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From 2018

Senior Chinese General in Russia for SCO Peace Mission 2018 Counterterror Exercises

Li Zuocheng, the chief of the Chinese Central Military Commission’s Joint Staff Department, is in Russia

By Ankit Panda
August 29, 2018

General Li Zuocheng of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is in Russia this week on a visit to coincide with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s (SCO) Peace Mission 2018 counterterrorism exercise.

The visit was confirmed by Senior Colonel Ren Guoqiang, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of National Defense, last week. Li is a member of China’s powerful Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief of the Joint Staff Department of the CMC.

Li’s visit to China comes at the invitation of General Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and the first Deputy Defense Minister of Russia.
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The SCO’s Peace Mission 2018 drills are taking place at the Chebarkul training grounds in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region, according to TASS. The exercise will coincide with the fifth-ever meeting of the joint chiefs of staff of the militaries of SCO member states.

Formed in 2001 as a successor to the Shanghai Five group, the SCO has eight full member states: China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, and Pakistan. The SCO member states have a range of mechanisms to cooperate on counterterrorism in Eurasia.

“The troops that take part in the exercises have completed redeployment and force concentration at the Chebarkul training ground, set up a camp site, serviced weaponry and military hardware and conducted several joint command-and-control trainings, including with live firing and the use of aviation and artillery,” the press service of Russia’s Central Military District said.

This year’s exercise will be the first SCO counterterrorism drill to include troops from India and Pakistan, both of whom became full members of the SCO in June 2017.

Li’s visit to Russia also comes ahead of Moscow’s largest post-Cold War military exercise, which will also include troops from the PLA and the Mongolian military. 3,200 PLA troops will participate in the war games, known as Vostok. The Vostok exercise will begin on September 11 in eastern Russia. ...”

https://thediplomat.com/2018/08/senior-chinese-general-in-russia-for-sco-peace-mission-2018-counterterror-exercises/

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From 2018

Russia and China’s Growing Military Interaction; Surprised?

Why does Russia place such emphasis and media attention on incredibly large military exercises with China?

by Peter Zwack
September 9, 2018

The drums are already rolling for the upcoming Russian “Vostok” (east) wargames commencing on September 11.

With its focal point in the Trans-Baikal region of eastern Siberia adjoining Chinese Manchuria and Mongolia, this is a nationwide Russian military and societal event.

Touted by Russian minister of defense Sergei Shoigu as “unprecedented in scale, both in terms of area of operations and numbers of military command structure, troops, and forces involved,” Russian state press is declaring that up to three hundred thousand troops and one thousand aircraft will be involved, with the majority from the Eastern and Central Military Districts.

This would be even larger than the near-legendary Zapad-81 maneuvers held in the western USSR during the depths of the Cold War. ...”

One important wrinkle this year is that reportedly up to 3,200 Chinese personal with ninety vehicles, including tanks and thirty fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, will participate.

Most are coming from China’s Northern Command.

This will be the first time the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will take part in this formerly purely Russian quadrennial Asia-oriented exercise.

The bulk of participating Chinese personal have already transited from Manchuria into Russia, escorted by Russian military police to the Tsugol training range near Chita. The Mongolians have also sent a small contingent. ...”

Same 2018 article...

“The Russia-China military relationship continues to evolve and is a logical progression following deepening political and economic ties.

Pragmaticallym the Amur-Ussuri territorial disputes were diplomatically resolved in 2004–5, enabling enhanced military cooperation though long-term generational issues remain.

While Chinese-Russian military activities have in the past been mostly symbolic and representational, they appear increasingly interactive.

The PLA, not blooded since its brusque 1979 defeat by Vietnam, likely hopes to learn from Russia’s newly gained fighting expertise derived since 2014 in eastern Ukraine and Syria.

What is key to determine is if their interaction evolves more ominously into interoperability exercises where substantial and varied forces can operate in tandem and jointly in coordinated operations.

Dating back to 2005, Russia and China have exercised modest forces together in a mostly “counterterrorist” role in Central Asia and in Russia as part of the Chinese-driven Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Notably, SCO Exercise Peace Mission 2018, involving China, Russia and six other nations, including newly added India and Pakistan, is currently underway in Chelyabinsk (just east of the Ural Mountains).

Bilaterally, they have participated in several small scale naval exercises in the Baltics (2017), South China Sea (2016) and eastern Mediterranean (2015), where they have been mostly “show the flag” operations designed more to convey sharp signals abroad and show partner support. ...”

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/russia-and-china%E2%80%99s-growing-military-interaction-surprised-30822

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From John Solomon, The Hill, May 16, 2019...

Re: Serhiy Leshchenko

"...a Ukrainian court ruled that the country’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau, closely aligned with the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, and a parliamentarian named Serhiy Leshchenko wrongly interfered in the 2016 American election by releasing documents related to Manafort."

“Ukraine, a U.S. ally and neighboring foe of Russia, is soon to find out. And it’s a case with implications in the United States, where the fallout from the unproven Trump-Russia collusion scandal has engulfed several Ukrainians.

The country’s chief corruption prosecutor on Thursday opened an investigation into “suspicions” that Serhiy Leshchenko, a crusading anti-corruption member of Ukraine’s parliament and former investigative journalist, accepted bribes in 2016 from a Russian source that enabled him to buy a luxury condo far above his means. ...”

-snip-

A Ukrainian court last December ruled that Leshchenko and the head of the country’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) — an investigative agency modeled on America’s FBI — both illegally meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election by leaking financial documents that smeared then-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort

The documents, known as “the black ledger,” identified payments Manafort secretly received from a Russian-backed political party in Ukraine years earlier and led to Manafort’s abrupt resignation from the Trump campaign. He eventually pleaded guilty to lobbying and tax violations and is in prison.

The court ruling against Leshchenko was an extraordinary admission of foreign government influence on America’s last presidential election.

But it wasn’t Leshchenko’s only intrusion into American politics, apparently.

Sworn testimony released a few weeks ago by Congress revealed Leshchenko also was “a source” of Russian dirt on Trump that was fed to Hillary Clinton’s opposition research firm, Fusion GPS, the firm that created the so-called Steele dossier that led to a two-year Russia probe that recently cleared Donald Trump of colluding with Russian President Vladimir Putin

So, a Ukrainian parliamentarian fed dirt to Clinton’s team and leaked to the media information that harmed the Republican candidate’s campaign? That seems like more collusion than was uncovered by special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

But the most tantalizing information about Leshchenko surfaced in my interview Thursday with Ukraine’s chief anti-corruption prosecutor, Nazar Kholodnytskyy, who revealed that the alleged bribes to the parliamentarian and the condo purchase occurred around the time that Manafort stepped down under pressure based on Leshchenko’s leak.

“Absolutely that is one of the things they are going to be investigating,” Kholodnytskyy told me when asked whether any of the Russian money could have been paid as an inducement or a reward for Leshchenko’s meddling in the U.S. election.

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/441892-ukrainian-embassy-confirms-dnc-contractor-solicited-trump-dirt-in-2016

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To repeat...

"But it wasn’t Leshchenko’s only intrusion into American politics, apparently.

Sworn testimony released a few weeks ago by Congress revealed Leshchenko also was “a source” of Russian dirt on Trump that was fed to Hillary Clinton’s opposition research firm, Fusion GPS, the firm that created the so-called Steele dossier that led to a two-year Russia probe that recently cleared Donald Trump of colluding with Russian President Vladimir Putin"

"Serhiy Leshchenko, a crusading anti-corruption member of Ukraine’s parliament and former investigative journalist, accepted bribes in 2016 from a Russian source that enabled him to buy a luxury condo far above his means. ...”"