Elon Musk has some new super fans: Russia, China and the Islamic State.
After the world’s richest man bought Twitter for $44 billion last month, officials and journalists linked to Russia and China — and even some jihadists — urged him to lift restrictions on their use of the platform.
On October 10, Iranian loitering munitions rained over Ukraine’s urban centers, including Kiev. Two weeks later, Israeli forces struck an Iranian drone factory in Syria (Al Arabiya, October 23). This demonstrated how Iran’s drone program is now beyond Iran, both in terms of production and operational impact. Iran has become a drone-exporting nation and Iranian drones are creating new flashpoints in different geopolitical axes.
Ukraine’s recent attack in Crimea on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in port reveals glimpses of how the war with Moscow could develop if Kyiv makes a concerted push to retake the peninsula, naval analysts said.
The early morning drone offensive Oct. 29 also provides lessons for the U.S. Navy and its allies as they build future strategies for bases and shipyards, where billion-dollar assets will need protection from such attacks.
The war has left Belarus in a predicament, which boils down to depending on Russia for everything without enjoying the advantages of being part of Russia. In combination with the simmering domestic crisis, it leaves ever fewer incentives for the ruling nomenklatura and wider society to value the current Belarusian statehood.
The potential for cooperation in certain areas, like military technology, may look promising. But Iran cannot be counted upon to really help the Russian economy withstand the impact of sanctions.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, relations between Russia and Iran have flourished. Having been hit by a new raft of tough Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, Moscow set about looking for alternative partners among other traditionally anti-Western countries—including to bypass trade restrictions—and Iran looks set to be one of the most promising.
The Czech Republic is stepping up and is set to send T-72B battle tanks to Ukraine. These are Soviet-era main battle tanks that entered production in 1969. It also has a deep history with Ukraine. The original 5TDF engines were replaced by the more modern V-45, which was produced by the Malyshev Factory in Kharkiv.
Iran must be punished for its “complicity in Russian terror,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a speech on Sunday evening.
He added that “absolutely everyone who helps Russia prolong this war must bear responsibility for the consequences of this war along with it.” Zelenskyy said, “The whole world will know that the Iranian regime helps Russia prolong this war, and therefore prolong the effect of those threats to the world provoked precisely by the Russian war.
Even Desperate Leaders Tend to Avoid Catastrophe
National leaders who are losing wars sometimes resort to desperate gambles. Defeat or even lack of victory might threaten their hold on power, and they are sometimes willing to take daring or outside-the-box moves to try to turn things around. This is the great fear about the war in Ukraine: if Russian President Vladimir Putin judges that his back is up against the wall, he may decide to take catastrophic action.
Britain’s Defense Ministry said Sunday in its daily intelligence report about Ukraine that there has been a “series of dismissals of senior Russian military commanders since the onset of the invasion in February 2022.”
The report said, “These dismissals represent a pattern of blame against senior Russian military commanders for failures to achieve Russian objectives on the battlefield. This is in part likely an attempt to insulate and deflect blame from Russian senior leadership at home.”
As Armenia and Azerbaijan near a peace treaty, Russia is increasingly distanced from the region.
Armenia and Azerbaijan seem to be inching toward a comprehensive peace deal by the year-end. The hints in the media have been circulating for months, with various representatives from the Armenian leadership signaling a high probability of progress on the peace deal.