Månad: september 2024

Russian officials said Wednesday that Ukraine using American weapons to make strikes deep into Russian territory would implicate Ukraine’s Western allies and demand escalation.

The Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov told reporters that Russia would respond if the U.S. allows Ukraine to strike Russian core territory using the long-range ATACMS missile system. “The involvement of the United States of America and European countries in the conflict over Ukraine is direct, and each new step increases the degree of this involvement,” he said. […]

Peskov’s comments were prompted by Ukrainian officials pressing U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to allow such strikes.

Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of the State Duma, likewise stated that Russia would have to use “more powerful and destructive weapons” if Ukraine began using long-range Western missiles against the Russian interior. Läs artikel

För första gången övar amerikanska marinkåren med svenska Försvarsmakten i centrala Göteborg. Övningen pågår till och med lördag och är en effekt av det svenska Natomedlemskapet.
– Syftet för deras del är att ta de första stegen att faktiskt arbeta ihop med den svenska marinkåren, säger Ludvig Malmberg som är chef för bordningstroppen från Älvsborgs amfibieregemente.

Det har gått ett drygt halvår sedan Sverige blev Natos 32:a medlemsland. Sedan dess har svenska styrkor deltagit i övningar med allierade.

Sedan i söndags är en pluton från den amerikanska marinkåren på plats i Göteborg för att öva ihop med den svenska marinens 17:e bevakningsbåtskompani i Göta älv. Det huvudsakliga syftet med övningen som går under namnet Kraken24 är att öka den gemensamma förmågan att försvara en betydelsefull del av Natolandet Sverige. Läs artikel

Regeringen anser att satsningarna för att utveckla och stärka det civila försvaret måste fortsätta att öka. Regeringen avser tillföra ytterligare 2 miljarder kronor 2025 för att stärka det civila försvaret på bred front. Totalt tilldelas det civila försvaret ca 8,5 miljarder kronor under 2025. För 2028 och framåt beräknas de totala utgifterna för civilt försvar uppgå till ca 15 miljarder kronor per år. Detta är en historiskt stor satsning som understryker regeringens prioritering av området. Läs pressmeddelande

Även om jag ger Alexander Stubb klart godkänt hittills, så är problemet med den av finska statsledningen och HBL:s kommentator Marcus Lindqvist (HBL 11.9) förfäktade ”värdebaserade realismen”, att den åtminstone på ytan består av alltför lite realism, och alltför mycket värdebaserat poserande. […]

Det är ju USAsom nu fått en alldeles ny geopolitisk spelknapp i och med vårt DCA-avtal, inte tvärtom. Hur det geopolitiskt eller geomilitärt placerar oss när USA:s nästa militära konflikt seglar upp är totalt outrett, speciellt faktumet att denna sannolika militära konflikt inte alls behöver involvera Ryssland.

Statsledd realism vore att på lång sikt och i alla lägen enbart hålla Finlands nationella intresse och överlevnad som ledande princip, och inte springa andra nationers ärenden. En stark, egen försvarsmakt – något jag alltid talat för – hör definitivt till realismen, men jag hoppas innerligt att det i dagens upphetsade klimat även bland komponenterna finns det som brukar kallas rak och ärlig diplomati. Läs artikel

Since at least 2016, foreign interference in American elections and civil society have become central to American political discourse. The issue is taken extremely seriously by the U.S. government, which has levied sanctions and called out foreign adversaries for sowing “discord and chaos” through their propaganda efforts.

But apparently Washington takes a different view when it comes to American propaganda operations in foreign countries. On Monday, the House passed HR 1157, the “Countering the PRC Malign Influence Fund,” by a bipartisan 351-36 majority. This legislation authorizes more than $1.6 billion for the State Department and USAID over the next five years to, among other purposes, subsidize media and civil society sources around the world that counter Chinese “malign influence” globally.

That’s a massive spend — about twice, for example, the annual operating expenditure of CNN. If passed into law it would also represent a large increase in federal spending on international influence operations. Läs artikel

Turkey on Wednesday condemned a defense cooperation agreement between the United States and  Cyprus, accusing Washington of abandoning its neutral stance in the long-standing conflict over the divided island.

“We condemn the signing of a roadmap for enhancing the bilateral defense cooperation between the United States of America (USA) and the Greek Cypriot Administration,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said, calling on Washington to reconsider its policies vis-a-vis Cyprus.

The United States and the Republic of Cyprus on Monday signed a “Roadmap for Bilateral Defense Cooperation,” setting “priorities and direction of the bilateral defense relationship over the next five years,” the US Department of Defense said.

Cyprus remains ethnically divided between the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus, led by Greek Cypriots, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognized only by Turkey. This division stems from Turkey’s 1974 military intervention, which followed a Greek-led coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece. Turkey, Greece and Britain — who governed the island until Cyprus gained independence in 1960 — remain guarantor powers under the island’s complex political arrangement. Läs artikel

Victoria Nuland, former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and one of the principal architects of the Biden administration’s Russia policy, has now opined on what is perhaps the foggiest episode in a war distinguished by a nearly impenetrable kind of diplomatic opacity: the April 2022 Istanbul peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

Furthermore she acknowledges that there was a deal on the table and that Western powers didn’t like conditions that would have limited Ukraine’s military arsenal, lending credence to the theory that Ukraine’s supporters had a hand in ultimately scuttling it.

To be sure, neither the topic nor the content of Nuland’s comments is new. She is but the latest in a cavalcade of high-profile insiders, including former Israeli Prime Minister Nafatli Bennett and Ukrainian politician Davyd Arakhamia, whose testimony has shed light on the external pressures possibly informing the Zelenskyy government’s fateful decision to pull the plug on Turkish-brokered talks surrounding a draft treaty that would have ended the Ukraine war. Läs artikel

“The exercise will become one of the main events of operational and combat training of the Russian armed Forces in 2024,” says Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral Aleksandr Moiseev.

The announcement posted by the Ministry of Defense [unsafe link] on September 10 is the first official confirmation about the long-planned drill has kicked-off.

Although, naval movements have been going on for more than a week. The Barents Observer Thursday reported about the Northern Fleet’s multi-domain bastion defense manoeuvres with anti-submarine hunting in the Barents Sea. On Monday this week, we reported about Baltic Fleet warships sailing north along the coast of Norway.

400 warships, submarines and auxiliary fleet support vessels are out sailing. 120 aircraft of the Navy and air force participate and in total 90,000 personnel are involved, the Defense Ministry informs. There are also some 7,000 units of weapons and special equipment involved with the coastal units involved. Along the coast of the Kola Peninsula that includes anti-ship bastion missiles, anti-aircraft S-400 and S-300 missiles and troopers protecting the strategic naval bases, including where nuclear submarines are sailing out.

The exercise involves the Pacific Fleet, where Chinese warships will join, the Northern Fleet, the Baltic Fleet and the Caspian Flotilla. Läs artikel