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Friends say victim knew Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev ORLANDO, Fla. - The FBI confirms a special agent was involved in a deadly shooting early Wednesday near Universal Orlando, and two friends of the victim say he was from Chechnya and knew one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects. The fatal shooting happened just after midnight at 6022 Peregrine Avenue in Orlando. "We are currently responding to a shooting incident involving an FBI special agent," FBI Special Agent Dave Couvertier told Local 6. "The incident occurred in Orlando, Florida. The agent encountered the suspect while conducting official duties. The...

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says China is considering providing weapons to Russia in its war against Ukraine, warning Beijing that any supplies would "cause a serious problem." "The concern we have now is based on information we have that they're considering providing lethal support," Blinken tells CBS's "Face The Nation"....

An exiled Nicaraguan journalist says she fears a growing presence of Russsian troops in her homeland as the country grows increasingly isolated on the world stage. Berta Valle — wife of imprisoned Nicaraguan opposition leader and presidential candidate Felix Maradiaga — told The Post on Monday that Nicaraguans are “terrified” of dictator Daniel Ortega’s decision to welcome Russian soldiers to the Central American country after seeing what they’ve done in Ukraine. “Ortega invited the Russian military into Nicaragua. Publicly, he says Russia is supporting the military training of the Nicaraguan military. But we are terrified, because our country is hosting...

The impact of the use of a nuclear device in Ukraine will depend on the details. Like any large-scale industrial army, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have obvious pressure points that would be vulnerable to nuclear attack. These include logistical centers, command and communications nodes, and concentrations of front-line forces. During the Cold War the Soviet Union expected to use tactical nuclear weapons against NATO (and expected that NATO would use them in return) and it is therefore likely that the Russian armed forces have workable theories as to how they might best use tactical nukes to inflict damage on Ukraine’s...

VIDEOPerhaps the biggest mystery of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is what does that ubiquitous "Z" on so many Russian military vehicles mean. As a result, the DUmmie FUnnies sent out its crack team of investigators and we believe that mystery of the "Z" has been solved.

Will the Russian military go on strike because of the events in Ukraine? In some ways they have ALREADY gone on strike. The typical Russian soldier has NO motivation to go above and beyond the call of duty. Instead they are doing the least needed to just get by. An example of this was in a video I saw of a Ukrainian driving his car up to a Russian tank that had run out of fuel on a country road. He had sort of friendly banter with the Russian tanker and even some joking around. It was very obvious that...

Kuznetsov was introduced in 1991, but did not become fully operational until the mid 1990s. Despite suffering several problems involving arguable degrees of human error, the carrier served largely uneventfully through the mid-2010s. It was not until Russia’s 2016 Syrian campaign that the Western world was offered its first glimpse into Kuznetsov’s numerous problems, with the carrier crashing two fighters within less than three weeks of one another.

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.fbi.gov/houston/press-releases/2012/russian-agent-and-10-other-members-of-procurement-network-for-russian-military-and-intelligence-operating-in-the-u.s.-and-russia-indicted-in-new-york Russian Agent and 10 Other Members of Procurement Network for Russian Military and Intelligence Operating in the U.S. and Russia Indicted in New York Defendants Also Include Texas- and Russia-Based Corporations; 165 Persons and Companies ‘Designated’ by Commerce Department U.S. Attorney’s Office October 03, 2012 BROOKLYN, NY—An indictment was unsealed today in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York charging 11 members of a Russian military procurement network operating in the United States and Russia, as well as a Texas-based export company and a Russia-based procurement firm, with illegally...

The Russian Defense Ministry and Moscow's Avangard armaments plant have signed a 3-year contract for S-400 missiles. Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdiukov and Moscow Machine-Building Plant Avangard Chief Executive Officer Gennadi Kozhin signed the agreement. The anti-aircraft missiles will be supplied to Russian army anti-aircraft missile batteries. The S-400 "Triumph" anti-aircraft system became operational in 2007 as a successor system to the Soviet-era S-300. Avangard will be the sole supplier of missiles for the S-400 system but the value of the contract wasn't disclosed, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on its Web site, The types of missiles to be provided...

The Croatian Ministry of Defence has invited representatives from Russian fighter aircraft manufacturers to evaluate whether any of Croatia's fighter planes could be modernized. Representatives of the Russian company MiG and Rosoboronexport agency will be coming to Croatia to evaluate the condition of several 20-year-old planes that they manufactured. Croatia is looking to either modernize its current stock or buy some new or used planes. Eight planes should be modernized according to the Ministry of Defense's plan, costing the state some 20 million dollars. Considering that these planes are more than 30 years old, only the manufacturer can decide whether...

Russia is introducing a fourth generation automated control systems for its Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) with triple-redundant communication links, a media report said. Izvestia newspaper quoting SMF Commander Lt. Gen. Sergei Karakayev said, the new automated control systems are based on digital alert transmission systems. "The RSVN is currently introducing fourth generation automated control systems. Each system will have guaranteed triple communications redundancy," he was quoted as saying. The strategic nuclear launch systems are ageing hence the importance of command and control links, he added. The Strategic Missile Forces reportedly have a total of 538 ICBMs, including 306 SS-25 Sickle...

Russia's state arms procurement program through 2020 provides for the development of a new heavy ballistic missile, a leading missile designer said on Monday. The final decision should be made in 2012-13 by the expert community, not solely the Defense Ministry, said Yury Solomonov of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology (MITT), the developer of the troubled Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile. "This matter is beyond the Defense Ministry's competence. It is a matter of state importance," he said. "Heavy ICBM" refers to a class of missiles with a heavy throw weight between five and nine metric tons and a length...

Russia's sharp new military uniforms, created by a top fashion designer, have landed hundreds in hospital after proving too thin to withstand the ferocious winter cold, a state daily said Wednesday. Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported that between 60 and 250 servicemen have been laid up with everything from flu to pneumonia as Arctic chills sweep through the country's northern reaches. "They literally felt naked outside," the paper quoted the mother of one soldier as saying. "Many of them ended up in hospital. Ours developed pneumonia," she said of her son. The government daily said defense officials have admitted not receiving complaints...

The Russian Armed Forces will receive over 1,300 types of weaponry in line with a draft arms procurement program until 2020, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Monday. "We will need to set up new or expand the existing production lines to manufacture 220 of the new types of weaponry," Putin told a meeting on the program, which is expected to be adopted by the yearend. More than 20 trillion rubles ($640.7 billion) will be earmarked for weapons procurement, three times more than is allocated in the existing 2007-2015 program, he added. The new program stipulates the upgrade of up...

Russia's state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport accounts for 85% of the country's arms sales worldwide, with the remainder coming from several companies authorized to deal in arms on the global market. Rosoboronexport was established November 4, 2000 by presidential decree, replacing its predecessors, Rosvooruzheniye and the Promexport company. In the past ten years, Russian arms exports have soared, growing from $3.7 billion in 2000 to $5.8 billion in 2004 and from $7.5 billion in 2007 to an estimated $10 billion this year. With contracts totaling $34 billion, Russia is the second-largest exporter of arms and military equipment after the United States,...

Russia's military on Thursday successfully test-fired three intercontinental ballistic missiles in one day during training of its strategic forces. The Defense Ministry said the Bryansk nuclear submarine of the navy's Northern Fleet on Thursday launched a Sineva missile from the Barents Sea at a range on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Another nuclear sub, the Georgy Pobedonosets of the Pacific Fleet, test fired an RSM-50 from the Sea of Okhotsk at a testing range in the northwestern Arkhangelsk region. Both types of missiles have a range of about 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles), according to Russian media reports. The military also fired a...

The recent Russian decision to buy four Mistral amphibious assault ships from France is just the beginning. According to the Russian Defense Minister, Russia will seek more Western weapons and military equipment. Russia is planning to spend over $600 billion in the next decade to replace aging Cold War gear. The Defense Ministry insists that the Mistral deal is but the first of many. Russia already has a deal with Israel, to build a factory in Russia to build Israeli UAVs under license. This arrangement may be aborted because the Israelis apparently expect Russia to stop selling advanced weapons to...

Recently, Roger McDermott, a regular contributor to this publication, offered an excellent overview of the operational-strategic exercise being conducted in Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East by the Russian armed forces (EDM, July 6). McDermott correctly pointed to the role of the exercise in testing concepts associated with the “new look” reforms and called attention to the exercise’s testing the speed of deployment of brigades, their combat readiness, and capacity to engage in combined-arms combat in an air/land battle, and their logistical support to sustain combat actions. He also noted that while the scenario dealt with a wide range...

Russia's main arms exporter has signed a string of deals with a leading French defense firm for provision of night-vision devices on combat vehicles. The contract was signed between Russia's Rosoboronexport and France's Thales company and concerns night-vision devices for Russia's T-90 tanks that will be manufactured under a licensed agreement at an optical-mechanical plant in Vologda, Russian media reported. "Under the contract, Russia has the right to assemble thermal imaging systems for armored vehicles under license in Vologda, with the subsequent maintenance," said Igor Sevastyanov, head of the Russian defense company, according to RIA Novosti.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered a radical restructuring of the country’s armed forces command system with an aim to reform the Soviet-era military behemoth into a ‘lean but mean’ force capable of fighting the modern network centric warfare. The decree signed by Medvedev also aims to reform the logistic support system of the armed forces. “Under the Presidential decree existing six military districts will be reorganised into four united strategic commands (USC) and an integrated logistic support system,” Chief of the General Staff, Army General Nikolai Makarov announced Wednesday. Under the reformed command structure The Moscow and Leningrad military...