La scurt timp după ce zeci de generali și amirali în retragere din Franța au semnat o scrisoare deschisă în care au atras atenția asupra unui posibil război civil, a venit rândul generalilor americani să lanseze o scrisoare similară, în care fac apel la ”salvarea republicii constituționale” de atacul marxismului. Scrisoarea generalilor și amiralilor americani în retragere a avut, până acum, mult mai puțin ecou în presă.
Nearly four years ago, Komsomolskaya Pravda journalist Dmitry Steshin called attention to the growing number of Central Asian and Caucasian Muslims working in the oil and gas cities of the Russian North and warned that local officials are at a loss as to what to do
The influx of workers from Central Asia and the Caucasus to the Russian North has continued, and some of them have become radicalized via the Internet and the work of diasporas. But according to observers there, often those most radical Muslims are recent Russian converts to the faith.
NATO members from Eastern Europe have pushed for a larger allied military presence on the bloc’s eastern flank, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said on May 10 after a virtual summit of those states that was also joined by U.S. President Joe Biden.
“The worrying situation in the Black Sea, which we discussed in detail, proved that we have to keep being vigilant,” Iohannis said in Bucharest.
A Russia-linked cyberattack targeting the largest U.S. fuel pipeline system is a “criminal act, obviously,” President Joe Biden said Monday.
“The agencies across the government have acted quickly to mitigate any impact on our fuel supply,” the president said at the White House at the start of remarks about his economic agenda.
The ideological divisions of today involve the organization of the international system of states. One side, led by the USA, UK, EU and NATO, subscribes to something it calls the “rules-based international order.” (India claims to follow this.) The other side, led by Russia and China, subscribes to “international law…The principles of this system are set out in the United Nations Charter.
The meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels and of China and Russia’s foreign ministers in Guilin brought into stark relief the ideological differences that divide the leading protagonists of the new Cold War.
The European Union has approved the participation of NATO members the United States, Canada, and Norway in a project aimed at speeding up the movement of troops and military equipment around Europe.
The May 6 decision marks the first time the EU has opened up an initiative from its Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) pact, which aims to deepen defense ties, to outside partners.
The Russian media outlet Vz.ru reported that Russia had, for the first time, surpassed the U.S. as a supplier of liquefied natural gas to Europe, and that this positive news for Russia meant that “our gas has once again proven its superiority.” The article stated: “Russian LNG is in more demand in Europe than American LNG, even in times of crisis and a sharp decline in demand and prices.”
The Russian press played up the Chinese authorities pledge to increase support for Russia in the face of tougher Western sanctions on Russia. On April 26, 2021, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the following:
Russian ships and trains are moving back the tens of thousands of troops massed on Ukraine’s border because, Russia’s defense minister said last week, their “surprise inspection” had “demonstrated their ability to ensure the reliable defense of the country.” In reality, the Kremlin stood down after its saber-rattling failed to unnerve the Ukrainians—and after President Biden warned President Vladimir Putin directly to drop the military threat, effectively calling the Russians’ bluff. Yet the pullback does not end Russia’s threat to Ukraine. Rather, the episode has overshadowed Moscow’s more discreet, persistent campaign to undermine the Ukrainian state.
The recently announced decision to increase the U.S. military presence in Europe by sending 500 additional troops to Germany in the coming months is the right move at the right time in the right place. This announcement implements President Joseph Biden’s goal of improving transatlantic relations, and it will add vitally necessary capabilities to the American presence on the continent at a time when Russia continues to rattle sabers. But there’s more work to do regarding American boots on the ground in Europe, especially in the Baltic region, where small contributions of U.S. troops could go a long way to addressing ongoing shortcomings.