Tag: russia

Cold War 2.0 Heats Up

Last week the nuclear rhetoric between the US and Russia made some of us feel like we were transported back to 1962. Back then, Soviet moves to place nuclear-capable missiles 90 miles off our coast in Cuba led to the greatest crisis of the Cold War. The United States and its president, John F. Kennedy, could not tolerate such weapons placed by a hostile power on its doorstep and the world only knew years later how close we were to nuclear war.

Thankfully both Khrushchev and Kennedy backed down – with the Soviet leader removing the missiles from Cuba and the US president agreeing to remove some missiles from Turkey. Both men realized the folly of playing with “mutually assured destruction,” and this compromise likely paved the way to further US/Soviet dialogue from Nixon to President Reagan and finally to the end of the Cold War.

Fast forward more than 60 years later and we have a US president, Donald Trump, who last week stated that he had “ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions,” meaning nearer to Russia.

Had Russia attacked the US or an ally? Threatened to do so? No. The supposed re-positioning of US strategic military assets was in response to a sharp series of posts made by former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on social media that irritated President Trump.

The war of words started earlier, when neocon US Senator Lindsey Graham’s endless threats against Russia received a response – and a warning – from Medvedev. Graham, who seems to love war more than anything else, posted “To those in Russia who believe that President Trump is not serious about ending the bloodbath between Russia and Ukraine… You will also soon see that Joe Biden is no longer president. Get to the peace table.”

Medvedev responded, “It’s not for you or Trump to dictate when to ‘get at the peace table’. Negotiations will end when all the objectives of our military operation have been achieved. Work on America first, gramps!”

That was enough for Trump to join in to defend his ill-chosen ally Graham and ended with Medvedev alluding to Soviet nuclear doctrine which provided for an automatic nuclear response to any first strike on the USSR by US or NATO weapons.

The message from the Russian politician was clear: back off. It was hardly Khruschev banging his shoe at the UN screaming “we will bury you,” but it was enough for Trump to make a rare public pronouncement about the movement of US nuclear submarines.

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Climbing Aboard the Titanic: Trump’s New Ukraine Policy

When Donald Trump entered the White House for his second term as president, he had an excellent opportunity to extricate the United States from the quagmire war between Russia and Ukraine.  His instincts–that continued involvement in that conflict was not in America’s best interests—were sound.  Indeed, he signaled throughout the 2024 presidential campaign that he intended to terminate military and financial aid to Kyiv as soon as possible.  Most of his MAGA supporters seemed to agree that the Biden administration’s willingness to send billions of dollars to Ukraine when the United States had pressing needs at home was disgraceful.

Just months into his term, however, the president seems to have abandoned the goal of jettisoning the Ukraine commitment.  Instead, he has continued weapons shipments to Kyiv and authorized new ones.  He also expresses growing hostility toward Russian President Vladimir Putin and is making ever more unrealistic demands on Moscow.  In mid-July, that shift in policy included his insistence that the Kremlin accept a comprehensive ceasefire as the first stage of a peace accord with Ukraine—and do so within 50 days.  In late July, Trump moved up the deadline for Moscow’s acquiescence to such terms to no more than 10 to 12 days.  Otherwise, he warned, the United States would impose new economic sanctions on Russia far more onerous than those already in effect.  

The threat to impose stronger economic sanctions, though, has lost much of its clout.    Despite suffering some economic pain, Russia has been surprisingly resilient in handling existing sanctions.  Moscow has done an especially impressive job of finding alternative markets for its principal exports, most notably oil and natural gas.  There is no reason to believe that the situation would be different this time.  Increasing Washington’s military support for NATO’s Ukrainian proxy might have more impact, but it also would be utterly reckless, bringing the specter of World War III into play. 

Trump has picked an especially inauspicious time to join Ukraine’s Western fan club.  It is ironic that he is continuing– and even escalating–Washington’s commitment to Ukraine at precisely the moment that Kyiv’s status as viable U.S. and NATO client has become increasingly doubtful.  Russia continues to make gains on the battlefield, slowly conquering additional Ukrainian territory.  The bloodied Ukrainian forces appear increasingly beleaguered, and Russia (because of its much larger population and military reserves) is better positioned for a continuing war of attrition. 

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Zelensky Signs Law Allowing Ukrainians Over 60 To Join The Military

Ukrainians aged 60 and older can now serve in non-combat roles thanks to new legislation. The elderly Ukrainians will need special approval and get medical clearance before enlisting.

The law was passed by the Ukrainian legislature earlier this month and signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday, allowing people over the age of 60 to serve in limited roles until martial law in Ukraine is lifted.

While the current martial law authorization is set to lapse next month, Zelensky has requested that lawmakers extend it for an additional 90 days. Zelensky’s presidential term has already expired, and he has used martial law to remain in office.

Zelensky signed the law increasing the age limit as Ukraine continues to struggle with manpower in the war with Russia. Last year, Ukraine lowered its draft age from 27 to 25, but has resisted calls from the US to drop it to 18.

Regional media explains:

According to the Verkhovna Rada website, the law was returned with the president’s signature on Tuesday, July 29. Parliament had passed the legislation on Wednesday, July 16.

The law applies exclusively to volunteers – there is no provision for compulsory service in this age group.

Under the updated Law “On Military Duty and Military Service,” citizens aged 60+ can now enlist under contract during martial law, provided they are deemed medically fit by a military commission and have written consent from a unit commander.

Ukrainian MP Anna Skorokhod explained earlier this month that her country was facing a severe manpower shortage, saying, “Our main problem is people. Nobody is giving us people.”

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Putin Criminalizes Online Searches for ‘Extremist’ Content

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a law that criminalizes searches for “extremist” content on the internet, with fines of up to 5,000 rubles ($64) for each violation.

The Moscow Times noted that even some of Russia’s more enthusiastic censors are uneasy about the new law because they might get busted for seeking out extreme content so they can censor it:

Yekaterina Mizulina, head of the Kremlin-aligned Safe Internet League and a prominent advocate of online censorship, voiced unease over the bill earlier this month. She warned that it could obstruct the League’s work, roughly 30% of which involves identifying extremist content and forwarding it to authorities.

Mizulina claimed that the legislation could even put police officers at legal risk for viewing content as part of their duties.

In a similar vein, the head of Russian state propaganda network RT, Margarita Simonyan, lamented that her apparatchiks would be hindered in their quest to “investigate and bring to shame” critics of the Kremlin and the Ukraine war if they were “forbidden to even read them.”

The vote in the Russian parliament to pass the bill was more divided than usual, with opposition from factions that usually give Putin what he wants, including the Communist Party. An aide to a liberal Russian politician who protested the bill by comparing it to the Big Brother dystopia of George Orwell’s 1984 was immediately arrested.

Internet freedom advocates, meanwhile, raised the objection that “extremism” can be difficult to define and Putin is likely to stretch the term to include all criticism of his government.

Human Rights Watch pointed out that Putin has previously designated anti-corruption groups, LGBT organizations, independent media outlets, human rights groups, and political opponents as “extremists.” It is a safe bet that Russian courts will find most criticism of the Ukraine war to be “extremist” in character.

The new law empowers Putin’s enforcers to go after people who search for “extreme” content, not just those who create it. The chilling effect on dissent will be formidable in a nation where dissent was already half-frozen to death.

Putin’s digital minister, Maksut Shadayev, was predictably evasive when asked how the regime would define “extremist” content, or tell the difference between users who intentionally seek it out compared to those who stumble across it by accident. Shadayev said it would be up to prosecutors to demonstrate “intent.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Putin’s new law was the “most serious step in censorship and the fight against dissent” since the 2022 bill that established 15-year prison sentences for disseminating “fake news” about Russia’s military activities.

“This vaguely worded, fast-tracked bill shows a clear disregard for open debate and create an even more repressive environment for the media and the public,” said CPJ Europe and Central Asia Senior Researcher Anna Brakha.

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Russian Drone Found At Military Base In Lithuania Which Hosts NATO Troops

A suspected errant Russian drone has breached a NATO country’s airspace this week – though certainly not for the first time, and is setting off the proverbial alarm within Lithuania’s military

The drone was discovered crashed at a Lithuanian military training area after entering the country’s airspace from Belarus, after first being spotted early Monday morning, Lithuania’s army reported on Friday. The military first tracked in on radar over Belarusian airspace, near the border.

Several area residents actually captured footage of it flying over Vilnius before it vanished, and later was found on the ground at the military training base.

“It’s likely the same drone that breached our airspace on Monday. Initial analysis suggests it may be a Gerbera model, though this is still being confirmed,” the Lithuanian military said in the statement.

At least one Lithuanian lawmaker has portrayed the drone breach incident as intentional, also given it ended up at a military site.

“This looks like a provocation,” said Mindaugas Sinkevičius, interim leader of Lithuania’s ruling Social Democratic Party, while describing that the sensitive area where it was found leads to the conclusion that the breach was on purpose or a test of sorts.

It has been identified as a Gerbera drone, a type which Russia’s military often utilizes as a decoy to mislead or distract air defense systems in Ukraine.

Interestingly, the Gaižiūnai training grounds near Rukla – where it was recovered – actually hosts a NATO multinational battalion, regional reports say.

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Trump Deploys 2 Nuclear Subs After Medvedev’s “Foolish, Inflammatory” Statement

On Tuesday, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev issued the Kremlin’s response to President Trump’s Monday announcement from Scotland that he’s reducing a deadline for Russia to agree a peace settlement from 50 days to 10 or 12 days, citing ‘disappointment’ in Putin not ending or at least winding down the war.

Medvedev warned: “Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran” and thus that “Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with (Trump’s) own country.”

That followed comments by Medvedev that Trump ‘steamrolled, humiliated’ Europe with his trade deal.

Then Thursday, Trump told Medvedev to “watch his words”

And now, Friday morning, President Trump took to his Truth Social account and escalated from words to actions moving two nuclear submarines to be positioned “in the appropriate regions” based on “highly provocative” statements from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

“Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances,” Trump says

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Trump Escalates Nuclear Threat to Russia… Taking the World to the Brink of Nuclear War

Donald Trump is behaving like some drugged-out teenage girl with his social media posts. Trump— the wannabe “Art of the Deal” emperor — is panic‑posting the world to the threshold of nuclear war and taking other actions that Russia can only view as the US preparing to attack the motherland.

The latest escalation started with this tantrum by Trump…

Medvedev, who is an Olympic-class troller, punched back with this warning:

About Trump’s threats against me on his personal network Truth, which he banned from operating in our country

If some words of the former president of Russia cause such a nervous reaction from such a formidable US president, it means Russia is right in everything and will continue on its own path.

And about the “dead economy” of India and Russia and the “entering dangerous territory” – well, let him remember his favorite movies about “the walking dead,” as well as how dangerous the non-existent in nature “dead hand” can be.

Trump, in a continuing display of ignorance, apparently took this as a Russian threat to launch a preemptive attack on the United States. The Russian “Dead Hand,” also known as the “Perimeter” system, is an automatic or semi-automatic nuclear command and control system developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War and is reportedly still operational today. Its purpose is to guarantee a retaliatory nuclear strike against an enemy even if Russia’s leadership and command structure are destroyed in a decapitating attack. Medvedev was simply warning Trump that a decapitation strike on Moscow would still produce a retaliatory strike on the United States.

Instead of keeping his mouth shut, Trump bombastically huffed and puffed, like an impotent Big Bad Wolf, and announced that two nuclear submarines were heading toward Russia, just because Dmitry Medvedev roasted him online.

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What’s The Most Realistic Scenario In Which The West Might Replace Zelensky?

They might wait until after Russia agrees to a ceasefire (if it ever does) since replacing him with Zaluzhny while hostilities still rage could further weaken Ukraine to Russia’s benefit.

Russia’s foreign intelligence service (SVR) published a report in late July alleging that the Anglo-American Axis organized a secret meeting in the Alps with Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Yermak, GUR chief Budanov, and former Commander-in-Chief-turned-Ambassador-to-Britain Zaluzhny over Ukraine’s future. According to them, Yermak and Budanov agreed with the Anglo-American Axis’ proposal to replace Zelensky with Zaluzhny, which could be advanced on anti-corruption pretexts and “reset” Ukraine’s ties with the West.

Sputnik shared the following assessment of SVR’s report by former US Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter: “SVR and its press service are ‘not a media outlet,’ Ritter pointed out. ‘They’re not there to inform the public when they release information. It’s usually done to achieve an objective or purpose’ – in this case signalling the desire to ‘inflict the most harm on Zelensky at a time when he is deemed to be most vulnerable,’ and ramp up divisions within his government, and between him and Zaluzhny”.

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Trump’s Russia Sanctions Ultimatum Will Blow Up In America’s Face: Jeffrey Sachs

Economist and longtime adviser to the UN Jeffrey Sachs has issued a scathing critique of President Trump’s decision to unleash yet more anti-Russia sanctions, giving Moscow just ten days to negotiate for peace with Ukraine or else the new punitive measures will go into effect.

Sachs called the new policy “dangerous” and a sign that the Trump administration is plagued by contradictions and lack of a coherent strategy for ending the war, despite constant early boasting that Trump would rapidly achieve peace. The ‘secondary sanctions’ aimed primarily at those nations still trading with Russia are doomed to be ineffective anyway, the Colombia University professor pointed out.

“If the sanctions are actually applied, they are an escalation of the conflict, and therefore very dangerous. I do not believe that they will be effective,” he said in an interview with Russian media.

“For example, I do not believe they will stop Russia from selling oil, gas, and other commodities to Asian markets. Yet, provocations and escalation often have unpredictable negative effects, and that could be true here as well,” he added.

The new restrictions are likely to backfire regardless, as they “could expose” the “incompetence” or even “accelerate the breakup” of US-led geopolitical and economic blocs.

“This is, in short, the wrong approach. We need diplomacy and negotiation to get to the root causes of the conflict, and solve them, not unworkable ultimatums based on the idea of an unconditional ceasefire,” Sachs added.

He further highlighted the West’s inability to acknowledge and come to terms with the real underlying causes of Ukraine war, such as historic NATO expansion east, the sham Minsk accords, or the coup events of 2014.

“Instead, the Western powers now demand an unconditional ceasefire. Russia will not agree to this, nor will a new round of US sanctions compel Russia to agree to this,” Sachs emphasized.

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‘IMPREGNABLE FORTRESS’: Russian Forces Conquer Donetsk Stronghold of Chasov Yar After 17 Months of Siege

Chasov Yar opens up the way for the largest bastion in Donetsk, the Kramatorsk-Slavyansk agglomeration.

Another ‘impregnable fortress’ in the Ukrainian region of Donetsk has fallen to the advances of the Russian forces.

This time, it was heavily fortified Chasov Yar.

We have been reporting on the battle for the city for a very long time. Back in April 2024, we started the series of articles with The Battle for Chasov Yar Has Begun – Russian Troops Reach the Outskirts of Key Donbas City – What We Learned From the Sieges of Mariupol, Bakhmut and Avdeevka (VIDEOS).

In the post you can find this: “Three things stand out from the coverage of the battles for Mariupol, Bakhmut (now called Artemovsk) and Avdeevka: to begin with, it will be long and bloody. Besides that, during all the operation, fake news shills will insist on how badly things are going for the besiegers. And finally, once the town is conquered, all the media will say that the city is nothing but a ‘meaningless pile of ruble’.

And so, as the battle for key Donetsk oblast stronghold of Chasov Yar commences, the usual scenario is at play.”

“To begin with, it will be long and bloody.” That was in no way an overstatement, as we learn that now, 17 months later, the Russian Defense Ministry announces that Chasov Yar has been conquered – or, as they prefer, ‘liberated’.

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