Why Did US SECDEF Austin Call Russian Defense Minister Belousov?
On June 25th Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin telephoned Russian Minister of Defense Andrew Belousov. It was the first contact between the US and Russian defense heads in more than a year and it was initiated by Secretary Austin. Was the conversation useful?
There is very little information about the content of the call. Both the Pentagon and the Russian Ministry of Defense have given very brief accounts, but neither account aligns with the other.
US Readout
According to the Pentagon Mr. Austin emphasized the "importance of maintaining lines of communication." This came after a US ATACMS missile hit a beach in Sevastopol, Crimea. In the wake of the attack the US Ambassador to Moscow, Lynne Tracy, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry. According to news reports the Russians formally warned the U.S. ambassador that retaliation would follow from the Crimea attack. Following that there were reports among Russian mil bloggers that the Russians had shot down a US Global Hawk drone over the Black Sea. However, the US said that its drone supposedly involved in the targeting, identified as an RQ-4 Global Hawk, had returned safely to Sigonella (Sicily).
The US has had very minimal contact with Russia and only on specific issues including potential exchanges of political prisoners. On the whole the American position has been to isolate Russia and not hold any dialog on Ukraine or other security issues.
Before the Crimea attack Ukraine launched two drone attacks on Russian strategic early warning radar stations. Such attacks would have required US/NATO targeting assistance including evasion tactics to avoid Russian air defenses. Unlike the US which has satellite early warning capabilities, the Russians depend on land based radars that can alert air defenses designed to intercept ballistic missiles.
On the same day as the attack on the Sevastopol Beach (June 23) four ATACMS missiles were fired at the NIP-16 Center for Long-Range Space Communications radar base, in Vitino, Crimea. "NIP-16 was intended for hosting the Pluton deep-space communications complex, which could maintain contact with spacecraft up to an incredible distance of 300 million kilometers. Such a capability would be enough to guide missions beyond the orbit of Mars. The Pluton antennas were designed to send commands, track trajectories and receive and decipher telemetry from spacecraft. In addition, the same complex could be used to bounce radio waves off the faces of Mars and Venus. " NIP-16 at Vitino is under the control of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is not clear if it plays a role in the Ukraine war or if it is tied into Russia's early warning system. According to satellite imagery, the Vitino base appears to have survived the Ukrainian attack.
On June 26, the day after the Austin call, The Ukrainian military shelled a radiation monitoring station near the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, the largest such facility in Europe. The attack targeted a monitoring station in Velikaya Znamenka, a village around 15km west of the nuclear facility. The monitoring station was destroyed in the attack. The Velikaya Znamenka station is one of a group of such stations used to monitor potential radiation leaks. For some time Ukraine has been threatening the nuclear power station.
Russian Readout
The Russian readout is not about maintaining communications. The Russians report that Belousov and Austin had "exchanged views on the situation around Ukraine."
Belousov, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, "pointed to the danger of further escalation of the situation in connection with the ongoing supply of U.S. weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.” The Ministry also said that "Other issues were also discussed."
Discussing the "situation around Ukraine" could be a reference to US Black Sea operations supporting Ukraine's attacks on Crimea and on Russian territory, although that is only speculation.
It is clear the Russian focus in the conversation was on escalation and a potentially bigger war. Austin's emphasis on "maintaining lines of communications" is clearly ironical, as there are no significant lines of communications and the US Defense Department, along with the rest of the US government, has maintained a policy of isolating Russia and not engaging in any useful dialogue. Time will tell if this was only a defusing exercise by Austin because of Russian threats of retaliation, or a serious attempt to engage in more meaningful contacts with Russia.
In the meantime two Russophobes aquired important positions. Mark Rutter is the new NATO clown and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas is poised to become the EU's top diplomat.
I Germany we say, the dumbest sheep select their own butcher.
One has to wonder if the EU really wants to get nuked. Perhaps that's the US final goal, a wider war in Europe. You'd lose two big competitors once and for all.
Personally, I'd like to feed Austin through a wood chipper, render the results and use them to wax the boardroom table and floors at Raytheon.
Sadly, he'd be replaced with another just like him.