Free Republic

The U.S. has overtaken Russia as the top crude oil supplier to Europe, data shows, capping a remarkable 12-month period in which Moscow’s plan to weaponize its position as an energy superpower collapsed from strong Western opposition to the war in Ukraine...One sign of Russia’s diminished status as an energy superpower is futures trading. Russia’s premier Urals crude oil hit a two-year low of $48.40 a barrel last week while the global benchmark Brent crude was trading for more than $75.

...said retired Air Force Gen. David Deptula. “In fact, they don’t have the same air doctrine as the West, they don’t have the same level of training, they suffer from gross incompetence and poor leadership..."...In some cases, Russian jets appear reluctant to enter Ukrainian airspace at all...a lot of what they’ve done is they stay in Russian airspace and they fire into Ukraine with long-range missiles,” the U.S. airpower strategist told The Times. “There is a sense they’re avoiding being shot at by staying in their friendly territory and using their weapons capabilities” at longer range.

Russia upped the ante Monday in its dangerous standoff with Ukraine, openly warning of military action if President Biden and America’s NATO allies ignore a list of demands Moscow announced late last week — a far-reaching list that some key U.S. lawmakers have dubbed a “pretext to war.” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said his country is fully prepared to respond through “military-technical means” if Western powers fail to address those demands. He said NATO must not expand to include Ukraine or Georgia and the U.S. must not base additional military assets in former Soviet republics in Central Asia....

The sustained plunge in global oil prices has brought deep, unexpected shifts on the geopolitical landscape, with impacts felt in the Arctic and the Middle East, and in the fortunes of the American heartland and the future of the Russian-Chinese strategic alliance. A U.S.-engineered market truce has helped energy prices rebound slightly this month after flatlining in April, but analysts say reverberations will likely be felt for years to come as they chip away at the foundational international partnerships in the post-World War II era and create new alliances and rivalries. Analysts say there is no way the U.S. and...

The rest of the world was watching the pomp, circumstance and speeches celebrating China’s 70th anniversary Tuesday, but military analysts were glued to another spectacle in the heart of Beijing: the arsenal of cutting-edge weaponry capable of challenging U.S. military might for decades to come. The lavish event marking seven decades of Communist Party rule gave Beijing a golden opportunity to showcase new hypersonic missiles, top-of-the-line drones, tanks, stealth bombers, unmanned underwater vehicles, helicopters that rival U.S. Black Hawks, and a host of other military technology that highlights the nation’s ever-rising defense budget and its long-term plan to cut into...