A senior military source, commenting on the article “Playing with Atomic Fire” by Col. (Ret) Ralph Bosshard (see Jan.5 Briefing slug) on the extremely dangerous December 26 attack on the Russian Engels Airbase, told EIR that such an attack constituted a “dangerous moment of insecurity,” because Engels airbase is a Russian nuclear strategic base. He compared it to an attack on the US strategic naval bases at San Diego, CA, and Norfolk, Virginia, where the Pacific and Atlantic Fleets are based. He warned that there has now been a loss of the transparency that existed at those bases as part of the superpower agreement; that transparency is lost, he said, because the Russians were compelled to disperse the aircraft. Russia is now compelled to take measures to protect other nuclear assets.
The source also said that if it had been a European NATO country that assisted Ukraine, he would think it would have been the British since, being a nuclear power, Britain would have the intelligence capabilities to assist in such an operation (although he would not publish it, because he could not prove it), not to mention that the British are the most directly involved in Ukraine. He also agreed to the characterization that, because of these attacks, a second chessboard has been activated: the war in Ukraine is the first, and second, the potential for a superpower confrontation, because now Russia’s nuclear strategic assets have been directly targeted.
