War Games in Russia? No Problem!

"A lot of troops and gear from the eastern MD [military district] have already been deployed, rotated, lost and killed in Ukraine since February, so this will be interesting to see what they can salvage."

Mathieu Boulegue, military specialist, London's Chatham House think-tank

 

"We draw your attention to the fact that only a part of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is involved in the special military operation [in Ukraine], the number of which is quite sufficient to fulfill all the tasks set by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief."

Russian Defence Ministry

"Taking counter-terrorism and stability maintenance as the mission scenario, the 'Zapad/Interaction2021' joint exercise will see Chinese and Russian troops jointly carrying out strikes against terrorist forces in mixed groups."

"The special operations forces of both sides will complete the task of seizing the high ground and trench in accordance with the pre-plan, and then carry out the task of penetrating the enemy in depth."

Chinese Military

 

"The Zapad-2021 joint strategic drills are a defensive exercise that reaffirms the course of the Republic of Belarus towards strengthening regional security and the commitment to allied obligations with the Russian Federation."

Chief, Belarusian General Staff and First Deputy Defense Minister Viktor Gulevich

A Russian service member is seen on a BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicle during drills held by the armed forces of the Southern Military District at the Kadamovsky range in the Rostov region, Russia February 3, 2022. REUTERS/Sergey Pivovarov

Russia's joint military exercises with Belarus and China last year was an enormous enterprise. These are annual events for the Russian Federation with its allies. The exercises took place both in the west and the east, a logistical stretch incorporating Russia's vast territory. Russia has now announced, that despite its focus on the war it brought to Ukraine and the fact that its troops are heavily mired down in eastern Ukraine, it will have no problem mounting military exercises in its Eastern theatre.

Strategic military exercises are scheduled to take place in Russia's east, starting next month according to the Russian defence ministry. It can deploy, the ministry said, thousands of miles from the Ukraine war with unattached troop personnel and advanced weaponry to stage its usual war games. Demonstrating its flexibility, and capacity in terms of troops and materiel, and above all the expense incurred to do so. 

 

Its economy is shaken, but not broken, and Russia is out to show it remains fully operational, financially whole and capable of doing several things at once, thank you very much.

 

Credit RUSI Royal United Services Institute

 

August 30 to September 5 is scheduled for the "Vostok" (East) exercises, the intention to deliver the message that Russia remains focused on defence of its entire territory, capable in the process in military terms of sustaining "business as usual". The five-month war in Ukraine is no constraint, completes the message. Negating, in essence, the heavy losses sustained in men and equipment in its Ukraine adventure.

Troops and military hardware were forwarded to Ukraine from the eastern military district where the war games are to be taking place. No problem. The defence ministry stressed its capacity to stage drills of this nature remains unaffected by Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine. The snail's pace of Moscow's takeover plans merely a temporary set-back, soon to be corrected. 

According to CIA Director William Burns, the U.S. estimation is that 15,000 Russian troops had died in Ukraine from February forward, representing as many personnel losses sustained by the Soviet army throughout a decade of war in Afghanistan from 1979, while three times that number may have been wounded.

 

Without clarifying from which countries, the exercises according to the Russian defence ministry will include some foreign forces. Part of Siberia is included in the eastern military district, with its headquarters in Khabarovsk, close by the Chinese border. There was close to 300,000 troops reported involved in the 2018 Vostok drills. 

There have been times in the past when relations between Russia and China have been distant and grim. There will be times in the future when relations between the two will go beyond strained. On Russia's side of the border between the two, there is sparse Russian population and a growing presence of Chinese spilling into the territory. While on the Chinese side the populated area is running out of room to expand. Inevitably that expansion will be crossing the border into Russia. 

And just as Russia has always played the game of sending their Russian ethnics to their neighbours' side and later grumbling that they face discrimination and Russia is prepared to 'defend' its ethnics, just as it has done in Georgia and in Ukraine, the tide will turn, with the much more populous China with a too-small territory, and a much-less populous Russia with an expansive territory coming to blows. 

 

For the present and for expedients' sake while both are under Western sanctions, China for exploiting and threatening Taiwan and Hong Kong, and Russia for its illegal crimes in Ukraine, they find comfort in one another's supportive renewed friendships.

 

Credit RUSI Royal United Services Institute

 

 

Ready or Not, World: Nuclear Drills

"We will deploy not only nuclear weapons but also the newest super-nuclear weapons in order to defend our territory if necessary, in case our adversaries and rivals take reckless and foolish steps."

"We have agreed that we're going to keep some of the ammunition [used in the war games between Belarus and Russia] if we need it so that we don't move it back and forth."

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko

 

"We’ve seen some of those troops inch closer to that border [questioning Russian troop pullout claims]. We even see them stocking up their blood supplies."

"You don’t do these sort of things for no reason, and you certainly don’t do them if you’re getting ready to pack up and go home."

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin

In this photo released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on April 13, 2021, Russian nuclear submarines Prince Vladimir, above, and Yekaterinburg are harbored at a Russian naval base in Gazhiyevo, Kola Peninsula, Russia. (Vadim Savitsky/Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

It is startling news, enough so to make blood run cold, but it is not new news. Months back at the end of 2021, an announcement had come through that Russia and Belarus were planning to mount war games  inclusive of Russia's nuclear forces. And although this is a pre-existing agenda, re-announcing it at this precise time when tensions are already sky-high reflecting the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, makes it all the more chilling.

 

It is a not-very-original message to the West that just in case it had slipped their minds, Russia has a sizeable arsenal of nuclear weaponry and the means by which they can be delivered, by sea or land or by air. Comes now a sweeping exercise of Russia's latest advances in nuclear 'defences'. For after all, Vladimir Putin has stated frequently of late that his country's tender position of insecurity is not only troubling to him but it requires changes or otherwise ... left unsaid. 

 

Not that he would unleash a nuclear device, just reminding everyone. 

In this photo taken from a footage distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Sept. 26, 2020, Russian rockets launch from missile systems during the main stage of the Kavkaz-2020 strategic command-and-staff exercises at the Kapustin Yar training ground, Russia. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

President Lukashenko is in essence reminding those who regard him as an outright dictator -- whose sham re-election brought Belorusians out on the streets in protest post-corrupt-2020 election, expressing their anger at being once again manipulated by a government they detest -- that he has the trust of Putin. The protesters were so vehemently adamant that their president step away from his throne that Belarusian police and military found themselves despite violent reactions, unable to disperse the crowds. Of necessity calling in Russian troops to handle Mr. Lukashenko's rejection by his people.

Indebted to Russia, and with no especial fondness for Ukraine, he is more than willing as a staunch ally to do his part in presenting a common front against ill-will from the West and he is practically salivating at the prospect of acquiring for his own military, arms of the calibre that Russia has now in its updated military arsenal. Having nuclear bases re-established in Belarus 'just in case' is the icing on his cake of expectations. 

He is dreaming of gracefully accepting 'gifts' from Moscow of surface-to-air missiles systems, but if need be is prepared to buy them from Russia. Beaming with self-satisfaction, he made an in-person inspection of the Russian-Belarusian drills. The nuclear arsenal that Belarus once hosted as a Soviet satrapy went back to Russia in the 1990s. Belarus has a vote coming up on constitutional changes to permit the weapons to be restored.

That Moscow is prohibited by international treaties from transferring its nuclear arsenal to another country may or may not influence Vladimir Putin. The nuclear drills programmed for Saturday will cap off the games, closing on Sunday. "I saw some high-tech weaponry that we really need, including Iskander-M [short-range ballistic systems]. We're going to buy it or receive it as a gift from other elder brothers", said Lukashenko. 

Belarus, he offered, could host Russia's newest S-400 missile defence systems, which could handily be deployed "somewhere near Minsk so that we can see what's going on in Kyiv, in Warsaw and beyond." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in response to a question relating to Lukashenko's earlier statements on retaining Russian troops in Belarus, said: "It is not under discussion so far".

Once again, Russia's defence minister stated definitively the intention that all Russian troops are to leave Belarus once the drills are over. Lukashenko in effect contradicting that by describing the situation as fluid, that this is a matter he and Mr. Putin would discuss. "They will stay at long as necessary. Maybe [the withdrawal] will happen tomorrow. If we decide it will happen in a month - they will stay for a month."

Ukrainian servicemen survey the impact areas from shells that landed close to their positions during the night on a front line outside Popasna, Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine, on February 14, 2022. (AP/Vadim Ghirda)

High Alert in Eastern Europe

"We're in a window when an invasion could begin at any time, and to be clear, that includes during the Olympics."

"Simply put, we continue to see very troubling signs of Russian escalation, including new forces arriving at the Ukrainian border."

U.S.Secretary of State Antony Blinken 

"I urge all Canadians in Ukraine to make the necessary arrangements to leave the country now."

"Our highest priority remains the safety and security of Canadians."

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly

 

"We are ready to continue results-oriented diplomacy that addresses the security concerns of the United States, Russia and Europe, consistent with our values and with the principle of reciprocity."

"We’ve continued to make that clear to Russia, in close coordination with our European allies and partners."

"We are also ready to respond decisively alongside those allies and partners should Russia choose to take military action."

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan

van Gren-class amphibious warship RTS Pyotr Morgunov (117) entering the Black Sea on Feb. 9, 2022. Photo by Yörük Işık‏ used with permission

 

Canada's Foreign Affairs department at the beginning of February 'asked' Canadians to avoid all travel to Ukraine "because of the ongoing Russian threats and the risk of armed conflict". Any Canadians already in Ukraine were urged to leave the country "while commercial means are still available". That message has undergone a stark change, the government now urgently calling all Canadians to immediately leave Ukraine. 

 

In effect, following the United States and United Kingdom reflecting fears of an imminent Russian invasion.

In the United States, officials warn that Russian President Vladimir Putin could launch an attack imminently on Ukraine. White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan Friday announced that Russia has sufficient forces gathered now to conduct a major military operation against Ukraine; that an assault was likely to begin "any day now".

 

Russian Defense Ministry/AFP via Getty Images

This handout video grab released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Feb. 9, 2022 shows combat crews of the S-400 air defense system taking up combat duty during joint exercises in Belarus.

 

Speaking at a White House briefing no specific evidence was given, but Mr. Sullivan cited U.S. Intelligence belief that President Putin could order an invasion prior to the Winter Olympics in Beijing concluding. He spoke of the possibility of a rapid assault on Kyiv and that any Americans remaining in Ukraine should leave within the next 24-48 hours. A Russian invasion could begin with an air assault after which departure would be extremely difficult.

It is as yet not clear whether Mr. Putin has given an order to initiate an invasion A private American company's commercial satellite images showed new Russian military deployments at several sites close to the Ukraine border. President Joe Biden in  his starkest warning, stated he would not send troops to rescue any American citizens who chose to remain in Ukraine, in the event of a Russian assault. "Things could go crazy quickly", he said.

Dozens of civilians have been joining Ukraine's army reserves in recent weeks.(AP: Efrem Lukatsky)

 

A remote meeting was held by Mr. Biden with the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Poland and Romania, along with NATO's and the EU's heads. With alarm spreading, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson along with a handful of other nations urged its citizens to leave Ukraine immediately. American officials believe the crisis could be approaching a critical point. Rhetoric from Moscow appears to be more belligerent.

More Russian military equipment has been arriving in Belarus where Russa and its neighbour have been conducting joint military exercises and naval drills in the Black Sea. Six Russian warships are joining the fleet in the Black Sea. Japan, Latvia, Norway and the Netherland have informed their citizens they must immediately leave Ukraine. Israel is evacuating families of its embassy staff. 

"I will ... say very clearly that our security forces are mobilized day and night. Maximum mobilization [of French forces with reservists and drones will be watching the coast]."

"But above all, we need to seriously strengthen cooperation -- with Belgium, the Netherlands, Britain and the European Commission."

French President Emmanuel Macron

 

"Yesterday is sad and it is scary [the drowning of 31 migrants attempting to cross the Channel in an overloaded dinghy that deflated], but we have to go by boat, there is no other way."

"Maybe it's dangerous, maybe we die, but maybe it will be safe. We have to try our chance. It's a risk, we already know it is a risk."

Manzar, 28-year-old Kurd from Iran

Fire trucks arrive at Calais harbour Wednesday after at least 31 migrants died in the sinking of their boat off the coast of Calais.

 

When questioned why they would risk their lives on such a dangerous venture, some of the young men opting to leave Kurdistan (Iraq) in hopes of reaching the United Kingdom, speak of their disappointment of their country of origin. The large unemployment figures, the lack of opportunity, the corruption at high level, blaming prominent clans for their role in leading the autonomous region, the inequities and the misery they face in a geography rich with natural resources.

Their anger at their leaders and their determination to seek out opportunities for their futures elsewhere made them ripe for exploitation as human victims to ideological disparities and the ire felt by the president of Belarus at the condemnation heaped upon him, along with sanctions for the role he played in violating the voting and human rights of his population many of whom took to the streets in protest against a sham election returning him to power.

 

Mass protests over the discredited election led to a government crackdown, with people sent to prison or exiled   Getty Images

 

Belarusian President Lukashenko promised those anxious to cross into Europe that if they travelled to Minsk, a way could be found. That way was  to bus them in their hundreds to the border between Belarus and Poland, where they were encouraged to cut through the wire fencing and make their way through. The migrants made it clear their destination was not Poland, but the United Kingdom. Not just anywhere in Europe would do; the UK was their choice.

What resulted was a humanitarian tragedy, as all such movements of mass migration end up, with their destination country closing its borders to the masses of humanity camping out beyond their borders hoping for a miracle to transpire, that they would be welcomed, housed, fed, found employment and prosper, leaving their pasts of yearning for such opportunities behind in a fantasy reality that achieved all they had dreamed of.

The scene shifts from that catastrophe with its loss of lives and hopes and collapsed dreams, to the English Channel where for years, migrants from the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere gather with the determination to puncture Europe's defences and gain entry to the opportunities they are convinced awaits their arrival. The same spirit of hope and defiance that people from failed Central American states, Africans and Haitians bring with them when they gather at the border between Mexico and the United States.

France has pledged once again to increase its surveillance of its northern shores to ensure that migrants fail in their attempts to cross the Channel to Britain, their preferred destination. The migrants are unimpressed. Huddling in their makeshift camps they vow that no measure of security to keep them from realizing their aspirations will defeat them. And nor would fear of the venture before them, crossing a waterway full of commercial traffic nor weathering conditions at sea in small inflatable dinghies.

These are watercraft meant to carry no more than ten people, and double and  triple that number are ushered into the boats at a time by unscrupulous people smugglers doing their brisk business with no inconvenient thoughts of placing people in dire danger disturbing the more important thoughts of their extortionate fees. Desperate people leaving behind poverty and war in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere in the world of Islamic social incompetence, corruption and violence view the potential dangers of a sea crossing as nothing compared to the miseries of life they have endured.

When the 31 men, women and children drowned in their failed crossing, relations between France and Britain, already strained, took a deeper dive of anger and resentment; no one likes to take credit for the deaths of vulnerable people fleeing misery and finding death. Prime Minister Johnson feels France to be at fault, while President Macron understands the responsibility for the situation to be entirely Britain's. Finally it seems to have occurred to them that cooperation might achieve more.

Britain has set out five steps for the two countries to embark upon in an effort to ensure there are no further migrant deaths. 

• Joint patrols to prevent more boats from leaving French beaches;
• The use of sensors and radar;
• Immediate work on a returns agreement with France;
• A similar deal with the European Union.

Having left the EU in Brexit, Britain was no longer part of the bloc's system of returning migrants to the first member-state that was entered. 

"My thoughts and sympathies are, first of all with the victims and their families, and it's an appalling thing that they have suffered."

"But I also want to say that this disaster underscores how dangerous it is to cross the Channel in this way. And it also shows how vital it is that we now step up our efforts to break the business model of the gangsters who are sending people to sea in this way, and that's why it's so important that we accelerate if we possibly can all the measures contained in our borders ... so that we distinguish between people who come here legally, and people who come here illegally."

"[Authorities would] leave no stone unturned to the business proposition of the human traffickers and the gangsters ... who are literally getting away with murder."

"[It was time for Britain, France and Europe to] step up [and work together]." 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson

A boat from a French volunteer sea rescue organization, Societe Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer, arrives Wednesday at Calais harbour carrying the bodies of migrants.

Crises of Conscience, Absent Conscience

"The Belarusian regime is attacking the Polish border, the EU, in an unparalleled manner."

"We currently have a camp of migrants who are blocked from the Belarusian side. There are about a thousand people there, mostly young men."

"These are aggressive actions that we must repel, fulfilling our obligations as a member of the European Union."

Polish President Andrzej Duda

"Very rapidly at the beginning of next week there will be a widening of the sanctions against Belarus."
"We will look into the possibility of sanctioning those airlines who facilitate human trafficking towards Minsk and then the EU-Belarus border."

European Commission President Ursula van der Leyen

"We call on Belarus to abide by international law. We have seen a surge of migrants trying to enter allied territory via Belarus."

"NATO continues to closely monitor the situation, which is putting pressure on our allies Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. The Lukashenko regime's use of migrants as a hybrid tactic is unacceptable."

NATO official

 

"We have no doubt that the Belarusian migration services are taking all necessary measures to keep the situation in the legal field."

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman, Kremlin

Polish troops and border guards with shields stopped migrants from crossing into the country  Getty Images

The Polish authorities describe 28,500 attempts to breach the border between Belarus and Poland, encouraged by Belarusian security guards on orders from the government of Alexander Lukashenko, Belarusia's disputed president. The 'election' that returned Mr. Lukashenko to power infuriated many Belarusians who want a real election, and to see the end of their re-elected president in the sham election that brought people out to protest on the streets, who were brutally dispersed on their president's orders.

 

The situation with its clear overtones of dictatorial abuse of power and the persecution of protesters, brought swift condemnation from most foreign government sources, and in sympathy with Belarusian protesters and government opposition, along with condemnation of the regime's tactics, the EU wasn't long in sanctioning the country. Mr. Lukashenko's response to those sanctions is an effort to destabilize the EU and there is no better way to do so than exposing Western Europe to yet another invasion of migrants.

A woman and her child eat as they gather with other migrants from the Middle East and elsewhere at the Belarus-Poland border near Grodno, Belarus, Nov. 9, 2021.

Memory of the 2015 migrant armies of people attempting to escape civil war, repression, poverty and state brutality, from the Middle East to Africa washing up on Europe's shores via Italy and Greece which led to over a million migrants claiming refugee status and haven, inundating Austria and Germany in particular with a tide of youthful migrants still resonates over the disruption in relations it caused between the 27 member states of the EU,

 

NATO is furious over Belarusian soldiers shepherding migrants to the border into Poland in hopes of accessing entry to the EU. The migrants were being urged to cut holes in the retaining fence, felling trees in an effort to batter through the barbed wire. "NATO stands ready to further assist our allies, and maintain safety and security in the region", announced a NATO official. The Polish Border Guard affirmed that migrants tried to force through the border on the external frontier of the EU.

 

Polish police and border guards stand near barbed wire to stop migrants from the Middle East and elsewhere gathering at the Belarus-Poland border near Grodno, Belarus, Nov. 9, 2021

 

The Polish servicemen formed a human shield blocking the migrants while the crowd shouted "Germany!", and migrants began setting up camp. Hundreds of tents and roadside fires on the Belarusian side were captured on aerial footage. Between 3,000 and 4,000 people were estimated to have gathered on the border's Belausian side leading to claims that the EU's external frontier was under "organized attack". The EU, deploring President Lukashenko's "gangster-style" tactics, promised more sanctions to come.

 

The migrants, said Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiekci, were being used by Belarus as a new type of war in which people re used as "human shields". All of which claims, understandably enough, are denied by the Lukashenko government. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov helpfully suggested the EU support Belarus with financial assistance which might put a halt to the flow of migrants. Reminiscent of Turkey's tactics with its swarms of Syrian refugees fleeing the Civil War that identified Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as a mass murderer.

 

Poland has erected a barbed-wire fence along its border with Belarus   Getty Images

Europe is now accused by the Kremlin of not living up to its own ideals in handling humanitarian crises, instead planning to "strangle" Belarus by closing the frontier. That the EU chose to impose further sanctions on Belarus over the crisis was unconscionable, stated the Kremlin. Even so,  Poland has been warned by Brussels that EU funds must not be used to erect border walls and razor wire to exclude migrants. While others argue the EU is obliged to lend Poland assistance in defending its border.

 

Nothing appears to deter the migrants in their thousands from converging on the border where Polish soldiers block their entry even as some migrants use logs, spades and other implements in attempts to break through the makeshift razor wire. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed the opinion that responsible Europeans "not allow themselves to be drawn into a spiral that is fairly dangerous". Read that as one will....

 

Migrants gather near a barbed wire fence in an attempt to cross the border with Poland in the Grodno region, Belarus

 

The Tsar of the Chessboard

"Russia plans to establish a military base on Sudan’s Red Sea coast to serve as a logistics center for the Russian navy, according to a draft agreement between Moscow and Khartoum signed by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and released publicly Nov. 11."

"The agreement states that Sudan will provide a land plot for the Russian base free of charge for a period of 25 years. It will automatically renew for subsequent 10-year periods. To terminate the deal, one of the parties must notify the other party of its intention at least one year before the expiration of the next period."

"While the base’s capacity will be capped at four ships at a time, nuclear-powered ships are permitted to dock, thus significantly increasing the combat capability of the Russian navy in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. The number of military personnel permanently staying at this facility should not exceed 300 people, according to the agreement. Also, Russia will have the right to import and export through the seaports and airfields of Sudan 'any weapons, ammunition and equipment' necessary for the operation of the base and 'for the performance of tasks by warships'. Sudan, according to the published document outlining the agreement, will not collect import and export duties and taxes."

Kiril Semenov, Al-Monitor

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin inspects the Arktika nuclear-powered icebreaker at the port of Murmansk, northwestern Russia, Oct. 21, 2020. (Photo by Alexander ASTAFYEV / SPUTNIK / AFP)

Moscow also succeeded in persuading Syria's president Bashar al-Assad in exchange for Russian air power enabling the Alawite administration to put down a rebellion by its Syrian Sunni population, to agree to a Russian naval facility in Tartus as a leased military installation of the Russian Navy located on the northern edge of the sea port of the Syrian city of Tartus, its deep-sea base in the Mediterranean. And then there is the little matter of seizing Ukraine's Crimea naval base for Russia's Black Sea Fleet. Spreading itself around, in Vladimir Putin's ambitions to restore elements of Russia's lost status as a regional and world power.

Mr. Putin has been a busy man, negotiating deals, and when negotiations are inconvenient, simply stepping in, marshalling Russian military might and imposing itself where it believes it belongs, in a position of authority and manipulative power. No one could ever accuse Vladimir Putin of not intimately knowing the very best chess moves. Of course there are also clumsy and not-too-intelligent, visceral moves to rid himself of 'enemies' of his aspirational rise for Russia to more closely resemble the Soviet model.

Poisoning critics is one of them, whether they take place in London or in Russia itself. More effective has been the incidental and mysterious killing by snipers of intrusive reporters and pestiferous political opponents. There have been incursions in Georgia, Ukraine and Belarus, in Nagorno-Karabakh of such an open extent that Russia's neighbours in its near-abroad have shrunk back in fear of once again being forced into Russia's tentacle-orbit. NATO has done its best to allay such fears, but Mr. Putin is still smiling.

For years, Russia has been accused of attacking hospitals and clinics as part of a strategy to help President Bashar al-Assad of Syria secure victory in the civil war.   Credit...Meridith Kohut for The New York Times

His expansion and military presence in Syria, Libya and even in the Arctic have been gratifyingly useful. And should U.S.President Trump proceed with his intention to pull American troops out of Afghanistan, Mr. Putin will feel free to once again pop up there, too. This time perhaps not as an occupying force where an ignominious departure has left deep scars in the Russian psyche, but as a friend to the Taliban who are certain to reclaim the country once again.

Belarusians are once again becoming intimately acquainted with their neighbour whose troops moved in conveniently to prop up its choice of dictatorship, a ploy that failed to proceed as anticipated in Ukraine, where the standoff between the government of Ukraine and Russia's proxy ethnic Russian 'Ukrainian' loyalists defy Ukrainian sovereignty. Russia has to date escaped responsibility for the downing and murder of passengers aboard Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 when it was downed by a Buk missile, leaving all 283 passengers and 15 crew dead.

 

"Putin appears to have achieved a significant victory in Nagorno-Karabakh that threatens to alter the geopolitical balance throughout the former Soviet space in his favour."

"He has succeeded in expanding Russia's military presence in the strategically important region ... without encountering any Western pushback."

Anders Aslund, former economic adviser to Russia, Ukraine, Sweden, member of the Atlantic Council

In the Republic of Moldova, an election pits a democratic, pro-European Union candidate for president against a pro-Russian incumbent backed by Russia. Moldova too lost part of its territory, the region of Transnisria in 1992 to Russia. Similar to Russian troops occupying South Ossetia in Georgia, since 2008. Vladimir Putin is having a good time with his geographical chess game, and there's no one to interfere with his grandiloquent plans as the new czar.

 

Nabad al Hayat Surgical Hospital in southern Idlib Province served around 200,000 people before being destroyed in a Russian airstrike on May 5. In a Russian Air Force transmission obtained by The Times, a pilot can be heard receiving the hospital’s exact coordinates before bombing it.  Credit...Orient News

"The argument by the Russians or the regime is always that hospitals are run by terrorists."

"Is it really possible that all the people are terrorists?"

"The truth is that after hospitals are hit, and in areas like this where there is just one hospital, our houses have become hospitals."

Nabad al Hayat’s head nurse, who asked to remain anonymous because he feared being targeted