President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is trying to turn what appears to be the most strategic move in NATO’s history into carpet-trading at Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar.
“The Russian-Kurdish nexus has been a recurring feature of Middle Eastern geopolitics for more than two hundred years, since Catherine the Great commissioned the publication of a Kurdish grammar in 1787.” — Michael A. Reynolds, The National Interest, March 1, 2016.
How U.S. Policy Is Making a Bad Situation Worse
In the Balkans, and especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina, images from Ukraine of besieged cities, massacres, and mass displacement are re-traumatizing a society that has never been allowed to heal after the wars that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991. Along with the rest of the world, Bosnians have watched the razing of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol with horror. But having lived through the siege of Sarajevo and similar atrocities, Bosnians recognize the velocity and brutality of Russia’s war on Ukraine more viscerally than others—and it puts them on edge.
It’s Hard for Moscow to Win While Mistreating Its Soldiers
Six days before the invasion of Ukraine, a small group of Russian soldiers huddled together in their tents in Belarus. One of them had covertly acquired a smartphone—barred by the military—and together, the group logged on to Western news sites. There, they read a story that shocked them: according to Western intelligence reports, Russia was about to invade its neighbor.
Some 300,000 metric tons of Ukrainian wheat that had been scheduled for delivery to Egypt in February and March has not yet been shipped, Reuters first reported. One of the cargo shipments remains stuck in Ukraine’s Chornomorsk Port on the north-western shore of the Black Sea, and four have not yet been loaded.
The US military will participate in a major Israeli drill later this month simulating an airstrike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Israel’s Channel 13 reported on Tuesday. The drill, part of an exercise dubbed “Chariots of Fire,” will include the air-to-air refueling of Israeli fighter jets by US Air Force tanker planes as they simulate entering Iranian territory and carrying out repeated strikes.
Românii plătesc, în gospodăriile lor, cel mai scump curent electric din Uniunea Europeană raportat la puterea de cumpărare, adică după metodologia PPS – purchasing power standard.
США сохраняют уверенность в том, что НАТО достигнет консенсуса в вопросе вступления Финляндии и Швеции в блок, несмотря на возражения Турции, заявили в Белом доме. Когда это произойдет, пока планировать сложно, подчеркивают политологи. Как и последствия присоединения Хельсинки и Стокгольма к Североатлантическому альянсу. Обозреватель “Ъ” Максим Юсин считает, что их членство в организации станет неизбежной реальностью.
The European Union’s executive arm moved Wednesday to jump-start plans for the 27-nation bloc to abandon Russian energy amid the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, proposing a nearly 300 billion-euro ($315 billion) package that includes more efficient use of fuels and faster rollout of renewable power.
NATO envoys failed to reach a consensus Wednesday on whether to start membership talks with Finland and Sweden, diplomats said, as Turkey renewed its objections to the two Nordic countries joining.
The envoys met at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels after Finland and Sweden’s ambassadors submitted written applications to join the military organization, in a move that marks one of the biggest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s war on Ukraine — and which could rewrite Europe’s security map.
Nearly 1,000 last-ditch Ukrainian fighters who had held out inside Mariupol’s pulverized steel plant have surrendered, Russia said Wednesday, as the battle that turned the city into a worldwide symbol of defiance and suffering drew toward a close.