Need for unity among Muslim countries

A senior military adviser to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, has proposed that unity among Muslim nations could play a transformative role in reshaping global dynamics.

“The convergence and unity of Muslim countries, forming a Muslim power bloc, is the only way to liberate Muslim nations from the hegemony of global arrogance, particularly the United States and Israel,” Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi asserted.  

The Iranian general accused the United States and Israel of being key drivers of instability, war, and human suffering across the region and the globe.

Safavi argued that Muslim nations must prioritize sustainable security, regional peace, and self-reliance to achieve true progress and independence.  

Safavi emphasized that the world is undergoing a profound geopolitical transformation, leading to the emergence of a new global order.

Speaking on the subject, he stated, “The current world is in a geopolitical transitional phase, and we are witnessing the shaping of a new world order on both regional and international scales.”  

According to Safavi, this evolving order is marked by the gradual decline of Western dominance and the rise of Eastern powers. He explained, “The global power system is slowly but surely shifting from the West to the East.”  

Safavi highlighted the growing influence of Asian and Eurasian powers, such as China, India, Russia, and Iran.

He noted that these nations are increasingly collaborating within frameworks like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS to challenge the unilateral dominance of the United States and its NATO allies.

Their objectives, he said, include reducing global reliance on the US dollar in trade and countering Western-centric policies.  

The general also underscored the chaotic state of the world, attributing recent conflicts and wars to a 200-year long struggle among global and regional powers for political, economic, and cultural dominance over strategically significant regions.  

He stressed the need for greater collaboration and recognition among Muslim countries, stressing that their collective efforts could pave the way for a stronger, unified presence on the global stage.

 

 

Macron calls for a new international order

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday urged the need for “a new international order” following the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Speaking at the "Meeting for Peace" organized by the Catholic Sant'Egidio community in Paris, he called on European leaders to prepare for a post-war reality that reevaluates the continent's organizational framework.

"We must be imaginative enough to think about the peace of tomorrow, a peace in Europe in a new form," Macron stated, advocating for an inclusive vision that transcends the current structures of the EU and NATO.

He emphasized the importance of a broader approach to cooperation and peace building, particularly concerning the Balkans and Europe’s geographical realities.

Macron criticized existing institutions like the UN, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund (IMF) for not adequately reflecting the modern world.

"Our order today is incomplete and unjust. Many of the most populated countries did not exist when the seats were distributed," he remarked.

Addressing past criticisms of his approach to Russia, Macron reiterated the necessity of reconciling relations with the nation, albeit within a new organizational framework. He stressed that Europe needs to "rethink" its interactions with Russia in light of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

In May 2022, shortly after the war began, Macron faced backlash for stating that Russia should not be "humiliated." His recent hesitance to rule out sending French troops to Ukraine has also drawn Western criticism.

Looking ahead, Macron plans to present his concerns at the UN General Assembly, advocating for global reforms to create “fairer” and more inclusive international institutions. “I will come back to this this week at the UN,” he stated, highlighting the urgency of these reforms.

In addition to addressing European security, Macron commented on the escalating conflicts in the Middle East, particularly in Gaza. He stressed that peace must be rooted in “coexistence” and the recognition of all individuals' rights to live peacefully.

As the situation in Gaza deteriorates, Israel’s offensive has resulted in over 41,400 deaths, primarily among women and children, and more than 95,800 injuries, according to local health authorities.

The conflict has displaced nearly the entire population of the territory, exacerbated by a blockade leading to severe shortages of essential supplies. Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.

Germany: NATO air base on high security alert

A major NATO air base in Germany is maintaining a high security alert on Friday, according to a military spokesman.

“At the moment we are still at alert state Charlie,” Donny Demmers, a spokesman for NATO Airbase Geilenkirchen said, noting that the security situation is being closely monitored.

Security alert “Charlie” is implemented at NATO bases when there is an incident or intelligence suggests a likely terrorist action or targeting of personnel or facilities.

The airbase heightened its security level on Thursday based on intelligence indicating a potential threat.

“All non-mission essential personnel have been sent home as a precautionary measure. The safety of our staff is a top priority. Our critical operations will continue as planned,” Demmers said.

The Geilenkirchen base, near the western city of Aachen, houses NATO’s AWACS surveillance aircraft, which provide air and sea surveillance and serve as a flying command center in combat operations.

In recent years, NATO AWACS aircraft have conducted hundreds of flights over Eastern Europe to monitor Russian military activity near the alliance’s borders.

China hits back at NATO

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi has hit back at NATO's "groundless accusations" that Beijing is helping Russia in its war on Ukraine. He has also warned the Western alliance against stirring up confrontation.

Wang's comments, made in a call with his Dutch counterpart, came hours after leaders of NATO member states gathered in Washington DC and issued a declaration on the war.

They accused China of being a "decisive enabler" of Russia through its "large-scale support for Russia's defense industrial base", in some of their harshest remarks yet about Beijing.

They called on China to stop "all material and political support" to Russia's war effort such as the supply of dual-use materials, which are items that can be used for both civilian and military purposes.

Western states have previously accused Beijing of transferring drone and missile technology and satellite imagery to Moscow.

The US estimates about 70% of the machine tools and 90% of the microelectronics Russia imports now come from China.

Beijing was also accused of conducting "malicious cyber and hybrid activities, including disinformation" on NATO states.

On Thursday, while speaking to the Netherlands' new foreign minister Caspar Veldkamp, Wang said "China absolutely does not accept" all these accusations and insisted that they have "always been a force for peace and force for stability".

In comments carried by state media, he said that China's different political system and values "should not be used as a reason for NATO to incite confrontation with China", and called for NATO to "stay within its bounds".

His remarks was the latest in a flurry of angry responses from Beijing.

Earlier on Thursday, a foreign ministry spokesperson said NATO was smearing China with "fabricated disinformation", while Beijing's mission to the European Union told the alliance to "stop hyping up the so-called China threat".

Beijing has long rebutted accusations that it has been aiding Russia in the war and insists that it remains a neutral party. It has called for an end to the conflict and proposed a peace plan, which Ukraine has rejected.

Besides the growing accusations of military support, observers have also pointed out that Beijing's purchases of vast amounts of oil and gas have helped prop up Russia's economy crippled by sanctions and replenish coffers drained by war spending.

Beijing's official rhetoric on the conflict often mirrors Moscow's — like them, China still does not call it a war — and Chinese President Xi Jinping has maintained a close relationship with President Vladimir Putin, with both of them famously declaring their partnership has "no limits".

Beijing has accused the US and other Western states of pouring "fuel on the fire" by supplying lethal weapons and technology to Ukraine for its defense.

In recent weeks, several countries have gone a step further and allowed Ukraine to use their weapons to hit targets inside Russia.

Turkey disapproves cooperating with Israel

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday it is not possible for NATO to continue its partnership with the Israeli administration.

"Until comprehensive, sustainable peace is established in Palestine, attempts at cooperation with Israel within NATO will not be approved by Turkey," Erdogan said at a news conference at the NATO summit.

Turkey also continues its diplomatic efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war, he said.

Erdogan said as well that he has instructed Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to start to restore relations with Syria.

Turkey will extend an invitation to Assad "any time" for possible talks to restore relations between the two neighbours, Erdogan had said on Sunday.

Regarding F-16 sales to Turkey, Erdogan said, "I talked to Mr. Biden. I will solve this problem in 3-4 weeks”.

In March, the United States Senate defeated an effort to stop a US$23 billion sale of F-16 jets and modernization kits to Turkey allowed by President Joe Biden's administration after Turkey approved Sweden joining the NATO alliance.

He also said Turkey expects solidarity from NATO allies in its fight against terrorism.

"It is not possible for us to accept the crooked relationship that some of our allies have established especially with the PYD/YPG, the extension of the terrorist organization PKK in Syria," he said.

Turkey says the YPG militia is a terrorist organization, closely tied to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group. Turkey's Western allies list the PKK as terrorist group, but not the YPG.

Turkey's goal is to become a permanent member, not just an observer, of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Erdogan also said.

The SCO is a security, political and economic club launched in 2001 by Russia and China and Central Asian states as a counterweight to Western alliances.

 

 

New NATO Chief

Iohannis formally exited the race on Thursday when he told his security council that they should back Rutte for the top job in NATO.

Romania is the only country in the 32-member Western security alliance that has yet to approve of Rutte for the job, and with Iohannis gone, the Dutch leader appears set to assume the role.

“It took a very long time," Rutte told reporters on Thursday, according to The Associated Press. "It’s a complicated process, but it’s an honor that it appears to have happened."

Hungary had been a holdout, but Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban indicated earlier this week that he would support Rutte. That came after Rutte signaled he would not pressure Budapest to back new support for Ukraine amid its war with Russia.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has been the familiar chief of the alliance for the past decade. His term has been extended four times, but his current term ends in October. 

Rutte will be taking over the alliance as NATO supports Ukraine in the fight against Russia, the largest land war on Europe since World War II, and as allies seek to increase defense spending.

And former President Trump, the presumptive 2024 GOP Republican nominee, has threatened to not defend allies who don't pay enough, spurring fears across Europe. 

NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said in a statement on social media platform X that Rutte "is one of the few European politicians to have developed a good working relationship not just with Biden, but also with Trump."

"That could prove a key asset for NATO," Lungescu wrote.

The Russian threat has increased NATO defense spending. Stoltenberg announced earlier this week that in 2024, a record 23 allies, including the Netherlands for the first time, will meet the minimum requirement of 2% of economic output spending on defense.

Rutte, who has spent more than a dozen years as the prime minister of the Netherlands, will bring a wealth of experience to the job.

He has dealt with multiple coalitions as the Dutch prime minister, possesses extensive foreign policy experience and was known as "Teflon Mark" because political scandals did not stick to him.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the Netherlands has also full-fledged support for Kyiv, including some $3 billion pledged for this year.

It's not clear when Rutte will be formally accepted into the job, but NATO can hold a meeting or approve him at a July summit in Washington.

 

NATO losing proxy war against Russia

Lately the British media (Telegraph and Guardian) reported allegations that Russia was using chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops and, as if that was not bad enough, the Russian military was also endangering the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe.

Former CIA officer John Kiriakou discusses these reports and concludes that the incidents are false-flag operations orchestrated by Western sponsors of the Ukrainian regime. Kiriakou says it is the CIA that has a notorious track record of engaging in dirty tricks when its operations are going badly.

And, to be sure, the NATO proxy war in Ukraine against Russia is going very badly indeed. Russia has the military upper hand, while the NATO-backed Kiev regime is facing collapse.

A defeat for Washington and its NATO partners in Ukraine would be a political disaster for the Western powers. Hence they are getting desperate.

This explains the upsurge in Western media reports that Russia has started to use chemical weapons and that Russia is endangering the nuclear power plant at Zaporozhye, Europe’s largest civilian nuclear power station.

The latter insinuation by the Western media is particularly absurd. Russia took control of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant in March 2022.

It should be obvious that the NATO-backed regime is the perpetrator of nuclear terrorism yet the Western governments, media and the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency all adopt a shameful ambiguity about the perpetrator. The Western sponsors are covering up for a nuclear terrorist regime in Kiev because the Western governments are fully complicit in the terrorism.

John Kiriakou points out that the same playbook was used in Syria. When the Syrian Arab Army was gaining the military upper hand against NATO-sponsored jihadi mercenaries trying to overthrow the Syrian government, the Western media then reported alleged chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian army.

That resulted in the United States, Britain, and France launching air strikes against Syria. It turned out that the chemical weapon attacks were false flags conducted by the CIA and MI6-trained proxies.

Now that the NATO powers are losing the war in Ukraine against Russia – a war that they have invested in on an unprecedented colossal scale – the reaction is to repeat the false flag playbook as a desperate way to create a chemical or radiological disaster to justify an escalation of the war, perhaps by direct NATO intervention.

It does not matter to the Western warmongering elite that the safety of the planet is being recklessly jeopardized.

The same Western warmongering ruling establishments have fomented world wars and countless other wars costing tens of millions of lives. Their criminal recklessness knows no bounds.

John Kiriakou was jailed by the US government for two years after he blew the whistle on the CIA’s torture program. He now works as an independent journalist and commentator and has gained worldwide respect for his integrity and truth-telling.

 

 

 

 

NATO boosts Baltic Sea patrols

NATO has stepped up patrols in the Baltic Sea following recent damage to undersea infrastructure in the region, the transatlantic military alliance said on Thursday.

"The increased measures include additional surveillance and reconnaissance flights, including with maritime patrol aircraft, NATO AWACS planes, and drones. A fleet of four NATO mine hunters is also being dispatched to the area," NATO said in a statement.

The move followed announcements by authorities of damage to a Baltic Sea telecom cable connecting Sweden and Estonia and to a Finnish-Estonian pipeline and cable at around the same time earlier this month.

Officials from the countries involved have said they have yet to reach firm conclusions on who caused the damage or whether it was accidental or deliberate.

"We continue to monitor the situation closely, and we remain in close contact with our Allies Estonia and Finland, and our partner Sweden," said NATO spokesperson Dylan White.

"NATO will continue to adapt its maritime posture in the Baltic Sea and will take all necessary steps to keep Allies safe."

The buildup illustrates that NATO allies are vigilant and ready for action, Estonian Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur said.

"The decision does not mean that there is an increased military threat. Instead, it shows that relations between Allies are strong and NATO as a whole sees the protection of critical infrastructure as an important issue," he added.

Two of the four mine hunters are expected to visit Tallinn on Friday.

NATO, the European Union and national governments have made protection of undersea pipelines and cables a high priority since explosions in September 2022 ruptured the Nord Stream pipelines under the Baltic Sea and cut Europe's supply of Russian gas.

Investigators have said those blasts were an act of sabotage but have not yet decided who was responsible.

 

 

Quick end to Wagner insurrection upsets West

A short-lived armed mutiny in Russia was a well thought out and planned operation aiming to take over power in the country, says Russian deputy head of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev.

When a country backed by the US-led NATO, with upwards of US$100 billion in sophisticated weapon shipments cannot counter Russian forces, it is quite impossible to imagine a single unit succeeding in a coup attempt. 

Life has returned to normal in Russia to the disappointment of NATO and its allies. 

Western media had always referred to Wagner PMC, whose members have been fighting in Ukraine as part of Russia's special military operation as mercenaries.

During the quick mutiny attempt, they were no longer referred to as mercenaries anymore in the Western news narrative, as Yevgeny Prigozhin and some of his forces had switched from battling NATO-backed Ukrainian forces to fighting against the Russian Federation. 

The US news outlets have cited sources as saying US intelligence agencies had known in advance that Prigozhin was planning a major move against the Russian government. 

The US is said to have deliberately avoided informing Russian authorities about the plan in an attempt to see how far Wagner PMC can go to inflict internal strife in Russia. 

Throughout the day of unrest in Russia, not a single drop of blood was shed. 

Many observers are of the belief that Prigozhin had been in touch with foreign intelligence agencies that have been trying to carry out the same mission as Prigozhin, but through other measures, in what Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called all-out hybrid warfare against his country. 

Western leaders have also been left frustrated as during the attempted coup, Russian military leaders, politicians, senior officials and the public came out in support of Putin and rallied around him in a strong sign of support for the Russian leader. 

Senior Russian officials had warned the West against using the mutiny attempt to advance their Russophobic goals, saying this would prove futile.

Prigozhin, head of the Russian private military company Wagner group, and his aides began the insurrection early on Saturday and ended by night. It was ended in a deal brokered by Belarus. 

The Wagner leader's adventure came to a swift halt following an agreement with the Kremlin, and Prigozhin called off his mutiny plans in return for security guarantees. 

As part of the agreement, it has been reported that Prigozhin has left Russia for Belarus while his Wagner fighters will be absorbed into the Russian military.
The Russian Federal Security Service has also dropped a criminal case over charges of a call for an armed rebellion.

Prigozhin ended the mutiny with the knowledge that his Wagner unit was heavily outmatched by the Russian military. His mission against Russia was similar to that of the US-led NATO military alliance, which has so far sent about US$100 billion worth of weapons to Ukraine to fight Russia. 

The armed contractors, who take their military orders from the commander of chief of the Russian armed forces, managed to seize several army headquarters in the southern Russian border city of Rostov-on-Don, while others forces tried to make their way to Moscow.

Sergey Surovikin, the deputy commander of the Russian joint forces in Moscow's special military operation, called on Wagner PMC to comply with President Putin’s order and to resolve all issues peacefully.

Wagner PMC has been leading the fight for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, in what has been the longest and deadliest battle between Russian and Ukrainian forces since the conflict erupted in February 2021.

Some analysts believe it showed the combat expertise that the Wagner armed forces lacked by stretching out the battle for too long and allowing Ukraine the time to carefully plan for its counter-offensive. 

Prigozhin began the attempted mutiny by claiming that his forces had been hit with an airstrike, accusing the Russian military leadership of killing members of his unit in Ukraine with the air attack. He failed to present any evidence to back up his allegation. Medvedev described the accusation as nonsense. 

The former Russian President pointed out that given the high degree of the attempted mutiny's preparedness, the professional coordination of action and the quality management of troop movements, it is possible to speak of a thought-out military plan and the participation in the mutiny of the individuals who earlier served in the elite units of the Russian Armed Forces or, quite possibly, of foreign specialists as well. 

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that an agreement was reached that PMC Wagner troops would return to their camps and places of deployment. Some of them, if they wish to do so, can later ink contracts with the Defense Ministry," Peskov said. "It also applies to fighters, who decided against taking part in this armed mutiny”.

"They have even requested the assistance of the traffic police as well as other help to return to their permanent places of deployment," Peskov added in remarks published by TASS.

Over the past six months, Prigozhin had been building a feud with Russia's Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Russia's chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov. 

Putin had called on the businessman behind Wagner to settle any of his differences in a peaceful manner. Prigozhin chose the opposite, and that has raised eyebrows about what his true intentions had been and who was acting behind him.

A convoy of his forces crossed the border from the battlefield in Ukraine to a Russian border city, at one point taking full control of it, before the Russian military swiftly regained authority. 

His units have no aircrafts so there was no chance of success by his armed mutiny. The Russian military could have wiped out all his forces when they crossed the border, with Moscow enjoying powerful air superiority. 

Since the conflict in Ukraine, officials in Kyiv have repeatedly complained about a lack of advanced warplanes to match Russia's Air Force. 

 

Three scenarios surrounding Wagner mutiny

While the western analysts are offering all sorts of rationales, our readers are suggested to also consider three likely scenarios about the rebellion of Wagner's forces against the Russian army.

1- A possible deception plan by the Russian intelligence apparatus with the aim of diverting and draining the power and energy of enemy intelligence organizations as well as rival countries. In this case, the difference in the media narrative will deepen, some local operational tension will intensify, but from a functional point of view, the tension will not elevate to a strategic level.

2- Loyalty is what separates the Wagner unit and the Minister of Defense and the Chief of General Staff of the Russian Army. The former may be fake, the latter close to realty. In this case, based on the Russian approach and security-defense strategy, Prigozhin and his loyalists will be dealt with gradually but decisively.

3- A NATO-backed intelligence operation with the aim of disintegrating and weakening Russian forces. Prigozhin has coordinated with a foreign party. In this context, Wagner’s declared dispute is about greater loyalty to Russia, the effectiveness and efficiency of existing Russian defense and security approaches.

Any relationship with a Russian adversary will not flourish because it will highlight betrayal to Russia in alliance with an enemy.

This will lead to the collapse among the ranks of Wagner's forces. Part of NATO's goal will be achieved, but at the end of the day, it will consolidate Russia's defense and security superiority.

The important point is that Wagner, which is strongly dependent on the Russian defense sector, at least in the field of ammunition and logistics in the battlefield, will not be able to resist the Russia's powerful military.

 

Challenges facing Tayyip Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been sworn in as head of state after winning an historic run-off election to extend his two-decade rule for another five years.

The 69 year old leader has to select a Cabinet, which will be tasked with handling an economic crisis that has witnessed runaway inflation and the collapse of the lira.

“I, as president, swear upon my honor and integrity before the great Turkish nation and history to safeguard the existence and independence of the state,” Erdogan said in a ceremony at the parliament in Ankara, broadcast live on television.

Erdogan, took the oath of office on Saturday, ushering in his third presidential term that followed three stints as prime minister.

President Erdogan was sworn in during a session in parliament before an inauguration ceremony at his sprawling palace complex. Supporters waited outside parliament despite the heavy rain, covering his car with red carnations as he arrived.

Erdogan defeated opposition challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu in a runoff vote held on May 28, after he narrowly failed to secure an outright victory in a first round of voting on May 14.

Kilicdaroglu had promised to put Turkey on a more democratic path and improve relations with the West. International observers deemed the elections to be free but not fair.

Saturday’s inauguration was followed by a lavish ceremony at the presidential palace in the capital attended by dozens of world leaders. Turkey’s longest-serving leader faces considerable diplomatic challenges amid tensions with the West.

78 members of the international community attended the oath-taking ceremony. Some of the guests include Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency.

Addressing the country’s economic troubles will be Erdogan’s priority with inflation running at 43.7%, partly because of his unorthodox policy of cutting interest rates to stimulate growth.

Analysts have warned if current policies continue, the economy is heading for greater turmoil given depleted foreign reserves, an expanding state-backed protected deposits scheme, and unchecked inflation expectations.

The lira has undergone a series of crashes in recent years and hit new all-time lows in the days after the vote.

Turkey’s new members of parliament started being sworn in on Friday in their first session after the May 14 election, also attended by Erdogan. His alliance holds a majority in the 600-seat parliament.

Meanwhile, NATO allies are anxiously waiting for Ankara to green light Sweden’s attempt to join the United States-led defense alliance before a summit in July.

Erdogan has been dragging his feet on approving the application, accusing Stockholm of sheltering terrorists of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is listed as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg attended Erdogan’s inauguration and scheduled to hold talks with him.

Sweden’s Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said on Twitter a clear message emerged at a NATO meeting in Oslo for Turkey and Hungary to start the ratification process.

His Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, responded, “A crystal clear message to our Swedish Friends! Fulfill your commitments arising from Trilateral Memorandum and take concrete steps in the fight against terrorism.”

Erdogan was sworn in amid a host of domestic challenges ahead, including a battered economy, pressure for the repatriation of millions of Syrian refugees and the need to rebuild after a devastating earthquake in February that killed 50,000 and levelled entire cities in the south of the country.

Turkey is also grappling with a cost-of-living crisis fueled by inflation that peaked at a staggering 85% in October 2022 before easing to 44% last month. The Turkish currency has lost more than 10% of its value against the US dollar since the start of the year.

Unconfirmed media reports say Erdogan plans to reappoint Mehmet Simsek, a respected former finance minister and deputy prime minister, to the helm of the economy.

The move would signify a return by the country — which is the world’s 19th largest economy according to the World Bank — to more orthodox economic policies

Ukraine tried to kill Putin with night-time drone attack on Kremlin, accuses Russia

Russia accused Ukraine on Wednesday of attacking the Kremlin with drones overnight in an attempt to kill President Vladimir Putin - the most serious allegation that Moscow has levelled at Kyiv in more than 14 months of war, reports Reuters.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy promptly denied any Ukrainian involvement, telling a press conference in Helsinki: "We don't attack Putin, or Moscow, we fight on our territory."

A senior Ukrainian presidential official said the incident instead suggested Moscow was preparing a major terrorist provocation.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington had not been able to validate the reported attack, and that Russian assertions should be taken with a very large shaker of salt.

Russia reserved the right to retaliate, Putin's office said, and Russian hardliners demanded swift retribution against Zelenskiy himself.

"Two uncrewed aerial vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin. As a result of timely actions taken by the military and special services with the use of radar warfare systems, the devices were put out of action," the presidency said in a statement.

"We regard these actions as a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the president's life, carried out on the eve of Victory Day, the May 9 Parade, at which the presence of foreign guests is also planned ...

"The Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit."

Baza, a Telegram channel with links to Russia's law enforcement agencies, posted a video showing a flying object approaching the dome of the Kremlin Senate building overlooking Red Square - site of next Tuesday's Victory Day parade - and exploding in an intense burst of light just before reaching it.

Two similar videos posted on social media showed two objects flying on the same trajectory towards the dome, with the clock on the Kremlin's Spassky Tower reading 2:27 and 2:43. The first seemed to be destroyed with little more than a puff of smoke, the second appeared to leave blazing wreckage on the dome.

Reuters checks on the time and location indicated that the videos could be authentic, although it was not clear how Ukraine, if it were involved, could seriously have expected to kill Putin with a drone strike on the Kremlin - a huge, historic walled citadel in the heart of Moscow.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in comments sent to Reuters, "In my opinion, it is absolutely obvious that both 'reports about an attack on the Kremlin' and simultaneously the supposed detention of Ukrainian saboteurs in Crimea ... clearly indicate the preparation of a large-scale terrorist provocation by Russia in the coming days."

The powerful speaker of the lower house of Russia's parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, demanded the use of weapons capable of stopping and destroying the Kyiv terrorist regime.

Former president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy head of Russia's Security Council, said the incident leaves us no option but to physically eliminate Zelenskiy and his clique.

A British expert on Russia, Mark Galeotti, said it was unlikely that the alleged attack had targeted Putin, who notoriously rarely goes to the Kremlin, let alone stays there overnight.

"If we presume it was a Ukrainian attack," Galeotti tweeted, "Consider it a performative strike, a demonstration of capability and a declaration of intent, 'don't think Moscow is safe.'"

The presidential administration said fragments of the drones had been scattered on the territory of the Kremlin complex but there were no casualties or material damage.

The RIA news agency said Putin had not been in the Kremlin at the time, and was working on Wednesday at his Novo Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow.

Victory Day is a major public holiday commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War Two, and a chance for Putin to rally Russians behind what he calls his special military operation in Ukraine.

Russia marks the occasion with a huge military parade on Red Square, for which seating has already been erected.

The state news agency TASS said the parade - for which the Kremlin last week announced tighter security - would still go ahead.

Before the drone attack was announced, some 10 hours after the event, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the city had introduced an immediate ban on unauthorized drone flights.

Russia has accused Ukraine of numerous cross-border attacks since the start of the war, including strikes in December on an air base deep inside Russian territory that houses strategic bomber planes equipped to carry nuclear weapons. In February, a drone crashed in Kolomna, about 110 km (70 miles) from the centre of Moscow.

Ukraine typically declines to claim responsibility for attacks on Russia or Russian-annexed Crimea, though Kyiv officials have frequently celebrated such attacks with cryptic or mocking remarks.

 

NATO to open Japan office for deepening Indo-Pacific engagement

Nikkei Asia reports, NATO is planning to open a liaison office in Tokyo, the first of its kind in Asia. The station will allow the military alliance to conduct periodic consultations with Japan and key partners in the region such as South Korea, Australia and New Zealand as China emerges as a new challenge, alongside its traditional focus on Russia.

NATO and Japan will also upgrade their cooperation, aiming to sign an Individually Tailored Partnership Program (ITPP) before the NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 11-12. The two sides will deepen collaboration in tackling cyber threats, coordinate stances on emerging and disruptive technologies, and exchange notes on fighting disinformation.

The idea of opening a liaison office was first discussed between Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg during the latter's visit to Tokyo at the end of January. In mid-April, the alliance circulated a draft proposal among its 31 members.

The proposal is to open a one-person liaison office in Tokyo next year. Whether the Japanese side provides the office space or if NATO funds the station is still under negotiation. NATO has similar liaison offices at the United Nations in New York, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Vienna, as well as in Georgia, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova and Kuwait.

In many cases the host nation offers office space for NATO. If Tokyo provides the funding for a Western military alliance to have a foothold in Japan, it would symbolize a new phase in defense cooperation.

The intent to deepen cooperation is mutual. Japan plans to create an independent mission to NATO, separating it from the Embassy in Belgium, where it is currently based. A new ambassador will be dispatched, to relieve the NATO duties of Ambassador to Belgium Masahiro Mikami. Kishida told Stoltenberg of the plans at the January meeting.

Officials hope that the NATO-Japan signing of the ITPP would create momentum leading up to the Vilnius summit. The gathering is expected to be attended by the leaders of Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand -- like last year -- signaling NATO's deeper engagement with the Indo-Pacific.

Last June, Kishida, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and then-New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern attended the NATO Summit in Madrid. Known as the Asia-Pacific partners (AP4) of NATO, they held a meeting on the sidelines.

Danish Ambassador to Japan Peter Taksoe-Jensen told Nikkei Asia in a phone interview that a NATO liaison office would be the first of its kind in the Indo-Pacific and more than just symbolic. "It would be a very visible, real way to strengthen the relations between Japan and NATO," he said.

The Danish Embassy acts as the contact-point embassy of the alliance in Japan and is coordinating with the member states in Tokyo regarding NATO-Japan collaboration.

Taksoe-Jensen noted that the geopolitical landscape has changed drastically since NATO issued its previous Strategic Concept in 2010.

"At the time, Russia was considered a potential partner and there was no mention of China. In 2022, at the Madrid Summit, allied leaders decided that Russia was no longer a partner but a foe, and that there was also an acknowledgment that China's rise would and could have an impact on trans-European security," he said.

"This is why it is important for NATO to keep up relations with our partners in this region." The envoy said that the liaison office would also reach out to other important actors in the region such as India and ASEAN countries.

Taksoe-Jensen said NATO-Japan cooperation, going forward, will focus on challenges that transcend regions, such as cyber threats, disruptive technology and disinformation activities.

This cooperation, Nikkei has learned, will be formalized in the coming weeks, when NATO and Japan will launch the ITPP to lay out cooperation on fields such as cybersecurity, disinformation and space. It will be an upgrade from the Individual Partnership and Cooperation Program (IPCP) that the two sides signed in 2014.

"There will also be a look at interoperability," Taksoe-Jensen said, regarding how NATO and Japanese forces work together in different areas. But he said it was "a step too far at the moment" to consider the two sides to bolster regional deterrence together.

Michito Tsuruoka, an associate professor at Keio University, said that the war in Ukraine has changed the way NATO sees China. "In addition to the problems China poses by itself, a new dimension has been added: that of China as a supporter of Russia. This now becomes directly related to Europe's security."

Stoltenberg repeatedly mentioned the danger of China and Russia collaborating during his trip to Japan, Tsuruoka told Nikkei Asia.

Tsuruoka said that NATO having a foothold in Tokyo would have a significant meaning for Japan. "It means that when NATO looks at Asia, including China, it will be doing so through Tokyo's prism. When the representative sends back information to NATO headquarters, it will always be via Tokyo."

NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu stressed Japan's importance in a statement to Nikkei on Wednesday.

"Among NATO's partners, none is closer or more capable than Japan," Lungescu said. "We share the same values, interests and concerns, including supporting Ukraine and addressing the security challenges posed by authoritarian regimes, and our partnership is getting stronger."

She noted long-standing cooperation between NATO and Japan, as demonstrated by Stoltenberg's visit to Japan at the start of the year and the Japanese foreign minister's participation at the meeting of NATO foreign ministers in April.

"The Secretary General has also invited the Prime Minister of Japan, as well as the leaders of our other Indo-Pacific partners, to the Vilnius Summit in July," Lungescu said.

"As to plans to open a liaison office in Japan, we won't go into the details of ongoing deliberations among NATO allies, but in general, NATO has offices and liaison arrangements with a number of international organizations and partner countries, and allies regularly assess those liaison arrangements to ensure that they best serve the needs of both NATO and our partners," she said.

 

Proxy war in Ukraine an imperialist adventure

I am pleased to share with readers an article by Finian Cunningham stating that the proxy war in Ukraine is an imperialist adventure that has been financially ruinous, has destroyed Ukraine, and is driving a dangerous all-out war with Russia and China that could turn into a nuclear Armageddon.

It has become patently obvious to the world that the conflict in Ukraine is a dirty and desperate geopolitical confrontation, despite massive Western media efforts to portray it as something else more noble – the usual charade of chivalry and virtue to disguise naked Western imperialism.

The death and destruction in Ukraine is nothing but a proxy war by the United States and its NATO partners to defeat Russia in a strategic gambit. But the unspoken objective does not end with Russia. The US and its Western imperialist lackeys are driven to push for confrontation with China too.

As if taking on Russia is not reckless enough! The Western powers want to double down on their warmongering with China. This is all because the underlying impetus is for Washington and its Western minions to promote US-led dominance of the global order. Russia and China are the main obstacles to that path of would-be dominance, and hence we see this manic drive for aggression stemming from Washington, the executive power of the Western order.

It should be obvious that while the U.S.-led NATO axis has stoked the war in Ukraine to calamitous heights, this same axis is wantonly inciting tensions with China. This observation alone should be enough to condemn the criminality of Western powers.

This week saw the NATO powers deliver depleted uranium weapons to the Kiev regime, while the United States announced that it would be docking submarine nuclear warheads in South Korea, a move that infuriated China which pointed out that Washington was violating decades-old commitments to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

Of course, such perverse provocation is par for the course as far as Washington is concerned. It is done deliberately in a conscious effort to exacerbate tensions and escalate militarism.

Peace and security are anathemas to the US and its minions whose whole ideological raison d’être is to aggravate war to gratify corporate capitalist addiction – a system that is increasingly bankrupt and dysfunctional, and hence the insane desperation for craving war-fixes.

In a scathing speech to the United Nations Security Council this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov asserted that the conflict in Ukraine cannot be properly resolved without an understanding of the geopolitical context. In other words, the war in the former Soviet republic which erupted last February has bigger causes than what the Western powers and their compliant news media would try to pretend otherwise.

These are some of the laughable claims made by Washington and its allies. One only has to consider the decades of total trashing of the UN Charter and democratic principles by the United States and its rogue partners in their pursuit of criminal wars to realize that their virtue-signaling over Ukraine is a vile joke.

Lavrov’s address to the Security Council was a stunning rebuke of the hypocrisy and criminality of the United States, Britain, France, Germany and other NATO powers, as well as the European Union.

His speech was akin to the scene in the classic old movie The Wizard of Oz when the curtain was pulled back on the buffoonish villain for all to see.

Any objective observer would agree with the Russian foreign minister’s excoriating survey of modern history and why the war in Ukraine has tragically manifested. Lamentably, if we fail to understand history and the real causes of conflicts, then we are condemned to repeat the horrors.

Western leaders have at times revealed the bigger geopolitical agenda with their own misspoken arrogant words. US President Joe Biden had previously blurted out a call for regime change in Moscow while his senior aides, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, have succumbed to the intoxication of their narcissism and hubris by saying that the purpose of the war in Ukraine is the defeat of Russia.

Other NATO senior figures, such as the stupid, conceited Polish leaders and their Baltic buddies, have also come out and stated that the war’s ulterior agenda is to vanquish Russia. The fascist skeletons of their Nazi-collusion past have resurrected their deathly rattles, uncontrollably.

As Lavrov’s address to the Security Council intimates, the systematic violation of the UN Charter by the United States and its Western partners is a deplorable continuation of the Nazi fascism and imperialist barbarism that was supposed to have been defeated in World War Two. The culmination of the constant, unbridled Western imperialist criminality and its state terrorism is the current war in Ukraine and the growing aggression toward China over Taiwan as a pretext.

In all of this, woefully, the Western public has been flagrantly lied to by their governments and media as to the real nature of the war in Ukraine. American and European citizens have been bilked for hundreds of billions of dollars to prop up a Nazi regime in Kiev whose function is to act as a NATO spear-tip against Russia, and ultimately China when the NATO powers feel they are done with Ukraine, the latter is a futile ambition, as is becoming increasingly evident.

Journalists and antiwar activists in the West who highlight the malfeasance over Ukraine are sacked, vilified, censored, or sanctioned into poverty, or even imprisoned.

Nevertheless, the Western public and the rest of the world are increasingly becoming aware of the odious charade. By definition, charades are inevitably untenable.

The Global South – the majority of the 193 nations at the UN – has had it with Western capitalist hegemony and its outrageous neocolonialist privileges.

The incremental dumping of the US dollar as an international reserve currency for trade is a testament to the historic shift towards a multipolar order in defiance of Western unipolar elitism.

The nations of Africa, Latin America and Asia understand that the US-led NATO war in Ukraine is a desperate last-ditch bid to preserve an imperialist global order which should have been eradicated after World War Two with the establishment of the United Nations, but which, regrettably, was not.

The root cause of imperialism is the AngloAmerican-led Western capitalist order. The end of World War Two, as with World War One, was but a pause in the historical killing machine.

It is now increasingly evident in the light of leaked documents from the Pentagon that the war in Ukraine is a disaster. The Kiev regime is facing defeat at the hands of superior Russian forces even though that regime has been flooded with weapons by the United States and NATO. Great expectations of a Ukrainian victory that were widely predicted by Western leaders and media have been shown to be empty, contemptible lies.

The side-show of this war is a gargantuan racket. Western arms companies have raked in unprecedented profits, while the NATO-backed cabal in Kiev has skimmed off hundreds of millions of dollars. This is the same Kiev regime that is burning down Orthodox Christian churches, exterminating the Russian language, lionizing World War Two Nazi criminals, and locking up any critical opposition and media.

The main takeaway is the lies that the United States and Western lackeys, including the entire media industry, have been telling about the proxy war in Ukraine. This war is an imperialist adventure that has been financially ruinous, has destroyed Ukraine, and is driving a dangerous all-out war with Russia and China that could turn into a nuclear armageddon.

We should not be surprised by such blatant lying and deception. President Joe Biden and his administration have been telling barefaced lies to conceal the corruption oozing out of Biden’s own family. Biden and his son Hunter have exploited Ukraine since the CIA-backed coup in Kiev in 2014 for personal enrichment. The president has even reportedly got his senior aides to do his bidding to censor intelligence agencies and media from revealing to the public the corruption at the heart of his family.

The lies that Biden and his administration tell about personal corruption are indelibly coupled with the lies told about the proxy war in Ukraine.

It is increasingly clear that the American public, the European public, and the rest of the world have been duped in multiple ways. The phony war in Ukraine is exposing the deep, stinking well of corruption in this White House.

The World Beyond Ukraine

“Ukraine has united the world,” declared Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a speech on the first anniversary of the start of the war with Russia. The war may have united the West, but it has left the world divided. And that rift will only widen if Western countries fail to address its root causes.

The traditional transatlantic alliance of European and North American countries has mobilized in unprecedented fashion for a protracted conflict in Ukraine. It has offered extensive humanitarian support for people inside Ukraine and for Ukrainian refugees. And it is preparing for what will be a massive rebuilding job after the war. But outside Europe and North America, the defense of Ukraine is not on top of agenda.

Few governments endorse the brazen Russian invasion, yet many remain unpersuaded by the West’s insistence that the struggle for freedom and democracy in Ukraine is also theirs.

As French President Emmanuel Macron said at the Munich Security Conference in February, “I am struck by how we have lost the trust of the global South.” He is right. Western conviction about the war and its importance is matched elsewhere by skepticism at best and outright disdain at worst.

The gap between the West and the rest goes beyond the rights and wrongs of the war. Instead, it is the product of deep frustration—anger, in truth—about the Western-led mismanagement of globalization since the end of the Cold War.

The concerted Western response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine has thrown into sharp relief the occasions when the West violated its own rules or when it was conspicuously missing in action in tackling global problems.

Such arguments can seem beside the point in light of the daily brutality meted out by Russian forces in Ukraine. But Western leaders should address them, not dismiss them. The gulf in perspectives is dangerous for a world facing enormous global risks. And it threatens the renewal of a rules-based order that reflects a new, multipolar balance of power in the world.

The Russian invasion has produced remarkable unity and action from the liberal democratic world. Western countries have coordinated an extensive slate of economic sanctions targeting Russia. European states have increasingly aligned their climate policies on decarbonization with national security-related commitments to end their dependence on Russian oil and gas.

Western governments have rallied to support Ukraine with enormous shipments of military aid. Finland and Sweden aim to be soon admitted to NATO.

Europe has adopted a welcoming policy toward the eight million Ukrainian refugees within its borders.

All these efforts have been advocated by a US administration that has been sure-footed in partnering with European allies and others.

The squabbles over Afghanistan and the AUKUS security partnership (a 2021 deal struck by Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States that irked France) seem a long time ago.

Many in the West have been surprised at this turn of events. Clearly, so was the Kremlin, which imagined that its invasion would not provoke a strong and determined Western response. The West’s unity and commitment are not matched elsewhere.

At the beginning of the war, the UN General Assembly voted 141 to 5, with 47 absences or abstentions, to condemn the Russian invasion. But that result flattered to deceive.

“Most non-European countries that voted to deplore Russia’s aggression last March did not follow up with sanctions. Doing the right thing at the UN can be an alibi for not doing much about the war in the real world.”

In a series of UN votes since the war started, around 40 countries representing nearly 50% of the world’s population have regularly abstained or voted against motions condemning the Russian invasion.

Fifty-eight countries abstained from a vote, in April 2022, to expel Russia from the UN Human Rights Council. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, two-thirds of the world’s population lives in countries that are officially neutral or supportive of Russia. These countries do not form some kind of axis of autocracy; they include several notable democracies, such as Brazil, India, Indonesia, and South Africa.

Much of the fence-sitting is not driven by disagreements over the conflict in Ukraine but is instead a symptom of a wider syndrome, anger at perceived Western double standards and frustration at stalled reform efforts in the international system.

The distinguished Indian diplomat Shivshankar Menon put the point sharply in Foreign Affairs earlier this year when he wrote, “Alienated and resentful, many developing countries see the war in Ukraine and the West’s rivalry with China as distracting from urgent issues such as debt, climate change, and the effects of the pandemic.”

Courtesy: Foreign Affairs

 

Zelensky accused for embezzlement of millions of dollars

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars that the United States allocated for the purchase of fuel, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh.

In his blog, Hersh writes – The Ukraine government, headed by Volodymyr Zelensky, has been using American taxpayers’ funds to pay dearly for the vitally needed diesel fuel that is keeping the Ukrainian army on the move in its war with Russia.

It is unknown how much the Zalensky government is paying per gallon for the fuel, but the Pentagon was paying as much as US$400 per gallon to transport gasoline from a port in Pakistan, via truck or parachute, into Afghanistan during the decades-long American war there.

The issue of corruption was directly raised with Zelensky in a meeting last January in Kyiv with CIA Director William Burns. His message to the Ukrainian president, I was told by an intelligence official with direct knowledge of the meeting, was out of a 1950s mob movie.

The senior generals and government officials in Kyiv were angry at what they saw as Zelensky’s greed, so Burns told the Ukrainian president, “He was taking a larger share of the skim money than was going to the generals.” 

Burns also presented Zelensky with a list of thirty-five generals and senior officials whose corruption was known to the CIA and others in the American government. Zelensky responded to the American pressure ten days later by publicly dismissing ten of the most ostentatious officials on the list and doing little else.

“The ten he got rid of were brazenly bragging about the money they had—driving around Kyiv in their new Mercedes,” the intelligence official told me.

Meanwhile, Hersh, citing an intelligence official, said that the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines and lack of strategic planning with regard to Ukraine had caused a growing rift between the White House and the US intelligence community.

“There is a total breakdown between the White House leadership and the intelligence community,” the intelligence official was quoted by Hersh as saying.

The alleged rift dates back to the covert operation last fall to blow up Russia’s Nord Stream pipelines, a move that was purportedly ordered by President Joe Biden.

“Destroying the Nord Stream pipelines was never discussed, or even known in advance, by the community,” the official said.

Another issue dividing the Biden administration and the intelligence community is the lack of planning on Ukraine. The official highlighted Biden’s decision to deploy two brigades a few miles from the Ukrainian border in response to Russia’s special military operation.

The actual manpower of the 101st and 82nd airborne divisions could total more than 20,000, but there is still “no evidence that any senior official in the White House really knows what’s going on in” the brigades, the intelligence officials told Hersh.

“Are they there as part of a NATO exercise or to serve with NATO combat units if the West decides to engage Russian units inside Ukraine? Are they there to train or to be a trigger? The rules of engagement say they can’t attack Russians unless our boys are getting attacked,” the official said.

The official said that while the White House lacks clarity on its policy in Ukraine, the Pentagon is somewhat optimistically preparing for an end to the conflict. Two months ago, the US Joint Chiefs tasked members of the staff with drafting an end-of-war treaty to present to the Russians “after their defeat on the Ukraine battlefield,” Hersh said, citing a source.

But it remains unclear what will happen if the Pentagon’s scenario goes wrong and Ukrainian forces fail on the battlefield. Will the two American brigades deployed close to the war zone join forces with NATO troops and face off with the Russian army inside Ukraine? Hersh asks.

 

Ukraine asks Pentagon for fighter jets

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on Wednesday directly appealed to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for US fighter jets and longer-range missiles in its fight against Russia, echoing the country’s repeated calls for modern weaponry.

“We will win this war,” Shmyhal said at the top of a meeting between the two at the Pentagon. “But to achieve it faster and with fewer casualties, Ukraine still needs intensive military support — more air defense systems that minimize the impact of Russian airstrikes, more heavy artillery, mortars and ammunition for them. We also ask you for reconsider the possibility of providing Ukraine with longer range missiles.” 

Austin, while not commenting on the request, committed to investing in the US defense industrial base to further ramp up production for weapons sent to Ukraine. 

Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion a little more than a year ago has pressed the United States and NATO for advanced fighter jets to protect the country’s skies. 

While some NATO states including Slovakia and Poland have agreed to send Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, Western countries have so far held off on sending the more advanced F-15 and F-16 fighters Kyiv is asking for.  

The Biden administration has not been swayed by Slovakia and Poland’s pledges to send its own jets, saying that the choice is a “sovereign decision.” 

Kyiv has also asked for longer-range missile systems in the fight, though the US government has held off on supplying such weapons over concerns Ukraine may use them to strike targets within Russia, which is against US policy.  

At Wednesday’s gathering, which marked the second Pentagon meeting between Austin and Shmyhal, the Ukrainian official thanked Washington for its significant military support, including sending Abrams tanks and Bradley and Stryker infantry fighting vehicles, according to a readout of the meet up. 

But he also asked Austin for more heavy equipment and aircraft.  

“In modern warfare, air superiority is crucial,” Shmyhal said. “That is why Ukraine is initiating the building of a new, so-called fighter jet coalition. And we are inviting the United States to become its most important participant. America can once again demonstrate its leadership by providing Ukraine with F-15 or F-16 aircraft.” 

Austin, in turn, thanked Ukraine for making sure US lethal aid already provided is accounted for. 

 

Finland to buy David's Sling system from Israel

Finland will purchase the David’s Sling air defense system from Israel, its Ministry of Defence said. This is the first time that David’s Sling has been sold abroad. The announcement came late Wednesday, a day after the Nordic country was accepted into NATO.

The treaty’s newest member said the plans were to buy the defense system for €316 million, with a possibility for expansion.

 “The procurement contract will include a separate clause between the Israeli Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Defence of Finland to ensure the security of supply of the system,” a Finnish statement said.

“The arrangement will ensure the availability of critical system components in all security situations.”

It added, the system will extend the operational range of Finland’s ground-based air defense capabilities significantly.

This decision was one of Finland’s first moves after officially being accepted into the North Atlantic Alliance. The nation saw Israel’s defense system as a crucial need to meet its defense needs.

“This acquisition will create a new capability for the Finnish Defence Forces to intercept targets at high altitude. At the same time we are continuing the ambitious and long-term development of Finland’s defense capability in a new security environment,” Minister Antti Kaikkonen said. 

How does the David's Sling system compare to prices of other Israeli missile defense systems?

The David's Sling system is pricier among Israeli missile defense forces. Each interceptor launched by Israel’s David’s Sling system costs an estimated US$1 million, but the army insists that the cost is irrelevant when launched to defend the home front. 

Israel’s air defenses also include the Iron Dome, which is designed to shoot down short-range rockets; and the Arrow system which intercepts ballistic missiles outside of the Earth’s atmosphere. Compared to the David’s Sling costly interceptor, each Iron Dome Tamir interceptor has a reported price of between US$100,000 and US$150,000.

  

US and Europe losing battle against Russia

The crisis of the power of United States has begun. Its economy is tipping over, and Western financial markets are quietly panicking. Imperiled by rising interest rates, mortgage-backed securities and US Treasuries are losing their value. The market’s proverbial vibes —feelings, emotions, beliefs, and psychological penchants—suggest a dark turn is underway inside the US economy.

The US power is measured by its military capability as well as economic potential and performance. There is growing realization that the US and European military-industrial capacity cannot keep up with Ukrainian demands for ammunition and equipment. It is an ominous signal sent during the proxy war that Washington insists its Ukrainian surrogate is winning.

Russian economy of force operations in southern Ukraine appear to have successfully ground down attacking Ukrainian forces with the minimal expenditure of Russian lives and resources. While Russia’s implementation of attrition warfare worked brilliantly, Russia mobilized its reserves of men and equipment to field a force that is several magnitudes larger and significantly more lethal than it was a year ago.

Russia’s massive arsenal of artillery systems including rockets, missiles, and drones linked to overhead surveillance platforms converted Ukrainian soldiers fighting to retain the northern edge of the Donbas into pop-up targets. How many Ukrainian soldiers have died is unknown, but one recent estimate wagers between 150,000-200,000 Ukrainians have been killed in action since the war began, while another estimates about 250,000.

Given the glaring weakness of NATO members’ ground, air, and air defense forces, an unwanted war with Russia could easily bring hundreds of thousands of Russian Troops to the Polish border, NATO’s Eastern Frontier. This is not an outcome Washington promised its European allies, but it’s now a real possibility.

In contrast to the Soviet Union’s hamfisted and ideologically driven foreign policymaking and execution, contemporary Russia has skillfully cultivated support for its cause in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia.

The fact that the West’s economic sanctions damaged the US and European economies while turning the Russian ruble into one of the international system’s strongest currencies has hardly enhanced Washington’s global standing.

Biden’s policy of forcibly pushing NATO to Russia’s borders forged a strong commonality of security and trade interests between Moscow and Beijing that is attracting strategic partners in South Asia like India, and partners like Brazil in Latin America. The global economic implications for the emerging Russo-Chinese axis and their planned industrial revolution for some 3.9 billion people in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) are profound.

Washington’s military strategy to weaken, isolate, or even destroy Russia is a colossal failure and the failure puts Washington’s proxy war with Russia on a truly dangerous path. To press on, undeterred in the face of Ukraine’s descent into oblivion, ignores three metastasizing threats:

1. Persistently high inflation and rising interest rates that signal economic weakness. (The first American bank failure since 2020 is a reminder of US financial fragility.)

2. The threat to stability and prosperity inside European societies already reeling from several waves of unwanted refugees/migrants.

3. The threat of a wider European war.

Inside presidential administrations, there are always competing factions urging the president to adopt a particular course of action. Observers on the outside seldom know with certainty which faction exerts the most influence, but there are figures in the Biden administration seeking an off-ramp from involvement in Ukraine.

Even Secretary of State Antony Blinken, a rabid supporter of the proxy war with Moscow, recognizes that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s demand that the West help him recapture Crimea is a red line for Putin that might lead to a dramatic escalation from Moscow.

Backing down from the Biden administration’s malignant and asinine demands for a humiliating Russian withdrawal from eastern Ukraine before peace talks can convene is a step Washington refuses to take. Yet it must be taken.

The higher interest rates rise, and the more Washington spends at home and abroad to prosecute the war in Ukraine, the closer American society moves toward internal political and social turmoil. These are dangerous conditions for any republic.

From all the wreckage and confusion of the last two years, there emerges one undeniable truth. Most Americans are right to be distrustful of and dissatisfied with their government. President Biden comes across as a cardboard cut-out, a stand-in for ideological fanatics in his administration, people that see executive power as the means to silence political opposition and retain permanent control of the federal government.

Americans are not fools. They know that members of Congress flagrantly trade stocks based on inside information, creating conflicts of interest that would land most citizens in jail. They also know that since 1965 Washington led them into a series of failed military interventions that severely weakened American political, economic, and military power.

Far too many Americans believe they have had no real national leadership since January 21, 2021. It is high time the Biden administration found an off-ramp designed to extricate Washington DC, from its proxy Ukrainian war against Russia.

It will not be easy. Liberal internationalism or, in its modern guise, moralizing globalism, makes prudent diplomacy arduous, but now is the time. In Eastern Europe, the spring rains present both Russian and Ukrainian ground forces with a sea of mud that severely impedes movement. But the Russian High Command is preparing to ensure that when the ground dries and Russian ground forces attack, the operations will achieve an unambiguous decision, making it clear that Washington and its supporters have no chance to rescue the dying regime in Kiev. From then on, negotiations will be extremely difficult, if not impossible.

 

Five key takeaways from the Russian jet-US drone incident

Two Russian jets sparked the latest diplomatic crisis between Moscow and Washington on Tuesday when they forced down an unmanned American aircraft into the Black Sea.

The White House blasted the incident as unsafe and reckless, while Russia has downplayed the event, even accusing the US of provocative drone flights approaching Russian territory.

Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, called it an extraordinary and worrying clash between Russia and the Western security alliance NATO.

“Whatever the intent of the Russians, this is a very dangerous situation,” he said. “On a daily basis we have Russian weapons and aircraft and personnel in close proximity to NATO territory, NATO personnel, NATO platforms. And so the risk of escalation is significant.”

Here are five key takeaways from the downed drone.

Airspace interceptions aren’t new, but this was rare

The US intercepts Russian fighter jets several times a year in the Air Defense Identification Zone that covers international airspace outside of the US and Canada. That includes the interception of four Russian fighter jets near Alaska last month.

There have also been interceptions of US and NATO aircraft by Russian planes in the Black Sea in recent years. But the drone attack was particularly concerning for Washington, which said the MQ-9 Reaper drone was flanked by two Russian jets before one Russian jet dumped fuel on the drone.

A Russian jet then damaged the propeller of the drone and forced it down into the Black Sea.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the attack of a US drone was especially alarming compared to previous interceptions.

“This one obviously is noteworthy because of how unsafe and unprofessional it was,” Kirby told reporters on Tuesday.

Neither the US nor Russia has recovered the drone

The $32 million dollar drone may never be recovered.

Speaking to CNN on Wednesday, Kirby said the drone plunged into very deep water, and US officials are determining whether recovery efforts are possible.

But Russia is pushing forward to recover the aircraft, according to Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council.

“I don’t know if we can recover them or not, but we will certainly have to do that, and we will deal with it,” Patrushev said on Russian television Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.

Kirby said the US has taken steps to protect the information and data the drone has to limit intelligence collection from Russia.

Russia accuses US of provocation

Russia claims the US drone maneuvered sharply and crashed into the Black Sea on its own.

The Russian Defense Ministry also slammed the US for operating near the region of Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014 — but which the US refused to recognize as Russian territory.

Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov told reporters Tuesday, after being summoned to the State Department, that the drone was moving deliberately and provocatively towards the Russian territory.

“The unacceptable actions of the United States military in the close proximity to our borders are cause for concern,” Antonov said. “We are well aware of the missions such reconnaissance and strike drones are used for.”

US says it will continue patrols

The US has operated reconnaissance missions over the Black Sea for more than a year, predating Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US will not be deterred by the incident.

“Make no mistake, the United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows,” Austin said on Wednesday.

Fears of escalation persist

Tensions between the US and Russia have reached the highest point since the Cold War, rising after Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014, escalating further after Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and then skyrocketing after Moscow’s full invasion of Ukraine last year.

The US and Russia maintain a crisis communication line to deal with incidents such as the drone attack, but Moscow has not picked up the phone at some critical moments during the war in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday  described the relationship between Moscow and Washington as at its lowest point, although he said Russia would continue to engage in diplomacy.

“Russia has never rejected a constructive dialogue, and it’s not rejecting it now,” Peskov said.