From Ollie Richardson at The Saker:

On the night of January 11th Israel hit one depot at Damascus international airport. I.e., material damage. 12 projectiles were fired in total. Syrian air defences worked, and by all accounts they were as effective as they were in the previous Israeli bombing run (80% accuracy approx.)…

The S-400 is much more than an anti-air system. It embodies the future of international relations and a transition away from “Responsibility to protect”…

The only way that Russia could survive amidst this post-Soviet onslaught was if it targeted the projected US’ weakness. And so today we have Kinzhal, Avangard, Kalibr, S-400, Pantsir, etc…

The Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has a supercomputer, as I have mentioned many times in the past. Today we can say that the algorithm being used allowed Russia (and friends) to encircle the West. Russian media is, frankly speaking, kicking the MSM’s ass.

The algorithm is based on RISK. Russia must be allowed to make mistakes and suffer the consequences as a result. During WW2 the USSR turned a black situation into a victory (the ratio of destroyed Red Army tanks to destroyed German tanks looks alarming on paper, but finds understanding with a wide perspective). The victory was possible because of this same RISK. There was no safety net – Russians (Rus) either win or are exterminated…

The main problem now is that Syria has a demographic crisis, much like Ukraine…

The Astana Agreement in many respects is even more genius than the Minsk Agreement. Russia found a way to exploit Turkey’s lack of leverage (after all, the US is ready to unleash a Gulen coup at any moment) and coerce it into reformatting the jihadist matrix (NGO network)…

Nusra’s magic capture of most of Idlib and the decimation of Zinki/Ahrar is not a coincidence, nor is it organic. It is Erdogan’s way of handing over Idlib to Assad and saving face amongst his electorate…

The conversations that happen behind closed doors are not at all like the statements that are disseminated for public consumption…

Netanyahu was forced to call early elections. He is being investigated for fraud. Hamas and Hezbollah are now stronger than ever before. Iran is entrenching itself further and cementing solid ties with powerful countries. The UN demands to give Golan Heights back to Syria. etc.

From Ollie Richardson in 2017:

After Russia liquidated ISIS by cutting its umbilical cord to Ankara & then established de-escalation zones (separating “moderates” from jihadists), the situation became a duplication of the Minsk Agreements. I.e., it was time for all sides to defer to other theatres of military operations.

After Aleppo was liberated the US launched many test balloons in different theatres. One such balloon was “peacekeepers in Donbass”…

So the US incited ISIS to kill Russian troops in Syria…

The US also tried the al-Tanf trick in south Syria, and kept activating pockets in East Ghouta (Damascus) and Hama. The aim was to pressure Russia enough to ensnare it in a situation where we would find out for sure whether S-400 was a bluff or not…

Then the US resorted to flying its jets through “deconfliction zones” in the hope to embarrass Russia: “Look, we flew here and you didn’t react. We control the situation in Syria, Putin is a wimp”. This is exactly the same bait that was and still is being used in Donbass via the proxy UAF…

If the US wanted to find out if the SAM system was real or not, it needed to overstep the mark and put too much “skin in the game”…

This is a lesson in Gestalt theory. The S-400 itself isn’t important – it is the context in which it is in that is important. Once the deterrent is used, it’s null and void…

Always remember that the US/Israel was deterred by a SAA S-200 launch. This means that the US can be tamed in Syria using old 1967 technology. Its sidewinder missiles (on a F-18) couldn’t even down a SAA Su-22 from 1970.