Since 2005, the Titanic Lifeboat Academy has been promoting, demonstrating, learning and teaching preparedness. Now, the best current geopolitical analysts are telling us we all may well have to use whatever we’ve learned. Soon.
We’ve given you pages and pages of “How to’s”. What follows are some of the “Why now’s”.
Unlike many Western politicians, Russian diplomats say what they mean. They are not ones to make idle, empty threats. Joe Biden and the NATO lackeys better pay attention to recent statements by two of Russia’s leading diplomats. Sergei Ryabkov, pictured above, is Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister. I have had the privilege of meeting him. He is a classy gentleman who chooses his words carefully. Hence the cause for my concern in light of his comment this week in response to Joe Biden’s decision last week to approve the use of U.S.-supplied weapons to hit targets inside Russia. Ryabkov said:
“I would like to warn American leaders against miscalculations that could have fatal consequences. For unknown reasons, they underestimate the seriousness of the rebuff they may receive, . . .
“I urge these figures (in the U.S.) … to spend some of their time, which they apparently spend on some kind of video games, judging by the lightness of their approach, on studying what was said in detail by Putin,” Ryabkov said.
Putin had delivered “a very significant warning and it must be taken with the utmost seriousness”, he added.
Putin said the West would be directly involved in any use of its weapons by Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia, because such attacks would require its satellite, intelligence and military help.
Ryabkov is not known as a bullshitter or one to make idle threats. He is polite, but firm and unambiguous. He is not sending some secret, coded message. He is putting the United States on notice. And it is important to note that Foreign Minister Lavrov issued a similar stern warning:
The Biden Administration is pushing America to the brink of a nuclear conflagration. In the same way we would not accept Russia deploying nuclear capable weapon systems in Cuba or Mexico, Russia is applying the same standard to itself. I did a brief live stream from my hotel room in St. Petersburg to highlight these concerns.
Author
Larry C. Johnson is CEO and co-founder of BERG Associates, LLC, an international business-consulting firm that helps corporations and governments manage threats posed by terrorism and money laundering. Mr. Johnson works with US military commands in scripting terrorism exercises, briefs foreign governments on a regular basis on terrorist trends, and conducts undercover investigations on product counterfeiting and smuggling.
Mr. Johnson, who worked previously with the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism, is a recognized expert in the fields of terrorism, aviation security, crisis and risk management.
Mr. Johnson has analyzed terrorist incidents for a variety of media including the Jim Lehrer News Hour, National Public Radio, ABC's Nightline, NBC's Today Show, the New York Times, CNN, Fox News, and the BBC. Mr. Johnson has authored several articles for publications, including Security Management Magazine, the New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. He has lectured on terrorism and aviation security around the world, including the Center for Research and Strategic Studies at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, France. He represented the U.S. Government at the July 1996 OSCE Terrorism Conference in Vienna, Austria.
From 1989 until October 1993, Larry Johnson served as a Deputy Director in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism. He managed crisis response operations for terrorist incidents throughout the world and he helped organize and direct the US Government’s debriefing of US citizens held in Kuwait and Iraq, which provided vital intelligence on Iraqi operations following the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Mr. Johnson also participated in the investigation of the terrorist bombing of Pan Am 103. Under Mr. Johnson’s leadership the U.S. airlines and pilots agreed to match the US Government’s two million-dollar reward.
From 1985 through September 1989 Mr. Johnson worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. During his distinguished career, he received training in paramilitary operations, worked in the Directorate of Operations, served in the CIA’s Operation’s Center, and established himself as a prolific analyst in the Directorate of Intelligence. In his final year with the CIA he received two Exceptional Performance Awards.
Mr. Johnson is a member of the American Society for Industrial Security. He taught at The American University’s School of International Service (1979-1983) while working on a Ph.D. in political science. He has a M.S. degree in Community Development from the University of Missouri (1978), where he also received his B.S. degree in Sociology, graduating Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1976.
