second. The modern air defense systems in the world and the missile defense systems created by the Americans in Europe do not intercept such missiles, this is excluded."