Russia is now providing an "unprecedented level" of military and technical support to Iran in exchange for Tehran supplying weapons for the war in Ukraine, senior Biden administration officials say.
As part of the enhanced partnership, Russia may be providing Iran with advanced military equipment and components, including helicopters and air defense systems. In the spring, Iranian pilots trained in Russia to fly the Sukhoi Su-35, a Russian fighter jet, which the officials say indicates Iran “may begin receiving the aircraft within the next year.”
The White House had previously said it believes that Iran was supplying drones to Russia for use in Ukraine, but the relationship between the two nations is transforming into “a full-fledged defense partnership" with weapons and military expertise flowing in both directions, the officials said.
Russia is looking to collaborate with Iran on weapons development, including possibly establishing a joint production line for drones in Russia, according to the officials.
“This partnership poses a threat not just to Ukraine, but to Iran’s neighbors in the region,” one senior administration official said. “We have shared this information with partners in the Middle East and around the world.”
Russian leader cites what he calls US preventive-strike idea.
Vladimir Putin said Russia may consider formally adding the possibility of a preventive nuclear first strike to disarm an opponent to its military doctrine, just days after warning that the risk of atomic war is rising.
“We’re thinking about this,” the Russian president told reporters after a summit in Kyrgyzstan. “If we are talking about a disarming strike, perhaps we should think about using the approaches of our American partners,” he said, citing what he called US strategies to use high-accuracy missiles for a preventive strike.
The comments were Putin’s second on the nuclear issue this week. On Wednesday, he said the risk of atomic warfare is rising and called Russia’s arsenal “a deterrent factor” in conflicts. Russia’s doctrine currently envisions using nuclear weapons as a last resort in the event of a threat to the state’s existence.
The US and its allies have denounced Putin for what they call nuclear saber-rattling over his invasion of Ukraine. Russia blames the West for raising the issue first, although Kremlin officials began the threats.
I think he suspected it the whole time but didn’t tell the world until the Germans confirmed it officially but I guess even he didn’t expect her to sink this low. It’s impossible to believe that Putin didn’t see this coming completely, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to lead Russia to being able to fight not only Ukraine but also NATO and the USA at the same time while using a lot of technicality to prevent NATO until now from using its full force on Russia (by that I mean using NATOs full armed forces to fight Russia at its door step) and basically put the west on the brink of economical catastrophe due to the EUs in ability to be neutral and respect Russia sovereignty. I guess even Putin isn’t totally aware of the extent of the moral bankruptcy of Germany but in the end, actions have consequences and a hardened Putin is going to be an absolute nightmare for the EU. Once Putin fully aligns to the will of Russia (which is to crush the EU like China shouldve crush Japan for what they did in WW2 except those fu?king Americans are in the way and thus China should at the right time bring those sh$t heads down too), I believe that Germany is going to suffer some serious pain as a result of their ungratefulness. I wonder if the west realized just what they have done, and nothing less then the collective EU splitting off from the US alone with eliminating all US assets/NGO/NATO within the EU (which isn’t likely) would be the bare minimum required to get Russia to the table and much more will be required (the rest of the EU commission along with most of the environment faction being given the medical reason treatment) to restore things even remotely close to normal. A fu$k ton of Europeans are going to suffer before this happens and given their colonial past, this is extremely long overdueUntil today, poor Putin still believed in the honesty of his Western "partners".
Putin about Merkel's words about cheating with the Minsk agreements: "To be honest, it was absolutely unexpected for me. It's disappointing. Trust almost dropped to 0. How to negotiate? About what? And is it possible to negotiate with them? Where are the guarantees? "
Again, the propaganda in the west, by the West are only mostly effective to the countries, population that are under control of the west in terms of culture, politics, technology, and most of all the most acute threat of U.S. military might.
China's offensive and defensive soft power needs to do a lot more work in order to counter thess kinds of propaganda offensives by the West and India.
China is already labelled by the West and India for employing "Wumao" internet bot army to "spread Chinese propaganda". Might as well put this into mass and effective use.
Seeing how inept China's propaganda department is at directing efforts and doing their job on the international stage is just sad and pitiful.
Until today, poor Putin still believed in the honesty of his Western "partners".
Putin about Merkel's words about cheating with the Minsk agreements: "To be honest, it was absolutely unexpected for me. It's disappointing. Trust almost dropped to 0. How to negotiate? About what? And is it possible to negotiate with them? Where are the guarantees? "
I don't believe that Putin did not know the ruse for a second. Nobody would believe just words without materialistic guarantees, state affairs or personal affairs. As an individual one would not lend some money without a written contract and collateral.Until today, poor Putin still believed in the honesty of his Western "partners".
Putin about Merkel's words about cheating with the Minsk agreements: "To be honest, it was absolutely unexpected for me. It's disappointing. Trust almost dropped to 0. How to negotiate? About what? And is it possible to negotiate with them? Where are the guarantees? "
Chinese are celestials while Muricans are bottomfeeders.
The historic irony is Americans derogatorily called Chinese "celestials" because they believed Chinese had to come from outer space and not of the Earth. This is a Christian logic because they believed the further away from Jerusalem, aka God, you were, the more you were of the Devil. What further away from God than to be from infinite space? That's why in early science fiction aliens had similar features to Chinese... short, hairless, almond eyes... and they weren't friendly. Now the West thinks China is invading their territory.
Western politicians say and do different things when they are in or out of office. We should not take Merkel's words (ruse) too seriously. She may be serious of approaching Russia, but now after strongarmed by US and out of power, she has to do and say the "right thing". Otherwise, she may end up like her mentor Hulmut Koll ending up in legal trouble. BTW she back stabbed Koll for her raising in power.I wonder if Nord Stream 2 had an ulterior motive. The Germans were the one who initiated the expansion for Nord Stream and Merkel was chancellor between 2005 - 2021. If they knew that conflict with Russia was inevitable then why continue building. Maybe the end plan was the breakup of Russia and to extract Russian resources as reparations or it was a lure to bait Russia into thinking Western Europe was the mediators.