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The US’ capabilities for waging conventional warfare have been eroded by “endless guerilla wars,” Stanislav Krapivnik believes US troops deployed to Ukraine to prop up Kiev in its conflict with Russia would end up being “wiped out,” former US Army officer Stanislav Krapivnik told RT on Thursday.The US military in its current state is not fit to take on Russia in a conventional war, Krapivnik argued. Even in the Cold War era, the whole of NATO would have only been able to slow down a potential advance of the Soviet bloc rather than launch an all-out ground assault against it, he said. “If you listen to rational experts in the West, they’ll tell you, yes, the US Army is in no position right now – the US Army has never been in a position to take on Russia on the ground. For NATO, as a whole, during the height of the Cold War, the mission was first and foremost to block the Warsaw Pact forces and buy time, no kind of any massive offensive,” Krapivnik explained. Read more RT NATO soldiers operating in Ukraine – Polish PM Since then, the warfighting capabilities of the collective West have greatly deteriorated, largely due to the military endeavors the US itself undertaken in the past decades, he suggested.“Right now, it’s much worse. The endless wars that America has been fighting, the endless guerilla wars have totally sapped America’s capability to fight a conventional war. They are trying to up it right now, but it takes a lot of time to rebuild your forces,” Krapivnik stated. The ex-US Army officer also touched upon recent media reports that should US President Joe Biden be reelected, he, or “the collective Biden, whoever actually makes the decisions” could send American troops to Ukraine. “The problem is, that the people in Washington, the Biden regime is absolutely devoid of any sense of reality,” Krapivnik said. While the idea is bound to result in a crushing defeat for the US military, such a deployment cannot not be ruled out entirely, he suggested.“This is totally devoid of reality. The US Army is going to get wiped out, if they are going to Ukraine.”Watch the full interview below: via RT - Daily news https://ift.tt/EIUJm4H

<strong>Western Europeans broadly see China as an opportunity, but Washington sees it as a threat. This has major geopolitical consequences</strong> Chinese President Xi Jinping is travelling in Europe for the first time in five years. His choice of capitals is calibrated. First was Paris, where French President Emmanuel Macron – who claims political leadership of the Western side of the continent – was joined by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Together with Macron, she was in Beijing last year. Then there was Budapest and Belgrade, two European countries (one in the European Union, the other outside) that are showing an increased willingness to cooperate with Beijing.China’s relations with Western Europe are one of the most interesting issues in contemporary world politics. Their view of the EU differs from that of Russia. Moscow has long since come to the conclusion that the Old World has completely abandoned its independent foreign policy course by aligning itself with the US. Brussels, Berlin, Paris, Helsinki and others seem not to be deterred by the consequences for their own prosperity and influence. Beijing, however, believes that the EU will not give up its autonomy, even if its dependence on American strategy grows. In other words, China thinks that a precise and active policy can create a series of incentives for the Western Europeans that will slow down their drift towards the US. And, accordingly, it will limit the bloc’s participation in a possible future military-political confrontation between the Washington and Beijing.The research question, as they say in academic papers, is clear: Is the <em>“collective West”</em> a solid and sustainable union, or is the unity achieved so far more flimsy, camouflaging a growing divergence of interests?The US sees China as a strategic rival for decades to come. Meanwhile, the EU doesn’t see it as a direct threat, although it is wary of Beijing’s growing power, including in the European region. The US sees Russia as a direct threat to European stability, but not as a serious threat to itself. But, of course, Western Europe is very afraid of Russia, and this fear is growing, leading to speculation about a variety of scenarios. At the same time, the US needs Western Europe for its strategy of containing China. <strong>Read more</strong> <a href="https://mf.b37mrtl.ru/files/2024.05/thumbnail/663ac82c20302720c5201c85.jpg">Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) and France's President Emmanuel Macron at the Tarbes-Lourdes airport, southwestern France, on May 7, 2024 <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/597183-xi-france-hungary-serbia/">There’s a careful plan behind Xi’s European tour First, in the economic and technological sense, the EU should not develop cooperation with China in areas where the US wants to limit Beijing. Concurrently, the bloc needs the US to contain Russia in the military and military-technical sense. There are discussions about building up the EU’s own capabilities, but firstly they are rather abstract and secondly the process will take years. There is already an awareness of Western Europe’s over-dependence on America, but there is no way to solve the problem, and this is pushing the Old World to try to keep Washington as close as possible.China is guided by the logic of economic pragmatism – why should the EU reduce its own capabilities? Indeed, for the last three or four decades, the bloc has dominated the world, and China has been its main beneficiary, transforming itself from a poor and backward country into a contender for world domination. Now, however, the logic of strategic competition is coming to the fore, and market profit is becoming a casualty.But China has its own reasons. From Beijing’s point of view, the general direction of global development is towards economic interdependence and the need for everyone to expand the space for such relations. The renaissance of blocs, reminiscent of the Cold War, is not a prototype for the future of politics but a reversion to the past, a rearguard…

Donald Tusk made the claim in an interview with a 10-year-old girl NATO soldiers are already in Ukraine helping Kiev but the US-led bloc does not want to get directly involved in the conflict with Russia, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said.Tusk made the comments on Wednesday, answering a question from a ten-year-old girl who was among the accredited reporters at the Polish parliament and asked why the UN or NATO had not intervened in Ukraine yet.“NATO today is helping as much as it can. Without NATO’s help, Ukraine would not have been able to defend itself for so long,” Tusk replied, according to a translation of his remarks.“Well, and there are some troops there, I mean soldiers. There are some soldiers there. Observers, engineers. They’re helping them out,” he added.The child reporter, identified by Polish media as Sara Malecka-Trzaskos, had asked Tusk how the Yugoslav conflict ended, bringing up the deployment of UN peacekeepers in the 1990s. Read more RT Whole West is working to supply Ukraine – Putin The prime minister, however, argued that the UN “failed the test” in the Balkans and that “real troops, NATO troops,” had to intervene and bomb Belgrade to end the war, apparently mixing up the 1992-95 conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the 1999 bombing campaign over Kosovo.As to why the US-led bloc would not do the same with Ukraine, Tusk said that “everyone in the world is afraid that a nuclear war could break out” in case of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia.Earlier in the day, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg argued that the bloc would not deploy forces to Ukraine, since Kiev had not asked for it.“NATO has no intention of deploying forces to Ukraine. When I visited Ukraine last week, the Ukrainians did not ask for NATO troops in Ukraine, what they asked for is more support,” Stoltenberg told reporters while on a trip to Italy.French President Emmanuel Macron has brought up the notion of a NATO intervention in Ukraine on several occasions, insisting that it should not be ruled out as part of “strategic ambiguity.” He has suggested that Western soldiers could be dispatched “if the Russians were to break through the front lines,” and if the Ukrainian government requested it.Russia has repeatedly warned the US and its allies that they risk direct confrontation by providing weapons, ammunition, and money to Ukraine. The West has propped up Kiev with more than $200 billion worth of aid, while insisting that this does not make them participants in the conflict. via RT - Daily news https://ift.tt/9MYD4pi

Dmitry Peskov said Yerevan had requested a military deployment to certain areas in 2020 amid tensions with neighboring Azerbaijan Russia has agreed to withdraw its troops and border guards from certain regions in Armenia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has revealed. The decision will not affect Russian military garrisons along the former Soviet republic’s border with Türkiye and Iran, he added.    Relations between Armenia and neighboring Azerbaijan have been strained since the collapse of the USSR, when the predominantly Armenian population inhabiting Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region proclaimed independence from Baku. A series of bloody conflicts have since been fought between the two countries over the territory. The last military confrontation last year saw Azerbaijan retake the restive region.   On Thursday, Interfax quoted Peskov as explaining that “in the autumn of 2020, at Armenia’s request, our military personnel and border guards were deployed to several Armenian regions.” He confirmed that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had “said that today, due to the different circumstances, there is no longer such a need [for the deployment], so President [Vladimir] Putin agreed, and the withdrawal of our military [and] border guards was agreed.”   The topic was brought up during a meeting between the two leaders in Moscow, where senior representatives of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) member states gathered on Wednesday.   Read more Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Russia on April 22, 2024. Moscow playing key role in Caucasus security – ex-Soviet state leader According to Peskov, “at Armenia’s request, our border guards will remain on the Armenian-Turkish and Armenian-Iranian borders.”  That same day, the head of Armenia’s ruling party, Aik Kondzhoryan, confirmed that Yerevan and Moscow had reached an agreement. Last month, Prime Minister Pashinyan floated the possibility of military personnel withdrawing from the area. He argued at the time that Russian troops had been stationed there “as a result of a concrete situation” – the 2020 war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. He explained that, as Yerevan and Baku had started work on border delimitation, the security outlook in the region was different.  Around the same time, Peskov stated that Moscow was pulling its peacekeepers out of Nagorno-Karabakh. However, Russia still has a military base in Armenia. via RT - Daily news https://ift.tt/layroGN

Western countries are “dreaming” about wiping out Russia as it now exists, the president has said The collective West has been working tirelessly to arm Ukraine against Russia, seeking to destroy it in its present form throughout the conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.He made the remarks while hosting a group of military commanders in the Kremlin who have distinguished themselves in the special operation against Ukraine. The meeting took place on Tuesday after Putin’s inauguration for his fifth term in office, but was released only on Thursday amid Victory Day celebrations.“We know, and you know this better than anyone else, the enemy has enough modern tools, since the entire Western community is working for our enemy, dreaming about Russia ceasing to exist in its current form,” Putin stated.The collective West itself has created a “system of confrontation,” believing Russia to be a “weak link” in it, the president explained. The conflict with Ukraine, however, has already proven that is not the case and the West was mistaken, Putin stated.“I am sure they are now convinced that this was far from the reality, and rather the opposite is true,” he said. Read more RT Russia fighting ‘reincarnation of fascism’ – Medvedev Putin underscored the need to further develop military technologies and be “one step ahead” of the country’s adversaries in order to be “successful.” Among other things, Putin commended on the efforts of Russian civil society to actively support the country’s troops and supply the military with assorted additional tools, ranging from mask nettings to sophisticated drones. “In our country, as we often say, the so-called people’s military industrial complex is growing now. To be honest, when I meet with those who are in one way or another involved in such activities, the combat work in the civilian sphere, I, frankly, am surprised myself,” Putin stated.In order to be truly effective, however, civilian crowdfunded projects still require the state’s involvement and support, the president said. “Of course, all this must be concentrated in a certain way, everything must be sorted into the right places in a certain way, and supported at the state level. That’s what we are doing,” Putin concluded. via RT - Daily news https://ift.tt/1YBhXaI

The ex-partner of Mossack Fonseca was 71 and had been on trial for money laundering Panamanian banker Ramon Fonseca, a senior partner of the now-defunct law firm whose records were leaked in the Panama Papers scandal that exposed many famous people for owning offshore accounts, has died, his lawyer told the media on Thursday. He was 71 years old. Over 11 million documents stolen from the firm Mossack Fonseca ended up in the media in April 2016, embarrassing some 130,000 people in 170 countries. While Fonseca and his business partner Jurgen Mossack maintained their business was legitimate, the firm shuttered in 2018 due to “irreparable damage” to its reputation. Former president of Panama Ricardo Martinelli called his classmate Fonseca “a great human being, lawyer, writer and politician.” Martinelli also claimed his successor Juan Carlos Varela was behind the “atrocious persecution” of Fonseca.Fonsece died at a Panama City hospital. The details of his medical condition were not made public, but the condition was serious enough that he could not attend the trial, a member of his legal team told AFP. Panamanian prosecutors charged Mossack and Fonseca with “concealing, covering up and providing false information to banks for the opening of accounts and concealing ownership of assets” as well as sending and receiving funds “from illicit activities in Germany and Argentina.”  Read more © Rodrigo Arangua Panama Papers: Spy agencies widely used Mossack Fonseca to hide activities Two dozen other former employees of the firm faced charges as well. Mossack and Fonseca maintained their innocence. The trial ended on April 19, with prosecutors demanding 12 years in prison for both.The Panama Papers scandal affected 20 Forbes List billionaires, several Hollywood stars and famous athletes, 150 politicians and a dozen national leaders.Icelandic Prime Minister David Gunnlaugsson Sigmundur resigned after the documents showed his wife secretly owned offshore companies. The British prime minister at the time, David Cameron – whose father founded several offshore companies – refused to resign, saying he had sold his shares before becoming prime minister. READ MORE: CIA behind Panama Papers leaks, says 'most significant financial whistleblower of all time' Among the other names in the document trove were actors Jackie Chan and Emma Watson, film director Pedro Almodovar, ex-UEFA President Michel Platini, King Mohammed VI of Morocco, King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, as well as presidents of Ukraine and Argentina at the time, Pyotr Poroshenko and Mauricio Macri. via RT - Daily news https://ift.tt/HYSN6uj

The Ukrainian president has discharged Valery Zaluzhny from military service “on health grounds” Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has dismissed his former top general, Valery Zaluzhny, from the military and appointed him as ambassador to the UK. Zaluzhny was fired by Zelensky from his command post in February after the two reportedly had a major falling out over strategy in the conflict with Russia.A decree making Zaluzhny Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the UK was published on Zelensky’s website on Thursday. A day earlier, a separate decree discharged the 50-year-old general from military service “on health grounds with the right to wear a military uniform.”Zaluzhny, who had served as the country’s military commander-in-chief since 2021 and held the post for most of the Ukraine conflict so far, was dismissed by Zelensky in February and replaced by General Aleksandr Syrsky, who was previously in charge of Kiev’s ground forces. While the Ukrainian president spoke of a “reset” in the military when commenting on Zaluzhny’s dismissal, the move came after the general suggested that the hostilities had reached a stalemate, a sentiment that Zelensky publicly pushed back against. Several polls at the time also showed that Zaluzhny had a higher approval rating than the Ukrainian leader, with media reports indicating that Zelensky viewed the veteran general as a political rival. Read more NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. NATO chief reiterates ‘no troops in Ukraine’ pledge Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the firing of Zaluzhny would not change the course of the conflict. In the weeks that followed, Russia made some progress on the battlefield in Donbass, with Ukrainian officials, including Syrsky, describing the situation as increasingly tense.Zaluzhny’s candidacy for the role of UK ambassador was approved by Zelensky in March. A request for agreement sent to London was approved in late April.Kiev’s previous ambassador to the UK, Vadim Pristaiko, was sacked by Zelensky in the summer of 2023 after publicly criticizing the Ukrainian president. The controversy began when then-UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Ukraine was not showing enough gratitude for Western arms supplies. Zelensky replied that Kiev could thank London for its help “every morning” if it wants. Pristaiko slammed the Ukrainian president for what he called “unhealthy sarcasm.” via RT - Daily news https://ift.tt/jWdNkrK

The West is nurturing and supporting modern Nazis by backing Ukraine, the former Russian president said Russia’s military operation in Ukraine is a step towards defeating fascism and Nazism once and for all, former president and head of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev has said.In an article marking the 79th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany, he wrote that fascism had been officially defeated in World War II but the West has allowed its ideological descendants to continue wreaking havoc by supporting the Kiev regime.“For many years, even the demonstration of Nazi symbols, not to mention other symbols and ideas of Hitlerism, was legally prohibited in most countries of the world,” he said.Now, however, he said Russia was being “forced to fight the reincarnation of fascism, its zombie spawn, which embodies the disgusting and cynical great-grandson of Hitlerism – the Nazi regime of Kiev.”The US, EU and other Western states have firmly sided with Kiev in its conflict with Russia. Ukraine’s backers have spent billions on the war effort and have supplied it with ammunition and weaponry, while placing unprecedented economic sanctions on Moscow. READ MORE: Western revanchism and history lessons: Takeaways from Russia’s Victory Day parade In the article, which was published on the official webpage of the Russian Security Council on Thursday, Medvedev slammed these actions as “furious efforts to turn the world upside down, split and burn it in the conflagration of World War III.”Our former World War II allies enthusiastically feed, stuff with weapons and incite new Nazis, whose goal is to erase Russia from the map.According to Medvedev, Nazism won’t disappear on its own and therefore needs to be eradicated – this is what Russia sees as its “historical mission.” He noted, however, that Russia’s military operation and “the denazification” of Ukraine is only the first step towards building a new “architecture” of international relations, which would involve creating global instruments aiming to ensure the security and stable development of all states.Together with our colleagues and partners, we are building a new, just and multipolar world order in which there can be no place for pressure and oppression, the rise of some nations at the expense of others, humiliation and exploitation of entire peoples, neocolonial habits and criminal business schemes.Medvedev said Russia’s victory over the Kiev regime would bring justice against both its nationalist leaders and their “owners, sponsors and ideological inspirers,” who are profiting from efforts to drag out the conflict. READ MORE: No state or alliance has claim to exceptionalism – Putin Similar sentiments had been voiced earlier on Thursday by Russian President Vladimir Putin. In his address at the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, he accused the West of pursuing a colonial policy and inciting regional conflicts to restrain the development of non-Western nations. He vowed that Russia would do everything possible to prevent a global conflict, but warned that it would not allow anyone to threaten its own safety and sovereignty. via RT - Daily news https://ift.tt/zMxsNQb

Deputy FM Sergey Ryabkov has cited the West’s “escalatory course” as one of the reasons for the upcoming drills Russia’s recent decision to hold tactical nuclear weapons drills is owed in part to the increasingly escalatory stance of certain Western nations, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has said. He pointed out, however, that Moscow’s nuclear doctrine, which allows for the use of such weapons only when the existence of the nation is at stake, has not changed.On Monday, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced that the nuclear exercises, which were ordered by President Vladimir Putin and involve the missile forces, air force, and navy, would take place “in the near future.” According to military officials, the drills are meant to demonstrate Moscow’s readiness to “ensure unconditional territorial integrity and sovereignty” of the nation.When asked by reporters on Thursday whether Russia may revise its deterrence strategy, Ryabkov stressed that “at present, there have been no changes in this respect, but the situation itself is changing.” He added that analysis is ongoing about whether the document in its current form is adequate to ensure Russia’s security. Read more A Belarusian Sukhoi Su-25 jet during a military exercise © Belarusian Ministry of Defense Telegram channel Russian ally announces snap nuclear drill “We warn our adversaries that their escalatory course naturally forces us to take steps that effectively mean the strengthening of deterrence measures,” Ryabkov stated.Speaking during a press briefing on Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov clarified that the tactical nuclear weapons drills were announced in response to a new and “unprecedented” escalation of tension on the part of some top Western officials.“They talked about the readiness and even the intention to send armed contingents to Ukraine, that is, to actually put NATO soldiers in front of the Russian military,” the official clarified.Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron suggested that Western nations “would legitimately have to ask” themselves whether they should deploy their militaries to Ukraine “if the Russians were to break through the front lines, [and] if there were a Ukrainian request.”The US and its allies have on several occasions accused Moscow of nuclear saber-rattling. President Putin said in March that at no point during the Ukraine conflict has Russia considered the use of such weapons. via RT - Daily news https://ift.tt/vtXx5sa

The UK foreign secretary claims the world is more dangerous than ever before, stoking fears of a potential Russian invasion British Foreign Secretary David Cameron has stoked fears of a potential Russian invasion in Western Europe when the Ukraine conflict ends. In a major speech in London on Thursday, Cameron claimed that the world is “more dangerous” than ever before, citing the war “in the heart of Europe.” He added that Western Europe must be “tougher and more assertive” regarding relations with Russia.“From Tallinn to Warsaw, Prague to Bucharest, a chill has once more descended across the European continent,” Cameron said, referring to the conflict in Ukraine. “Those nations closest to Russia seeing what is happening in Ukraine and wondering if they will be next,” he added.The Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – and Poland, all members of NATO and the EU, have increasingly voiced fears that Moscow could attack them. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas predicted in January that Russia might test NATO’s borders within the next three to five years.Moscow has dismissed the claims, insisting it has no intention of attacking any NATO country.”The idea that we will attack some other country – Poland, the Baltic States, and the Czechs are also being scared – is complete nonsense. It’s just drivel,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in March. Read more UK Ambassador to Russia Nigel Casey leaves the Russian Foreign Ministry, in Moscow, Russia. Russia issues military ultimatum to UK This week, Russia announced plans to hold tactical nuclear weapons drills in response to what the Foreign Ministry called “belligerent statements” made by Western officials.Speaking to Reuters last week, Cameron said Ukraine has every right to use weapons provided by London to strike targets inside Russia. He also pledged £3 billion ($3.74 billion) a year to Ukraine “for as long as is necessary.” Moscow warned it would retaliate against British targets in Ukraine or elsewhere if Kiev uses UK-provided missiles to strike Russian territory.In the speech on Monday, Cameron also pointed to the war in Gaza as well as ongoing conflicts in Africa.“This is a world more dangerous, more volatile, more confrontational than most of us have ever known, and we need to face up to that and act accordingly,” he said, calling on all NATO nations to increase their defense spending. via RT - Daily news https://ift.tt/elVUg1v