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Russia - Masque Of The Red Death Vladimir Putin has been hailed perhaps as the pivotal post cold war Russian leader. He has executed a skillful dog and pony show, convincing both the Bush and Blair administrations that the former Soviet Union was not only no longer a military threat to the West but was indeed now becoming a close ally. Obviously Russia's cooperation with the French and German UN delegation's intransigence in dealing with Iraq has done much to throw cold water on this heretofore-budding union. It's important to note that such a relationship offered hope, though ultimately unfounded,...

Vladimir Putin is demanding urgent potato imports from Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, while he delays supplying the ally with promised notorious Oreshnik horror missiles. Putin has made the shameful admission that he has run out of spuds - one of his country’s leading food staples - amid economic meltdown during his war with Ukraine. It now appears Belarus will not get the lethal missiles until after Lukashenko supplies Putin with new exports of potatoes which have spiralled in prices in Russia. The Minsk tyrant has even cancelled sanctions against imports from the EU to stock up to supply Russia. -snip-...

Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko called on Wednesday for the country to produce more potatoes in the face of a large shortage of the key crop and rising demand from neighbouring Russia. "We have to grow enough so that it suffices for us and for Russia," Lukashenko said during a meeting with regional officials in Minsk, state news agency BelTA reported. The potato has in the past been seen as a symbol of Lukashenko's rule of the country, which is heavily dependant on agriculture. He was once head of a state-run collective farm, or sovkhoz. Food shortages have arisen recently in...

Russian president Vladimir Putin has acknowledged crop shortages as pressure on the country’s economy continues to mount. Pressure is mounting on Russia amid labour shortages, international sanctions, record interest rates, and inflation, but Putin’s admission of shortages of key crops marks a milestone in the nation’s woes. Speaking yesterday in a televised meeting, he said: “Yesterday, I met with representatives from various business sectors, including agriculture. It turns out that we don’t have enough potatoes. “I spoke with Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko. He said, ‘We’ve already sold everything to Russia’.” Potato shortages have become a serious problem in neighbouring Belarus, with...

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday acknowledged Russia’s mounting potato shortage, driven by underwhelming crop yields that have led to record-breaking price increases. “Yesterday [Monday], I met with representatives from various business sectors, including agriculture. It turns out that we don’t have enough potatoes,” Putin said during a televised meeting. “I spoke with [Belarusian President] Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko. He said, ‘We’ve already sold everything to Russia’.” The previous day, Lukashenko’s press office joked that Belarus had already planted additional potatoes. Belarusians have reportedly been complaining for months about the poor quality and limited supply of potatoes in stores. In April, authorities...

Military Summary Channel produces 2/day briefings and map updates on the war in Ukraine. I've noticed the western press continues to pump out gibberish that is simply disconnected from reality. By contrast there is a small industry of military analysts who post regular updates on the war in Ukraine that gives an immeasurably better sense of the actual situation. You can find pro-Western analysts like Deep State and pro-Russian mappers, but it doesn't make much difference because these guys have to stay anchored to reality in a way the news media does not. (The MSC is from Belarus and takes...

The price of potatoes in Russia has soared by 52% since the start of the year, according to new figures. Imports have failed to offset the poor harvest last year, which saw the total potato crop decline by 12%, according to Reuters. Heavy rain and a frosty spring this year has hit potato farmers, made worse by the fact the area of the country seeded for the crop was reduced after the bumper 2023 harvest which drove down prices. According to Kommersant daily data, potatoes have tripled in price in the supermarkets compared to 2024, reaching a record high of...

For more than a decade, the United States has nurtured a secret intelligence partnership with Ukraine that is now critical for both countries in countering Russia... Nestled in a dense forest, the Ukrainian military base appears abandoned and destroyed, its command center a burned-out husk, a casualty of a Russian missile barrage early in the war. But that is above ground. Not far away, a discreet passageway descends to a subterranean bunker where teams of Ukrainian soldiers track Russian spy satellites and eavesdrop on conversations between Russian commanders. On one screen, a red line followed the route of an explosive...

The head of Russia's mercenary outfit Wagner said it could take months to capture the embattled Ukraine city of Bakhmut and slammed Moscow's "monstrous bureaucracy" for slowing military gains. Russia has been trying to encircle the battered industrial city and wrest it ahead of Feb. 24, the first anniversary of what it terms its "special military operation" in Ukraine. "I think it's (going to be in) March or in April," Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin said in one of several messages posted online overnight. "To take Bakhmut you have to cut all supply routes. It's a significant task," he said, adding:...

Russia and China warned on Wednesday that Donald Trump’s proposed “Golden Iron Dome for America” missile defense system would destabilize global security and turn outer space into a new arena for armed confrontation. “The recently announced large-scale ‘Golden (Iron) Dome for America’ program is deeply destabilizing,” the two sides said in a joint statement during a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Moscow. The U.S. plan “explicitly provides for a significant strengthening of the arsenal for conducting combat operations in space,” it added. -snip- Moscow and Beijing claimed nuclear states must “reject Cold War mentality” and avoid seeking military...

It may sound like the beginning of a Star Trek plot, but there’s a very real arms race going on in space. And Russia may have just made the first move. According to some startling reports, Russian military satellites have apparently launched unknown objects into Earth’s orbit. Space.com described the trio of Russian satellites as “secretive” objects “whose purpose is unknown.” “The three satellites, designated Kosmos 2581, 2582 and 2583, launched on a Soyuz-2.1V rocket from Plesetsk cosmodrome early on Feb. 2,” the outlet reports, adding that the satellites “have displayed interesting behavior.” That behavior includes getting oddly close to...

Four U.S. Army soldiers were missing Wednesday in Lithuania after disappearing during a training exercise, the U.S. embassy in Vilnius said in a statement posted on social media, thanking the Baltic nation's military and police for helping American forces search for them. The embassy said in a post on social media that the troops went missing from a training area near Pabrade, near Lithuania's far eastern border with Belarus, a nation closely allied with Russia. The embassy did not say when the soldiers went missing. "The soldiers, all from 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, were conducting scheduled tactical training at...

Throughout Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, repeated and escalating warnings of the potential for a wider war have only raised fears in the Baltic states that they could be next in the crosshairs of the Kremlin. Talk about a potential Russian invasion is "very common at parties, gatherings, lunch breaks, water cooler talk," Gabija Stasiukyne, a 32-year-old living in Vilnius, told the Kyiv Independent. "It’s everywhere. The conversation inevitably turns in the direction of — what are you going to do?" Lithuania's government is also taking the threat seriously — the country reinstated conscription in 2015, and Vilnius in January...

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that it was “remarkably naive” to not understand it is in the U.S. national interests to aid Ukraine in its war against Russia. Anchor Jake Tapper asked, “We learned yesterday, shifting topics to overseas, that Russia is planning to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. It’s yet another escalation of tensions with the west and tensions with Ukraine. Russia says it’s just doing what the US already does with countries in Europe. What’s your response to the Russian move?”

Donald Trump is set to ban people from 43 countries from travelling to the US - with visas from Russia being 'sharply restricted'. The dramatic memo also sees key allies of Moscow placed under heavy sanctions as Belarusian travellers could see their dreams of travelling Stateside slashed, the New York Times reports. The explosive immigration proposals come as the US president is wrestling with Putin and Zelensky over a ceasefire in Ukraine - warning last night that World War III could 'very easily' erupt if peace talks failed. Alongside the warring state a vast swathe of nations from across the...

Russia and Belarus can form a joint parliament if they are ready. This was stated by the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, speaking at the plenary session of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation. The idea of ​​creating a parliament of the union state was rejected in early 2023. Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Russia and Belarus has been operating since 1996, which includes 36 deputies from each country, the newspaper "Parliamentskaya Gazeta" reminds. "The Belarusian-Russian integration process must be made irreversible," Lukashenko believes. Discussing the prospects of Belarus joining Russia, Lukashenko noted: "We must move...

Vladimir Putin has just made it easier for Russians to stand in elections in Belarus – a likely test run for deeper political integration. Russia’s president and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko are delivering a joint news conference as they meet in Moscow – about the two countries’ ‘friendship’, about ‘hostile and destabilising’ Nato and the war in Ukraine. One of the announcements focused on ‘amendments’ on the equal rights of citizens. ‘Citizens of Russia and Belarus will be able to participate in local elections in both countries,’ Putin told reporters.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has called on experts in his country to search for rare earth minerals, shortly after this set of elements shot to public prominence due to a possible mineral deal between the US and Ukraine. Lukashenko instructed his Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Shuleiko to ensure that Belarus is no longer geologically underdeveloped, state-run media reported. “It is the number one topic today,” the Belarusian president said, referring to rare earths, which are used in key 21st century industries such as renewable energy. “There are not a lot of them in the earth. Perhaps we have them as...

Vladimir Putin 'regrets' triggering a full-scale war costing hundreds of thousands of lives, his closest international ally has claimed. Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko said: 'We haven't talked about it, but I know him well. 'Putin didn't expect it would turn into such a war.' The close Putin crony told interviewer Mario Nawfal on X: 'When he saw a huge number of people dying, Putin instantly agreed to the negotiations to stop the conflict.' This was earlier in the war, in 2022, and, Lukashenko claimed, Putin was ready to negotiate 'on NATO, on demilitarisation, on denazification', as he described it, 'on...

The possibility of holding a meeting in Minsk between Russian President Vladimir Putin, US leader Donald Trump and Vladimir Zelensky has not yet been discussed, but for Moscow, the capital of Belarus would be the best negotiating location. This position was voiced to journalists by the press secretary of the head of the Russian state Dmitry Peskov. "It was not raised and was not discussed in any way. But, of course, for us, Minsk is the best place. It is our main ally. Therefore, for us, it is the best place for negotiations," the Kremlin representative said in response to...