Conflict with Russia news and discussion

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Conflict with Russia news and discussion

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Putin: US aircraft involved in Black Sea UK incident
Source: AP

By DARIA LITVINOVA and VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft was operating in sync with a British destroyer during last week’s Black Sea incident in what he described as a “provocation” to test Moscow’s response.

Moscow said one of its warships fired warning shots and a warplane dropped bombs in the path of British destroyer Defender on June 23 to force it out of an area near the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. Britain denied that account, insisted its ship wasn’t fired upon and said it was sailing in Ukrainian waters.

Asked if the incident could have triggered World War III, Putin said that it was hardly possible even if Russia had sunk the British warship because Western powers knew they couldn’t emerge as winners in a global conflict.

Speaking during a live call-in show, Putin said that the U.S. aircraft’s apparent mission was to monitor the Russian military’s response to the British destroyer. He added that Moscow was aware of the U.S. intentions and responded accordingly to avoid revealing sensitive data.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/europe-russi ... fcf5bec531
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US, Germany Threaten Retaliatory Action Against Russia in Draft Nord Stream 2 Accord - Report
© AP Photo / Dmitry Lovetsky
World
22:55 GMT 20.07.2021Get short URL
by Kirill Kurevlev
23242
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https://sputniknews.com/world/202107201 ... ---report/
An undisclosed senior US official told media that the phrasing of the draft accords is purposefully unclear since the administration did not want to provide Russia a road map for responding to any harmful action against it.

As the US and Germany have reportedly reached a deal on the Nord Stream 2 project, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing the obtained draft text of the agreement, that it would threaten sanctions and other measures if Russia tried to use energy as a "weapon" against Ukraine, though it did not specify what actions could provoke the countermeasures.

According to the report, in such a case, Germany will take unspecified national action, a decision that may represent a concession from Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had previously refused to take independent action against Moscow over the gas pipeline that will run from Russia to Germany.
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Kazakhstan: Militarist’s Newest Case For Confronting Putin’s Russia
by Melvin Goodman
January 11, 2022

https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/01/11 ... ns-russia/

Introduction:
(Counterpunch)The mainstream media, particularly the Washington Post and the New York Times, promote a simplistic view of Russian history as a pursuit of an aggressive and expansionist national security policy to counter the West, particularly the United States. Accordingly, the Post and the Times have been anticipating a Russian invasion of Ukraine for the past month, and now the introduction of 2,500 Russian “peacekeepers” into Kazakhstan has led to heightened concerns about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s immediate goals.

The fact that the Russian force includes members of the 45th Brigade, an elite special forces unit, is indeed worrisome. This unit fought in both Chechen wars in 1996 and 1999; in South Ossetia in 2008 in the five-day war with Georgia; in the abrupt annexation of Crimea in 2014; and in Syria in 2015. Nevertheless, Russia’s overall view of war, as expressed by its own writers, is one of defeat and even humiliation. Moscow lost the Crimean War in the 1850; the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-1905; WWI, which opened the door to the Bolshevik Revolution; the Cold War with the United States; and finally the humiliation of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Soviet demise meant the loss of two million square miles, which exceeds the size of the European Union or India. Even the so-called victory in WWII meant the loss of more than 27 million Soviets, and an economic and social recovery that took decades.
Conclusion:
A seasoned expert on Russia, Ambassador Llewellyn Thompson, saved President John F. Kennedy from disastrous steps in the Cuban missile crisis by urging a diplomatic solution that allowed Nikita Khrushchev to withdraw Soviet missiles and fighter bombers. Sadly, there is no sign of an experienced diplomatic hand involved in current U.S. policy deliberations on the eve of this week’s talks in Geneva, Brussels, and Vienna. And unless the United States is willing to concede that the expansion of NATO was strategically unsound, there is little chance for a genuine compromise and movement in bilateral Russian-American relations.

At the very time that the United States, polarized around the issues of democracy vs. autocracy, is facing a serious domestic crisis, it is unthinkable that Washington is grooming Ukraine as a “strategic ally,” and leaning toward confrontation with Russia over Ukraine.
Don't mourn, organize.

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caltrek
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Not exactly an unbiased non-Western source, but still an interesting read:

NATO Allies Send More Ships, Jets to Enhance Deterrence and Defence in Eastern Europe

https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news ... tributions

Introduction:
(NATO) NATO Allies are putting forces on standby and sending additional ships and fighter jets to NATO deployments in eastern Europe, reinforcing Allied deterrence and defence as Russia continues its military build-up in and around Ukraine.

In the past days, a number of Allies have made announcements regarding current or upcoming deployments. Denmark is sending a frigate to the Baltic Sea and is set to deploy four F-16 fighter jets to Lithuania in support of NATO’s long-standing air-policing mission in the region. Spain is sending ships to join NATO naval forces and is considering sending fighter jets to Bulgaria. France has expressed its readiness to send troops to Romania under NATO command. The Netherlands is sending two F-35 fighter aircraft to Bulgaria from April to support NATO’s air-policing activities in the region, and is putting a ship and land-based units on standby for NATO’s Response Force. The United States has also made clear that it is considering increasing its military presence in the eastern part of the Alliance.
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Ukraine War: A Reshuffling Of The Global Monetary Order?
By Jose Miguel Alonso-Trabanco
April 13, 2022

https://www.eurasiareview.com/13042022- ... analysis/

Introduction:
(Eurasian Review) As a regular conflict, the ongoing Ukraine war is being fought with kinetic weapons and traditional power projection platforms in conventional operational battlefields. However, its span transcends the domain of military statecraft. It goes much further. In fact, this unfolding confrontation must also be understood as a major clash in the rising strategic competition to determine the future architecture of the global financial and monetary system – a dangerous game played for the highest stakes. On this chessboard, currencies, monetary assets and financial vehicles are being weaponized as instruments of coercion, manipulation, disruption, subordination and conquest. Therefore, said arena is one the key dimensions of the Second Cold War, in which the Western bloc of maritime powers ‒ under US leadership ‒ and the Eurasian axis of continental powers ‒ headed by Russia and China ‒ are struggling with each other to advance their corresponding views of what the world order should be like. The realm of money is now at the forefront of the current rivalry between Leviathan and Behemoth.

Background

Far from being autonomous or conditioned purely by economic variables, the field of international monetary matters has always been strongly influenced by the impersonal forces of ‘high politics.’
Conclusion:
First, the ruble was under attack but now it looks like it is the dollar’s turn to find itself in the crosshairs. Arguably, currencies are far too important for state-of-the-art battlespaces to be left to the economists, financiers, and central bankers alone. With the direct offensive involvement of money in conflict, a dangerous genie is out of the bottle and there is no way to put it back. Therefore, analysts are assessing if, as a powerful catalyst of structural change, the current period of increasing upheaval can eventually lead to ‘currency multipolarity’ and/or the bifurcation or fragmentation of international finance. It is a matter of time before a reckoning occurs and the clock is ticking. In one way or another, the ultimate fate of the international monetary system will mirror the future configuration of the global order. After all, the trajectories of both have always evolved symbiotically. Both are literally two sides of the same coin.
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Russia 'moves heavy military equipment towards Finnish border'
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ru ... ar-AAW7tbP
Russian heavy weapons including missile systems have been seen moving towards the border with Finland, hours after Russia warned its northern neighbour against joining NATO.

An unconfirmed video uploaded last night appears to show two Russian coastal defence missile systems moving along a road on the Russian side of the border that leads to Helsinki.

The missile systems are thought to be the K-300P Bastion-P mobile coastal defence system, designed to take out surface ships up to and including aircraft carrier battle groups.

The Russian deployment comes as Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said she expects her government 'will end the discussion before midsummer' on whether to apply for NATO membership.
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Russia says West risks 'direct military clash' over cyber attacks
Source: Reuters

June 9 (Reuters) - Russia warned the West on Thursday that cyber attacks against its infrastructure risked leading to direct military confrontation, and that attempts to challenge Moscow in the cyber sphere would be met with targeted countermeasures.

The warning comes after Russia's housing ministry website appeared to be hacked over the weekend, with an internet search for the site leading to a "Glory to Ukraine" sign in Ukrainian.

In a statement, the foreign ministry said that Russia's critical infrastructure and state institutions were being hit by cyberattacks and pointed to figures in the United States and Ukraine as being responsible.

"Rest assured, Russia will not leave aggressive actions unanswered," it said. "All our steps will be measured, targeted, in accordance with our legislation and international law."
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ru ... 022-06-09/
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Russian mercenaries accused of deadly attacks on mines on Sudan-CAR border

Post by Time_Traveller »

Tue 21 Jun 2022

Russian mercenaries have mounted a series of bloody attacks on artisanal mines in the lawless border zones between Sudan and Central African Republic (CAR) in an effort to plunder the region’s valuable gold trade, witnesses and experts have said.

Dozens of miners are thought to have died in at least three major attacks this year allegedly involving mercenaries working for the Wagner Group, a private military company that has been linked to the Kremlin by western officials. There are also reports of further attacks on mines in at least six other places across CAR.

Witnesses interviewed in Sudan by the Guardian described “massacres” by fighters they identified as being from Wagner who swept through encampments full of migrant miners and mine workings between the north-eastern town of Am Daga and the frontier over a six-week period.

The fighters shot indiscriminately with automatic weapons, smashed equipment, destroyed buildings and stole motorbikes, they said. One described a mass grave containing more than 20 victims. Others spoke of hundreds dead or injured.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... car-border
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Wagner After Prigozhin
Can Kasapoğlu
September 1, 2023

Introduction:
(The Hudson Institute via Eurasia Review) Yevgeny Prigozhin, flamboyant Russian warlord and head of the Wagner Group, was killed in his private plane on August 23, along with Wagner’s second-in-command, Colonel Dmitry Utkin, the chief of combat operations. The puzzle of how Prigozhin met his end—reports suggest an air-defense missile, a bomb, or even a problem with his plane’s mechanics—is less important than the path Wagner and Russia will take in the aftermath of his death. This special edition of Hudson Institute’s Ukraine Military Situation Report by Senior Fellow Can Kasapoǧlu will focus on how Prigozhin’s death affects Wagner’s leadership, its mercenary business, and the role of private military companies within Russia.

1. The Road Ahead for Wagner’s Leadership


With Prigozhin and Utkin dead, Wagner’s stakeholders must decide who will lead the mercenary group. Vengeance may well top the agenda of whomever assumes the mantle of leadership. Many of Wagner’s key personnel, including Prigozhin’s bodyguard Sergei Plashchenko, did not join their erstwhile chief for his fatal journey, and defiantly attended the August 29 funeral of Wagner’s logistics and security chief Valery Chekalov, who also died onboard. In 2016, Plashchenko brawled with agents of the Russian security services when they tailed Prigozhin’s motorcade in St. Petersburg. Sufficient remnants of Prigozhin’s inner circle remain to cause concern for Vladimir Putin.

Yet it is difficult to predict the most credible claimants to the mercenary throne because so much is contingent upon the Kremlin’s intentions. Will Putin prefer to use Wagner as a shadowy extension of Russian power, enabling him to claim plausible deniability for nefarious acts? Would he rather its fighters function as shock troops in Ukraine? Or will he opt to keep Wagner entirely in Africa as a capable overseas deterrent?

The shortlist of contenders for Wagner chief comprises three strong candidates with different backgrounds, each from a pillar of the Russian security apparatus: a former military intelligence general (Andrey Abveryanov) responsible for sensational assassinations in NATO territory, a former internal security colonel (Andrey Troshev) who fought with the Soviet expedition in Afghanistan, and a former officer of the airborne troops (VDV - Anton Elizarov) who massacred Ukrainian servicemen in Soledar. Let us take a closer look at each.
Read more here: https://www.eurasiareview.com/0109202 ... nalysis/
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