{"id":2688,"date":"2015-01-13T13:23:29","date_gmt":"2015-01-13T13:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/informnapalm.org\/en\/?p=2688"},"modified":"2015-12-24T14:35:21","modified_gmt":"2015-12-24T14:35:21","slug":"brink-invasion-russian-military-procurement-january-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/informnapalm.org\/en\/brink-invasion-russian-military-procurement-january-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Brink of the Invasion. Russian MVD Procurement in January 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the very beginning of the War in Donbas the Russian propaganda rhetoric worked to ensure that this conflict is \u2018purely internal\u2019, that this is a \u2018civil war<\/i>\u2019 in which \u201cthe people of Donbass rebelled against Kiev junta<\/i>\u201d and that this was a result of a \u201cmilitary coup, created via the Maidan<\/i>\u201d. Such a clich\u00e9 is used to brainwash population of the Russian Federation, as well as the people living in the occupied Crimea and the Donbas. Yet, this neat theory collapses as the facts of thoughtful and strategic preparation of the Russian aggression against Ukraine emerge.<\/p>\n

The preparation of invasion began long before the events on Maidan. We have previously published some information about preparation of the annexation of Crimea in 2004. Russian economist Andrei Illarionov, former adviser to the President of the Russian Federation in 2000\u20142005, founder and president of the Institute of Economic Analysis, commented:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of annexation of Crimea appeared at least in 2003\u20142004. Putin perceived his defeat in 2004 [the so-called Orange Revolution in Ukraine] very painful and vowed to prevent its repetition. This time the plan was drawn up with several options.<\/i><\/p>\n

A military version is called <\/i>\u201cThe Clockwork Orange\u201d<\/i><\/a>. Putin set aside this plan only to use it in case of an emergency. The military option is always very expensive, so preferred methods to achieve this goal would be military and political means, blackmail, bribery, and so on. They are much more familiar to Mr. Putin. This is what he had been taught by the KGB.”<\/i><\/p>\n

But this is not the only evidence of Russia\u2019s preparations to the hypocritical war against Ukraine. InformNapalm team found more information, this time from the field of state procurement.<\/p>\n

In January 2014, Russian journalist and human rights activist Oleg Lurie published an entry in his blog<\/a> in which Mr. Lurie discussed Russian Ministry of Interior intention to buy 42 Ural trucks, equipped for carrying mortars. According to his blog, trucks had to be shipped to Saint Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Yekaterinburg and Khabarovsk. Mr. Lurie raised the question of military preparations by the Ministry of Interior. He published a document, confirming that the Interior Ministry ordered 42 trucks of Ural-43206-0651 model (biaxial, a military modification with a double cabin), equipped to transport a 120-mm 2B11 mortar in the \u2018Sani\u2019 assembly option which includes a mortar, a wheel cart and a tractor. The total cost of the order was 42 trucks for 144 million Russian rubles (mind the \u2018old\u2019 exchange rate).<\/p>\n

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Here is how Ural-43206, equipped to transport wheeled 2B11 mortar with 2L81 wheel cart looks like:<\/p>\n

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At the time Oleg Lurie and his readers become familiar with these documents, the question arose: \u201cwhy does Interior ministry need mortars?\u201d Clearly, if the Interior ministry buys trucks for mortars, the mortars themselves are already available or will be purchased soon. The simplest answer, that appeared at that moment, was the use of the equipment in Chechnya. But if we go further, we can find Ministry of Interior bases, to which these trucks were planned to be distributed.<\/p>\n

There are four of them:<\/p>\n