Podcasts about Russian Chinese

President Xi Jinping stressed his firm belief in the deep-rooted friendship between China and Russia, while emphasizing the strong commitment of both nations to serving the people and assuming global responsibilities as major countries, during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.In talks with Putin at the centuries-old Kazan Kremlin, Xi underlined that China-Russia relations have weathered storms and forged ahead, achieving a series of groundbreaking results and exploring a path for neighboring major powers to coexist through nonalignment and nonconfrontation and without targeting any third party."The world today is facing momentous transformations unseen in a century, resulting in a fast-changing and turbulent international landscape. Yet I am confident that the profound and lasting friendship between China and Russia will not change, nor will our sense of responsibility as major countries for the world and for the people," he said.Xi arrived in the Russian city on Tuesday morning for the 16th BRICS Summit, a visit that also marks his 10th trip to Russia since he became Chinese president in 2013. The meeting on Tuesday was the third between the two heads of state since the beginning of the year.He pointed out during the meeting that the BRICS cooperation mechanism is one of the most important platforms for solidarity and cooperation among emerging markets and developing countries.It serves as a pillar in promoting a more equitable and orderly multipolar world, as well as in advancing inclusive and sustainable economic globalization, Xi emphasized.He also stressed that he looks forward to engaging during the summit in in-depth discussions with Putin and the leaders of other nations on the future development of the BRICS cooperation mechanism. The summit is the first since the grouping's historic expansion at the beginning of the year."Together, we aim to foster consensuses, send a positive message of unity and cooperation, and advance strategic collaboration and pragmatic cooperation across various fields within BRICS," he said.According to a readout released by the Kremlin, Putin described ties between Russia and China as "a model for how relations between states should be built in the modern world"."Our multifaceted cooperation is equal, mutually beneficial, and absolutely free from any opportunism," he said, adding that Russian-Chinese cooperation in global affairs is one of the main stabilizing factors on the world stage.China has been Russia's largest trade partner for 14 consecutive years, and Russia has become China's eighth-largest trade partner. The annual trade volume between China and Russia once again set a record last year, exceeding $240.1 billion, which fulfilled the target set by the two presidents ahead of schedule, according to China's Foreign Ministry.As part of booming cultural exchanges, the two heads of state jointly inaugurated the China-Russia Year of Culture in Beijing in May during Putin's two-day state visit to China.Zhang Hanhui, China's ambassador to Russia, described China-Russia relations as "full of impetus and rich with outcomes" during an interview with reporters at the airport minutes before Xi's arrival.

It may feel like we're standing still, but astronomers have determined that our galaxy, the Milky Way, is spinning at 500,000 mph. We're spinning along as if nothing is happening. But American politics seem to be spinning out of control: There was the assassination attempt with Mr. Trump shot. Leaders telling Biden to step down from the presidential race. V.P. Harris appointed the presidential candidate. The director of the Secret Service resigned. A Worldwide billion-dollar disruption of the internet. Russian & Chinese military aircraft turned away from Alaska. But don't worry, Machine Politics is still working. MUSIC Hans Zimmer,JohnPowell,Atticus Ross,Harry Gregson-Williams

A busy week has reached us once again, quite a lot of news to catch up on throughout the week. This week I decided to break up the content into two separate videos; this first part, which is the standard news update, and a second part (which I'm editing right now) that covers some more in-the-weeds ideas of the recent Russian/Chinese incursion flight that occurred a few days ago. That incident was quite interesting, but also quite boring and probably not particularly immediately useful to everyone, so I decided to separate it out into it's own video. That Part 2 video will be uploaded by tonight.Youtube link: https://youtu.be/fW2iIsVSMAc00:00 - Northeast Region 05:32 - Midwestern Region 08:10 - Southwestern Region 11:40 - Western Europe 20:02 - Red Sea/HOA 21:35 - Far East 23:33 - GhostNet Reports

Chinese and Russian nuclear-capable bombers have been spotted patrolling near Alaska. President Joe Biden gives his fourth Oval Office address and explains why he's stepping aside for the 2024 race. We take a look at his administration's China policy. The Justice Department charges a Florida man born in China with spying on Chinese dissidents in the United States. Authorities say he's been providing information to China's intelligence agency for more than a decade. We take a deep dive into the world of illicit fentanyl and what it takes to produce the deadly synthetic opioids from scratch. The substance could be a lot more accessible than many think. ⭕️ Watch in-depth videos based on Truth & Tradition at Epoch TV

Russian, Chinese Bombers Patrol near AlaskaNewsham: China, Russia ‘Smell U.S. Weakness' Amid PatrolAn Overview of Biden's China PolicyFlorida: Man Charged with Decade of Spying for CCPReport: Reuters Found All Fentanyl-Making Supplies OnlineBlinken to Visit 6 Asian Countries in Show of CommitmentHong Kong Court Dismisses Jimmy Lai's Bid to End TrialDeadly Typhoon Sinks Freighter, Barrels Through TaiwanAustralian Swimmer Might Protest Chinese RivalBeijing Suspends Arms Control Talks with U.S.

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a deeply divided Congress in a joint session on Wednesday, his first foreign trip since the 7 October attacks, where he warned of the existential threat posed by Iran and their proxies. The U.S. intercepted a number of Russian and Chinese bombers in international airspace near the coast of Alaska on Wednesday, marking the first time that Russian and Chinese aircraft have crossed into Alaska's Air Defense Identification Zone. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President's Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin.  Email: PDB@TheFirstTV.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Breaking News Russian/Chinese Bombers on the Edge of the U.S.A.! On today's show I discuss the events happening around us besides what everyone is talking about! I also explore the new affair the media is having with V.P. Harris! That and more!  Web Site: www.DontTreadonMerica.com Email the show: Donq@donttreadonmerica.com DTOM Store (Promo code DTOM for 10% off)     Sponsors: www.makersmark.com www.reaperapparelco.com Promo code: DTOM   Social Media:   Don't Tread on Merica TV   DTOM on Facebook   DTOM on X    DTOM on TikTok    DTOM on Instagram    DTOM on YouTube

Top stories kicking off Thursday morning 7-25-24 on Russian-Chinese jets near US, Biden's short garbled speech, Trump Force One targets new candidate, and anti-Israeli protesters trash DC while Netanyahu delivers a stirring pro-US address.

DIGITAL NOISE EPISODE 342: THE ENDLESS PODCAST Chris and Wright got a little carried away this week with having fun and turned in an epic-length show, but to be fair, there WERE a lot of titles to talk about. From a Russian/American hidden gem of a thriller from the 90s, to a bizarre Russian/Chinese hybrid… Read More »Digital Noise Episode 342: The Endless Podcast

DIGITAL NOISE EPISODE 342: THE ENDLESS PODCAST Chris and Wright got a little carried away this week with having fun and turned in an epic-length show, but to be fair, there WERE a lot of titles to talk about. From a Russian/American hidden gem of a thriller from the 90s, to a bizarre Russian/Chinese hybrid… Read More »Digital Noise Episode 342: The Endless Podcast

2024-06-08 | What China Gives Russia by Vladimir Milov | Translated from the original Russian by Jonathan Fink ---------- What did Putin agree with Xi Jinping during his visit to China, and what is happening in Russian Chinese relations in general? There is a lot of talk about this now. On the one hand, the dialogue between Putin and Xi in Beijing did not end with anything concrete in terms of signing any new agreements. On the other hand, we hear a lot of talk that China may still begin to supply Russia with lethal weapons for use in its war with Ukraine. In general, what is the current situation in Russian Chinese relations? Since, despite all these statements about eternal friendship, some rather alarming messages are coming through; agreements between the countries are not working. Large Chinese companies have stopped working with Russia, fearing secondary US sanctions. Well, first of all, it must be said that, despite the fact that Russian propaganda presented Putin's visit to China with maximum fanfare, and, by the way, most of the Russian government and senior people from the Russian leadership went with him. But, on the other hand, the results of this visit were strikingly empty. As a result, Putin and Xi signed only 11 documents. You can easily find this list on the Kremlin's website, and it is clear that there is nothing serious there, no new financial, trade, military agreements. Only phytosanitary protocols, which, in general, can be signed at the level of deputy ministers. ---------- Визит Путина в Китай оказался удивительно пустым. Что скрывается за отсутствием реальных прорывов? Почему не решаются возрастающие острые проблемы в отношениях с Китаем - блокировка расчетов, уход китайских компаний с российского рынка, сокращение критических поставок китайского оборудования? Объясняет Владимир Милов - это продолжение нашего регулярного плейлиста, где мы рассказываем правду об истинной сущности отношений России и Китая, о которой вы не услышите по российскому телевидению. ---------- LINKS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGbbVjuIiT0&t=88s https://www.youtube.com/@Vladimir_Milov ---------- SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND: kharpp - Reconstruction project supporting communities in Kharkiv and Przemyśl https://kharpp.com/ Save Ukraine https://www.saveukraineua.org/ Superhumans - Hospital for war traumas https://superhumans.com/en/ UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukraine https://unbroken.org.ua/ Come Back Alive https://savelife.in.ua/en/ Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchen https://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraine Ukrainian Freedom News https://www.ukrainianfreedomnews.com/donation/ UNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyy https://u24.gov.ua/ Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation https://prytulafoundation.org NGO “Herojam Slava” https://heroiamslava.org/ NOR DOG Animal Rescue https://www.nor-dog.org/home/ ---------- PLATFORMS: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CurtainSilicon Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siliconcurtain/ Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4thRZj6NO7y93zG11JMtqm Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finkjonathan/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- Welcome to the Silicon Curtain podcast. Please like and subscribe if you like the content we produce. It will really help to increase the popularity of our content in YouTube's algorithm. Our material is now being made available on popular podcasting platforms as well, such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Nick Pope is a former member of the British Ministry of Defense and spent many years assigned to the UFO task force investigating the bizarre sightings around the UK. Today we're talking about the biggest cover ups in UK history, all of the bizarre sightings he's worked on, and confirms the existence of remote viewing programs. Edited and produced by  @99OvrAll  Thank you to Morgan & Morgan ZippexBluechew For making this the best show ever 00:00 Intro01:44 Are aliens are real?04:22 Have they visited Earth?07:45 Answering people like David Grusch09:04 Career in MoD + transitioning to UFOs12:42 “Foo Fighters” WW2 origins & even earlier22:00 Military technology explanation25:08 30 March 1993 - multiple sightings of the same thing36:47 Interviewing witnesses + combating confirmation bias41:15 Project Blue Book - investigating UAP sightings46:14 Verifying witnesses, plotting the route + April Fool's cover58:35 Flying football fields + Not being Russian/Chinese tech1:03:43 Superpowers' tech + quantum leap1:07:12 Britain's Roswell + 6.66 increase in radiation1:35:23 Tucker Carlson being disturbed + religious dynamic1:40:33 Techno-signature + disclosure incoming1:45:19 Does Tucker know more?1:46:42 Rendlesham Forest Incident evidence incl. hieroglyphs1:51:25 The binary code message + sheepish about his “discoveries”2:08:27 Aggressive debriefings, regression hypnosis & truth serums2:17:37 Past life regressions + remote viewing was/is being used2:28:05 Testing on children & remote influencing too

This week our guest is the incomparable Mark Sleboda! You can find me and the show on social media by searching the handle @DrWilmerLeon on X (Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube. Our Facebook page is www.facebook.com/Drwilmerleonctd All our episodes can be found at CTDpodcast.com.   Transcript: Dr Wilmer Leon (00:48): Welcome to the Connecting the Dots podcast with Dr. Wilmer Leon. I'm Wilmer Leon. Here's the point. We have a tendency to view current events as though they occur in a vacuum, failing to understand the broader historical context in which most events take place. During each episode of this podcast, my guests and I will have probing, provocative, and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between current events and the broader historic context in which they occur. This will enable you to better understand and analyze the events that impact the global village in which we live. On today's episode, we will discuss the recent belt and road form for international cooperation. Recently, over 500 people were killed as a result of an Al Ali Arab Hospital bombing in Gaza. And the US has provided Ukraine long range attack s missiles for insight into this. Let's turn to my guest. He's a Moscow based international relations and security analyst, mark Sloboda. Mark, let's connect some dots. Mark Sleboda (01:58): Pleasure to on connecting the dots. Dr Wilmer Leon (02:02): So Russian President Putin recently went to Beijing to participate in the third Belt and Road forum for international cooperation. Mark, how significant was this meeting? Mark Sleboda (02:17): Yeah, so I think that this meeting was significant for a number of reasons. First, for President Putin on a personal situation, it is the first time that he has left Russia since the Wess pushed international criminal court charged Vladimir Putin with the crime of helping families and caretakers in East Ukraine move their own children out of the range of Kiev regime artillery that had been bombing them for the last 10 years, also known as abducting children, which evidently is a crime when Russia does it in a time of conflict, but is not a crime when the US does it, when they move thousands of children out of Afghanistan and many thousands of children out of Vietnam in a previous generation of conflict. But besides that, the Russian Chinese relationship bilaterally, I think is probably the most important bilateral relationship for both countries. And both presidents seem to have a good working relationship, often described as a friendship and a deep understanding with each other. (03:47) And each time one of the others has been reelected to their positions. The first country that they go to is each other's, and I think that is a symbolic sign of the relationship, how important it is with each other's countries. But in a wider perspective, this Belt and Road Forum summit, it is actually the 10th anniversary of China's launching of the Belt and Road Project with the goal of which is to build deep infrastructure all along certain geographic pathways along a lot of what could have been considered the old Silk Road to facilitate trade and connections between the countries of this part of the world. And this is something that China does wherever it goes and does business is build infrastructure because it considers that as a long-term investment, not only in the process of conducting trade, but of helping their trade partner develop to a level where they can better trade with each other. (05:09) So physical infrastructure, but also schools, hospitals, things like this. Now a lot of Russian and Chinese and many other countries, leaders have done a lot about talking about the construction of a new, more multipolar, fairer and more equitable world order. And this would stand, I think, in contradiction and an obvious opposition to the current rules based orders. We make the rules, we give the orders of US led Western global hegemony, but in this emerging, shall we say, nascent being born multipolar world order, there are several countries that come to the fore as the first among equals, but certainly China and Russia, our foremost political drivers amongst that. And China stands of course head above the rest if only in terms of their population and their economic strength, which by many measures already exceeds that of the United States. And if there is a meeting and a display of this alternate world order of which China is playing such an important part, a China centric world order, if you want to call it, that was on display in this Belt and road summit. (07:00) It was a bringing together of all the countries participating in this physical implementation of a more multipolar world order. The only Western leader in attendance, very interestingly is the right wing prime minister of Hungary, the foreign policy black sheep, victor or Bond who has refused to participate in the West's proxy war in Ukraine. And its existential economic war of sanctions weaponizing its control of the global financial and economic architecture against Russia, primarily from a Hungarian national interest perspective rather than any great love of Russia or the Russian president, which is I think a position that most people would agree is something that should be something that every world leader should aspire to, that they put their own nation's interest and people above all others. Although in the current world that's not even specific. It's not, we know that it's not the case. Dr Wilmer Leon (08:25): Just asked Olaf Schultz in Germany that question you mentioned each time gee and Putin get elected, we keep hearing from Western narrative, particularly from Biden authoritarians, authoritarians G is an authoritarian, Putin is an authoritarian, can just briefly explain the fact that they're elected, they don't control their elections. They have different electoral processes than we do. They have different democratic constructs than we have, but that doesn't mean that they're authoritarian. Mark Sleboda (09:14): Yeah, I mean this is a label that is tapped on essentially to any country now that lies outside of US-led western global hegemony that does not align itself and does not meet the West's self-reflective standard of what democracy looks like. And it really, it is a way of exerting moral superiority. The idea that we are both morally and systemically superior than those people over there who are our adversaries in a different time. It was communists of course, and there have been other labels in history and certainly labels are applied to the Western countries. They are imperialists. They are hegemons. This is a standard othering device. I live in Russia, I immigrated to Russia from the United States, and I have lived here for most of two decades. And I have to be honest, after having some experience as a volunteer for the US Democratic Party, I find that politics in Russia on a whole is no more or less substantive than the democratic nature beneath the sheets of politics in the United States. I don't want to go out of the way to make it seem like it's a democratic utopia or anything like that far from it. But on a whole, knowing the warts inside and out of political systems in US and Europe and now Russia, I think that over in a general context that they're expressed themselves roughly equally. There is Dr Wilmer Leon (11:18): Politics plus they also reflect the intricacies of their cultures. And so I was having a conversation with some folks a couple of days ago and I said they were, oh, well G is an authoritarian. And I said, well, I've seen polls from Harvard and Princeton and some other western universities that show like 96% of Chinese people like their government. And I think it was 87% of Russians polled like their government support government. So if it's working for them, then who in the world am I to say that it's not good, it's not right, or what we have is better. I know Joe Biden would love to see 60% approval rating, let alone 96% approval rating. Mark Sleboda (12:15): Yeah, I think not only approval of the current government, but I've seen similar polls that asking peoples of different countries whether they think they live in a democracy and quite overwhelmingly, certainly over the 50% margin, the people of Russia feel they live in a democracy and certainly the people in China do as well to an even greater degree. Again, it doesn't look like western liberal democracy, but perhaps you could consider it of a more technocratic bureaucratic nature. But as you point out, there is a thousand multi-thousand year history of Chinese bureaucratic constructs that they are laying their future and their choices on top of. Meanwhile, in the United States, people generally feel that they don't live in a democratic system, that their government is not responsive to their needs and interests. And you could say that that is, oh, I mean all the people in Russia and China are ignorant. (13:35) They don't know the real situation of what they live and what we live in. And I got to tell you, Russian people, even Chinese people, despite the great Chinese firewall, their coordinate of the internet generally have a far higher degree of reading and understanding western media than the other way around. That is they hear our perspective and thoughts, but as Westerners, you quite often don't hear at least on your own media unless you go actively looking for it, the opinions and perspectives of other countries. So I think that assumption that all the people over in that other part of the world, they don't live in a real democracy and that they think they do is only a sign of how brainwashed and ignorant they are compared to us enlightened people on the shining city on the hill. That is a hallmark of the supremacist ideology of exceptionalism that unfortunately has come to dominate not American political culture, but I think far more important, the American political elite, the ruling class. And that has disastrous consequences for us foreign policy and the world. Dr Wilmer Leon (15:05): You are absolutely right. I've been to Iran twice and was very blessed to lecture at probably somewhere between 10 and 15 universities throughout the country. And as I traveled throughout Iran, I was amazed at how well informed the questions that these students asked me. They were right on it, man, in terms of an understanding of the politics of the moment. And again, the questions that they asked me were spot on. It indicated that they were going beyond the rhetoric, they were going beyond the talking points. And it was shocking to me how well-informed in spite of the wall that you talk about in terms of the internet, they were on point, man. Mark Sleboda (16:11): Yeah, I think it's interesting that this label is applied to adversaries like Russia and China, Russia, which has opposition parties and elections. They don't do very good right now because since the economic catastrophe of the nineties, I think the Russian population has been more united in their political vision of a path out of that and forward and retaking what they see as their place in the world after the self dissolution of the Soviet Union. That will not last forever. And a lot of people question whether it will last after Putin at all. But there is opposition political structures. The biggest opposition political party in Russia is the communist party of the Russian Federation, which polls generally somewhere around 15% of the population. And in foreign policy, it must be said, they largely agree with the current government of Vladimir Putin, but in domestic issues, they constantly fight for the Duma for things that leftist parties always fight for, more social benefits, more spending on education and medicine and other things. And if anything, I think probably the communists would probably, if they were leading the country, would probably take a more hard line foreign policy position than the current government. I think that when the US Dr Wilmer Leon (18:02): Speak to that, because a lot of people listening this will say, wait a minute, a harder line than Vladimir Putin. Oh my God. You can't get a harder line than that when the people making those observations have never listened to the man, have never read any of the speeches that he's given. And so they, again, he's evil, he's insane, all of these, he's a dictator, all of these kinds of things. Mark Sleboda (18:36): Yeah. Again, the fact that they don't hear what Vladimir Putin has to say for himself because the western media specifically does not reproduce it for them. And I have to say that Russian media does this. I mean, there are still government funded projects in Somi that translate word for word western articles in print media and televised and put it out there for Russians to listen to, not only from the United States and Europe, but from all over the world. That tradition doesn't exist on the west. It's not that it is banned, although in some cases in Europe, Artie and Sputnik are banned, aren't they? Or everything is done to take them off the airwaves as is done in the United States, and of course not just with RT and Sputnik, but now with press TV from Iran. And there are calls of course to do the same to the Chinese CCTV and now even Al Jazeera in the current climate because as the state media arm of Qatar, they are now seen as being anti-Israeli. (19:55) So a very similar phenomenon is now taking place. And in a previous conflict, there was very much the same argument being made about Al Jazeera over the situation in Iraq. So this rears its head regularly, but why is the authoritarian label not linked to actual authoritarian countries? That is dictatorships, that are politically geopolitically allied with the United States, right? Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, these are states that are starting to diversify their foreign policy. Saudi joining Brix and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a dialogue partner and identifying China as their most important trade partner, but still they are very much linked to the United States, and certainly they have been for decades. Qatar has a giant US army base, similarly in Kuwait, the UAE. Why are the actual monarchic oligarchic dictators of these countries not referred to as authoritarian? Because the label is more about oppositional geopolitical alignment than it is in domestic, Dr Wilmer Leon (21:27): Domestic government leadership, Mark Sleboda (21:29): Any real assessment of their domestic political system. And I have to Dr Wilmer Leon (21:34): Say mbss is chopping heads. I mean Mark Sleboda (21:38): Literally as a chopping more than heads, these bones aren't sorry. Right. As a veteran, well, I'm both a military, a US military veteran and shall we say a veteran of the US political system with all the warts that the US political system has with its systemic suppression of third party movements. And I'm talking, I mean Americans don't even know this for the most part, but their own two parties of power, the Republicans and Democrats regularly sue third parties to keep them off the ballot, right? I mean, they regularly go to court every election cycle to keep them off the ballot and the whole structure of 50 separate elections and the intricacies run by the party in power, either the Republicans or the Democrats in the state does everything possible to prevent the emergence of any other voice than those two and the electoral college and the eternal problems with campaign finance and lobbying. But Americans somehow feel their political systemic superiority so strongly that they don't even think when their political and media elites judge the political system of another country. And as far as most Americans reflexively are concerned, they think they are the only democratic country on earth and the only good people, which is really kind of another iteration of we are the chosen people of God, political meme throughout history. Dr Wilmer Leon (23:35): What is more authoritarian than not having a presidential primary in a system that is based on primaries? What is more of a dictatorship than imposing Joe Biden upon Democrats instead of holding a primary look at what the Democrats did to Bernie Sanders during the Hillary Clinton campaign, hence Julian Assange's email leaks, which demonstrated all the machinations that the Clinton campaign went through to see to it that Bernie Sanders could not become the Democrat nominee. What is more authoritarian than that? Mark Sleboda (24:28): I got to tell you. Dr Wilmer Leon (24:31): Am I right? Mark Sleboda (24:32): Yeah, you're absolutely right. And I don't want to go too much myself into US domestic politics because Dr Wilmer Leon (24:40): I just raised that Mark Sleboda (24:40): As examples myself from that. I don't want to cast stones. I don't necessarily feel that it's my place to, but I'm actually a confession. I'm originally from Scranton, Wilkesboro, Pennsylvania. That's where I was born. Anyway, that's also Joe Biden's hometown, where he was born. And I distinctly remember the video. I mean, I was too young at the time to remember it politically, of course, but I've seen the videos of Joe Biden running for Congress admitting open, right, that the system is corrupt, that corrupt people are elected to office, and that at the time, the only reason he wasn't corrupt is because he wasn't given the money by the oligarchs, by the rich of the country that he had asked for because he was too untested of yet, but that if he was, he would've taken, I mean, I think there is no greater condemnation of the US political system than admissions like that coming from the very seat of the president, or I mean, shall we take the words of prior presidents Jimmy Carter coming right out and saying, America is no longer a democracy. It is an oligarchy. Dr Wilmer Leon (26:11): You mentioned that President Putin went to China for the conference and that this was the first time that he had left the country in quite a while. That to me speaks volumes in how comfortable he must be in the midst of the Russia, Ukraine conflict. His country is at war, and he feels comfortable enough to leave his go to China for a couple of days. That to me says that he's comfortable not only in his position domestically, but he's also comfortable in his country's position internationally. Mark Sleboda (26:59): Yeah, I don't think Putin does. He perfectly understands, I think as a leader what he knows and what he doesn't know. And he has made it quite clear that he does not micromanage his generals in the conflict and in the intervention, the special military operation as they call it in Ukraine, the intervention in the Ukrainian civil conflict that has been going on for a decade. Also, of course, neither Russia nor China, nor it must be said, or the United States or India, are signatories to the Rome statute of the international criminal court. So that is not an issue on the trip. In fact, when the international criminal court tried to bring charges against the US, US leaders and military leaders for crimes, alleged crimes, yeah, committed in Afghanistan, in Iraq, they sanctioned the court, they sanctioned the judges, they sanctioned the prosecutor, they threatened to remove funding from the United Nations. They put arrest warrants out for the judges and the prosecutor until the issue was withdrawn. From my understanding is there were even threats made against the families and lives of Dr Wilmer Leon (28:44): SDA was the judge. Yes. I don't remember her first name, but her last name is sda, and her family was sanctioned and threatened. Mark Sleboda (28:54): Yes. So I don't place any credits to that. And one of the reasons I don't place any credits on these charges is anything more than an instance of geopolitical capture of a un institution, which unfortunately happens far more often than it should. But my full disclosure, my wife is from Crimea, which is considered, at least according to the us, to still be part of Ukraine. And we have family all over East Ukraine, and there are some 5 million Ukrainians living and working in Russia. And that is a side of that conflict. The fact that there has been a civil conflict in that country since the openly US backed overthrow of the government there in 2014 is the internal divide in that country. And again, I know Americans think that through their propaganda bubble of the New York Times, the Washington Post, the ancient three networks and Fox and CNN, that they have a better idea what is going on in Ukraine than most Russians do. No, they don't because there are 5 million Ukrainians living in Russia who tell them all the time on tv, in media and in person because of how much families are interrelated on both sides of the border, they know far, far more about what is happening and has been happening politically in that country, not only for the last year or two, but of course going back decades. And it is the height of hubris, I think, to think otherwise. Dr Wilmer Leon (30:48): Switching gears a bit, recently, over 500 people were killed as a result of the Al Ali Arab Hospital bombing in Gaza. And we are seeing this escalation of the conflict in occupied Palestine. As I've been listening to President Xi, as I've been listening to President Putin, they have been trying to find a way to first of all bring about a ceasefire and second of all, negotiate a settlement. I listened to Joe Biden talk about peace, but all he really seems to say is we back Israel a hundred percent. We'll provide more weapons into the region, but we need to have peace. So Mark Sleboda (31:44): Go ahead. Joe Biden has also said, you don't need to be Jewish to be a Zionist. And I think Dr Wilmer Leon (31:49): And has said very clearly that he is a Zionist Mark Sleboda (31:52): And has said that if Israel did not exist, then the United States would have to create it to pursue its interests in the Middle East because it serves such as a convenient platform for the US projection of power into the Middle East. Dr Wilmer Leon (32:11): Wait a minute, lemme throw one more in there. Tony Blinken said the last time that he was in the region, he said, I am not only here as a Secretary of state, I am here as a Jew. So forget independent thinking. Forget being a neutral arbiter here in a Jewish state. That sounds more like imperialism and Mark Sleboda (32:38): Neocolonialism than anything. Mark Sabota. Yeah. Tony Blinken also by the way, mentioned that his family were originally from Russia and that they left the country, his grandfather because of pilgrims in Russia. And I'm really interested in the timing of pilgrims and his grandfather because certainly in the distant past there were pilgrims against Jews in Russia as there were many countries, but within the lifespan of his grandfather, it would make me really seriously question that characterization and feel he's inflating his family's political disagreements within the country. But that certainly also says in the current tensions with Russia in Ukraine and the proxy war there, that he also has a personal ax to grind as do so many people driving US foreign policy on the region like Victoria Newland, whose own family is originally from Ukraine, so there is that as well. But Putin, the Russia has already put forward at the UN Security Council a resolution calling for immediate ceasefire, and this was shot down by the US and Western countries with the US saying that the resolution could not, they couldn't vote for it because it did not criticize Hamas enough, which is obviously the most important thing when you're trying to craft a ceasefire to stop people from actively killing each other. (34:24) Russia and China have been in lockstep on their calls from this. They to a certain extent have been trying to be neutral in the sense that they are refraining from, I think overt criticism of one side or the other in the interest of attaining that ceasefire. Brazil, by the way, also put forward a UN security council resolution calling at least then for humanitarian ceasefires. And that was actually vetoed by the United States as well as France and the UK in lockstep there. Russia and China have been clear, while they don't support the tactics of Hamas, they feel that this is just the latest consequence of a long-term policy of a pretense of a peace process while backed by to the hilt by the us. Israel goes about its process of what it calls settlers, which is a policy of ethnic cleansing and colonization of Palestine, of the Palestine. (35:41) America, of course, does not recognize the state of Palestine, Russia and China both do, and they think they've made it clear that this is a result of the West, the world, but most importantly the West because they're not do it, not recognizing the Palestinian state, not granting its sovereignty and its own borders, and its right, of course, to defend its own country and borders and people a right that they extend to Israelis, but not to Palestinians. Because you'll hear from multiple US politicians and political elite that they don't believe that the Palestinians are a people to, which I would say you really, really need to go visit Gaza or the West Bank then. And Americans also seem to not understand, and I'm not so sure it would make a difference, maybe it would that a third of the Palestinians are actually Christians. I mean, would that help their perception, help them get past the inherent Islamophobia involved in the issue? (36:54) I don't know, but maybe people should point that out to them that it might help the situation some. But yeah, Russia and China have been quite clear net. Putin has talked to Netanyahu. He has also of course talked to the Palestinian leader, ABAs in the West Bank, and his government has been in contact with Hamas and the other political factions in Gaza. He's also been nonstop on the phone with every major Arab and other world leader that has interests in this conflict, Iran, Hezbollah the like. And he has been trying to do his best towards trying to come to some kind of sane cessation of hostilities. But instead, what we get obviously from the Biden administration, from the eu, the Western countries in general, is they have obviously given a green light to Israel to do a ground operation in Gaza. And Israel has demanded of the, it's a city of some more than 2 million people that has been rightly called the world's largest concentration camp or an open air prison with walls built around it. The real solution is the recognition of the Palestinian state, and that's the only way to relieve the pressure of the people in Gaza. Dr Wilmer Leon (38:59): One of the things that I found incredibly telling and quite a contrast was as Tony Blinken was on his Middle Eastern tour talking to US allies, the foreign minister of Iran was on his tour of the region talking to Iranian allies. In fact, lemme take a step back. When Trump assassinated Qem soleimani, the revered Iran in general, Iran said, we will retaliate. And a lot of people thought that that meant, oh my goodness, well, over the next few days, Iran's going to do something and Iran didn't do anything. Now we've got Tony Blinken, he was on his trip. Joe Biden was there on his trip, and at the same time, the Iranian foreign minister was talking to Iranian allies, and now the Iranian foreign minister has come out and said, Israel, your time is up. Talk about what an even height, another escalation of this conflict could mean in the region and what it could mean in the world. Mark Sleboda (40:21): Yeah, there was an interesting article out yesterday in the Financial Times where an anonymous US official acknowledged that as a result of the US and the rest of the West, so wholeheartedly backing Israel in this to the degree that they have, and this obvious green light for the ground operation, which is a ethnic cleansing of Gaza, of the Palestinian population, ordering 1 million people to get out of the way. Of course it's an impossibility, where would they go is the most obvious question, even if you were able to order a million people at a time to leave their houses. But there is an alignment of global sentiment and forces, political forces going on the financial Times. This US official and the Financial Times laments that as a result of this, that this is incredibly damaging to us influence in what the US usually likes to call the global south, where if you think of the West, you think of the rest and he says they will never listen to us again. I mean, if they were already, then we've lost them, not just the Islamic world, but more broadly. And because of the recent reproach month between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the normalization of diplomatic relations, thank Dr Wilmer Leon (42:18): You, China. Mark Sleboda (42:19): Yeah. It's brokered by China and not all peaches and cream. But the last week saw the first direct phone call between the president of Iran and the Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, and they both agreed, they expressed a common position on what is happening in Palestine, in Gaza, and is what Israel is doing and how unacceptable it is. And that is already an amazing geopolitical change. Like the world has shifted, and I have to constantly ask myself, is this real right that the world has changed so much? And there's a saying attributed to Lenin that decades pass and nothing changes. And then at other times in weeks, decades pass decades of change ensue. And we're I think, living in one of those periods, one of those latter periods now where things are changing so fast and we Dr Wilmer Leon (43:37): Minute, wait a minute, a minute. Because to that point again, China helped to broker the reproach mon between the Saudis and the Iranians and the United States was in the process of brokering a reproach mon between the Saudis and Israel, and then Hamas attacks Israel and the Saudis say out Israel, that conversation we were about to have, let's put that on hold because that decade of change has taken place in the matter of a day. Mark Sleboda (44:17): Yeah, Saudi Arabia was really looking for under, shall we say, a newly foreign policy mature Moham bin Salman, who has obviously changed himself a lot in recent years from what he was when he first came into power as the heir to the ailing king who has really been running the country. He is looking for a multi-vector foreign policy with a minimal amount of conflict. So he wanted to have the foreign policy options with bricks, with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, but it doesn't mean that he wanted a complete severance of relations with the United States either. And since the Trump administration, the US has been pushing very, very hard on their policy of trying to get Arab countries to recognize in Israel and to normalize relations, diplomatic relations, and others, which would also be tantamount to accepting Israeli occupation of large parts of Palestine and ever increasingly more so, you can see where the Palestinians probably regarded a normalization deal being pushed by the US between Saudi Arabia and Israel as an existential issue for them. (45:55) Because as by many standards, the most important Sunni Islamic country, because of its holding not only of world's energy reserves with oil, but also the two holy mosques, the way Saudi Arabia goes, the rest of the SUNY Arab world would inevitably follow, and that would end any hope of Arab support for them if this deal went through. It. Also, by the way, the sweetener is a security guaranteed deal with Saudi Arabia, which would effectively elevate Saudi Arabia in security technical terms to the status of the relationship between the US and Israel, IE preferential deals on weapons systems, access to more advanced military technology, full access to intelligence training. Everything that the US provides now to Israel would also be provided at the same level, the same prices and so forth, more or less to Saudi Arabia. That was the sweetener of the deal, and I believe that Hamas' motivation in the, they killed civilians. I mean, there's been a lot of, I think, obvious beheading of babies. That's Kuwaiti incubator, baby type disinformation ized to, but that's not to excuse that they use terrorist tactics. They killed civilians. On the Dr Wilmer Leon (47:36): Other hand, wait a minute, and don't forget the Russian killing of babies in the Ukraine, the women's hospital that wasn't a women's hospital. Mark Sleboda (47:48): That is I think, a case for the point, again, for the way the US wages information war mostly against its own people, which is another fascinating at a rabbit hole to go down. But I mean, it's not to say that Israel doesn't routinely kill, I mean, on an essentially daily basis, Palestinian civilians through its process of settling, ethnic cleansing, political Dr Wilmer Leon (48:18): Oppression, it bulldozers, villages, indiscriminately arrests, detains people without charge, and basically Mark Sleboda (48:29): Regularly summarily executes people who resist that, Dr Wilmer Leon (48:34): Right? Mark Sleboda (48:35): So anyway, I believe that Hamas' primary motivation in launching this attack, a wasting military resources that they had spent years building in secret plans that they had. The timing of this tells me that it was to prevent that Saudi Israeli reproach month deal being pushed by the US from going through, because they saw it as existential for them. And if that was the goal, then it has been successful because as a result of Saudi's disproportionate response to, if Israel had said, we are going to do a targeted anti-terrorist operation in Gaza against the Hamas and the Islamic Jihad leadership who were responsible for this, and the people who carried it out, I think there would've been a very different global reaction to this. If instead we didn't have Israeli leaders saying that we're going to destroy Gaza, that we're going to wipe Gaza off the face of turn it to Dr Wilmer Leon (49:54): Dust, Mark Sleboda (49:54): Dust, and that all Palestinians civilians are the enemy. We heard that from Naftali Bennett. That would've been a very different situation. And there is, I think a much more substantial reaction, not only from the usual suspects, we've heard that from Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, the Sufi, sorry, the Shia organization there. That is demonized wrongly in this particular case because it doesn't use terrorist tactics by the US and Israel, and no country in the world really outside the West as a terrorist organization that if Israel goes a ground operation and begins cleansing Gaza, then Hezbollah will open up a second front war on the Israeli north, and then there will be a two. Iran has voiced very similar that prospects that if the Israeli government's atrocities against the Palestinian people, which as a result right now are approaching 4,000 dead, which by the way is almost four times the number of people that the Hamas' operational s of flood attacks killed four times. (51:35) So obviously proportionality is not an issue when it comes to Israel, but that Iran would feel the need to intervene. We've heard even further, surprisingly, from the government of Jordan and the king of Jordan, right? Not called authoritarian by the way, but because he was educated in Oxford, I mean, he's largely regarded across the Arab world as a western puppet, as a western aligned Arab leader with a very large Palestinian refugee population, and a people who feel very close to that situation. Jordan has come out and said that if Israel looks set to drive the Palestinians out of Gaza as they appear to be planning to do, then Jordan would consider it an act of war. Which I mean, that totally surprised me coming from the modern. Now, a lot of it is probably motivated out of self-interest of the Jordanian king. If I don't react the way my people want me to, they will overthrow me in order to be able to do something. (52:53) But regardless of his personal motivations for it, it is certainly something I did not expect. And if Jordan does, so other countries around will become involved, and then there's the prospect of other countries or say Hezbollah as an organization becomes involved, that the US becomes involved. The US has two aircraft carriers. Well, the second one's steaming on its way to the Israeli coast right now, as well as a marine amphibious expedition ships with some at least 2000 Marines. And Joe Biden has kind of, I don't know on some type of idiotic loop reel, been saying about Hezbollah and Iran don't even, as it shovels tens of billions of dollars of emergency military support of crucial military supplies into Israel. And Biden is calling for 10 billion in military emergency, military or financial aid, sorry to be transferred as well. Russia is sitting there. Russia has military bases in Syria, naval base, several other military bases where it helped prevent a US backed jihadi overthrow of the Syrian government there with the us it must be said, still illegally occupying eastern Syria, east of the river, Syria's oil fields and wheat fields, and Turkey still sitting in northern Syria with a hundred thousand Jihadists still on its payroll. (54:46) But Russia has these military bases in Syria, and it sees the US just down the coast a little bit with two aircraft carriers. And Putin has asked the question, what are you going to do with those two aircraft carriers? And they're resulting fleets, Hezbollah seriously. And Putin was obviously expressing that he doesn't believe that. So Putin ordered that Russian jet fighters, they're most modern variants, fifth gen fighters will now be patrolling the Black Sea, the extent of it with al hypersonic long range missiles that have a range of a thousand kilometers. And he very directly pointed out that fired from the Black Sea that those missiles can hit US aircraft carriers where they're sitting in the Eastern Mediterranean and again, hypersonic. Hypersonic, yeah. So very, very hard to shoot down, if not impossible. And he said, this is not a threat. This is a response. (56:03) And basically he is saying, if you attack Syria, and it has to be said that Israel has already bombed Damascus airport very heavily again, and they've been shelling Southern Lebanon, if you attack our military bases in Syria, then will take out your aircraft carriers, right? I mean, you see where this spiral of escalation is leading, right? Israel goes into Gaza, Hezbollah, maybe Iran go in, Israel conducts cleansing operations in Gaza and Jordan and probably half of the rest of the Arab world join in. They join in, and the US joins in the US attacks Syria as part of this, because Iran power projects through Syria, Russia has bases in Syria. Russia bases get attacked. Russia attacks the US boom. We're in World War III in another conflict, right, that is going on simultaneously with ripple effects from the geopolitical tension and the conflict going on in Ukraine. So all of this has me feeling very much as my used to say, as a long tailed cat in a room full of Dr Wilmer Leon (57:22): Rocks, rocking chairs, and I want to reiterate hypersonic missiles. That means that Joe Biden has basically sent two targets for Russia to attack. Mark Sleboda (57:40): Now, Russia is not going to just attack American aircraft carriers Dr Wilmer Leon (57:45): World Mark Sleboda (57:46): War ii realize. No, I realize that it's meant as a deterrent, Dr Wilmer Leon (57:50): Which, so what is a deterrent that does not deter? Mark Sleboda (57:55): That's a good question. Unfortunately, I think Russia has seen several red lines be crossed in the recent years with the US escalation in Ukraine and hasn't responded, which has led numerous White House officials to say outright, we don't believe in Russian red lines. That means that we can keep poking the bear. And no matter what they do, they won't respond because they fear a nuclear conflict more than we do. That is, well, it's more than madness. It is the death of mad. It is the death of mutually assured destruction, which takes us back to a very early Cold War era that we should all be afraid of. Dr Wilmer Leon (58:44): Just really quickly, we have just about two minutes left, and I'm glad you made that point, because whether it's Ukraine, whether it's Syria, whether it is the Black Sea, the United States seems to continue to believe a, when Vladimir Putin or when Xi Jinping says something, they don't mean it. And when they make a commitment, they will not honor it. And what I have come to see over the years is they don't bluff. They don't play, they don't joke. We got a minute. Mark Sleboda (59:22): Yeah. So how to mesh that difference between, I think demonstrable reality and what the US ruling administration as seeing as their politicized reading of their opponents, that does not match up with reality. That's a recipe for disaster, Dr Wilmer Leon (59:46): Really. Wow. Well, I want to thank my guest, mark Sloboda. Mark, thank you for joining me today. Mark Sleboda (59:54): Thanks for having me, Dr. Leon. It's been an honor and a pleasure to be on the show. Dr Wilmer Leon (59:58): Thank you, mark. Big shout out to my producer, melody McKinley. Thank you so much for joining the Connecting the Dots podcast with me, Dr. Wimer Leon. This is where the analysis of politics, culture, and history, converge talk without analysis is just chatter, and we don't chatter on connecting the dots. Stay tuned for new episodes every week. Also, please follow and subscribe. Leave a review, share my show, follow me on social media. You can find all the links below in the show description. I'll see you next time. Until then, treat each day like it's your last, because one day you'll be right. I'm Dr. Wier Leon. Peace and Blessings. I'm out.

This is part two of my chat with Tim., Part one is episode 321. In Part 2 we cover Kangaroo 89, a huge military exercise with the entire Australian Army using an area the size of Western Europe and we hear about the Australian equivalent of Wolfgang the Bratty Man who used to turn up on British exercises in Germany. Tim was also part of an exchange program with the British Army and he describes his experiences there and the advantages and disadvantages between Leopard 1 and the British Challenger 1 tank Tim also worked with the Bundeswehr where he had a fascinating encounter with a former East German tank commander.  Photos, videos and extra episode information here https://coldwarconversations.com/episode324/ The fight to preserve Cold War history continues and via a simple monthly donation, you will give me the ammunition to continue to preserve Cold War history. You'll become part of our community, get ad-free episodes, and get a sought-after CWC coaster as a thank you and you'll bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ If a monthly contribution is not your cup of tea, We also welcome one-off donations via the same link. Find the ideal gift for the Cold War enthusiast in your life! Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/store/ Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/ Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations Love history? Check out Into History at this link https://intohistory.com/coldwarpod 0:00 Introduction 1:03 Kangaroo 89: Large-scale military exercise and logistical challenges 9:37 Leopard 1 vs Challenger 1: A comparison and discussion of their advantages 20:26 Evaluation of Russian/Chinese armoured vehicles and Soviet tanks 22:45 Discussion about the arms industry and British involvement in upgrading Iraqi tanks 28:28 Life in the field: Food, rations, and interaction with the local population 34:11 Night fighting capability of Leopard AS1 and limitations of infrared technology 39:24 Cold War tactics and concerns about signals intelligence 45:02 Exchange with the Bundeswehr and bonding with an ex-NVA senior NCO 51:59 Cold War-themed films recommendations and Australian contribution during the Cold War 54:02 Importance of individual Cold War stories and episode extras 55:00 Closing remarks and invitation to join the Facebook discussion group Chapters powered by PodcastAI✨ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You give us twenty minutes, we'll give you the world (of ag). In this episode, the two of us briefly chat about the following major topics in agricultural markets.  The middle eastern conflict and its potential to impact markets. The Russian-Chinese grain trade deal and whether it threatens Australian producers. The Australian fertilizer shortage of 2023 The beef processors making the big bucks. Trading cattle online, and the price premium. 

Last time we spoke about the 8 nation alliances occupation of Beijing, the flight of the royal family and the Boxer Protocol. You would think after taking the city, everything was won and done, but not necessarily. Empress Dowager Cixi with her faithful guardian Dong Fuxiang fled to the northwest of China. Meanwhile Peitang waited longer than most for their rescue, enduring an unbelievable amount of hardship during their siege. Poor Li Hongzhang was forced to endure another humiliation on behalf of the Qing Dynasty, negotiating peace with the western powers. The indemnity payments would last until world war two for China. Empress Dowager Cixi escaped any punishment, while other officials literally lost their heads. In a grandeur fashion, the empress returned to Beijing, performing a large spectacle. It was intentional and brilliant PR work. Things were going to dramatically change for China.   #68 The Russo-Chinese War Part 1: Manchuria rises up   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. As we have seen, as of June 1900 the eyes of the world were focused on Beijing. The foreign diplomats of numerous nations were under siege by the fanatical Boxers and Qing forces such as the Kansu army. The Boxer Rebellion as a whole is captured by this focus, go find any book on it, there are many. What you often come across, is the mention of Russian forces somewhat to the distance in Manchuria. Typically if anything is said at all, you get a few paragraphs stating when the escalations began, the Russians invaded Manchuria. Invaded Manchuria, that sounds like a hell of a story no? Its simply overshadowed by the events that played out around Beijing, but an entire other war really sprang up in Manchuria. The event is virtually unknown to the west. When the Boxers sprang up and expeditions emerged, the two closest powers were Japan and Russia and as we have seen when it came to the march upon Beijing, the Japanese sort of took the lionshare. Yet Russia was the most capable to rush troops to the scene, given her work on the Manchurian railways.  The Boxer Rebellion was a bit awkward for Russia. Yes Russia took up the side of the western forces and joined the 8 nation alliance. However, her views on what exactly the Boxer Rebellion was, differed from the rest. Russia felt the Boxer movement was not directed against her, but rather at the Manchu dynasty. Russia in many ways intervened to save the Manchu dynasty from a full blown revolution. She saw the symptoms of the revolutionaries as a result of western economic and missionary encroachment in China. The Chinese often referred to westerners as “ocean devils”. The Russians did not come from the sea, they shared a vast border with the Chinese. Russia and China had a special relationship unlike the rest, one that had been going on for centuries. Russia typically acted with greater restraint and often spoke of Russo-Chinese friendship. But don't get me wrong. Like Britain, Germany, France, Japan, etc, Russian was most definitely taking advantage of a weakened Qing dynasty, she certainly encroached, specifically in Manchuria. Their border was one of the longest frontiers in the world. Siberia was underpopulated and exposed to Chinese infiltration. A buffer zone existed in Manchuria and Mongolia.  The trans-siberian railway's construction began in 1891 for strategic and economic reasons. It was to be the worlds longest railroad, initially thought to wind along the Amur River up to Khabarovsk then south to Vladivostok. But the terrain proved hellish, the route too circuitous, thus a shortcut through Manchuria was strongly advised. In 1896 Russia obtained concessions from the Qing to begin construction of a station on the Trans Baikal section of the Siberian railway. Following her lease of Part Arthur and Dalien, Russian then sought to connect a new railway line to the main line of what would be called the Manchurian railway. Construction began from both ends simultaneously at a pace of 1.75 miles per day. Vladivostok and Port Arthur were linked up by July of 1900. It would not be too long until the Trans-Siberian railway and the Chinese eastern railway would bridge the land mass from the Baltic sea to the Pacific Ocean, giving the Russian empire an unbelievable toehold in the Asia-Pacific.  The line passing through Manchuria was under the control of a private corporation, the Chinese eastern railway company. The majority stakeholder was Russian, but there were also Qing investments. Now the protection of the railway, its workers and other infrastructure was not going to be defended by standard Russian troops. Instead the company hired special military forces. The engineers were nearly all Russian, the laborers, 100,000 or so, were Chinese coolies. The project was done in collaboration between the two empires, it heavily depended on China. If the Qing were to, let's say, pull back the laborers, the construction efforts would stop dead. Worse, what if the Chinese began sabotaging the construction? Well both of these things began in 1900.  A railway guard named Konstantin Kushakov had been in southern Manchuria for two and a half years. He witnessed the shooting of a Russian captain and two Cossacks by Qing soldiers in April 1900. In May at the small city of Hsiungyuehcheng, placards were erected stating the local populace should help exterminate the foreigners. The Boxer movement was hitting Manchuria. Locals told Konstantin not to be alarmed and the Qing commanders stated the placards were just the work of youthful pranksters. Then one evening, Konstantin saw Chinese wearing yellow sashes and headbands speaking through interpreters to Russian commanders. When Konstantin approached for a closer look the Chinese had their lips, cheeks and eyebrows painted, one of them was doing bizarre gymnastic exercises and shouting furiously. A nearby Cossack remarked “that has to be a Boxer”. One of the interpreters stated that was not true, there were no Boxers in this part of China. The next morning, more Boxer youths emerged doing gymnastics in the open, then the local merchants began to quickly sell whatever arms they had in stock and blacksmiths began forging knives, swords and spears. Sabotage work began to occur. Russian telegraph lines were being repeatedly cut, attempts were made to derail trains by lifting up rails or pilling up stuff on tracks. It seemed to all the Russian-Chinese cooperation was falling apart. Countless interpreters, servants, laborers quit their jobs. Russian supervisors and foremen who were notoriously cruel to their Chinese workers, no longer lashed out at them, instead they walked around armed to the teeth. The Russians also noticed an increased in Qing soldiers, many of whom were not recognized from the area. But the Russian commanders believed the Chinese were a submissive and inoffensive people, so they took all these signs with a grain of salt. The situation became worse, more railway guards were needed, but as you can imagine, Manchuria is an enormous place. Konstantin had roughly 240 men to guard a sector of around 172 miles. Thus to strengthen one post would weaken another. There were troops in the Kwantung region on the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula guarding Port Arthur and Dalien. Colonel Mishchenko, commander of the railway guards along the Port Arthur Line requested further troops from Vice Admiral Evgenii Alekseev the commander in chief of the Russian land forces in the Kwantung region and naval forces for the far east. He was denied, because Chief Engineer Iugovich stated on July 2nd that the Chinese were peaceful and wanted to continue the joint project. There was also the belief, if they sent more troops the Qing would be more inclined to the Boxer cause. On May 23rd, a mob attacked 3 Cossacks that Konstantin had sent to purchase supplies for a kitchen, the men escaped having to saber down a few Chinese. The populace was in an uproar, the Qing commander at Hsiungyeuhcheng demanded Russian troops be barred from the city. In June Boxers were out in the open screaming for violence against the foreigners. Many Qing officials refused to collaborate with the Boxers and were run out of towns. Boxers were taking control over large areas and recruiting a militia. The Boxers began to assemble around Mukden. On July 2nd, Mishchenko telegraphed Konstantin that the northern outposts were in serious danger and ordered him to rush over to Liaoyang with all the guards that could be spared from southern outposts. A detachment of 56 soldiers and 20 cavalrymen was raised. Konstantin tried to use a locomotive, but the Qing switchman sabotage it. Soon Konstantin heard word Qing detachments and Boxers were sabotaging multiple railway stations, outposts were under attack. Konstantin ordered all construction efforts to cease and for all Russians to prepare themselves at posts for attacks. He promised the men reinforcements would soon arrive from the south, many replied they didn't need the help to face off against “Boxer riff-raff, whom we would soon teach how to fight”. Konstantin worried not for the outposts with 15-20 men, but some only had a handful of guards. He recalled “I kept thinking, what will they die for? It is too dear a sacrifice to the stubbornness of 3, 4 high railway agents. To die for the Tsar, to die for the glory of the fatherland, that is an enviable death; but to let honorable and selfless soldiers perish for the sake of stubbornness or mistake would be regrettable indeed”. He ordered the smallest outposts to be abandoned, and for the men to rush to the nearest larger outpost.  The Russians saw multiple villages emptied of women and children, railway lines likewise were abandoned. Konstantin arrived to Liaoyang with 76 men on July 3rd, he quickly made way to the nearby village of Baitouzi where the 2nd company headquarters and Mishchenko were. Konstantin was informed hostilities had begun in the region. On June 27th, a railroad bridge and barracks near Liaoyang were razed to the ground, the men there chased off by gunfire from local Qing forces. Two Cossacks and their horses were killed, the telegraph lines were being damaged constantly, coal mines were attacked, Mishchenko bitterly complained that Port Arthur refused to send reinforcements and instead berated them for their lack of cooperation with the Qing. Suddenly a Cossack messenger arrived to the HQ reporting 400 Qing soldiers with 100 cavalrymen and mountain guns were engaging a forces of 50 Cossacks, casualties were already mounting. Mishchenko immediately took 56 railway guards of the 6th company under Konstantin and 25 men of the 2nd company led by Shchekin to go save the force.  They arrived at the scene of a battle, the Qing were moving around the Russian's eastern side trying to cut them off from Liaoyang. The Qing were trying to push the Russians towards their main force, over 3000 men strong who were advancing upon Mukden. Konstantin jumped off the train with his men to hit the right flank of the enemy, but the Qing diverted over to a local village to better prepare defenses against them. The Russian lines advanced quickly and once they were 300 paces from the enemy, Shchekin and his men took the train directly to the village, leapt off and charged with bayonets fixed. The men screamed “ura!” as they stormed the Qing who fell into a rout quickly galloping towards Mukden. Many Chinese were killed in hand to hand combat, volleys also took lives as they fled. The Russians reported 200 dead while receiving 4 deaths and 5 wounded in return. The victorious Russians returned by train to Liaoyang, reflecting on how the situation had changed. A force of nearly 3000 regular Qing soldiers were most definitely in league with the Boxers. They had even brought artillery, they would most likely hit Mukden soon where they could join possibly 10 newly formed Qing battalions. What were the Russians to do in the face of such numbers? On the way back to Liaoyang, Boxers were seen burning bridges over the Sha river, 12 miles south of the city. Russians rushed over to put out the fires and sent patrols to hunt down Boxers, but found none. As they approached Liaoyang station, the Chinese switchmen sabotaged the rails and fled. Engineer Girschman, the chief of railway construction for the southern section that passed through Liaoyang was ordered by Mishchenko to inform Port Arthur of the recent clashes and to again request reinforcements. Girschman still thought there was no cause for alarm, he asserted over 5000 taels had been given to the local Manchu General in charge of Liaoyang who promised they were safe to work. Thus Girschman ordered railway employees back to work. Girshman's train was to be the last train from Liaoyong as on July 6th the bridge south of the station was destroyed. Liaoyang was cut off. Girshman was left behind with 104 civilian employees and their families. The Qing offered Mishchenko free passage for all Russians, but he refused to leave Liaoyang. Instead he ordered Shtabs-kapitan Sakharov with the 3rd Sotnia to join up with him and demand of Port Arthur more reinforcements. He dispatched Cossacks to the various northern posts to spread word of what was going on and if they could run to him, or Harbin.  Mishchenko decided to fortify a wooden, iron roofed isolated barracks near Baitouzi. His men numbered 204, exhausted from endless patrolling of a vast region. They were enclosed by a 7 foot earth wall, which the Russians with Chinese labor help, added breastworks. Their shelter was an ice house, where the families were taking cover. Meanwhile the Qing forces were digging their own trenches on nearby hills to the north, east and south. The Russians could see them working, multiple Qing scouts came over to look at what the Russian were doing. Chinese were torching all buildings the Russians had previously utilized in the villages around Liaoyang. Any Russians caught at isolated posts were tortured, many beheaded. Barracks, stations, railway lines, coal mines all were burnt down. Mishchenko was livid that Port Arthur was not sending more men. He was unable to hold on indefinitely and could not hope to cut his way through, he had nowhere to turn. His Cossack scouts reported on July 6th, in all directions Qing forces were seen erecting barricades, moving artillery and fortifying. From Liaoyang the Chinese began taking potshots at the Russians, but they were too far away to hit anything. The Chinese were not advancing, too busy plundering what was left behind at Baitouzi. Firecrackers and celebrations could be heard, as Qing troops arrived from Mukden. Konstantin was talking to an interpreter on July 6th who told him he heard rumors the Chinese would attack the next morning. The next morning began with an artillery bombardment. Mishchenko watched using binoculars from a breastwork and proclaimed ‘they have begun their advance. Forbid the men to shoot needlessly. Instead, begin to fire platoon volleys at those cannons there. They have already adjusted their fire well, and must be silenced”. Suddenly grenades were lobbed into the inner courtyard, one ripped open the stomach of a horse and wounded some men. Rifle fire was cracking from Baitouzi and nearby hills. Konstantin was commanding the southern defenses, Shchekin and Sotnik Mamonov the east, Denisov the north, Mishchenko held overall command. The Russians remained calm, taking orders for targets. Mishchenko walked the perimeter encouraging men, he never was killed twice by rifle fire and grenades. Konstantin directed guns at the Qing artillery. It took a dozen or so volleys to get the Qing to move their positions. Suddenly a private yelled ‘Sir! The Chinese are crawling already from the railway embankment nearby!”. The Chinese were nearly 400 paces, Mishchenko ordered volleys and the well-aimed rapid fire drove them back. At 10am, the Chinese were advancing on foot and upon horse using large carts to cover themselves from fire. The Qing hit the Russian right flank hard, killing a few, wounding many. The Qing artillery was performing something akin to a creeping barrage, and soon the Qing riflemen were crawling towards the Russian lines. When the Chinese appeared, the Russians opened fire. The defensive lines were small, around 350 square feet. Blood, corpses and body parts littered the area.  The Qing launched several consecutive attacks, but the Russians gutted their offensives. Suffering heavy casualties the Qing were cautious in their approaches until they withdrew from Baitouzi to Liaoyang. They had no idea the Russians were on the brink of collapse. Russian munitions had shrunk to 20 cartridges per a man, the men were exhausted, men were literally falling asleep as the battles began. The Russian positions at Baitouzi was critical, they could not survive another attack, there was zero indication Port Arthur was sending help, thus Mishchenko called for a meeting of all commanders. They decided their only hope was to fight their way south towards the Kuan Cossack Sotnia of Shtabs-Kapitan Strakhov, who at that time was battling their way towards them. That night they buried 9 men before abandoning countless costly railway equipment, a ton of silver taels which were dumped into a local well and other personal belongings.  Upon seeing the activity the Qing began another attack. The Russians threw up volleys dangerously as they had only so much ammunition left. Their bayonets were fixed at all times. Instead of waiting for a Chinese wave to close in on them, Mishchenko ordered a feint attack. The 2nd company of Malinov and Shchekin charged screaming hurrahs at the Chinese. This was a brilliant move for it saved them all. The Qing fled back to Liaoyang to defend the city allowing the Russians to quickly move south. Konstantin led the vanguard, the civilians were in a panic, countless Cossacks got off their horses and gave them to women, children and wounded. It was a grueling trek as they marched 2 miles west of the railroad trying to avoid detection. Only twice were shots made upon them, but they did not respond and simply carried on quicker. On July 8th they reached the Sha River to see its bridge, the Russian barracks and other buildings over at Shahotzu had been burned down. There were Chinese corpses and expelled shell casings indicated a battle had occurred. It would turn out to be the work of a local guard post of 12 Russians, they were besieged by roughly 200 Chinese. They locked themselves in their stone walled barracks, kept the enemy at bay until their ammunition ran out. Then Boxers came and began burning the doors and windows. Miraculously a train came nearby and began firing upon the position shrilling its whistle. The Russians stormed out with bayonets, attacked the Chinese and fled for the train to escape to Anshanchan. Back over at the Sha River area, the Russians saw Strakhov with 70 Kuban Cossacks of his 3rd Sotnia alongside 40 infantry of the 2nd company coming forward. They had fought their way from Yingkou to Liaoyang station only to find Mishchenko's party gone. They had missed each other en route because Strakhov had followed the railroad tracks. Strakhov reported seeing the Qing plundering the Russian barracks, some local christian Chinese told Strakhov that Mishchenko and the rest fled south, so he came looking for them. Their numbers were thus bolstered to 307 railway guards and 102 civilians, some of whom were armed and would have to fight. Mishchenko's force continued along the railway to Anshanchan to find its bridge and pump house had been destroyed. However the telegraph line and railway to Port Arthur was still intact from Anshanchan. He dispatched an officer to Port Arthur to give a detailed report of the situation and to purchase more ammunition. Meanwhile the wounded and civilians were escorted to Tashishciao where Colonel Dombrovskii had a detachment of men. On July 11th, another 100 men from the southern railway posts led by Poruchiks Gulevich and Rozhalin joined Mishchenko to bolster him to 450 men. Now Mishchenko was prepared to play the role of a forward detachment and execute army orders. However Port Arthur  was not recognize Mishcheckno's detachment as a regular army force, and thus would not supply him with artillery or additional troops for any offensive actions. Instead Port Arthur ordered him to withdraw to Tashishciao within army protection. The next day native Chinese sympathizers reported to Mishchenko that 200 Qing troops were approaching, they were a patrol for a much larger army. Soon Russian scouts were reporting that several hundred Chinese were approaching. The Russians had no provisions, nor tents, thus a siege was not going to favor them. They soon found out from the chief of Haicheng station that over 2000 Qing soldiers had threatened his station and the railway line there. It seemed senseless to hold out at Anshanchan, better to rush over to Haicheng to save it from the fate befalling other stations. At 7pm when they were just about to depart, Cossack scouts rode up reporting that a large Qing detachment with artillery were near the eastern heights and had engaged some of their patrols. Mischchenko dispatched Rozhalin with a half sotnia to the eastern heights to distract the enemy attention away from their departure.  Dawn the next day the Russians made it to Haicheng station. Friendly locals urged Mishchenk to avoid Haicheng because a large Qing force was present, but he was confident in his force after their string of victories. Mishchenko requested aid from the 7th company of the 7th east siberian rifle regiment led by Dombrovskii. Dombrovskii sent them via train from Tashihciao and they arrived an hour after Mishchenko. The western heights near Haicheng was occupied the Qing troops who had to be cleared out if the trains were to come closer to Haicheng. The Russians took cover behind the railway embankment and began advancing up the height shooting from ridges as they did. The Russians eventually began to charge hitting the Qing right flank, sending them scattering. Cossack cavalry ran many down before being called back to protect against a possible assault from the city. The Russians placed 4 artillery pieces on the height and dug in, they now held a good overlooking view of the city. At 9am on the 14th, Dombrovskii came over with an additional company of his regiment and a half battery. The company was led by Captain Ivanov, the artillery by Shtabs Kapitan Petrenko and COlonel Nikolai Desenko held overall command of the whole detachment. Mishchenko sent word to the civilians in Haicheng to warn them a battle was soon to take place. But before the Russians could launch their assault, Qing forces stormed out of the city to hit their flanks. The 7th company, 7th regiment stayed to defend the artillery while company of the 11th regiment took the right flank, the 2nd and 6th companies took the left. Russian volleys and artillery rained hell on the incoming Qing. Petrenko led an excellent bombardment, spraying shrapnel across the Qing formations. Soon the artillery began to bombard Haicheng as the Qing rushed out of its east gate heading for nearby hills. Haicheng fell to the Russians mercy quickly, but Dombrovskii gave strict orders not to go on the offensive, the Russians did not press into the city.  The half battery and company of the 11th regiment departed via train back to Tashihciao, half an hour later the company of the 7th regiment began loading upon another train. When the Qing troops saw this they began swooping down the hills, and set fire to the train station buildings, the pump house and railway bridge. The Qing cavalry even attempted attacking the locomotive carts, but Russian volleys kept them away. Slowly the trains moved south, with Cossacks patrolling their flanks. When they were around 6 miles from Tashihciao, Chinese militia forces and Boxers with antiquated rifles attacked the trains. Russians leapt off the carts and took cover while returning fire. Rozhalin led his Kuban Cossack squadron to run down the enemy killing many. By 8pm Mishchenko and his men reached Tashihciao. At Tashihciao was the south Manchurian detachment consisting of a regiment, a company, a Cossack sotnia and field battery there; there was also another unit from Hsiungyuehcheng consisting of 3 rifle regiments with some stronger batteries from Port Arthur, 86 fortress guns at Jinzhou and some men of a Cossack regiment were patrolling the railway line. This was all of course welcomed, but Mishchenko was still livid to learn no additional troops nor ammunition had departed Port Arthur to help them. 170 miles of railroad north of Tashihciao was in the hands of the Qing, who continuously argued there was no conflict and no destruction of railways was taking place. Konstantin estimated property damage incurred by Russia at this point amounted to some 18 million rubles on the southern line alone. Mishchenko had lost 62 men dead, 53 wounded, 12 missing in action.  Over in province of Fentien, was a Manchu General who was very much against the Boxer cause. He was well educated, and realized China did not at the time wield the necessary power to drive out the foreigners and the Boxer's and their supporters were adding to China's plight. He was zealous persecuting the Boxers in his province, many were arrested, many executed. He then decided he was going to expose their professed invulnerability spells in front of his people. He gathered 400 arrested Boxers and proclaimed a large execution would take place. The Boxers would be killed by firing squad, obviously to showcase how their spell would not work against the bullets. He entrusted the execution operation to a General in the army, unbeknownst to him, there were many Boxers within his army and the General was one of them. The General secretly removed the bullets from the cartridges for the firing squad weapons. Thus at the appointed time the crowds gathered alongside the military governor to watch several volleys fail to kill the Boxers. The Manchu General in fury ever ran up, grabbed a rifle and fired 6 times doing no harm to the boxers. The Boxers stood and bowed politely to the crowd. People began to cheer them on. The Manchu General kept up his anti-boxer campaigns, but the public was dissatisfied with them and his own military was becoming quite insubordinate. The Manchu General reported to Beijing his plight before handing over control to local forces, walking away from his duty.  The railway station located about 10 miles from Mukden was guarded by the 2nd Transcaspian rifle battalion of Poruchik Valevskii. Valevskii received a report on July 5th, the Qing forces were gathering artillery and digging in near his station. He ordered neighboring outposts to join hi mat once and the next day the Qing unleashed an artillery bombardment upon his barracks. The Russians estimated the Qing had 3000 infantry and 5000 cavalry. The Russians trapped in the barracks watched as they fired on the enemy as they cut the telegraph lines and burned bridges and buildings around them. At 1am 14 Russians from a neighboring outpost came rushing in from the north fighting their way to the barracks. The Russians received word from Chinese christians that all the outposts were under attack. Valevskii gathered all the troops and civilians and made a dash over to the Mukden station to find Qing forces plundering it. From there they fled south to the station of Su-chia-tun only to find it burned down, with Russian corpses littering the area. Next Valevskii led them to Yentai station where they ran into Qing forces coming over from Liaoyang. They defeated the Qing forces in two engagements and made their way to Liaoyang.  By this point, Valevskii was trying to reconnoiter the enemy positions and find Colonel Mishchenko who had given out orders for all forces in the region to come to him. From a captured Qing soldiers they learnt Mishchenko's detachment had fled the area and was being pursued. The railway lines appeared to be destroyed, there was no aid coming from Port Arthur. Valevskii announced they would turn eastward to try to get to Yingkou where perhaps Russian ships could get them to somewhere safe. They traveled east along the Taitzu river, running into small Qing forces along the way. Valevskii was hit with a rifle bullet to the chest. Pilipenko took over command and announced they would proceed to Korea for safety. It was a long and arduous journey, they lost many civilians and soldiers. Their story was to be one of many, Manchuria was falling into chaos.  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Boxer Rebellion had spread to Manchuria. Railway station, barracks, anything foreign was being destroyed, countless isolated Russian pockets were now under threat, not just by the Boxers, but by a angry and vengeful Manchu populace. 

HOUR 1Trump lashes out after indictment / (CBS) https://www.cbsnews.com/video/trump-lashes-out-at-justice-department-amid-indictments/Trump indictments highlight lies - scholars weigh-in / (NPR) https://www.npr.org/2023/08/07/1191813216/new-charges-against-trump-focus-on-lies-scholars-see-an-authoritarian-playbookFred Fleitz, Vice Chair of the America First Policy Institute (and former Deputy Assistant to President Donald Trump, and Chief of Staff of the National Security Council) joins Tom Anderson to discuss Russian and Chinese ships in Alaskan waters / https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2023/08/06/us-navy-destroyers-dispatched-aleutians-after-chinese-russian-vessels-spotted-nearby/Dalton in Mat-Su on why he won't pay taxes HOUR 2Big changes on college football / (MB) https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/2023/08/06/what-just-happened-to-college-football?The City and Borough of Juneau issued a declaration of emergency on Sunday following a glacial lake outburst flooding event that swelled waters to record levels / (ANS) https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2023/08/06/mendenhall-river-flooding-juneau-prompts-evacuation-recommendation-some-residents/Why don't we move the Capital closer to urban Alaska and voters - Charles and Tom discuss State Representative Kevin McCabe on Juneau's disaster declaration, a Capitol move, and Russian/Chinese vessels in Alaskan waters / (USNI) https://news.usni.org/2022/10/11/china-russia-quietly-expanding-arctic-partnership-says-panel"Barbie" movie reached $1 Billion / (CNN) https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/06/business/barbie-box-office-history/index.html?utm_campaign=mb&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=morning_brew"Assembly members are proposing a small overhaul of city rules for bicyclists, pedestrians and other non-vehicle roadway users, in an effort to improve safety in car-centric Anchorage" / (ADN) https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2023/08/05/anchorage-assembly-proposal-aims-to-lay-groundwork-for-a-more-bike-friendly-city/

Listen to the August 7th, 2023 daily headline round-up and find all the top news that you need to know.

Russia and India have enjoyed a long history of friendly and mutually beneficial relations. The rise of China, U.S.-China  tensions, the war in Ukraine, and the Russian-Chinese partnership, have had profound effects on Russian-Indian relations. Dr. Constantino Xavier,  fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress and a nonresident fellow at the India Project … Continue reading India’s Strategic Shift?

On this episode Tinker Toy Soldier (US Intel Leak Hebrew French Russian Chinese) --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/man-behind-the-machine/message

Russia has long operated under the guise of "strategic partnerships" to keep its enemies within striking distance. Putin and Xi's partnership is no different. However, only time will tell who will end up with the knife in their back. Full Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/zeihan/the-russian-chinese-partnership

Darrell Castle talks about the state visit to Moscow by Chinese Premier Xi Jinping. Transcription/Notes CAN CHINA BE ACCEPTED AS PEACEMAKER? Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 24th day of March in the year of our Lord 2023 and I will be talking about the state visit to Moscow of Chinese Premier Xi Jinping. It seems like an unlikely time for a state visit since his host Vladimir Putin has an international warrant through the ICC pending against him for war crimes, but nevertheless they met in Moscow. Yes, the media is full of stories and reports that the Hague-based International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The reports are probably intended to add gravitas to what is otherwise a meaningless gesture and just more political theater. The warrant on its face is ridiculous because Putin is accused of war crimes for evacuating children from a war zone to safety in Russia. I believe the United States did the same thing in Vietnam evacuating children and bringing them to the U.S. Many of those children later returned to their homeland. In Afghanistan the United States evacuated wounded children from the war zone when Russia spent its 10 years there. The children were treated for their wounds in the U.S. and later returned unless they desired to remain. In England, many British children were evacuated to Canada to avoid Nazi bombing of London during the blitz, For those reasons and because no warrants have been forthcoming for the Nord Stream Pipeline bombing or for the invasion of Iraq and other countries I believe it's a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Nevertheless at the invitation of Vladimir Putin, Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in Moscow last Monday and stayed through Wednesday. A grand welcoming ceremony was held for Xi's arrival with lots of praise heaped on Xi by Putin. Mr. Putin wrote an article for the People's Daily entitled “Russia and China-A Partnership Looking to the Future.” In that article he said, “We have high expectations for the upcoming talks. We have no doubt that they will give a powerful new impetus to the entire range of bilateral cooperation. It is also a great opportunity for me to see a good old friend with whom we have the warmest relationship.” He went on to add that there exists a special relationship in the Russian Chinese partnership which has always been built on mutual trust, and respect for each other's sovereignty and interests. From Xi's standpoint he noted that China and Russia are friendly neighbors connected by shared mountains and rivers. The two countries according to Xi have consolidated and grown the bilateral relationship on the basis of no-alliance, no-confrontation and not targeting any third party, and they have set a fine example of developing a relationship featuring mutual respect and peaceful coexistence. There are some important code words in Xi's statement if one takes a minute to decipher them. Both Russia and China understand that the United States is their chief rival and probable enemy in the upcoming World War that grows more likely by the day. Despite that realization there has been no announced mutual defense treaty. There has been no announced effort to include or recruit other like-minded countries into a military alliance. Iran would be an obvious choice especially since the Chinese brokered deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia effectively removed the Saudis from the sphere of U.S. control. The Chinese recently issued a paper to help explain it entitled “US Hegemony and its Perils.” The paper takes the position that the US, since the end of the cold war, has overstepped its position as world leader. Since the US emerged from the two world wars and the cold war as world leader it has been unwilling to accept the sovereignty and equality of other nations. In pursuit of world hegemony, the US has been overriding truth with its power,

Richie is joined by Gerald Celente and Christie Grace. Legendary Trends forecaster Gerald Celente joined Richie to discuss the state of the economy, banking crises, the Russian-Chinese summit, cashless society and much more. Gerald is brilliant. Subscribe to The Trends Journal here:www.trendsjournal.comhttps://twitter.com/geraldcelenteCovid-19 vaccines are causing great harm. But, how exactly? What is RNA? What are Lipid Nanoparticles? Richie is joined by Christie Grace. Christie is an expert in RNA, LNP and recombinant proteins. She's a biotech specialist. She was working on RNA based treatments before Covid-19 and tells Richie that there were serious problems even then. Christie says that a colleague of hers has uncovered evidence that the Moderna and Pfizer jabs do contain DNA. It's bombshell stuff. https://twitter.com/_HeartofGrace_https://christielauragrace.substack.com/

Restoring confidence in the nation's banking system. Russian-Chinese summit. Possible Trump indictment. CBS News Correspondent Steve Kathan has today's World News Roundup.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Up until a year ago, the Middle East seems to be Russia's most pressing business. Ukraine was always in the background, but between 2014 and 2022 Syria seemed to occupy center stage, with Russian bases, units and operations bolstering the Assad regime while carrying out Moscow's own missions. Now that Syria and perhaps the entire Mideast have been relegated to a secondary position, what are the implications for Russia's relations with regional powers such as Israel, Iran and Turkey? How does the emergence of a Russian-Chinese axis actively competing with an American-led one impact the region? Panel: - Jonathan Hessen, Host. - Amir Oren, Editor at Large, Host of Watchmen Talk and Powers in Play. - Dr. Zeev Khanin, Expert on Russian and Middle Eastern Studies, Bar Ilan and Ariel Universities. - Paula Slier, Middle East Bureau Chief of Russia Today and Head of Channel RT Africa. Articles on the topic: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/israel-to-back-ukraine-at-un/ https://www.tv7israelnews.com/39839-2/ https://www.tv7israelnews.com/the-war-in-ukraine-and-its-impact-on-israel-an-interim-assessment/ You are welcome to join our audience and watch all of our programs - free of charge! TV7 Israel News: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/563/ Jerusalem Studio: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/18738/ TV7 Israel News Editor's Note: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/76269/ TV7 Europa Stands: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/82926/ TV7 Powers in Play: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/84954/ TV7 Israel: Watchmen Talk: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/76256/ Jerusalem Prays: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/135790/ TV7's Times Observer: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/97531/ TV7's Middle East Review: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/997755/ My Brother's Keeper: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/53719/ This week in 60 seconds: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/vod/series/123456/ Those who wish can send prayer requests to TV7 Israel News in the following ways: Facebook Messenger: https://www.facebook.com/tv7israelnews Email: israelnews@tv7.fi Please be sure to mention your first name and country of residence. Any attached videos should not exceed 20 seconds in duration. #IsraelNews #tv7israelnews #newsupdates Rally behind our vision - https://www.tv7israelnews.com/donate/ To purchase TV7 Israel News merchandise: https://teespring.com/stores/tv7-israel-news-store Live view of Jerusalem - https://www.tv7israelnews.com/jerusalem-live-feed/ Visit our website - http://www.tv7israelnews.com/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/tv7israelnews Like TV7 Israel News on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/tv7israelnews Follow TV7 Israel News on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tv7israelnews/ Follow TV7 Israel News on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tv7israelnews

New signs of Putin's growing losses in Ukraine with coffins full of Russian fighters as Putin turns to China for help. Plus, Jared and Ivanka Trump have been handed a subpoena and reports say they are the latest targets of the special counsel investigating Donald Trump and January 6th. Also, Ron DeSantis is cashing in giving Donald Trump a run for his money and the Florida governor hasn't even jumped into the race yet. To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

About the Lecture America can escape “forever” wars, but it cannot escape “forever” debates about American foreign policy. The debate today about Ukraine reflects four time-tested ways of thinking about America's role in the world. Nationalists urge America to stay out of Ukraine and conflicts in general outside the western hemisphere. Realists, now called Restrainers, envision a “frozen conflict” or status quo outcome that splits the difference between western and Russian/ Chinese interests in Ukraine and Taiwan. Liberal internationalists appeal to diplomacy and the Minsk process to reach a cease fire, demilitarization and gradual settlement of disputes through peaceful processes and institutions. Finally, conservative internationalists address the conflict in ideological terms, authoritarian versus democratic governments, and insist that freedom “wins” in Ukraine and Taiwan through a Cold War process of balancing power and eventual negotiations that tilt toward freedom. About the Speaker Henry R. Nau is an Emeritus Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University. He holds a B.S. degree in Economics, Politics and Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He taught at Williams College (1971-73) and George Washington University (1973-2019) and as visiting professor at Columbia University, Stanford University and Johns Hopkins SAIS. His books include Conservative Internationalism: Armed Diplomacy Under Jefferson, Polk, Truman, and Reagan (Princeton 2013, paperback with new preface 2015); The Myth of America's Decline (Oxford 1990, paperback with new preface 1991); At Home Abroad (Cornell 2002); and Perspectives on International Relations (Sage 2021, 7th edition 2021). His latest articles include “Why Reagan Matters,” The National Review, July 10, 2022; “Why Nation-Building is Inevitable,” Providence, August 31, 2021; and “What Trump Gets Right about U.S. Foreign Policy,” The National Interest, April 30, 2020. From January 1981 to July 1983, he served on President Reagan's National Security Council as senior staff member and White House sherpa for the Annual G-7 Economic Summits at Ottawa (1981), Versailles (1982), Williamsburg (1983) and a special summit with developing countries at Cancun, Mexico (1982). Dr. Nau also served, in 1975-1977, as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs in the Department of State and, from 1963-65, as Lieutenant in the 82nd Airborne Division, Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. From 1989-2016 he directed the U.S.-Japan-South Korea Legislative Exchange Program bringing together semiannually legislators from the U.S. Congress, Japanese Diet and South Korean National Assembly, the only forum for regular off the record political discussions among these three major Asia allies. In recognition of this Program, the Japanese Government awarded Professor Nau The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, presented by the Japanese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to the United States, Kenichiro Sasae, at the Japanese Embassy, September 29, 2016. Learn more about IWP graduate programs: www.iwp.edu/academic-programs/ Make a gift to IWP: interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/Web…31090&id=18

In this episode of .think atlantic, IRI's Thibault Muzergues is joined by Giulia Pompili to talk about how both Russia and China work to increase their influence in European politics. The conversation focuses specifically on Italy. Giulia is a well-known journalist at Il Foglio, where she covers Eastern Asia. She is also the author of the Katane newsletter, and we had her come last year to talk about her previous book, Sotto lo stesso Cielo. This time, however, she's here to talk about her new book, which was co-written with Valerio Valentini and covers the topic of the day. It is in Italian and it is called Al cuore dell'Italia, whose full title translates as “To The Heart of Italy: How Russia and China are Trying To Conquer The Country”. What happened in the spring of 2020 in Italy? Are there similarities in the ways the Chinese Communist Party and Putin's regime have tried to capture Italian elites? Are there common features or motives that makes an individual pro-Russian or pro-Chinese? How Chinese and Russian institutions have attempted to influence and control the Italian press? What are the challenges ahead for the new Italian government? Listen for answers to these questions and more in this episode. Find Giulia Pompili on Twitter @giuliapompili Find Thibault Muzergues on Twitter @tmuzergues Find .think atlantic on Twitter @ThinkAtlantic Find IRI on Twitter @IRIglobal

Giselle, Iulia, and Dalibor are joined by Zack Cooper, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, to discuss how Russia's invasion of Ukraine might impact China's strategy towards Taiwan. Zack outlines three lessons China should be learning from Russia's invasion of Ukraine: 1) Invasions are tough, and an amphibious landing would be tougher. 2) Don't take bad military advice, and in a personalistic dictatorship, you don't get the best information. 3) Western countries are more willing than expected to unite on sanctions. Yet the lessons China is currently learning are different, experts say, due to the Chinese government's information ecosystem. Zack also delves into the Russian-Chinese relationship, the Chinese nuclear doctrine, among many other topics. Show notes: -Sign up for The Eastern Front's biweekly newsletter https://www.aei.org/the-eastern-front-podcast/ (here) -Enter The Eastern Front's giveaway https://hello.aei.org/Eastern-Front-Giveaway.html (here)

Follow Phuc, an entrepreneur In Boston as he chases the American Dream, works on cool startups (using cutting edge science/tech) and investigates spirituality, family, UFO's (UAP's) and the meaning of life. Hosted by Roberto Souza an entrepreneur that's living the Canadian Dream in sunny Ecuador working remotely as a videographer/digital animator/graphic designer.So, come join us on today's talk on the amazing Season 3 as we talk about The Russian / Chinese team up, Social Credit Scores & Dehumanizing people and How to Pitch Investors!Also, here're the links towards some of the covered topics! @Cosmic Agency https://www.youtube.com/c/CosmicAgency @ISMAEL PEREZ OFFICIAL CHANNEL https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJpv4mCgInRclpbl6zqnBmwUFO's in Ukraine:https://www.space.com/ukraine-ufo-uap-report @Republic  https://republic.com/phuc-labs Check us out on our other socials!Spotify: Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/whatthephucwtp/https://www.instagram.com/phucnet8/https://www.instagram.com/souza.now/

We're joined by Franc Milburn for a third time on the show to discuss the geopolitical situation between western powers and an increasingly coherent Russian-Chinese alliance.  But first Mike and Austin ask Franc about Project Unity's interview with Oke Shannon about his role in the events recorded by the Wilson-Davis Memo.COINTELPRO Official Twitter.Co-hosts: Mike Spencer and Austin.Our Patreon page.Support the show

The latest developments after a deal is reached to restart grain exports from Ukraine. Also in the programme: why Tokyo is becoming increasingly concerned about Russian-Chinese military co-operation, and a round-up of the day's top business news.

Neoconservative ex CIA Director and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo admitted NATO seeks to prevent a “Russian-Chinese axis” and “pan-Eurasian colossus.” Benjamin Norton analyzes a speech in which Pompeo outlines Washington's imperial strategy in the new cold war, to maintain “economic hegemony” and control over fossil fuels and other resources. Read more at https://multipolarista.com/2022/06/30/nato-eurasia-us-hegemony-mike-pompeo

It's been almost three months since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the world is still shaken by these disastrous events. And while most countries have imposed sanctions on Russia, China is one of the few leading countries that hasn't imposed any sanctions. But what's happening between Russia and China in the cyber underground?In this episode of the Dr. Dark Web podcast, our host Chris Roberts welcomes Naomi Yusupov, a Chinese Threat Intelligence Analyst, and Delilah Schwartz, a Product Marketing Manager at Cybersixgill. They dive deep into Naomi's and Delilah's recent eye-opening report, called The Bear and the Dragon, which analyzes Russian and Chinese cybercriminal communities.

The ​Freedom First Network is sponsored by the explosive new book by Robert F Kennedy Jr. The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health. Help the Freedom First Network by ordering this book today from this tracking link at https://amzn.to/36D0LLg"Americans have waited too long to act ...Trump is not riding to the rescue ... a joint Russian-Chinese ​EMP and nuclear attack is ​in our future ... and the globalists are taking control." These are the words of Joel Skousen, a former U.S. Marine Corps' pilot and a 50-year student of international affairs, and now the editor-in-chief of the weekly World Affairs Brief . These statements are a mouthful, but Mr. Skousen also provides a splendid chronological history of how the United States arrived at this point, and that the only option Americans have now is to prepare their families and communities for the worst. Starting with Wall Street's funding of the Bolsheviks in 1917, and the successful Anglo-American operation to move Leon Trotsky and the $40 million he was carrying from the United States to Russia, and continuing through the sub-rosa aid given to the globalists, Russians, and Chinese by Bill Clinton in 1997 through his alteration U.S. nuclear doctrine by ending the "launch on warning" policy -- which would have allowed a U.S. nuclear attack to hit targets before the enemies attack arrived -- and replaced it with an "absorb the first strike" policy. Next, in 1997, Clinton ordered that 50% of the U.S. nuclear submarine fleet must remain in port at all times to show good will for China and Russia. Mr. Skousen closed by saying it's time for Americans to get out of cities to rural havens where survivors can form into small communities, to prepare for the worst by arming and stockpiling life's necessities, and to get acquainted again with the Bible.  --Mr. Skousen's websites are: http://www.worldaffairsbrief.com and http:www.joelskausen.com--Mr. Skousen's books include:--Strategic Relocation, North American Guide to Safe Places, Fourth Edition--The High Security Shelter - How to Implement a Multi-Purpose Safe Room in the Home, 5th Edition [2017]

In a dialogue with The Wall Street Journal editorial board in early April, PM Lee warned that the US should not define the war in Ukraine as a battle between democracies and autocracies, as that would immediately place China on the defensive. This was just one of many truth bombs he dropped; what other interesting nuggets of knowledge did he share? Closer to home, Malaysian influencer and Penthouse cover model Pui Yi had to apologize for wearing the traditional Vietnamese dress, the ao dai, in an inappropriate manner in her photos. What went wrong? Find us here! Our YLB Subreddit for detailed show notes and mindblowing discussions YLB's TikTok featuring us dancing uwu Our YLB YouTube channel to watch videos of all our guest interviews Our YLB IG account where we post exclusive BTS of the podcast Support our Folklory journey towards 100 customers in 100 days! We'll help you turn your favourite memories into personal podcasts! Our newsletter The Folklore Issue #5 PM Lee warns US about Russia-Ukraine war Defining Ukraine war as democracies vs autocracies puts China in 'wrong camp' & 'makes things more difficult': PM Lee PMO | PM Lee Hsien Loong at the Dialogue with the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board (Apr 2022) Tommy Koh concerned about S'poreans' acceptance of Russian-Chinese narrative of Ukraine war FB Post by Tommy Koh Penthouse model Pui Yi's sexy photos enrage Vietnamese Malaysian influencer Ms Puiyi apologises over ao dai photos One Shiok Comment Comment by RockGroundbreaking42 Comment by allthingsquaint One Shiok Thing The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel S4 - Official Trailer | Prime Video The Rescue | Official Trailer | Disney+

Beijing will seek to favorable dominate a weaker Russia.

The war in Ukraine has put Russia's partnership with China to the test – but it remains unclear precisely where Beijing stands on the crisis. How solid is the alliance between the two countries and how have events in Ukraine changed things? Andrew Mueller speaks to Nina Khrushcheva, Isabel Hilton and Sergey Radchenko. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kevin talks about whether the story related to bio lab in Ukraine is the US doing something nefarious or Russian/Chinese propaganda. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/afreesolution/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/afreesolution/support

Buy the book: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674979482 Dr. Franck Billé is Program Director at the Tang Center for Silk Road Studies, University of California, Berkeley. He is the author and editor of three books about East Asia, including Sinophobia: Anxiety, Violence, and the Making of Mongolian Identity.

In this episode of MSOM, Sean Morgan gives a breaking news update about the recent Russian energy embargo. Next Dr. Kirk Elliott talks about the unfolding financial chaos. The next guest, Susan Sweetin talks about achieving travel freedom by chartering your own planes. Next Josh Reid of the Redpill Project gives his analysis of the emerging Russian/Chinese economic bloc.https://www.freedomtravelalliance.com/https://Redpills.TVhttps://americanmediaperiscope.com/amp/signuphttps://Devolution.LinkSave up to 66% off at https://MyPillow.com with AMP888https://GrillBlazer.com Save 10 Percent with AMP888Get Breaking News Updates: https://SeanMorganReport.comNearly 60% of Americans are concerned about running out of money.RECEIVE A FREE CONSULTATION & A FREE E-BOOK ABOUT ANNUITIEShttps://www.americanmediaperiscope.net/clevelandFREE OR PREMIUM MEMBERSHIP: https://bit.ly/3reDC7CBUY GOLD: https://bit.ly/3sIiGcwBUY A SAT PHONE: https://bit.ly/3tHkWkIMyPatriotSupply: https://bit.ly/32OOD81www.AmericanMediaPeriscope.comSupport the show (https://donorbox.org/seanmorganreport)

In Episode 41 Caroline is joined by David Wurmser and Stephen Bryen. They discussed the war in Ukraine in the strategic context of Russian US-NATO rivalry; the Russian-Chinese alliance; and what it bodes for superpower relations with the nations of the Middle East. It was a fantastic, vital, and timely discussion. Don't miss it. To Watch: https://youtu.be/fjvjvJJnL0I (https://youtu.be/fjvjvJJnL0I)

A live audience interviews U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Mark Cancian (Ret.) of CSIS, Scott Kennedy of CSIS, and Yiqing Xu of Stanford University on Ukraine, the West's response, Russian-Chinese relations, and other topics.Find more (including how to join us live) at PM101.live or on Twitter at @PoliticsNMedia.Subscribe, rate, and review if you like what you hear.Join our e-mail list for "best of" delivered directly to your inbox, twice per month, at PM101.live 

In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman speaks with Russian China experts Vita Spivak and Alexander Gabuev about the February meeting between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, and what it may tell us about where the Russian-Chinese relationship is headed.

Turning your back on somebody is usually problematic but in the context of the Russian-Chinese relationship, it is a symbol of trust. Having solved their border disputes and reigned in great power ambitions, Moscow and Beijing have come to the point where they can stand back to back across the vast Eurasian subcontinent and spare each other the time and the resources to face other challenges rather than defending against one another. It's a historically unprecedented configuration but can it last? To discuss this, Oksana is joined by Nelson Wong, vice chairman of the Shanghai Center for RimPac & International Studies.

The Society for #Worldwide #Interbank #Financial #Telecommunications , called #SWIFT , is considered a cornerstone of global transactions. Before SWIFT came into existence, international interbank telecommunication was managed through #Telex - #Messages. After the decline of the telex message system, SWIFT was founded on 3 May 1973 as a non-profit cooperative organization to create a shared worldwide data processing and communication link … Link : https://avim.org.tr/en/Analiz/POSSIBLE-EFFECTS-OF-A-RUSSIAN-CHINESE-JOINT-SWIFT-SYSTEM-ON-THE-EURASIAN-ECONOMY-AND-THE-WORLD-TRADE-SYSTEM Web page: https://avim.org.tr/en Telegram Channel: https://t.me/s/avimorgtr Twitter: https://avim.org.tr/en Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/avimorgtr/ VKontakte: https://vk.com/public202374482 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcIfEGNM3308QoLbCDJIFuw Dailmotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/dm_0ea263f63bb5aee7d8770d1ec13cfe8b Instgram: https://www.instagram.com/avimorgtr/IntroductionIntroduction

Caleb Maupin, journalist and political analyst, joins us to wrap up the important stories for the week. President Biden is being urged to stop providing arms to Saudi Arabia for the Yemen war. Also, we discuss the EU crisis in Ukraine, US and Iran negotiations on the JCPOA, and the Russian-Chinese strategic partnership.Jack Rasmus, professor in economics and politics at St. Mary's College in California, joins us to discuss the economic stories for the week. Jobless claims are rapidly falling, Janet Yellen is defending the administration's spending plans, and we discuss the fall of the neoliberal economic model.John Burris, civil rights attorney, joins us to discuss this week's court cases. Signals are coming out of the Supreme Court that it may be willing to uphold Mississippi's draconian abortion limits and effectively kill the Roe v. Wade decision. Meanwhile, calls mount for Congress to step in and address the issue.Ajamu Baraka, 2016 US vice presidential candidate for the Green Party, and Margaret Kimberley, editor and senior columnist at Black Agenda Report and author of "Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents," come together to discuss this week's stories. The US continues its imperialist war against Venezuela. Also, we discuss the argument over Rep. Boebert's racist comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar, and President Biden's upcoming summit of democracy. Jim Kavanagh, writer at thepolemicist.net and CounterPunch, and Dan Lazare, author and investigative journalist, join us to discuss important stories of the week. The Biden administration's support for unstable neo-Nazi factions in Ukraine is creating a dangerous situation on the Russian border. Also, we discuss Craig Murray's recent release from prison, Julian Assange, US coup mongering in Central and South America, dysfunction in the Kamala Harris camp, and Joe Biden's hypocritical summit of democracy.

Thomas Graham, distinguished fellow at CFR, leads a conversation on constraining Putin's Russia. FASKIANOS: Welcome to today's session of the CFR Fall 2021 Academic Webinar Series. I'm Irina Faskianos, vice president of the National Program and Outreach here at CFR. Today's meeting is on the record, and the video and transcript will be available on our website CFR.org/academic if you would like to share it with your colleagues or classmates. As always, CFR takes no institutional positions on matters of policy. We are delighted to have Thomas Graham with us to talk about Putin's Russia. Mr. Graham is a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a senior advisor at Kissinger Associates, where he focuses on Russian and Eurasian affairs. He is cofounder of the Russian, East European, and Eurasian studies program at Yale University, and is also a research fellow at the MacMillan Center at Yale. He previously served as special assistant to President George W. Bush and senior director for Russia on the National Security Council staff from 2004 to 2007, and director for Russian affairs from 2002 to 2004. His résumé is very distinguished. I will just also say that he is a U.S. diplomat who served two tours of duty in Moscow, where he worked on political affairs. So, Mr. Graham, thanks very much for being with us today. I thought you could get us started by talking about the primary interests at stake in U.S.-Russia relations. GRAHAM: Great. Thank you very much, Irina, for that introduction, and it's a real pleasure to be with all of you here today. I want to start with three broad points that will frame the rest of our discussion. The first is that the problem that the United States faces is not simply with Putin; it is with Russia more generally speaking. The last seven years of very difficult, challenging adversarial relationship is really not an aberration in the history of the relationship between our two countries. In fact, from the moment the United States emerged as a major power on the global stage at the very end of the nineteenth century, we have had a rivalry with Russia. And the issues that divide us today are the ones that divided us 125, 150 years ago: We have opposing worldviews. We have different geopolitical interests. And clearly, we have different systems of values that inform our domestic political systems. This rivalry has intensified, ebbed and flowed during the twentieth century. But the effort we made at partnership after the breakup of the Soviet Union up until 2014, marked by the eruption of the crisis in Ukraine, is really the aberration in the history of relations between our two countries and one that was founded very much on the fact that Russia endured a period of strategic weakness. So the issue we have to deal with Russia and how we're going to deal with Russia well into the future, even after Putin departs—which he will, obviously, at some point, if only for biological reasons. The second point that I would make is that Russia is not going to go away. We hear a lot in the public debate in the United States about Russian decline, about the population/demographic problems it has, about its stagnating economy, and so forth. None of this is necessarily untrue, but I think it tends to exaggerate the problems that Russia faces. It ignores the problems that all other major countries face—including China, the United States, and many major European countries—but it also overlooks the very great strengths that Russia has had for decades that are going to make it a player and an important player on the global stage, nuclear weapons to begin with. We should never forget that Russia remains the only country that can destroy the United States as a functioning society in thirty minutes. Russia has the largest natural endowment of any country in the world, a country that can pretend to self-sufficiency and, in fact, is better placed than most other countries to deal with a breakdown in globalization in the decades to come if that, indeed, happens. It has a veto on the U.N. Security Council, which makes it an important player on issues of importance to the United States, and it has a talented population that has fostered a scientific community that, for example, is capable of taking advances in technology and developing the military applications from them. Just look at the strength that Russia exhibits in cyberspace, for example—again, a major challenge for the United States. So Russia is going to continue to be a challenge. One other thing that I should have mentioned here is that the Russian state throughout history and Putin's Russia today has demonstrated a keen ability to mobilize the resources of their own society for state purposes. So even if in relative terms they may be weaker and weakening vis-à-vis China and the United States, in some ways that political will, that ability to mobilize, allows Russia to play a much larger role than mere indicators of its economic size and population size would suggest. Now, Russia clashes with the United States across a whole range of issues, and as I said that is going to continue for some time. And this brings me to my third point: How we should think about American foreign policy, what our guidelines should be in dealing with Russia. And here there are three, I think, key elements to this. First, the United States needs to preserve strategic stability. We need to have that nuclear balance between us (sic) and the United States. This is an existential question. And as I already mentioned, Russia does have a tremendous nuclear capability. Second, the United States should seek to manage its competition with Russia responsibly. We want to avoid or reduce the risk of a direct military conflict that could escalate to the nuclear level. This is—also, I think, recognizes that the United States is not going to be able to compel Russia to capitulate on issues that are of interest to us, nor are we going to be able to radically change the way they think about their own national interests. So it's a competitive relationship and we need to manage that responsibly. And finally, given the complex world that we live in today—the very real transnational challenges we face: climate change, pandemic diseases, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction—the United States should seek, to the extent possible, ways to cooperate with Russia in dealing with these issues. We should recognize that Russia is not necessarily the only player nor necessarily the most important player in dealing with these challenges, but it does have a role to play along with other major powers in handling these transnational issues. So those, I think, are three sort of broad points that help set the stage for our discussion. Now let me turn sort of very briefly to the questions about U.S. policy. How do we deal with this Russia? What are sort of—the way we should think about American foreign policy? And here the point I would make is that we should think of the policy in terms of what I would call the three Ds: defense, deterrence, and dialogue. Now, defense and deterrence in many ways go together. If you have a very good defense, if you demonstrate an ability and willingness to defend your interests effectively and deliberately, then you tend to deter another power. They have less reason to want to attack you. But if deterrence fails, you very much need to be able to defend yourself—to disrupt Russian operations in cyberspace, for example, or disrupt military operations by the Russians that you find problematic in some way. So defense and deterrence go together, and we need to think about that. Now, you build these elements on a number of other things that we're all familiar with. A strong military—strong, capable military—is, obviously, an element of both defense and deterrence, and something that we have managed quite well in the past and I imagine will manage quite well going into the future. Cyber defenses are also an important element of constraining Russia on the global stage. Now, here the United States really has much room for improvement. We built our internet, our cyberspace largely for the accessibility, the ability to pass information from one entity to another, and we spent much less attention to the security of that system. As cyberspace has become more important to our socioeconomic and political lives, we really need to devote much more attention to cybersecurity, hardening our commuter—computer networks, for example, making sure we have strong passwords and so forth, something that I think we now recognize but we need to put a much greater effort into doing that. Third area of defense and deterrence is strong alliances. When we're thinking about Russia, this is clearly the transatlantic community, NATO, our relations with our other European partners. And here, we need to develop the types of military/defense cooperation that we need to demonstrate quite clearly that the United States, along with the rest of the NATO allies, is ready and prepared to meet its Article 5 guarantees to collective security should the Russians do something that is untoward in our neighborhood. And then, finally, and I think of increasing importance, is the question of national unity. National unity, national resilience, has really become a key element in defense and deterrence at this point. We need to demonstrate to the Russians that we have sufficient national unity to clearly identify what our interests are and pursue them on the international stage. One of Putin's close colleagues several years ago said that what Putin is doing is messing with the Americans' minds, and certainly we've seen that over the past several years. Putin hasn't sowed the discord in the United States, but he certainly has tried to exploit it for Russian purposes. And this is something that he's going to concentrate on in the future, in part because he recognizes the dangers of military confrontation with the United States. So great-power competition, from the Kremlin's standpoint, is going to move very, very quickly from the kinetic realm to the cyber realm, and we need to be able to deal with that. So building national unity at home, overcoming our polarization, is really perhaps one of the key steps in constraining Russia on the global stage. And then, finally, some very brief words about dialogue. We tend to downplay this in our national discussion. Many believe that diplomatic relations are—should not be branded as a reward for bad behavior. But I think if you look at this objectively, you'll see that diplomatic relations are very important as a way of defending and advancing our national concerns. It's a way that we can convey clearly to the Russians what our expectations are, what our goals are, what our redlines are, and the responses that we're capable of taking if Russia crosses them. At the same time, we can learn from the Russians what their goals are, what their motivations are, what their redlines are, and we can factor that into our own policy. This is a major element of managing the competition between our two countries responsibly. You'll see that we have begun to engage in negotiations and diplomacy with the Russians much more under President Biden than we did under President Trump. We've already launched strategic stability talks with the aim of coming up with a new concept of strategic stability that's adequate to the strategic environment of the present day and the near future. We've engaged in cybersecurity talks, which my understanding is have, in fact, had some success over the past several weeks. Where we, I think, have lagged is in the discussion of regional issues—Europe, Ukraine, the Middle East, for example. These are areas where there is still potential for conflict, and the United States and Russia ought to be sitting down and talking about these issues on a regular basis. So three Ds—defense, deterrence, and diplomacy or dialogue—are the ways that we should be thinking about our relationship with Russia. And obviously, we'll need to adjust each of these three elements to the specific issue at hand, whether it be in Europe, whether it be in the nuclear realm, cyberspace, and so forth. Now, with that as a way—by way of introduction, I am very pleased to entertain your questions. FASKIANOS: Tom, thanks very much for that terrific overview and analysis. We're going to go to all of you now for your questions. You can either raise your hand by clicking on the icon, and I will call on you, and you can tell us what institution you are with; or you can type your question in the Q&A box, although if you want to ask it you can raise your hand. We encourage that. And if you're typing your question, please let us know what college or university you're with. So I'm going to take the first raised-hand question from Babak Salimitari. And unmute yourself. Q: Can you guys hear me? GRAHAM: Yes. FASKIANOS: Yes. Q: Hello. I'm a third-year UCI student, economics. I have a question. I'm going to sound a bit like Sean Hannity here, so please forgive me, but I have a question about that Nord Stream 2 pipeline that you constantly hear on the news, and it just doesn't make that much sense for me of why this pipeline was allowed to be completed into the heart of Europe considering Russia's strength with natural gases and the leverage that they have over Europe with that pipeline. Why was that allowed to be completed? GRAHAM: Well, I think from the standpoint of the Biden administration this was a matter of what we call alliance management. Germany is clearly a key ally for the United States in Europe, and the Germans were very committed to the completion of that pipeline, starting with Chancellor Angela Merkel down through I think both the leading political parties and the German business community. So I think they made the decision for that. But let me step back because I'd like to challenge a lot of the assumptions about the Nord Stream 2 project here in the United States, which I think misconceive it, misframe the question, and tend to exaggerate the dangers that is poses. The first point that I would make is that Europe now and in the future will have and need Russian gas. It's taken a substantial amount in the past—in the past decades, and even as it moves forward towards a green revolution it will continue to take considerable amounts of Russian gas. It can't do without that gas. So the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, contrary to what you hear in the United States or at the U.S. Congress, I don't think poses an additional threat to Europe's energy security, no larger than the threat that was posed before that pipeline was completed. The Europeans, I think are aware of the problems that that poses, and they've taken steps over the past several years to integrate the gas—the gas distribution network in Europe, to build facilities to import liquified natural gas, all as a way of eroding the leverage that Gazprom might have had over energy markets in Europe. And that has been quite successful over the past—over the past several years. Now, I think, you know, the other issue that comes up in the discussion in the United States is Ukraine, because Nord Stream 2 clearly provides Russia with a way to import the gas into Europe and bypass Ukraine at the—at the same time. And Ukraine is going to suffer a significant loss in budgetary revenue because of the decline in transit fees that it gets from the transportation of Russian gas across its territory. You know, that is a problem, but there are ways of dealing with that: by helping Ukraine fill the budgetary gap, by helping Ukraine transition away from a reliance on gas to other forms of energy, of helping Ukraine develop the green-energy resources that will make it a much more important partner in the European energy equation than it is now. And then finally, you know, it strikes me as somewhat wrongheaded for Ukraine to put itself in a position where it is reliant on a country that is clearly a belligerent for a significant part of its federal revenue. So we need to think hard with the Ukrainians about how they deal with this issue, how they wean themselves off Russian transit fees, and then I think we have a situation where we can help Ukraine, we can manage the energy-security situation in Europe, we can reduce any leverage that Russia might have, and that Nord Stream 2 really doesn't pose a significant risk to the United States or our European allies over the long run. FASKIANOS: Thank you. We're going to take the next question from the written queue from Kenneth Mayers, who's at St Francis—sorry, that just popped away; oh, sorry—St. Francis College. Thinking beyond this triangular framework, what pathways and possibilities can be envisioned for a more positive dimension of working together in mutually, even globally, beneficial ways? GRAHAM: What triangular relationship are we talking about? FASKIANOS: His—thinking beyond this triangular framework and— GRAHAM: Oh, OK. So I think it's defense, deterrence, and diplomacy is the— FASKIANOS: Correct. GRAHAM: OK. Can you repeat the final part of the question, then? FASKIANOS: What pathways and possibilities can be envisioned for a more positive dimension of working together in mutually beneficial ways? GRAHAM: Well, there are a number of areas in which we can work together beneficially. If you think about proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, for example, the United States and Russia over the past two decades have played a major role in both securing weapons that were located in Russia, but also in securing highly-enriched uranium that was in Soviet-designed reactors throughout the former Soviet space. We have taken a lead together in setting down rules and procedures that reduce the risk of nuclear material—fissile material getting into the hands of terrorist organizations. And we have played a role together in trying to constrain the Iranian nuclear program. Russia played an instrumental role in the conclusion of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that we signed in 2015 that the Trump administration walked away with, but they will continue to play a role in constraining Iranians' nuclear ambitions going forward. And we've also worked in a cooperative fashion in dealing with the North Korean nuclear program. So there are areas in nonproliferation where the two countries can work together. On climate change, I mean, I think the big challenge for the United States is actually persuading Russia that climate change is a significant threat to their own security. They're slowly beginning to change that view, but as they come around to recognizing that they have to deal with climate change there are a number of areas where the two countries can cooperate. One of the things that climate is doing is melting the permafrost. That is destabilizing the foundation of much of Russia's energy infrastructure in areas where gas and oil are extracted for export abroad. The United States has dome technologies that the Russians might find of interest in stabilizing that infrastructure. They suffer from problems of Siberian fires—peat-bog fires, forest fires—an area that, obviously, is of concern to the United States as well. And there may be room for cooperation there, two. And then, finally, you know, the United States and Russia have two of the leading scientific communities in the entire world. We ought to be working together on ways that we can help mitigate the consequences of climate change going forward. So I see an array of areas where the two countries could cooperate, but that will depend on good diplomacy in Washington and a receptivity on the part of the Russians which we haven't seen quite yet. FASKIANOS: Thank you. Let's go next to Jeffrey Ko. You can unmute yourself. Thank you. Q: Hi. So I'm Jeffrey Ko. I'm an international relations master's student at Carnegie Mellon. And my question has to deal with these private military forces, and especially the Wagner Group. And so I would like to know, you know, how does this play into our security strategy regarding Russia in countries that have seen proxy warfare? And how does this—how difficult will it be to engage with Russia either diplomatically or militarily on the use of these gray-zone tactics, and specifically utilizing the Wagner Group as an informal branch of Russia's military? GRAHAM: Well, look, I mean, I do think that we need, one, to sit down and have a discussion with Russia about the use of these private military forces, particularly the Wagner firm, which has played a significant role in a number of conflicts across the globe in the Middle East, Africa, and in Latin America. But we also ought to help the countries that are of interest to us deal with the problems that the Wagner Group causes. You know, the United States had to deal with the Wagner Group in Syria during the Syrian civil war. You know, despite the fact that we had a deconfliction exercise with the Russians at that point, tried to prevent military conflicts between our two militaries operating in close proximity, when the Wagner forces violated those strictures and actually began to attack a U.S. facility, we had no hesitation about using the force that we had to basically obliterate that enemy. And the Wagner Group suffered casualties numbering in the hundreds, one to two hundred. I think the Russians got the message about that, that you don't—you don't mess with the United States military, certainly not while using a private military company like Wagner. You know, in places like Libya, where Wagner is quite active, I think the United States needs a major diplomatic effort to try to defuse the Libyan crisis. And part of the solution to that would be negotiating an agreement that calls for the withdrawal of all foreign military forces and certainly private military groups from Libyan territory, and lean on the Russians to carry that through. In any event, you know, this is not going to be an easy issue to resolve. I think we deal with this by—country by country, and we focus our attention on those countries where our national interests are greatest. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take the next question from Jill Dougherty, who's at Georgetown University. The Putin administration appears to be hardening its control of Russia's society with the purpose of keeping Putin in power at least until 2036. Most recent example is the Duma elections that just took place. Will this crackdown domestically affect or damage U.S.-Russia relations? GRAHAM: Thank you, Jill. Always a good question and always a difficult question to answer. You know, I think the issue here is the extent to which the Biden administration wants to make the domestic political situation in Russia a key item on its agenda with Russia over the next—over the next few years. You know, my impression from the conversations I've had with people in the administration—in and around the administration is that President Biden is not going to focus on this. You know, his focus really is going to be China, and what he wants to do is maintain something of a status quo in the relationship with Russia. You will notice that the second round of sanctions that the United States levied with regard to the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, something that was mandated by U.S. law, were actually quite mild—much less extreme, much less punitive than the legislation allowed—I think a signal that the Biden administration was not going to let domestic political issues in Russia overwhelm the agenda that the United States has, which is going to be focused on strategic stability, cyber issues, and so forth. So my immediate reaction is that the Duma election is really not going to have a dramatic impact on the state of the relationship between our two countries. We accept the fact that Russia is an authoritarian system. It is becoming more authoritarian. We will continue to try to find ways to support those elements of civil society we can, but always being careful not to do it in ways that causes the Russian government to crack down even harder on those individuals. This is a very sort of difficult needle to thread for the United States, but I think that's the way we'll go and you won't see this as a major impediment to the improvement of relations—which, as we all know, are at a very low level at this point in any event. FASKIANOS: Great. Thank you. Let's go next to Sujay Utkarsh. Q: Hi, yeah. Can you hear me? GRAHAM: Yes. FASKIANOS: Yes. Q: Awesome. So, regarding the issue about cyber warfare, I was wondering if you can go into more detail about what advantages the Russians have in cyberspace and what the United States can do to compete with those advantages. GRAHAM: A good question and a difficult question for people outside the government to answer, since we're not privy to all the information about Russian cyber capabilities nor are we privy to the information about American cyber capabilities. Both countries cloak those programs in a great deal of secrecy. You know, it seemed to me that one of the advantages that perhaps Russia has is that it's a much more closed society than the United States. Now, I'm thinking simply in terms of the way societies can be disrupted through cyberspace. We're a much more open society. It's easier to access our internet. We are—just as I mentioned before, we are a polarized society right now. That allows Russia many avenues into our domestic political system in order to exacerbate the tensions between various elements in our society. The United States can't reply in the same way in dealing with Russia. You know, second, Russia, in building its own internet, its own cyberspace, has paid much more attention to security than the United States has. So, you know, I would presume that its computer systems are somewhat harder to penetrate than American systems are at this point, although another factor to take into account here is that much of the initial effort in building up cyberspace—the Web, the computer networks—in Russia was built with American technology. You know, the Googles, the Intels, and others played an instrumental role in providing those types of—that type of equipment to the Russians. So I wouldn't exaggerate how much stronger they are there. And then, finally, I think what is probably one of the strengths, if you want to call it that, is that Russia is probably a little more risk-prone in using its cyber tools than the United States is at this point, in part because we think as a society we're more vulnerable. And that does give Russia a slight advantage. That said, this shouldn't be a problem that's beyond the capability of the United States to manage if we put our minds to it. We have done a lot more over the past several years. We are getting better at this. And I think we'll continue to improve in time and with the appropriate programs, the appropriate education of American society. FASKIANOS: Thank you. The next question is a written one from Kim-Leigh Tursi, a third-year undergraduate at Temple University. Where do you see Russia in relation to the rise of China, and how does that affect how the U.S. might approach foreign policy toward Russia? GRAHAM: Well, you know, that's an important question, obviously one that a lot of people have focused on recently. You know, Russia and China have developed a very close working strategic relationship over the—over the past several years, but I think we should note that the Russian effort to rebuild its relations with China go back to the late Soviet period to overcome the disadvantages that then the Soviet Union felt they had because of the poor relationship with China and the ability of the United States to exploit that relationship to Moscow's detriment. So relations have been improving for the past twenty-five, thirty years; obviously, a dramatic acceleration in that improvement after 2014 and the breakdown in relations between Russia and the West. Now, there are a number of reasons for this alignment at this point. One, the two countries do share at a very general level a basic view of for—a basic dislike of what they see as American ambitions to dominate the global—the global security and economic environment. They don't like what they consider to be American hegemonic goals. Second, the economies seem to be complementary at this point. Russia does have a wealth of natural resources that the Chinese need to fuel their robust economic growth. You have similar domestic political systems. And all of this, I think, is reinforced by what appears to be a very good personal relationship between President Putin and President Xi Jinping. These two leaders have met dozens of times over the past five to seven years and have maintained, I think, very robust contact even during the—during the pandemic. So there are very good strategic reasons why these two countries enjoy good relations. They are going to step those up in the near term. The Russians are continuing to provide the Chinese with significant sophisticated military equipment. They've also undertaken to help the Chinese build an early warning system for ballistic missiles, and when that's completed it will make China only the third country in the world to have such a system along with Russia and the United States. Now, I would argue that this strategic alignment does pose something of a challenge to the United States. If you look at American foreign policy or American foreign policy tradition, one of the principles that has guided the United States since the end of the nineteenth century, certainly throughout the twentieth century, was that we needed to prevent the—any hostile country or coalition of hostile countries from dominating areas of great strategic importance, principally Europe, East Asia, and more recently the Middle East. A Russian-Chinese strategic alignment certainly increases the chances of China dominating East Asia. Depending on how close that relationship grows, it also could have significant impact on Europe and the way Europe relates to this Russian-Chinese bloc, and therefore to the United States as a whole. So we should have an interest in trying to sort of attenuate the relationship between the two countries. At a minimum, we shouldn't be pursuing a set of policies that would push Russia closer to China. Second, I think we ought to try to normalize our diplomatic relationship with the Russians. Not that we're necessarily going to agree on a—on a range of issues at this point, but we need to give the Russians a sense that they have other strategic options than China going forward—something that would, I think, enhance their bargaining position with the Chinese going forward and would complicate China's own strategic calculus, which would be to our advantage. I think we also should play on Russia's concerns about strategic autonomy, this idea that Russia needs to be an independent great power on the global stage, that it doesn't want to be the junior partner or overly dependent on any one country as a way, again, of attenuating the tie with China. The one thing that I don't think we can do is drive a wedge between those two countries, in part because of the strategic reasons that I've mentioned already that bring these two countries together. And any very crude, I think, effort to do that will actually be counterproductive. Both Beijing and Moscow will see through that, quite clearly, and that will only lead to a closing of the ranks between those two countries, which as I said is a strategic challenge for the United States going forward. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take the next question from Holli Semetko, who's at Emory University. Polarization is something we must overcome, as you said, but those of us working on social media have some evidence to suggest that social media has fostered political polarization in the U.S. Yuri Milner, a Russian Israeli entrepreneur, invested in an early round of Facebook funding with help from VTB, a Russian state-controlled bank, as well as his investment in Jared Kushner's real estate firm. What is the level of FDI from Russia in the U.S. and do you see it as a threat to national security? GRAHAM: Well, look, I mean, the actual level of Russian FDI in the United States is quite small. You know, you have some few, I think, good examples of it—the one that you've mentioned with Yuri Milner, for example. There was some investment in a steel factory some years ago. But by and large, there hasn't been a significant amount of Russian foreign direct investment in the United States. I think our growing concerns about Russia have made us even more leery of allowing Russian investment, particularly in sectors that we consider critical to American national security. So I'm not deeply concerned about that going forward. I think we probably face a much greater challenge from the Chinese in that regard. Of course, you've seen efforts by the United States to deal more harshly or look more closely at Chinese investment in the United States over the past several years. Let me just make one sort of final point on social media since it's come up. You know, Russia is a problem. We need to pay attention to Russia in that space. But again, I don't think that we should exaggerate Russia's influence, nor should we focus simply on Russia as the problem in this area. There is a major problem with disinformation in social media in the United States, much of that propagated by sources within the United States, but there are a host of other countries that also will try to affect U.S. public opinion through their intrusions into American social media. You know, given our concerns about First Amendment rights, freedom of speech and so forth, you know, I think we have problems in sort of really clamping down on this. But what we need to do, certainly, is better educate the American public about how to deal with the information that crosses their electronic devices day in and day out. Americans need to be aware of how they can be manipulated, and they need to understand and know where they can go to find reliable information. Again, given the political polarization in our country today, this is a very real challenge and difficult one. But I think if we think long term about this problem, the key really is educating the American public. An educated American public is going to be the best defense against foreign countries, other hostile forces trying to use social media to undermine our national unity and exacerbate the politics of our country. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take the next question from Eoin Wilson-Manion, who's raised his hand. Q: Hello. Can you hear me now? GRAHAM: Yes. FASKIANOS: Yes. Q: Awesome. Well, thank you. I just wanted to ask if you could touch a little bit more on Russia's presence in Syria and what that means for U.S. interests in Syria and I guess the larger Middle East. I'm Eoin from Carnegie Mellon University. Thanks very much. GRAHAM: Well, you know, the Russians entered Syria in 2015 militarily largely to save Assad from what they thought was imminent overthrow by what they considered a radical Islamic force, a group of terrorists that they thought would challenge Russian interests not only in Syria but would fuel extremist forces inside Russia itself, particularly in the North Caucasus but farther afield than that—even into Moscow, into areas that were Muslim-dominated inside Russia itself. So they had very good national security reasons for going in. Those ran—I mean, the Russian presence in Syria clearly has run counter to what the United States was trying to do at that point since we clearly aligned against Assad in favor of what we considered moderate reformist forces that were seeking a more sort of democratic future for Syria as part of this broader Arab Spring at that time. So there was a clear conflict at that point. You know, subsequently and in parallel with its continued presence in Syria, the Russians have extended their diplomatic—their diplomatic effort to other countries in the region. Russia enjoys a fairly robust diplomatic relationship with Israel, for example, that has been grounded in counterterrorism cooperation, for example. They have a sort of strange relationship, largely positive, with Turkey that they have pursued over the past several years. We know of the ties that they've had in Tehran, in Iran for some time. They have reached out to the Saudis and the Saudis have bought some military equipment from them. We see them in Egypt and Libya, for example. So they're a growing presence, a growing diplomatic presence in the Middle East, and this does pose some problems for the United States. From the middle of the 1970s onward, one of the basic thrusts of American foreign policy was to limit the role the Russians played in the Middle East. We sidelined them in the negotiations between the Arabs and the Israelis in the 1970s and in the 1980s. We limited their diplomatic contacts to countries that we considered critical partners and allies in that part of the world. Now I think the geopolitical situation has changed. Our own interest in the Middle East has diminished over time, in part because of the fracking revolution here in the United States. Gas and oil, we've got close to being independent in that area. We're not as dependent on the Middle East as we once were for energy sources. And also, as, you know, the Biden administration has been clear, we do want to pivot away from the Middle East and Europe to focus more of our energies on what we see as the rising and continuing strategic challenge posed by China. So I think that means that going forward the United States is going to have to deal with Russia in a different fashion in the Middle East than in the past. We're going to have to recognize them as a continuing presence. We're not going to be able to push them out, in part because we're not prepared to devote the resources to it. We have countries that are still important to us—Saudi Arabia, Israel for example—that do want a Russian presence in the Middle East. And so what we ought to do, it seems to me, is to begin that discussion about how we're going to manage the rivalry in the Middle East. Now, it's not all simply competition. There are areas for cooperation. We can cooperate in dealing with Iran, for example, the Iran nuclear dossier, as we have had in the past. Neither country has an interest in Iran developing nuclear weapons. Second, I think the two countries also would like to see a Middle East that's not dominated by a single regional power. So despite the fact that the Russians have worked together quite closely with the Iranians in Syria, they don't share Iranian ambitions elsewhere in the Middle East. And if you look at the diplomatic ties that the Russians have nurtured over the past with Turkey, with Israel, Saudi Arabia for example, none of these are friends of Iran, to put it mildly. So we can talk, I think, to the Russians of how our—you know, we can conduct ourselves so as to foster the development of a regional equilibrium in the Middle East that tends to stabilize that region, makes it less of a threat to either country, less of a threat to America's European allies, and use this as a basis for, again, sort of not escalating the tension in the region but moderating it in some ways that works to the long-term advantage of the United States. FASKIANOS: Next question from Michael Strmiska, who's a professor at Orange County Community College in New York state. Do you see any hope of persuading Russia to abandon its occupation of Crimea in the near term? Or do you think this is like the occupation of the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia after World War II, where a very long timespan was needed before any liberation was realistically possible? GRAHAM: Well, I guess my answer to those two questions would be yes and no, or no and yes. On Crimea, you know, I see no sort of near-term scenario that would lead to the Russians agreeing to the return of Crimea to Ukraine. Quite the contrary, Russia has taken steps since 2014 they continue at this point to further integrate Crimea into the Russian Federation politically, economically, socially, and so forth. The Russians have also built up their military presence in Crimea as a way of enhancing their domination or their influence in the greater Black Sea region. So I see no set of circumstances that would change that, certainly not in the—in the near term. And I think, you know, the Ukrainian effort to focus attention on Crimea is not going to, in fact, gain a great deal of traction with Europe nor with the United States going forward, though we will maintain the principled position of not recognizing Russia's incorporation or annexation of Crimea. You know, I don't think that the Crimean and Baltic situations are necessarily analogous. You know, in the Baltic states there was a significant indigenous element, governments in exile, that supported the independence of those countries. There was a fulcrum that the United States or a lever that the United States could use over time to continue pressure on the Soviets that eventually led to the independence of those countries as the Soviet Union broke down and ultimately collapsed at the end of the 1980s into 1991. I don't see any significant indigenous element in Crimea nor a movement of inhabitants of Crimea outside Crimea that wants Crimea to be returned to Ukraine. I think we need to remember that a significant part of the population in Ukraine is Russian military, retired Russian military, that feels quite comfortable in—within the Russian Federation at this point. So if I were being quite frank about this, although I think the United States should maintain its principled position and not recognize annexation of Crimea, I don't see anything over the long term, barring the collapse of Russia itself, that will change that situation and see Ukraine (sic; Crimea) reincorporated into the Ukrainian state. FASKIANOS: So there are a couple questions in the chat about Russia's economy: What is their economy like today? And what are the effects of the sanctions? And from Steve Shinkel at the Naval War College: How do you assess the tie between Russia's economy and being able to continue to modernize its military and ensure a stable economy? And will economic factors and Russia's demographic challenges be a future constraining factor? So if you could— GRAHAM: Yeah. No, no, just take the economy. Obviously, a big issue, and it will be a constraining factor. I mean, the Russian economy is stagnating and it has for some—for some time. They enjoyed—the Russian economy enjoyed a very rapid period of growth during President Putin's first presidential—two presidential terms in the 2000s, but since the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 Russia has run into very difficult economic times. In fact, it's never really recovered from that crisis. If you look at the past ten years, barely any growth in the Russian economy at all. If you look at the impact that that has had on Russians themselves, there's basically been no growth in real disposable income; rather, a decline over the past six or seven years. I think the Russians recognize that. The question is whether they can come up with a set of policies that actually will reverse that and that lead to a more robustly growing economy. Now, what the Kremlin has tried to do is not so much reform the economy—which I think is necessary if they're going to enjoy robust economic growth—as much as professionalize the economy; that is—that is, bring in a younger sort of cadre who are well educated, many of them educated in the West, who understand how modern economies function and can keep the economy stable at least at the macro level. And this is one of the reasons that Western sanctions have not had nearly the impact on Russian behavior that many had hoped for or anticipated back in 2014 when we began to turn repeatedly to this tool in response to Russian activities and operations against Ukraine. You know, it has had some impact. I think the IMF would say that it's probably taken a percentage point off—or, not a percentage point, but a tenth of a percentage point off of Russia's GDP growth over the past several years. That certainly hasn't been enough to change Russian behavior. But it hasn't been more, in fact, because the governors of the—of the central bank have dealt quite adeptly with that, and maintain said Russian macroeconomic stability and some sort of foundation for the economy to grow going forward. I imagine that's going to continue into the—into the future as well. So it is a constraining factor. Then I would end with what I—with a point that I made in my introduction. Russia does have a tremendous ability to mobilize its resources for state purposes, to extract what it needs from society at large to modernize the military, to maintain certainly Russia's defenses and also some capability to project power abroad. So I wouldn't write them off because of that. I think it's going—still going to be a serious power, but not nearly as great a challenge to the United States as if it, in fact, solved its demographic problems, its economic problems, and had a robustly growing economy, greater resources that it could devote to a whole range of things that would improve its standing on the global stage vis-à-vis the United States and vis-à-vis China. FASKIANOS: Well, with that we are at the end of our time. And I apologize to everybody. We had over twenty written questions still pending and raised hands. I'm sorry we couldn't get to all of you, but we do try to end on time. So, Thomas Graham, thank you very much for sharing your insights and analysis with us today. We appreciate it. And to all of you for your terrific questions and comments, we appreciate it. Our next Academic Webinar will be on Wednesday, October 6, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time. And we will focus on the Indo-Pacific with Dhruva Jaishankar, who is the executive director of the Observer Research Foundation America and nonresident fellow at the Lowy Institute. And in the meantime, I encourage you to follow CFR at @CFR_Academic and visit CFR.org, ForeignAffairs.com, and ThinkGlobalHealth.org for new research and analysis on global issues. So, Tom, thank you very much. GRAHAM: Thank you. Good luck to all of you. (END)

In order to halt the meteoric rise of China, new voices call for a reconciliation with Putin's Russia, in order to do away with the menacing Russian-Chinese alliance. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

So in case you haven't been keeping up it's been pretty thoroughly confirmed that the US government's highly anticipated UFO report due this month won't contain any significant revelations and certainly won't verify anyone's ideas about these phenomena being extraterrestrial in origin, but it absolutely will contain fearmongering that UFOs could be evidence that the US has fallen dangerously behind Russian and Chinese technological development in the cold war arms race. Reading by Tim Foley. Article with links and sources: https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/media-converges-on-the-narrative

This week, in the debut edition of the SpyTalk podcast, co-host Jeff Stein talks to the Washington Post’s Joby Warrick about an extraordinary CIA operation in Syria, as told in his new book, Red Line. Jeff and co-host Jeanne Meserve also discuss the Biden administration’s recent expulsion of suspected Russian spies, then Jeanne talks with former NSA Director and Cyber Command chief Admiral Mike Rogers about Chinese, Russian and other hackers’ infiltration of U.S. computer networks.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, in the debut edition of the SpyTalk podcast, co-host Jeff Stein talks to the Washington Post's Joby Warrick about an extraordinary CIA operation in Syria, as told in his new book, Red Line. Jeff and co-host Jeanne Meserve also discuss the Biden administration's recent expulsion of suspected Russian spies, then Jeanne talks with former NSA Director and Cyber Command chief Admiral Mike Rogers about Chinese, Russian and other hackers' infiltration of U.S. computer networks. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, in the debut edition of the SpyTalk podcast, co-host Jeff Stein talks to the Washington Post’s Joby Warrick about an extraordinary CIA operation in Syria, as told in his new book, Red Line. Jeff and co-host Jeanne Meserve also discuss the Biden administration’s recent expulsion of suspected Russian spies, then Jeanne talks with former NSA Director and Cyber Command chief Admiral Mike Rogers about Chinese, Russian and other hackers’ infiltration of U.S. computer networks.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/deepstateradio. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, in the debut edition of the SpyTalk podcast, co-host Jeff Stein talks to the Washington Post’s Joby Warrick about an extraordinary CIA operation in Syria, as told in his new book, Red Line. Jeff and co-host Jeanne Meserve also discuss the Biden administration’s recent expulsion of suspected Russian spies, then Jeanne talks with former NSA Director and Cyber Command chief Admiral Mike Rogers about Chinese, Russian and other hackers’ infiltration of U.S. computer networks.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/deepstateradio. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On today’s show, the boys chat about the snowstorm that has swept across the nation and how they’re all sick of it. Billy Tubes also brings in several more packs of Pokemon cards and the boys try to recapture the magic of the Zard and Chu openings, chat about Russian Chinese scientists who are studying diseases being removed from the permafrost, Zeet gets jacked up for the premiere of Young Rock, plus the guys dive into a loaded Pod FOD. Don’t forget to send in your submissions to @ThePodPMI on Twitter and Instagram to be featured on the show. We appreciate the hell out of you for listening, we’ll see you Friday.

Moscow's Partnership with Beijing – is Russia lost for the West? In June 2019, the President of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping, described the Russian President Vladimir Putin as his “best friend”. This remarkable statement, made by the head of state and topleader of China, reflects the strengthening economic and military ties between Russia and China. In areas where the interests of both countries do not coincide, Chinese and Russians simply “agree to disagree” What does this Russian-Chinese rapprochement mean for the Western world? Should the European Union and the United States be worried? We offer you a Russian perspective and ask these as well as other questions to Dr. Andrey Kortunov, Director General and member of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), and to Dr. Anna Kireeva,Associate Professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). Both are profound experts on Chinese-Russian relations, sharing many interesting thoughts and their specialist knowledge with us. /// Moskaus Parnterschaft mit Peking – Ist Russland für den Westen verloren? Im Juni 2019 beschrieb Xi Jinping, Staatspräsident der Volksrepublik China, den russischen Präsidenten Wladimir Putin als seinen „besten Freund“. Diese bemerkenswerte Aussage des chinesischen Staatsoberhaupts, gleichzeitig zentrale Führungsperson Chinas, spiegelt die zunehmenden wirtschaftlichen und militärischen Bande zwischen Russland und China wider. In Bereichen, in denen die Interessen beider Seiten nicht übereinstimmen, sind sich Chinesen und Russen einig, nicht einer Meinung sein zu müssen. Was bedeutet diese russisch-chinesische Annäherung für die westliche Welt? Müssen die EU und die Vereinigten Staaten sich Sorgen machen? Wir bieten Ihnen eine russische Perspektive und stellen diese und andere Fragen Herrn Dr. Andrey Kortunov, Generaldirektor und Mitglied des Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), sowie Frau Dr. Anna Kireeva, außerordentliche Professorin am Staatlichen Moskauer Institut für Internationale Beziehungen (MGIMO). Beide sind profunde Kenner der chinesisch-russischen Beziehungen und teilen viele interessante Gedanken und ihr Expertenwissen mit uns.

The cyberattacks are aimed at the campaigns of both Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tonight: A new warning about the fall from Dr. Fauci—and is a national bar bailout the key to stemming the spread of COVID-19? Then, the Trump administration caught politicizing intelligence on Russian election interference amid a new report today that the Russians tried to hack the Biden campaign. Plus, why the largest fire in the California’s history is a national wake up call on climate catastrophe.

Originally live streamed on 08 September 2020This is the fourth and final online debate in the framework of the project titled “Ost/Wschód: German-Polish Debates on the East”. This time, we are discussing the topic of the growing convergences and divergences of Russian-Chinese cooperation in the post-Soviet Space.The debate features:- Germany: Helena Legarda from the Mercator Institute for China Studies.- Poland: Marcin Kaczmarski, University of GlasgowModerator: Adam Balcer, Jan Nowak-Jeziorański College of Eastern EuropeThe panelists address such issues as: How do Poland and Germany see China’s presence in the region? Where do Russia and China cooperate in the post-Soviet space and where do they compete? What are the geopolitical and economic consequences of this relations?The debate is co-organised by the Jan Nowak Jeziorański College of Eastern Europe and the Deutsch-Russischer Austausch e.V. (DRA) and sponsored by the Heinrich Boell Foundation’s Warsaw Office as well as the Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation.Additional music featured in the podcast:commonGround by airtone (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/airtone/58703

The 2019 Russian/Chinese collab about the trials and tribulations of a dragon cosmetologist and an oblivious cartographer. It's CGriffic Starring Xingtong Yao and Jason Flemyng and with main draws Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan in the film for about 7 minutes each cashing a paycheck. This movie has big Lucky Stars energy.

We close season two with 2019’s Russian-Chinese, Jackie Chan-Arnold Schwarzenegger co-production, The Iron Mask. Lead actress Anna Churina remembers Arnold getting punched so hard he bled. Stuntman Mathieu Jaquet says Jackie’s stunt double got plastic surgery to look more like him. And stuntman and actor Paul Allica compares working on Wolf Warrior 2 to working … Continue reading Mask On (The Iron Mask) →

Join Guy Snodgrass and guest co-host Mark Solomons as they discuss adversarial AI with Russian experts Mike Kofman and Sam Bendett. Adversarial AI is incredibly important, as nations competing with America seek to overtake our technological capabilities or hinder our ability to use AI in military applications. In this episode, Mike and Sam walk us through Russia's current AI program, how Russians view the world, and the current state of U.S.-Russian-Chinese competition. Mike Kofman is Director of the Russian Studies Program at the Center for Naval Analyses, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. Sam Bendett is also with CNA was an advisor on the Russian military and decision-making calculus during military crises. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/htlpodcast/support

Coronavirus/COVID-19 death toll surpasses 300,000, cases pass 4.4 million, per Johns Hopkins University. US State Dept.’s Global Engagement Center on Russian – Chinese coordination of anti-USA coronavirus pandemic propaganda. The Trump Administration’s repeated glaring displays of historical ignorance…. Xi Jinping on the youth generation and Sino-US “friendship” – coming attractions. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s pursuit of power. Death Penalty option in Pittsburgh, PA Synagogue mass-murder despite defense lawyer Judy Clarke. Black gang-bangers and “unintended” murders… in SC, PA, and FL. South Carolina Supreme Court’s creative, unanimous outrage. Victims – Martha Childress, Sinsir Parker, Keairra Attison.

Neville goddard off you tube video games

A return to the original Arniethology for one week only, as the Austrian Oak has a new film out on home release, featuring his Around the World in 80 Days co-star, Jackie Chan. The Iron Mask (AKA Journey to China: Mystery of the Iron Mask) is a Russian-Chinese co-production and features the two megastars in supporting roles, as globe-trotting action fantasy shenanigans take place. Could this be a return to the family-friendly heights of Kindergarten Cop or just another in an increasing line of disappointments for the Arnie fan? Music is 80s Action Movie by Tony Gage; get in touch with us here: thearniethology@gmail.com

This week, Sinica features a chat with Ed Pulford, author of the recent book Mirrorlands: Russia, China, and Journeys in Between. Kaiser chats with Ed about the Sino-Russian border and Ed’s anthropological travelogue exploring the border’s past and present.What to listen for on this week’s Sinica Podcast:28:06: Ed describes some of the tensions and perceptions that exist in the borderlands between Siberia and China’s northeast: “I think the increasing presence of Chinese ‘things’ — whether it’s material objects, consumer goods, or people who are coming over as tourists increasingly but also for longer as traders in the post-Soviet era — it’s a big shock and it has [presented] a lot of worries about the osmotic potential for what would happen if things were balanced out in terms of population and land use.”43:43: Ed talks about Leonid, a Nanai man (赫哲族, Hèzhézú) whom he met during his travels along the Russian-Chinese border, his own ethnic awakening, and others that are occurring (and not occurring) around the world. “Among many, many indigenous groups of the Far East, the Far North, and Siberia, the post-Soviet period has been one where interest in global indigeneity — whether it’s Native American populations, Maori, or any other global indigenous cause — [there has] been a huge boom.” Ed explains that within China, conditions are different: “There’s been a lot of this inter-indigenous group communication and networking. Whereas in China, at least from the Hèzhé and other groups, including the Éluósīzú and other minority groups, they’re part of a Chinese world that is not so much a part of those same discussions.” Recommendations:Ed: The Crab Cannery Ship and Other Novels of Struggle, by Kobayashi Takiji, and National Book Award finalist Pachinko, by Minjin Lee.Kaiser: Ivanhoe, a 1982 film adaptation of the original work by Sir Walter Scott.

Harley Schlanger, LaRouchePAC.com, LaRouchePUB.com, G20 Russian Chinese Meetings, Need for Belt and Road, Trade Preempts WAR, Hamiltonian LaRouche Economics, New Russian Move To Collaborate with USA, Trump About to Get Asian Trade Deals, End of Demon-Rat 2020 March to Whitehouse and Congress, Dr Bill Deagle MD AAEM ACAM A4M, NutriMedical Report Show, www.NutriMedical.com, www.ClayandIRON.com, www.Deagle-Network.com,NutriMedical Report Show, For information regarding your data privacy, visit Acast.com/privacy See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

John W Spring, WRITE POTUS Trump NOW!, Meetings with John and Dr Bill NOW!, Essential Dangers to America and World, No Missile Defenses, Russian Chinese Venezuelan Nicaraguan Dangers Immediate, Get Missile Defenses Now, Plan Laser Net Interferrometry System of Dr Bill, Advanced Brilliant Pebbles!,Dr Bill Deagle MD AAEM ACAM A4M, NutriMedical Report Show, www.NutriMedical.com, www.ClayandIRON.com, www.Deagle-Network.com,NutriMedical Report Show,John W Spring, WRITE POTUS Trump NOW!, Meetings with John and Dr Bill NOW!, Essential Dangers to America and World, No Missile Defenses, Russian Chinese Venezuelan Nicaraguan Dangers Immediate, Get Missile Defenses Now, Plan Laser Net Interferrometry System of Dr Bill, Advanced Brilliant Pebbles!,Dr Bill Deagle MD AAEM ACAM A4M, NutriMedical Report Show, www.NutriMedical.com, www.ClayandIRON.com, www.Deagle-Network.com,NutriMedical Report Show, THE NICARAGUAN-VENEZUELAN MISSILE CRISIS IS COMPLETELY OPERATIONAL FOR RUSSIA AT PUNTA HUETE AND ON LA ORCHILA ISLANDDear Friends,With Elliott Abrams as the U.S Special Representative to Venezuela, who was the key architect of the Iraq War from March 20, 2003 until December 18, 2018, it will become very difficult for me to reach the President on this crucial matter. This is why you must also write. JWS John Walton SpringPost Office Box 18946Anaheim, California 92817 April 23, 2019 The PresidentThe White House1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NWWashington, DC 20500 RE: NICARAGUAN-VENEZUELAN MISSILE CRISIS AT PUNTA HUETE AND ON LA ORCHILA ISLAND WHERE EXTREMELY-LONG AIR RUNWAYS NOW EXIST Dear Mr. President: I wrote the following information yesterday and it is my hope that we shall be meeting very soon on this crucial matter. Although we do have the satellite imagery technology to detect nuclear weaponry at any depth or location, if a cargo of Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missiles armed with Thermonuclear Warheads were carried on a giant air transport for only a brief period to an island located in the Caribbean Sea to refuel or unload for launch, it would probably reach its destination for striking at America before being detected. These “mach schnell” tactics were developed by the Kremlin in the early 1980s during the Cold War because the Russians then knew that we could detect any nuclear weapons with satellite imagery. So they developed a strategic tactic for deploying them only very briefly at any location before launching to strike at the continental United States. This same strategic plan is now being used by the Russians at Punta Huete, Nicaragua where construction first began during the early 1980s in Central America and on La Orchila Island, Venezuela where construction for another two-mile in length air runway began during 2010 at a location in the Caribbean Sea, which has now replaced Grenada as a refueling stopover for the Antonov An-124 Ruslangiant air transports where also Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missiles armed with Thermonuclear Warheads could be very quickly unloaded to strike at the Eastern Seaboard of America in a rather short period of time. Sincerely, John W. Spring Dear Friends,Over nearly the past decade, it has been very difficult for me to reach high-ranking officials in Washington on geopolitical matters related to the Middle East, North Korea and now Latin America where the current Nicaraguan-Venezuelan Missile Crisis caused by Russiaexists. But this crisis is far more serious than the Cuban Missile Crisis because the infrastructure is already fully-operational and it would take only a moment to land, unload and launch. JWS John Walton SpringPost Office Box 18946Anaheim, California 92817 April 20, 2019 The PresidentThe White House1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NWWashington, DC 20500 RE: THE VENEZUELAN MISSILE CRISIS AT RUSSIAN AIR BASE ON LA ORCHILA Dear Mr. President: During the Obama Administration, I was the first American to become aware of North Korea’s Long-Range Missiles being able to strike well within the continental United States with EMP and Thermonuclear Warheads when officials in Washington, who apparently did not have very strong scientific backgrounds, did not believe that Pyongyang could have reached such a level of technology. So, without my earlier contributions on this matter, you would have been unable to stop this threat from the Korean Peninsula by meeting with Chairman Kim Jong Un. Since then, more than two years ago, I was advised by Dr. Bill Deagle, who had deep concerns about Chinese and Russian military activity in Venezuela, to probe into that situation. Although I was then aware about the completion of the two-mile long runway at Punta Huete,Nicaragua in Central America including a visit to that facility by Russian President Vladimir Putin, I was still unaware of the Russian Air Force base on La Orchila Island in the Caribbean Sea. Based upon my knowledge and past experience, by being informed about this newer two-mile runway in the Lesser Antilles, in addition to serving the same function as would have been the airfield earlier under construction on Grenada in 1983 when U.S. Armed Forces had invaded the island that would become a refueling stopover for the Antonov An-124 Ruslan air transports on their way to Punta Huete where they would unload Mobile Missile Launchers and Intermediate-Range Missiles with Thermonuclear Warheads, it is directly in-line with the Eastern Coast with infrastructure now fully-operational for striking accurately at America without a warning. Sincerely, John W. Spring For information regarding your data privacy, visit Acast.com/privacy See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Edward Lucas, Senior Vice President at the Center for European Policy Analysis, joins Dr. Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Jim Townsend to discuss trends in European security, the future of populism in Europe, and emerging threats facing Europe. Lucas also focused his attention on the rise of China, including the role China will play in the transatlantic relationship and his take on Russian-Chinese cooperation.

Episode 145: Future Rising Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Bob Maginnis graduated from the U.S. Military Academy, the Naval Postgraduate School, the Command & General Staff College, the Defense Language School and the Army War College’s strategy course. He is an Airborne-Ranger infantry officer with service in four infantry divisions on three continents. Once retired from the U.S. Army he joined the Family Research Council where he rose to be the vice president for policy before returning to the Pentagon 16 years ago. He continues his association with FRC by serving as the senior fellow for national security. He is the vice president for his contracting firm with duties at the Pentagon where he supervises a team of national security experts and serves as a security cooperation expert for the Department of the Army as well as instructing a course at the Army War College. Colonel Maginnis has decades of media experience as a columnist, a Fox News military analyst and as an on-air commentator for multiple radio programs and networks. He is the author of nearly a thousand articles and five published books. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Episode 145: Future Rising Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Bob Maginnis graduated from the U.S. Military Academy, the Naval Postgraduate School, the Command & General Staff College, the Defense Language School and the Army War College's strategy course. He is an Airborne-Ranger infantry officer with service in four infantry divisions on three continents. Once retired from the U.S. Army he joined the Family Research Council where he rose to be the vice president for policy before returning to the Pentagon 16 years ago. He continues his association with FRC by serving as the senior fellow for national security. He is the vice president for his contracting firm with duties at the Pentagon where he supervises a team of national security experts and serves as a security cooperation expert for the Department of the Army as well as instructing a course at the Army War College. Colonel Maginnis has decades of media experience as a columnist, a Fox News military analyst and as an on-air commentator for multiple radio programs and networks. He is the author of nearly a thousand articles and five published books.

Fred Weir -- Moscow Correspondent -- The CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, talks to WDEL's Allan Loudell from Moscow

Fred Weir -- Moscow Correspondent -- The CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, talks to WDEL's Allan Loudell from Moscow

A Russian tourist visits a secret sex club in new york city. She arrives to discover it's a male submission party. She continues to explore comparative sex cultures between New York, China and Russia

Doug Schoen, one of the world's preeminent pollsters, pundits and political consultants, sits down with Ben Weingarten, Senior Fellow at the London Center for Policy Research and Founder & CEO of ChangeUp Media, to discuss Schoen's new book “Putin on the March: The Russian President's Unchecked Global Advance.” Schoen and Weingarten discuss a series of topics including Putin's aim in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and what political partisans get wrong about it, Putin's aims in the Middle East and Europe, the Russian-Chinese alliance and what America can do to create a wedge, how the U.S. can counter Putin's aims more broadly, NATO and much more. Learn more about 'Putin on the March': https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/putin-on-the-march/. 'Freeway' by Kurt Vile is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License. Download 'Freeway' here: tinyurl.com/p4tkyfb

Doug Schoen, one of the world's preeminent pollsters, pundits and political consultants, sits down with Ben Weingarten, Senior Fellow at the London Center for Policy Research and Founder & CEO of ChangeUp Media, to discuss Schoen's new book “Putin on the March: The Russian President's Unchecked Global Advance.” Schoen and Weingarten discuss a series of topics including Putin's aim in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and what political partisans get wrong about it, Putin's aims in the Middle East and Europe, the Russian-Chinese alliance and what America can do to create a wedge, how the U.S. can counter Putin's aims more broadly, NATO and much more. Learn more about 'Putin on the March': https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/putin-on-the-march/. 'Freeway' by Kurt Vile is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License. Download 'Freeway' here: tinyurl.com/p4tkyfb

Doug Schoen, one of the world's preeminent pollsters, pundits and political consultants, sits down with Ben Weingarten, Senior Fellow at the London Center for Policy Research and Founder & CEO of ChangeUp Media, to discuss Schoen's new book “Putin on the March: The Russian President's Unchecked Global Advance.” Schoen and Weingarten discuss a series of topics including Putin's aim in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and what political partisans get wrong about it, Putin's aims in the Middle East and Europe, the Russian-Chinese alliance and what America can do to create a wedge, how the U.S. can counter Putin's aims more broadly, NATO and much more. Learn more about 'Putin on the March': https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/putin-on-the-march/. 'Freeway' by Kurt Vile is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License. Download 'Freeway' here: tinyurl.com/p4tkyfb

Doug Schoen, one of the world's preeminent pollsters, pundits and political consultants, sits down with Ben Weingarten, Senior Fellow at the London Center for Policy Research and Founder & CEO of ChangeUp Media, to discuss Schoen's new book “Putin on the March: The Russian President's Unchecked Global Advance.” Schoen and Weingarten discuss a series of topics including Putin's aim in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and what political partisans get wrong about it, Putin's aims in the Middle East and Europe, the Russian-Chinese alliance and what America can do to create a wedge, how the U.S. can counter Putin's aims more broadly, NATO and much more. Learn more about 'Putin on the March': https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/putin-on-the-march/. 'Freeway' by Kurt Vile is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License. Download 'Freeway' here: tinyurl.com/p4tkyfb

Doug Schoen, one of the world's preeminent pollsters, pundits and political consultants, sits down with Ben Weingarten, Senior Fellow at the London Center for Policy Research and Founder & CEO of ChangeUp Media, to discuss Schoen's new book “Putin on the March: The Russian President's Unchecked Global Advance.” Schoen and Weingarten discuss a series of topics including Putin's aim in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and what political partisans get wrong about it, Putin's aims in the Middle East and Europe, the Russian-Chinese alliance and what America can do to create a wedge, how the U.S. can counter Putin's aims more broadly, NATO and much more. Learn more about 'Putin on the March': https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/putin-on-the-march/. 'Freeway' by Kurt Vile is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License. Download 'Freeway' here: tinyurl.com/p4tkyfb

Doug Schoen, one of the world's preeminent pollsters, pundits and political consultants, sits down with Ben Weingarten, Senior Fellow at the London Center for Policy Research and Founder & CEO of ChangeUp Media, to discuss Schoen's new book “Putin on the March: The Russian President's Unchecked Global Advance.” Schoen and Weingarten discuss a series of topics including Putin's aim in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and what political partisans get wrong about it, Putin's aims in the Middle East and Europe, the Russian-Chinese alliance and what America can do to create a wedge, how the U.S. can counter Putin's aims more broadly, NATO and much more. Learn more about 'Putin on the March': https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/putin-on-the-march/. 'Freeway' by Kurt Vile is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License. Download 'Freeway' here: tinyurl.com/p4tkyfb

Sherman Garnett is a professor in and dean of James Madison College. His interests include the former Soviet Union, especially Russian foreign and security policy, Ukraine and comparative political and security issues for the post-Communist world. He was most recently a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he directed projects on security and national identity in the former USSR and Russian-Chinese relations. Before that, he worked for more than a dozen years on arms control and post-Communist security policy questions in a variety of positions in the U.S. government, finishing his government service as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia. He earned his doctorate from the University of Michigan.

Cashless shopping, Russian/Chinese naval exercises in the Baltic Sea and the womens national football teams success at the UEFA Womens Euro in the Netherlands, Correspondent Göran Löwing gives us an insight.  - Kontantlös handel, rysk-kinesiska flottövningar i Östersjön och svenska damfotbollslandslagets framgångar i fotbolls-EM i Holland, korrespondent Göran Löwing ger oss kött på benen. 

Alex Ansary TV: Man has Vision of Russian, Chinese Armies Retaliating against United States (2008). This interview was conducted in 2008 and since then I have documented a great deal of information regarding this agenda to state a world war scenario where the victor has already been determined. I am returning to cable access this year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZV6_v_4vBM

On Behind the Headlines this week your hosts are going beyond the Western media's sound and fury to examine the real story behind the 'FIFA corruption scandal', the latest Russian-Chinese military (and political) maneuvers, the return of anthrax on the eve of PATRIOT Act renewal in the US, and the latest madness in Ukraine. We'll also have updates on the US's 'creative destruction' in the Middle East and the extreme weather and planetary upheaval breaking out all over the world. Tune in from...

On Behind the Headlines this week your hosts are going beyond the Western media's sound and fury to examine the real story behind the 'FIFA corruption scandal', the latest Russian-Chinese military (and political) maneuvers, the return of anthrax on the eve of PATRIOT Act renewal in the US, and the latest madness in Ukraine. We'll also have updates on the US's 'creative destruction' in the Middle East and the extreme weather and planetary upheaval breaking out all over the world. Tune in from...

On Behind the Headlines this week your hosts are going beyond the Western media's sound and fury to examine the real story behind the 'FIFA corruption scandal', the latest Russian-Chinese military (and political) maneuvers, the return of anthrax on the eve of PATRIOT Act renewal in the US, and the latest madness in Ukraine. We'll also have updates on the US's 'creative destruction' in the Middle East and the extreme weather and planetary upheaval breaking out all over the world. Tune in from...

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Moscow to discuss Russian-Chinese relations, a former trader at MF Global Holdings Ltd's has agreed to settle a U.S. a claim of palladium and platinum futures price manipulation, Greece repays 770 million euros to the IMF, Gold prices hold steady, and More...