The power-sharing of the U.S. Federal government with Big Tech appears a recipe for unharnessed power and corruption. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny caught on right away, saying: “This precedent will be exploited by the enemies of freedom of speech around the world. In Russia as well. Every time when they need to silence someone, they will say: ‘this is just common practice, even Trump got blocked on Twitter.'”
In his speech at the first MEI – CENTCOM conference, General Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of CENTCOM, argued that “we’re beginning to see a resurgence…of great power competition in the Central Command AOR [area of responsibility] as China and Russia begin to find weaknesses and begin to move into it. In Central Command, the Central Asian states and the central Gulf region, in fact, all of Central Command is becoming a newly active area of engagement between us and other great powers as we compete on the global stage.”
On Feb. 3, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hosted his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi in Moscow. After their meeting, Lavrov emphasized Russia and Jordan’s shared positions on Syria, Gulf security, and Israel-Palestine. Safadi also revealed Jordan’s interest in obtaining Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, as it could help Amman immunize its citizens and the refugees within its borders.
While the Saudi efforts to restore Riyadh agreement between the resigned Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and the Southern Transition Council (STC) have totally failed and a new round of clashes is expected –as media on Monday reported that Hadi’s new cabinet members have fled from Aden to Saudi Arabia– the southerners in a move that shows they are preparing for a new stage of the country’s developments sent a delegation to Moscow.
Satellite imagery that The War Zone has obtained of Russia’s Khmeimim air base outpost in Syria shows work ongoing to extend one of its two main runways by around 1,000 feet. The extension would allow the base to support more regular deployments of larger and more heavily-laden aircraft, including heavy airlifters and even potentially bombers.
Russia and the United States have formally extended the New START nuclear arms-control treaty for another five years, just days before it was set to expire.
“Extending the New START Treaty makes the United States, U.S. allies and partners, and the world safer. An unconstrained nuclear competition would endanger us all,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a February 3 statement announcing the official extension of the treaty.
La guerre d’influence entre Paris et Moscou ne cesse de prendre de l’ampleur à Bangui. Dernier épisode en date : l’infiltration supposée d’un sous-traitant de la défense française par le renseignement russe. Voici les détails de cette affaire.
Visit comes upon invitation from Russian Foreign Ministry
A delegation from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group arrived in Moscow on Monday for talks with Russian officials.
Navalny has been in and out of Russian jails more than ten times since 2011, when he first became the face of Russian opposition to Putin and coined the phrase that the ruling United Russia party was “the party of crooks and thieves”.
Southern Transitional Council says visit comes upon invitation from Russian government
A high-level delegation from the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) in Yemen flew to Moscow on Sunday for talks with Russian officials.