Tag: russia

Terror from all sides: The U.S.’ new bet against the Russian Federation

June 23, 2024 will be remembered by future generations as one of the saddest days in the history of the Russian Federation. Another tragic day added to the long list of heartbreaking dates in recent times.

Russia’s enemies want to resume the days of terror of the 1990s and 2000s. At the time, separatists from the Caucasus killed or injured thousands of victims in cowardly attacks across Russian territory with the sole intention of generating chaos, insecurity and social instability. Decades later, some extremists plan to do the same. Just like the terrorists of the past, today’s assassins are armed and financed by the Collective West and serve as instruments in NATO’s constant attempt to destroy the Russian Federation.

On June 23, two major terrorist attacks took place in different regions of Russia. In Sevastopol, the capital of Crimea, the Kiev regime launched American missiles at a beach, killing civilians, including children. Hours later, in Dagestan, Russia’s Muslim-majority region in the Caucasus, Salafist radicals attacked Orthodox churches and synagogues, killing dozens of civilian worshipers. As it was Pentecost Sunday, one of the most important dates in Orthodox Christianity, many believers prayed in churches and became easy targets for terrorists.

For those unfamiliar with the reality of anti-Russian terrorism , the cases may appear to have different reasons and actors. But, in fact, both events are deeply connected.

Recently, there have been a series of attempted terrorist attacks on Russian territory. Few of these attacks are successful , as the Russian security service efficiently neutralizes most threats. However, some criminal operations unfortunately occur, generating victims, such as the recent Crocus City Hall Massacre, as well as the latest case in Dagestan.

It is naive to think that the attacks in Crocus or Dagestan are a simple action by “ISIS” or any other radical Islamic militia. These terrorist groups do not act alone, being only proxies for Western powers and serving as false flags to disguise the involvement of intelligence agencies linked to NATO. In practice, it is possible to say that every attack by a radical Salafist in Russia means precisely an intelligence operation conducted by Western agents.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian armed forces and Kiev’s neo-Nazi militias continue daily to carry out terrorist incursions across Russian borders, bringing panic to ordinary people in peaceful, demilitarized regions such as Crimea, Belgorod and Kursk. In practice, Russia’s enemies seem to want to promote terror from all sides, attacking Russian civilians on the borders, in the capital and in the provinces.

Keep reading

Why Putin Sent Russian Ships to Cuba

On June 17, Russian naval vessels left Cuba without incident, concluding a five-day visit. The visit may have been without incident, but it wasn’t without meaning. Frustrated that their diplomatic messages were not being heard, Russia sent a louder message. But that message may not have simply been about projecting power as the West has presented it.

On June 12, four Russian naval vessels docked at Havana Bay in Cuba, just 90 miles from the coast of Florida. The vessels included the Admiral Gorshkov frigate and the Kazan submarine. Though they can both carry advanced weapons, neither were carrying nuclear weapons.

The two vessels make a strong statement. The Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov, “one of the Russian Navy’s most modern ships,” is capable of being armed with Zircon hypersonic missiles. The Kazan submarine is a nuclear-powered submarine that is one of the Yasen-class submarines “that has worried the US and Western militaries for years due to its stealth and strike capabilities.” It is quiet and tough to track and can carry cruise missiles.

Though the Pentagon has said that the Russian fleet does not pose a threat to the United States, the U.S. has deployed ships, reconnaissance planes and sea drones to monitor and track the vessels. The U.S. also sent a fast-attack submarine to Guantanamo Bay and their Canadian ally sent a navy patrol ship into Havana.

Though saying they do not pose an actual threat, the mainstream media has portrayed the arrival of the ships as a Russian demonstration of its ability to project power into America’s hemisphere and backyard.

It is not possible to divine Russia’s intention. The official Russian statement is that “Naval exercises are standard practice in very varied parts of the world, and are standard practice for states – in particular those that are major naval powers like the Russian Federation. The carrying out of such visits is also a widespread practice.”

But, though it is impossible to read Russia’s intention in sending the ships, it is not difficult to see the effect. There are two significant messages to be read in the arrival of the Russian fleet.

Keep reading

Deadly Blaze Rips Through US-Sanctioned Moscow Electronics Research Building

A huge and deadly fire is raging at a defense technology research center outside of Moscow, which has so far reportedly taken the lives of at least eight people (per BBC citing state media updates, though the casualty count is conflicting).

A building of the Platan Research Institute has been engulfed in flames, widespread social media videos show. It is located in the town of Fryazino in the Moscow region. Importantly, Platan develops radio-electronic systems for Russia’s Defense Ministry, raising suspicion that this could be the result of sabotage or covert attack connected to the war in Ukraine.

Governor Moscow oblast, Andrei Vorobyov, confirmed in a Monday statement that three floors of the building have been overwhelmed by flames. “The fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth floors are on fire,” Mash said Monday.

TASS has cited an eyewitness who saw two people tragically fall to their deaths after they jumped from a window trying to escape the flames and thick smoke. BBC writes:

There are conflicting reports about the building’s purpose. It once homed the Platan Research Institute and defence industry, according to Tass.

A statement to the agency from Ruselectronics, a Russia-owned electronics organisation, said the building has been privately owned since the 1990s. However, opposition media outlets recently reported that Platan was based in the building as late as 2023.

It is not immediately clear what caused the fire, but one eyewitness told Tass that it broke out on the sixth floor before spreading.

Keep reading

Ukraine’s Attacks on Freedom of Expression Continue

U.S. officials routinely portray Ukraine as a democratic ally and the symbol of an existential fight between freedom and authoritarianism. That simplistic portrayal has intensified since Russia launched its large-scale attack in February 2022. The reality is that Ukraine is a corrupt authoritarian state similar to Russia. Not only does Volodymyr Zelensky’s government not respect civil liberties at home, but also it has tried to impinge on such liberties in the United States.

On three separate occasions since the Russia-Ukraine war began, Kyiv published an “enemies list” of critics with implicitly threatening overtones.   Zelensky and his colleagues clearly have no tolerance for critics, domestic or foreign. Their willingness to target and attempt to intimidate foreign critics became abundantly clear in the summer of 2022, when Zelensky’s government’s Center for Countering Disinformation (partly funded by U.S. taxpayers) published a “blacklist” of such opponents.  Numerous prominent Americans were on that list including University of Chicago professor (and the dean of foreign policy realists) John Mearsheimer, journalist Tucker Carlson, former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, and Cato Institute Senior Fellow Doug Bandow. The ominous, threatening nature of the blacklist became even clearer later in 2022, when the CCD issued a revised roster (including addresses) of the top 35 targets. That narrower, high-priority list denounced those critics as “disinformation terrorists” and “war criminals.” Such conduct definitely is not that of a liberal democracy. Yet official Washington and its media echo chamber continue to ignore Kyiv’s contempt for democratic norms.

The latest attack takes the form of a report “Roller Coaster: From Trumpists to Communists. The forces in the U.S. impeding aid to Ukraine and how they do it.” That report’s author was the U.S. government-supported Ukraine’s “Data Journalism Agency, (TEXTY),” which is listed as an “implementing partner” of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services/TPAS Project.

A devastating analysis by the Spectator’s Ella Johnson noted that the new report listed Americans who were accused of nothing more than “impeding aid to Ukraine.” There were 391 individuals and 76 organizations on the list, including members of the conservative media and even several members of Congress.

The title of the report “oversells the product: it is a substantively thin piece, largely an excuse to smear a large group of Americans who have been skeptical of aid to Ukraine in one form or another,” Senator J.D. Vance and Representative Matt Gaetz wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “The accusations are laughable on their face,” Nation journalist James Carden, who is included on the list, told the Spectator. “And they should be treated with absolute contempt.

The Spectator reached out to several other people named on Ukraine’s TEXTY site. “All I can say is that I am proud to be on the list,” said Dr. Sumatra Maitra, senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America.  “It’s clarifying to see the State Department-funded Ukrainian NGO’s showing their true colors and creating blacklists, demonstrating how utterly Soviet they still are.”

Keep reading

Russia summons the American ambassador over a deadly attack that Moscow says used US-made missiles

The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the American ambassador on Monday to protest what it says was the use of U.S.-made advanced missiles in a Ukrainian attack on Russian-annexed Crimea that reportedly killed four people and wounded more than 150.

Washington “has effectively become a party” to the war on Ukraine’s side, the ministry said in a statement, adding, “Retaliatory measures will certainly follow.” It did not elaborate.

There was no immediate comment from U.S. or Ukrainian officials. The Associated Press could not independently verify Russia’s claims about the missiles used.

Kyiv’s forces have relied heavily on Western-supplied weaponry since Russia’s invasion more than three years ago. The military aid has been crucial in allowing Ukraine to hold the Kremlin’s army at bay, with few major changes along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line in eastern and southern Ukraine for many months.

Some Western countries have hesitated over providing more — and more sophisticated — help for Kyiv’s army because of concerns about potentially provoking the Kremlin. But as Ukraine has at times struggled to hold the line against Russia’s bigger and better-equipped military, Western leaders have gradually relented and granted more support.

In the latest key development, the Pentagon said last week that Ukraine’s military is being allowed to use longer-range missiles provided by the U.S. to strike targets inside Russia if it is acting in self-defense. Since the outset of the war, the U.S. had maintained a policy of not allowing Ukraine to use the weapons it provided to hit targets on Russian soil for fear of further escalating the conflict.

Crimea, which Russian annexed from Ukraine in 2014 in a move that most of the world rejected as unlawful, long had been declared a fair target for Ukraine by its Western allies.

Russian authorities said that the dead in Sunday’s attack included two children who were hit by falling debris from Ukrainian missiles that were shot down over a coastal area in Sevastopol, a port city in Crimea. It said cluster munitions, which critics say harm more civilians than combatants, were also used.

Russia said the missiles were U.S.-made ATACMS, a long-range, guided missile. It summoned U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy to the Foreign Ministry.

Keep reading

Appetite for Destruction: US Gambles on New Texas Factory to Churn Out Ammo for Ukraine

The Ukraine proxy conflict continues to feed the insatiable US cycle of arms spending and production, with yet another newly-unveiled manufacturing facility joining its ranks.

A Texas factory that reportedly cost US$500 million to build is geared towards boosting the gravy train of US warmongers.

NATO’s proxy conflict in Ukraine has an avid appetite for ammunition and has eaten its way into both US and EU stocks with lackluster results to show for it. The Pentagon is hoping the General Dynamics facility in Mesquite, Texas, will help satiate this ammo craving.

American factories in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, together produce about 36,000 155mm shells per month. Managed by General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems (GD.N), the new Universal Artillery Projectile Lines facility jam-packed with cutting-edge machinery can churn out 30,000 units per month for the Kiev regime.

Keep reading

New evidence US blocked Ukraine-Russia peace deal, and a new Ukrainian excuse for walking away

Since the collapse of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in April-May 2022, the Biden administration and establishment US media have maintained a near-total vow of silence.

Even as Russian President Vladmir Putin has directly accused the US and UK of sabotaging the negotiations in Istanbul, President Biden and his top principals have never offered a rebuttal, and no major US outlet has bothered to seek one. The lone exception was an anonymous senior administration official, who told the Wall Street Journal’s Yaroslav Trofimov that Russian complaints were “Utter bulls—.” The official added: “I know for a fact the United States didn’t pull the plug on that. We were watching it carefully.”

Keep reading

White House to Send Allies’ Patriot Air Defense Systems to Ukraine

Per a Thursday report in the Financial Times, the U.S. will suspend all orders for Patriot air defense systems to other countries and redirect their production to Ukraine.

According to the White House, it will be “re-sequencing” the planned deliveries so that Ukraine will receive produced systems at an expedited rate.

The move comes on the heels of the Biden administration’s promise of getting more Patriot systems for Ukraine “relatively quickly” at the recent G7 summit. 

The redirection will reportedly not affect exports to Taiwan.

Keep reading

Putin Signs Military Assistance Deal With North Korea

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a military assistance pact with North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un during the former’s visit to Pyongyang.

The deal promises “immediate military assistance” from either should the other be attacked. Due to Russia’s vast size compared to North Korea, this seemingly provides a security guarantee to the latter, though it is unclear what exact form the promised “protection” and “military and other assistance” would take should hostilities on the Korean peninsula break out. Kim described the treaty as an “alliance,” although Putin did not. 

While many of the terms are still unknown, Putin stated that he would not “exclude the development of military-technical cooperation with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in accordance with the document signed today.”

Throughout most of his presidency, Putin has worked with China and the United States to contain North Korea, especially with regard to nuclear weapons. This current deal between Russia and North Korea seems to mark the end of any U.S.-Russia partnership to contain North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

Keep reading

Slovak Defense Ministry Accuses Former Government of Sabotage and Treason Over Ukraine Jet Transfer

The Slovak Ministry of Defense said on Friday that it considers the transfer of MiG-29 fighter jets and air defense systems to Ukraine in 2023 as an act of sabotage by the former leadership of the ministry.

“Based on the results of the discovery of a number of failures of the former government, we, as the Ministry of Defense, are filing an application [to law enforcement agencies] on suspicion of committing sabotage, that is, treason, abuse of power and violation of duties to manage other people’s property,” ministry spokesman Igor Melicher told reporters.

After the inspection, the ministry did not find a document that would justify the legality of transferring fighter jets and air defense to Ukraine, the official added.

Earlier, Melicher stated that the transfer of MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine in 2023 was illegal, and legal measures would be taken against former Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Naď. Melicher pointed out that Slovakia’s constitution prohibits a caretaker government from making significant foreign policy decisions, such as transferring fighter jets to Ukraine worth over 500 million euros.

Slovak Ombudsman Robert Dobrovodský reported that the Slovak Ministry of Defense could not find any legal analysis confirming the legality of the MiG-29 transfer to Ukraine by Eduard Heger’s government in 2023.

In December 2022, the Slovak parliament passed a vote of no confidence in Heger’s government, but his cabinet continued to perform its duties with limited powers. In March 2023, Heger’s government decided to transfer 13 MiG-29 fighters and part of the Kub air defense system to Ukraine. The party of the current Prime Minister, Robert Fico, sought an investigation into the circumstances of this transfer, claiming that Heger’s government lacked the authority to make such decisions. Former Defense Minister Naď, who was part of Heger’s cabinet, argued that a legal analysis conducted before the decision confirmed the procedure’s legality.

Keep reading